Brewing your own beer at home is surely a rewarding experience and a great hobby.
But, like all hobbies, it demands a certain initial investment. Carefully choosing your
home brewing supplies will ensure that your brewing experience is always a pleasant one,
instead of a source of headaches and disappointment.
If you are just starting, you may want to save the trouble of buying items separately by
choosing a home brewing starter kit. These kits come with all you will need to brew your
first batches of beer. But even if you choose to go with a starter kit, it’s important
to know the basic brewing equipment that all home brewers need, if nothing else, to help
you in selecting the best brewing kit.
Basic Home Brewing Supplies Shopping List
It’s easier to understand what equipment you need to buy if we break it down into three
different stages of beer brewing: wort brewing, fermenting and storing. The last stage
includes bottling, carbonation and aging.
Wort Brewing
In this stage you will boil the malt extract and add hops, creating what is known as the wort. You will need: a brew pot (usually a 6 gallon) with a lid, a heater (could be your stove), a large spoon for stirring, nylon bags for hops and grains.
Before adding the yeast you need to cool the wort, as high temperatures will kill the yeast cells. For cooling you will need a spiral copper heat exchanger, also known as an immersion chiller, through which cool water runs continuously to cool the wort.
Fermenting
This is where you transfer the wort to a fermenting bucket and add the yeast. You will need a fermenter and an airlock. Plastic fermenting buckets are the more common type, but if you can afford it you should choose a glass carboy, since scraping the interior of plastic buckets will always increase the risk of minor scratches that can house colonies of bacteria. Plus the glass carboy allows you to watch your beer as it ferments.
Storing
At this point the beer is fermented and you will now add dextrose (corn sugar) to enable
carbonation and then proceed to bottling. Sanitation is a primary concern here and everything that will come in contact with the beer must be properly sanitized. For storing, you will need bottles, bottle filler, caps, bottle capper, siphon and sanitizing solution, usually
a no-rinse one.
Whether you choose to buy the equipment separately or combined in a home brewing kit,
taking the time to carefully research and select your home brewing supplies is the first
step of a successful beer brewing experience.
For more information, feel free to browse the articles here at Home-Brewing-Supplies.org and best wishes in your home brewing endeavors.