One of the hardest issues for a new brewer is to determine what equipment they need to get started. You could easily speed many thousands of dollars setting yourself up, before you start your first home brew, on the latest equipment with temperature controllers, pumps and refrigeration equipment. While over time you may wish to get to this stage, I would suggest starting small and then determine if you actually enjoy home brewing before spending larger amounts of money on the hobby.
The good thing with home brewing is that you can set up your first kit without spending a fortune and build up over time to meet your budget constraints. I generally see home brewing at three distinct levels being:
- Kit Brewers
- Intermediate Brewers
- Full Malt Brewers
There tends to be a natural progression for many home brewers over time as they gather more equipment, experience and confidence to start off with an inexpensive kit and slowly build to the stage where they are full malt brewers, milling their own malt and propagating their yeast.
In this section we will look at the type of equipment you will need to brew at each level and as I mentioned I would suggest you start off as a kit brewer before outlaying any more money. It may well be that you are happy for your entire home brewing career to be a kit brewer and there is no need to progress, or you might want to develop your skills and brewing options a little more. That is the great thing about home brewing, there are so many options and combinations of equipment and beer styles, you can do what suits your palate, budget and time availability.
These lists are my suggestions, you should add to them or delete as you see fit to suit your needs. They are really intended as a general guide to think about.
Kit Brewers- Getting Started
Equipment:
- Measuring flask- for use with the hydrometer
- Mixing Spoon- mixes the water and extract
- Bottling Valve- used to fill bottles from fermenter
- Adhesive Temperature Strip- gives an indication of fermentation temperature
- Hand or bench capper- for putting crown seals on glass bottles. Bench cappers are much easier and safer to use in my experience if you can afford it.
- Priming sugar or carbonation drops- added to the bottle prior to capping to carbonate the beer
Raw Materials:
- Malt Extract- Usually around 1.7 kg liquid extract tin
- Brewing Sugar- Can be table sugar, better results can be had with a malt extract
- Yeast- Most likely a dried sachet of brewer’s yeast
- Priming Sugar- Normal table sugar or priming drops
- Tap water- for brewing and cleaning
- Crown seals or plastic caps- crown seals for glass bottles, plastic caps for PET bottles
- Plastic or glass bottles- generally from 330ml to 750m
- Cleaning agent- used to clean the brewing equipment and bottles prior to use
- No Rinse Sanitising agent- sanitises the equipment such as bottles before filling
Optional Extras (Nice to have but not essential)
- Temperature pad or band- helps provide the ideal fermenting temperature in cooler climates
- Scrubbing brush- for thoroughly cleaning out bottles
- Bottle brush- helps to scrub inside bottles before filling
- Bottle master blaster washer- helps to clean bottles by spraying cleaning agents inside bottles
- Bottle dryer rack- sores bottle upside down in a rack allowing water to run out
- Dedicated Cleaning bucket- for soaking brewing equipment for cleaning and sanitising
- Log Book- to keep notes on each brew to help build your knowledge base
Intermediate Brewers- The next step using milled grains and hops
All the equipment listed in the Kit Brewers section as well as:
Equipment:
- Brew kettle- a good stainless steel (304) for boiling the wort in.
- Hot liquor tank- a stainless steel tank for heat
- Heat source- gas or electric for heating the brew
- Stainless steel fermenter or glass carboys
- Heat exchanger or Wort Cooler- for quickly cooling the wort prior to pitching
- Hop bag/mesh basket- for putting the hops into the brew
- Timer- to keep track of time critical brewing processes
- Thermometer- for accurately measuring the brewing temperaturr
- Transfer tubing- for moving the brew between vessels
- 3 to 5 litre measuring jug- general purpose for measuring volumes
Raw Material:
- Water balance chemicals- e.g. Calcium Chloride, Calcium Sulphate, Calcium Chloride
- Spray Bottle of 70% Alcohol- for general sanitising equipment and fittings
Optional Extras(Nice to have but not essential):
- Whirfloc- tablets to help reduce haze by aiding the hot break
- Refractometer with SG scale- for measuring the gravity of wort
- Heavy duty brewing gloves- for protection from hot work and surfaces when handling equipment
Full Malt Brewers- Basically mini craft brewing
All the equipment listed in the Kit Brewers section as well as:
- Brewing setup- system such as the Grain father or Robobrew with pumps and counterflow heat exchangers
- Kegerator with taps – for temperature-controlled brews, beer storage and pouring
- Malt Mill- to mill the malt
- Plastic buckets- for milling into as well as general purpose cleaning
- Corny kegs- for storing and serving your bright beer
- Connections and fittings- range required to connect kegs, fermenter and storage vessels as well as the beer
- CO2 cylinder- to provide the gas to carbonate and pour keg beer
- CO2 regulator- to deliver the required pressure for carbonation and pouring
- Beer line- 4mm internal diameter- minimum for CO2 and beer delivery
- Corny keg ball lock disconnects- for gas and beer lines
- Non return valve- for the gas line to protect the regulator for the backflow of beer
- Scales- for weighing out malt charges, hops and chemicals
- Bright beer filter housing- for filtering beer
- Magnetic stirring plate- for a yeast starter
- Magnetic stirring bar- for stirring the yeast starter on the magnetic plate
- Conical flask- minimum 2 litre Erlenmyer for a yeast starter
- Range of Teflon and rubber bungs to suit glassware
Raw Material:
- PH Test Strips- for measuring the pH of the mash water
- Cleaning Agent- specific for beer lines- for the cleaning of brewing equipment and lines
- Sanitising Agent- for system and beer lines- for removing spoilage micro-organisms lines and equipment to a high standard
- Beer filter cartridges- for filtering beer into a keg.
Optional Extras (Nice to have but not essential):
- Stainless steel conical fermenter (30 litres plus)- for improving he fermentation process
- PH meter- meaning pH
- Vortex Wort stirring attachment- for aerating brew when attached to a drill
- Aeration system- pumper with filter for providing area to the wort at the start of fermentation
- Diffusion air stone- for aerating
- Quick connects for beer and air lines- push in fittings
- Spare fittings- for kegs, beer lines, connectors, including O-rings and rubber seals
- Variety of stepless clamp fittings- for clamp lines and connections
- Clamp tool for stepless clamps- for making connections between lines and fittings
- Spare beer line
- Teflon tape- for sealing up connections
- Dolly Trolley- helpful for moving heaving storage tanks, kegs and fermenters, much mor important as you get older!
- Brewing Software- great for designing and documenting your new brews
- Dedicated Refrigeration space- for storage of yeast and hops