2009
03.30

Almost beer time

Category: Hobbies, Life / Tag: , ,  / Add Comment

So far, I have the following equipment and ingredients for my brewing adventure:

  • 5 gallon carboy
  • hydrometer (with tube)
  • 2 air locks
  • sanitizer
  • liquid malt extract
  • powder malt extract
  • grain malts
  • grain bag
  • hops (pellets)
  • yeast
  • priming sugar
  • bottle caps

All of this courteous of my father. The equipment is from his wine making excursions. The ingredients come from a kit he bought me for my birthday. It’s for a brown ale, which suits me just fine.

I still need the following equipment:

  • 8 gallon stainless steel pot
  • propane burner and stand (optional but preferred)
  • food-grade tubing
  • siphon
  • bottle filler
  • capper
  • secondary fermenter or a bottling bucket
  • thermometer (something more appropriate for brewing then the ones I already have)
  • bottle washer

I figure I can easily make a bottle tree for drying the bottles after sanitizing them. Oh, and I need bottles – about 5 dozen or so. I’m excited. This is going to be fun.

  1. Mike Protts said: 2009.03.31 20:00

    A few hints:
    1) Bottles – if you can find resealable bottles with the rubber seals on ceramic lids with wire clasps, they are great (you will have to drink the original beer first).
    2) A good capper is one that doesn’t make you think you’re about to break the bottles ;-)
    3) Good sugar (very dark) is better than white sugar if you need to add.
    4) Consider extracting yeast from bottles of live real ale, it’s a bit of effort but the yeast is good.
    5) For the early batches keep alcohol content below 6%, even then you will be fermenting for a lot longer than you might expect.
    6) When drinking homebrew, remember to allow a bit longer before driving!

    Cheers
    Mike