Brews and Blues Beer and Smokin’ Blues

Home Brewing Lesson #02

Home brewing is like any other hobby. It requires 'stuff' that you probably don't already have on hand. You might have some of the items you need and you may have to purchase the rest. But like any other hobby, you can usually get started without major expenditures. In this lesson, I'll show you the minimum hardware requirements for brewing beer. After we discuss those items, we will look at some additional items that you can get to enhance the experience and results of your home brewing.

There are three major steps in the home brewing process, and each step requires its own equipment:

• Cooking
• Fermenting
• Bottling

This lesson will be based on cooking 5-gallons of beer, and the equipment described will be based on a recipe of that quantity.

Cooking Equipment:

To cook 5 gallons of beer, you don't necessarily need a huge kettle.  You can get started by cooking a smaller portion of that (2 to 2.5 gallons) and then mixing the cooked wort (unfermented beer) with water in the fermenter.  So at a minimum, you will need a 16 or preferably a 20-quart kettle for cooking on the stove top.  The kitchen supplies section of Walmart should have a selection of these that aren't too expensive.  You can cook in aluminum, stainless steel, or even the ceramic-coated canning kettles if you wish.  I recommend stainless steel if possible, but it's not required. 

This 20-quart stainless steel stock pot is available from amazon.com for $20.00. 

Fermenting:

After the wort is cooked, you need a container for fermentation.  For a starter home brewing kit, a 5-gallon food-grade plastic bucket is a good place to start.  The bucket must have a lid and should be drilled on the top so you can insert an air lock (discussed later). 

This is an example of a good bucket for fermentation.  This particular fermenter from William's Brewing comes with an air-lock (seen on top) and some plastic tubing for $30.00.  The drain tap on the bottom of this bucket is particularly useful when it's time to move the fermented beer into another container for additional fermentation or for bottling. 

Bottling:

After the beer is fermented, it's time to put it in bottles.  You must transfer the beer from the fermenter into another container for bottling.  The fermenter will have a thick sediment on the bottom, and we need to separate the beer from that sediment as much as possible before bottling.

The 'priming tank' is basically another bucket like the fermenter, but a lid and air-lock is not required for the bottling process.  The drain valve on the bottom of the priming tank allows you to connect a length of plastic hose for filling your bottles.  There are various accessories for filling bottles that we will look at in the next section.  This priming tank costs about $20.00.

You will also need bottles.  You can buy the proper bottles from about any home brew supply shop, but I have never bought a bottle.  I like to re-use bottles.  I save beer bottles as I drink the beer from them, whether they be purchased beers or home brew.  Bottles that have twist-off lids are not acceptable.  You must have bottles that have the pop off top (the ones that require bottle openers).  I like to go to a couple local bars / night clubs and ask for permission to rummage their recycle bins for bottles.  When I get permission, I park my car as close to the bins as possible, put on a pair of rubber gloves, pick through the bottles that I want, make sure they are empty, and put them in a cardboard box lined with several layers of old newspaper in the trunk of my car.  I bring them home and fill a large plastic bucket (not my fermenter or priming tank) with a water and clorox solution of about 1 cup of clorox per gallon of water.  I submerge the bottles and let them soak in that solution for 5 minutes or so.  I drain the bottles out as much as possible and then store them upside down in the box.  At some point before I intend to use them, I will bring them inside to the kitchen sink and scrub the labels off and thoroughly clean each bottle with soap and water.  They will be sanitized once again before I actually put beer in them.

If you wish to purchase new bottles, you can do that for an average price of about $15 per case (24 bottles) and you will need at least two cases for a 5-gallon batch of beer. 

A bottle brush is a requirement when cleaning bottles for re-use.  These can be purchased for about $7.00. 

You will also need a bottle capper and some bottle caps...

A bottle capper like this one sells for about $16.00 and a gross of bottle caps can be purchased for about $5.00. 

There are three more essential items that you will need at this point.  The first of those items is a thermometer.  You need to know the temperature of your unfermented beer in order to know when it's OK to put the yeast in for fermentation.  Any hand-held quick-reading thermometer will work and these can be purchased for about $10.00.  You will also need a hydrometer and hydrometer test jar.

The hydrometer and test jar are used to measure the original gravity and finishing gravity of your beer.  There are two primary purposes for this equipment.  It is used to determine when fermentation is complete and also to calculate the alcohol content of your beer.  A hydrometer and plastic hydrometer jar kit costs approximately $12.00.

This covers most of the bare equipment essentials for cooking a simple 5-gallon recipe of beer.  The only items left to think about here are the tools you will need to transfer beer from one container to another.  If you purchase buckets like the ones listed in this post, all you will need is a 5' length of plastic hosing that will fit on the drain taps to smoothly transfer beer from one container to another.  A 5' length of this tubing can be purchased for about $3.00. 

So, in a round-up, the very basic equipment you need if you are not purchasing new bottles adds up to about $115.00. 

Starter Kits:

Most home brew supply shops sell starter kits.  This example kit includes everything described in this lesson except bottles and a brew kettle for $85.00.  It also includes a couple extras.  Bundles like this one can save you a few dollars usually.  Click on the picture to see the details of this kit. 

Support your local shop!

I'm in no way affilliated with William's Brewing, but I have purchased from them in the past with excellent results.  If you have a local home brew supply shop, I highly recommend supporting them with your business.