Home Brewing Equipment - Brewing Equipment You'll Need.

The first step you will need to take to make your own beer is finding a suitable location to brew it. The kitchen should be a good location. You should plan on being there for several hours and in all likelihood making what might be perceived by non-home brewers as a huge mess. That being said, you need to ask people that are living in the house if it is alright. Once you've secured the kitchen you will need to get your home brewing equipment. First off we're going to go over what sorts of equipment is going to be required to home brew using malt extract.



Basic home brewing equipment is usually not very expensive. You should be able to get all the equipment you need for approximately $100 to $150. Nearly all home brewing equipment suppliers produce kits that have everything required to make your own beer at home aside from ingredients and bottles.



Here is a list of the basic home brewing equipment you will need in order to start brewing beer:



• Brew Kettle

• Thermometer

• Hydrometer

• Funnel and Strainer

• 6.5 Gallon Primary Fermenter

• Airlock and Rubber Stopper

• Racking Tube with Siphon Hose

• 6.5 Gallon Bottling Bucket with Spigot

• Bottles

• Bottle Brush

• Bottle Caps and Capper



Below are some more household items that can be useful:



•Small bowl

•Saucepan

•Rubber spatula

•Oven mitts/pot handlers

•Large mixing spoon (stainless steel or plastic





So now let us talk about the home brewing equipment and give you a basic idea of what you will do with it.



Brew Kettle:

The brew kettle is a big pot that has a volume that is at least 4.5 gallons. The best type is constructed from stainless steel. Also you can use one that is made from ceramic-coated (enameled) aluminum or steel. If you use a brand new aluminum pot, do not use it bright-and-shiny; you may get a metallic off-flavor. Boil some water in it first. Additionally chipped enamelized pots may also result in off-flavors. If you happen to have a couple of smaller sized pots in your kitchen which will hold at least 4.5 gallons together this also will work. The brew kettle will be the very first piece of home brewing equipment you're going to be using. All your ingredients (accept for the yeast) is going to be put into the brew kettle and brought to a boil. This sweet mixture you'll have created is called "wort".



Thermometer:

A thermometer is used to check the temperature of the brew throughout different stages of the brewing process. A stick-on thermometer is usually attached on the outer surface of the primary fermenter to enable you to keep an eye on the temperature of the fermentation. This is a very important piece of home brewing equipment given that the temperature of the fermentation affects the flavor of the finished beer.



Hydrometer:

A hydrometer is an extremely useful device for figuring out potential alcohol, or if the beer has fermented completely. This really is one particular piece of home brewing equipment that every brewer will want to have and can use. Most home brewing kits provide one.



Funnel and Strainer:

They are usually used to help transfer the contents of the brew kettle into your primary fermenter. The strainer will help filter out the hops that were added to the brew kettle.



Primary Fermenter:

The primary fermenter is the place where the wort goes once you’ve boiled and cooled it, this is where the beer starts to ferment and turn into the amazing stuff that causes you to be so witty and delightful. The primary fermenter is a piece of home brewing equipment that can be a plastic bucket along with a lid which seals tightly or a glass container (often known as a carboy). Either one needs to have a minimum capacity of 6.5 gallons, and accommodates a rubber stopper along with the airlock. The fermenter needs to be spotlessly clean and free from scratches.



Airlock and Rubber Stopper:

The airlock is a clever gadget that permits carbon dioxide to escape from your primary fermenter during fermentation, thereby preventing it from exploding, but doesn’t allow any of the air from outside to get in your beer’s clean environment. It fits into a rubber stopper that has a hole drilled in it, and then the stopper will go on the top of your primary fermenter.



Racking Cane with Siphon Hose:

A racking cane is a stiff piece of clear plastic tubing which is connected to the siphon hose and reaches to the bottom of your fermenter. The siphon hose should be clear food-grade tubing. It's used to transfer the beer from one vessel to another.



Bottling Bucket with Spigot:

This is a 6.5 gallon, food-grade plastic bucket which has a spigot at the bottom. It must be at least as big as your primary fermenter, because you must transfer all of your tasty beer from your primary fermenter into your bottling bucket just before bottling it. It is also important to have a bottle filler attachment at the end of the tubing coming from the spigot. This is another important piece of home brewing equipment that allows you to fill the bottles by simply pressing the filler down on the bottom of the bottle until the beer reaches the top, and after removing the filler, the perfect amount of head space is created.



Bottles:

Once your primary fermentation is complete the beer is placed into bottles for secondary fermentation and storage. The best kind of bottles usually are brown glass ones with smooth tops (do not use the twist-off variety) which can use a cap from your bottle capper. You will need a good amount of bottles to hold all of the beer you are preparing to brew. Depending on the bottle size you'll need to do a little bit of math. A 5 gallon batch of beer will be 640 ounces; if you’re working with 12 ounce bottles you should have about 54. In the event you decide on 16 ounce bottles you want 40 bottles.



Bottle Brush:

This is a slender, curvy brush which you are able to put in a bottle so that you can clean the inside really well. We haven’t pointed out how clean all items have to be, but we will, and the bottle brush is a specialized item of cleaning equipment you will want for home brewing.



Bottle Caps and Capper:

You will also need bottle caps, as you would expect, and you can buy them from every home brewing equipment shop. The optimal kind of bottle capper is one which can be mounted to a surface and worked with one hand while you hold the bottle with the other. You can buy cheaper types that require two hands on the capper, but these are generally a hassle. Go where your budget guides you.



Two other items you'll need to get are chemicals to clean and sanitize your home brewing equipment. You might ask what’s the difference between cleaning and sanitizing? What can make them so imperative to making your own beer? 90% of all home brewing failures can be connected to a problem with cleaning or sanitization and for certain, they're two distinct matters.



•Cleaning chemicals remove obvious debris and residue from your home brewing equipment. Some good cleaners are B-Brite, One Step, and Easy Clean.



•Sanitizing is actually treating your home brewing equipment using chemicals that will destroy, or stop the growth of unwanted microorganisms. It is impossible to sanitize anything at all unless it's clean. Some good sanitizers are IO Star and Star San. The brew kettle is one of the few pieces of equipment which just needs to be cleaned and not sanitized. Simply because you're going to be boiling your wort in your kettle which will sanitize it along with the wort.



All of your home brewing equipment that comes in contact with the beer after it leaves your brew kettle needs to be clean, and adequately sanitized, from the thermometer to the carboy, from the siphon hose to the rubber stopper and airlock. One single oversight could potentially result in a whole batch coming out poorly. With that being said, there aren't any known human pathogens which can remain alive in beer, and so you don’t need to be concerned about harming yourself or your pals.



When you have gotten all these things, you are almost prepared to make your own beer! Now you have to get your home brewing supplies and ingredients and you will be all set.



If you happen to be concerned that brewing beer at home might be complicated and difficult, do not be. It's just a process of basic steps. More descriptive brewing guidelines are going to come in a following blog post.



So you're into making beer? Click to check out home brewing equipment that you'll need to create your home beer.