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i don't know anything about Midwest Homebrewing... i do a lot of business with www.defalcos.com/ here in houston. also with northern brewer they are both 100% reliable and honest. i think the kit on e-bay is a little inexpensive for what it is supose to have in it. the stuff costs so much and there is not much of a markup. i would make my first batch single stage only. KISS! keep it simple... most first batches are single stage batches. let it sit two weeks and it be just as clear as if you took the time to rack it over to the secondary. you can also get 90% of your stuff for almost nothing. you need to get about 60 12 oz bottles that take caps (not twist off crowns) i would buy a case and a half of "good" beer and drink the beer and reuse the bottles. i would get a copy of the "Alaskan bootleggers bible". it will teach you how to make wine, beer, meat and hard liquor (warning this is illegal). also how to make a bottle caper and how to put together most of your stuff. things you will need to buy... 6 gal food grad plastic bucket with lid. spigot for bucket. small bag of camden tablets. 1 tab per gal. Airlock Hydrometer (Determines alcohol content) Bottle Caps bottle capper Thermometer that floats racking cane with bottle filler attachment and clamp. Siphon Tubing you need a big pot and an outdoor cooker. you can cool the wert in an ice bath the first few times but you will want to make a wert chiller. then buy hops, yeast and either Dry malt and ore liquid malt extract. this alone will run you about $40.00. figure out what kind of beer you want to make. ale is easy and requires not special techniques. so do you have any questions? there are a lot of home brewers on the board and it's a great hobby and we are all happy to help. i am force carbonating an IPA in my kegeraror right now. |
| I have been brewing for about four years now and I use the Mister Beer stuff. I also use washed out plastic coke bottles to bottle in most of the time. If I'm making a beer for someone I'll bottle it in glass but just because it looks nicer. Mr. Beer only makes 2.5 gallons at a time but it's a simpler and cheaper way to get started. It's smaller than a carboy or bucket so the wife does not mind it sitting on the counter. You can get Mr. Beer's cans of extract for about 7.50 and then ask for a bag of dried malt extract instead of the maltodextrin stuff Mr. Beer sells. After you make a few batches of Mr. Beer stuff you can branch out into other extract brews. I tend to make the same reds,brown and wheats over and over though. Go to the Mr. Beer site and see what you think. SS |
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Decent price on that kit. Later if you enjoy brewing, buy more carboys. I found my carboys at a garage sale for $2 each. I got some stuff on craigslist cheap too. Saving money is good because hops prices went up like surplus 5.56 this year (note: if you are going to brew, look into planting hops rhizomes this spring!). Buy Palmer's "How to Brew". It is the bible of homebrewing and will tell you everything you need to know from brewing extracts all the way to all grain. |
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Thank you for your advice. Regarding wort chillers, let me bounce this idea past you: take an igloo ice chest drill a hole near the base, bend a several foot segment of copper pipe into something resembling a spring and set into the ice chest. Then pack it with ice when I'm chilling wort. Is this what most people do? |
| I have brewed a few batches now...and wort chilling isn't necessary for 5 gallon or smaller batches. The trick to chilling the wort is to cool it down relatively quickly so that other organisms do not start to thrive before you can get your yeast in to start fermentation. The easiest thing to do in order to chill your wort is to take your sink and fill it with ice and water and take your whole pot that you have your wort in, and stick it right into the water (just make sure that you do not go over the height of the pot, or else you'll get water in). Stir the water outside of the pot occasionally in order to move the colder water close to the pot. It should cool the wort inside of 10 minutes. Also if you are brewing a concentrated wort, that is you add water afterwards, you can cool that water before you add it, and therefore you do not need to drop the temperature of the wort all the way down, just add the cold water and it will drop it the rest of the way...though check with a thermometer before you add the yeast, if its too hot you could kill the yeast. Have fun... and hope this helps. |