You’ve explored the vast array of beer styles from light, crisp lagers, to black-as-death imperial stouts, and everything in-between. You can blindly identify a kettle sour from a gose, and a Märzen from a Helles. You’ve visited all of your local craft brewers on many occasions, and your favorite craft beer bar knows your order as soon as you walk in the door. You more than dabble in the world of craft beer, and exciting as it is, you thirst for more. The question is, where do you go from here? Perhaps it’s time you roll up your sleeves and give brewing your own craft beer a whirl. Homebrewing beer is as old as beer itself, and for thousands of years, is the primary means by which most beer was brewed. Beer brewing is as much art as it is science, and it can seem intimidating at first, but if you know what to do, have the equipment that you need, and can follow directions, you too can brew amazing beer in your own kitchen.
As you embark on your homebrewing journey, there are several things to think about before you brew your first batch. The first thing to consider is whether or not you’re going to brew from extract, or make an all-grain brew. A decade or 2 ago, extracts for homebrewing were available, but the quality of the products was inconsistent at best. Fast-forward to today, and not only are extracts extremely consistent, but they are affordable, and make the entry-point to homebrewing as easy as following a recipe for dinner. Extract brewing also has the added bonus of requiring much less time, money, and equipment compared to all-grain brewing, and is the process I HIGHLY recommend anybody uses for at least their first few batches that they brew. Believe me, once you brew your first batch from extract, you’re not going to care that you didn’t do a small-scale version of what the big brewers do.
Before you select which style of beer you want to brew, and before you even consider what ingredient to get for your first brew day, you need to get the requisite equipment for brewing. There are several way to go about this, as just like extracts have come a long way in the past few decades, so too has the homebrewing equipment space changed rapidly. You can get individual items that you need in order to brew, or you can buy a purpose-built, all-in-one homebrewing solution. The all-in-one systems do typically contain more than 1 item in their brewing system, and you will need all of the various parts of the system in order for them to work together properly. While they do work very well, they are also very costly, so I recommend going the old-fashioned route, and buying the basic tools you need in order to brew on your stovetop. The basic tools are as follows: brew kettle, brew spoon, carboy (I recommend getting 2 carboys – we’ll expand on this later), fermentation bucket, auto-siphon, silicon tubing, thermometer, hydrometer, bung(s), airlock(s), bottle filler, bottle capper, bottle caps, sanitizer, scale, empty bottles, bottle cleaning brush, and bottle drying rack. This is not an exhaustive list, as there are a lot of items on the market that you can get to make things easier for you, but these are the basic tools of the trade. You can find all of these items online from multiple different brewing supply stores (I recommend checking out Midwest Supplies – and no, I’m not sponsored, they just have really great starter kits for a fair price), and most of them have homebrew starter kit package deals that include everything you need to succeed on brew day for a reasonable price. As all suppliers and kits vary, you’ll want to double-check that your kit comes with all of the basic essentials that I listed. I’ll also make note of some other things you may want to consider, but that aren’t necessary.
Assuming that the brewing equipment list didn’t scare you off – and there’s no need to be scared, you can absolutely brew great beer on your first attempt – we’re going to expand on some of the specific items in the equipment list. Most homebrewing kits will come with anywhere from a 6 – 4 gallon carboy (or carboys depending upon the kit), as the average homebrew batch size is a 5 gallon batch. I like a 6 gallon carboy or fermenting bucket with spigot for the primary fermentation stage, as having the extra room makes everything a lot neater. I also wouldn’t recommend any smaller than a 5 gallon carboy even for the secondary fermentation vessel. 4 gallons can just be too small volumetrically, even if there is evaporation during the boil. Another nice item (or 2 if you have 2 carboys) to make your life simpler is a carboy harness. You don’t want to drop your carboy full of beer, and they’re heavy, so having a harness for your carboy makes that process that much simpler and safer. As for brew kettles, you can get a fancy, purpose-built brew kettle that has a built-in thermometer and ball valve, or as simple as a tall stock pot. No matter which option you choose, I recommend getting at least a 7 gallon capacity vessel if you intend to brew standard homebrewing 5 gallon batches. Yet again, it keeps things much tidier having that extra space with which to work. If you opt for (or your kit comes with) a fermenting bucket for your primary fermentation, make sure that it has a spigot built-in. The silicon tubing is used in many of the steps in transferring from vessel-to-vessel. It’s cheap, and used often, so I would get plenty of extra hosing just to make your life simple. Depending upon your set-up, the length of hosing can vary, but it can’t really be too long, so I’d aim for 6 foot sections on the extra tubing you buy. Most homebrew kits come with 3/8 inch spigot, so make sure your tubing is sized to fit and make a nice, tight seal. Finally, for sanitizer, there are plenty of options out there, and it’s all preferential, but 1 Step is an easy-to-use product that will sanitize all of your equipment in 1 step. Simply add the sanitizer to a cleaning bucket of water, mix, and soak each item in the solution for 10-15 minutes.
This is not an all-inclusive list of all homebrewing equipment out there, but rather the basics that you will need to actually make your first batch of beer in your home. As you progress in your homebrew journey, you’ll most likely start to figure out what you really like about what you have and what you’d like to change, and there are a ton of options out there for additional equipment, and equally as many equipment upgrades. In the next homebrewing blog we’ll focus on the ingredient side of things, and from there, you’ll be ready to brew your first batch of beer. Homebrewing is a journey, a learning experience, and a very rewarding endeavor. There’s nothing quite like getting to enjoy the fruit of your labor, and what better way to do so than by brewing the beer that you want to drink. Cheers!
The Craft Beer Corner 