Home Brewing Equipment You Will Need

Getting Started

You don’t need a lot of fancy, and expensive, equipment to brew your first batch of beer. 

Many brewing supply stores sell starter kits for $75 or less.  If you are interested in pursuing the hobby long term, a deluxe brewing kit can be found for less than $150.  A number of online stores will even ship the equipment and ingredients directly to your door.  It can cost even less if you borrow some or all the equipment from a friend.  Here’s a quick summary of what is needed:

A Large Pot – at least 3 gallons in size, though a larger one will generally result in fewer spills

Tubing & Clamps – to siphon and bottle the beer- A 6 foot section of 3/8 inch ID (inside diameter) food grade plastic tubing will work.  Clamps are available at your brew store

An Airtight Fermenting Bucket – a 5 gallon plastic bucket with lid, or a glass carboy (a big glass jar).  If you can afford it, purchase a glass carboy as they are easier to keep sanitized and don’t leak.  If you get a carboy you may need a large bottle brush to clean it

An Air Lock and Stopper – sized to fit your fermenter.

A Bottle Filler – available from your homebrew supplier – should be sized to fit on the end of  your siphon tubing

A Thermometer – A floating thermometer with a range of 0-100 C or up from 32-220 F

Bottles – You will need just over 2 cases of 12 oz bottles to bottle 5 gallons of beer.  Do not use the twist-off  bottles – always use high quality bottles that require a bottle opener.

Bottle Brush – While some experts overlook the importance of this, you will need a small brush to get your bottles clean. Do not depend on new bottles to be clean already.

A Bottle Capper – a hand driven device to cap your bottles also available from your homebrew store.

Bottle Caps – New bottle caps sold at your brewing supplier – you will need about 50 caps for a 5 gal batch

A Sanitizing solution – Beer is prone to infection, so everything must be sanitized before use.   Household bleach can be used, but it must be thoroughly rinsed to prevent contamination.  Your brew store may have alternatives such as iodophor and starsan.

As you can see, home brewing is not a task to be taken lightly. There is good amount of equipment that
have you running all over town to gather what you need to get started. That's why it is recommended that you purchase a good starter kit. Quality is very important in this endeavor.

How To Brew Your First Beer

Home Beer Brewing is an Art.

This document was, and is, intended to be distributed freely and may be copied for personal use. Copyright © 1994 by John J. Palmer All Rights Reserved.

These instructions are designed for the first-time Brewer. What follows can be considered an annotated recipe for a fool-proof Ale beer. Why an Ale beer you ask? Because Ales are the simplest to brew.
Brewing Beer is simple and complicated, easy and hard. Compare it to fishing - Sit on the end of the dock with a can of worms and a cane pole and you will catch fish. Going after a specific kind of fish is when fishing gets complicated. Brewing the specific kind of beer you want is the same thing. There are many different styles of beer and many techniques to brew them.

Brewing a beer is a combination of several general processes. First is the mixing of ingredients and bringing the solution (wort) to a boil. Second is the cooling of the wort to the fermentation temperature. Next the wort is transferred to the fermenter and the yeast is added. After fermentation, the raw beer is siphoned off the yeast sediment and bottled with a little extra sugar to provide the carbonation. But there are three important things to keep in mind every time you brew: Cleanliness, Preparation and Good Record Keeping.

Cleanliness

Cleanliness is the foremost concern of the brewer. After all, Fermentation is the manipulation of living organisms, the yeast. Providing good growing conditions for the yeast in the beer also provides good growing conditions for other micro-organisms, including bacteria. Cleanliness must be maintained throughout every stage of the brewing process.

Preparation

Take the time to prepare your brewing area. Have the ingredients ready on the counter. Prepare your brewing water. Have the ice on- hand to cool the wort when its done boiling. Is the Fermenter clean and sanitized? Make sure that all equipment is clean and ready to go before starting. Patience and planning are necessities.

Record Keeping

Always keep good notes on what ingredients, amounts and times were used in the brewing process. The brewer needs to be able to repeat good batches and learn from poor ones.

Up Next: Brewing Terms

Home Brewing 101

Northern Brewer says:

Welcome to Home Brewing: Whether as a hobby, obsession, way of life! Brewing beer is fun and easy so if you can make mac and cheese from a box without help, you can make beer, and we’re going to show you how. This section will provide you with all the necessary information for you to brew your first batch of beer from an extract recipe. This section does not intend to teach you all there is to know about brewing beer, but don’t worry, there is more to come.

Objective

To brew, ferment, bottle and condition a beer from an extract kit using basic equipment.