Home Brewing Equipment Essentials

So... You haven't done any brewing before but you want to give it a go!

Well this is where you will find out just how easy it is and how little is required to home brew beer from a beer pack.

The very first thing you need to do before anything else is find a clean area with running water and some where to boil water. For this you may need to negotiate whit your partiner or house mates to spare an hour or so of kitchen time to put that brew down and then in a week or less bottle your product.

Also you will need a dark spot that is above 18 deg celsius but below about 30 to store your bottles for a fortnight or so to gas and mature your new home brew beer.

Once you have that sorted it is time to talk hardware.

First up you need a fermenter which will more than likely be a 30 litre container bought from your local brew shop. You can get away with a 25 litre water container with a plastic tap on the bottom (very similar to the product at the brew shop). There are two problems with these containers;



1. There are often small bubbly defects inside the container that can harbour bacteria that will spoil you home brew beer.



2. Being only 25 litres there is not enough head space for your brew to allow the froth to grow, especially in warmer enviroments that speed fermentation.



Now you have your container next you will need a large plastic or metal spoon to stir your brew.

You can buy plastic ones from the home brew shop. Basically they are long enough to touch the bottom of your fermenter with the handle high enough that you dont stick your hand in the wort(what beer is called before it is fermented.



Next you may need an air lock to put in the lid of your container. This is not essential as there is a easier solution to this problem. Place plastic wrap over the opening of your container and stretch a large rubber band or in most cases the seal from the lid of your container over the top of the opening. Or buy an air lock from the home brew shop.

A bottle filling device is something that comes in handy and helps get the beer into the bottle from the fermenter. It has a valve on one end and the other end pushes into the fermenter tap. Helps prevent frothing and beer oxydisation.

Also a sterilizer of some description will be required. Again the home brew shop or supermarket is the best place. Generally Sodium metabisulfate is the one used but it can cause problems for asthmatics so there are others available. The others tend to have a soapy feel and good rinsing after sterilizing is a good idea.

Beer bottles are something you will need. Thirty 750ml bottles or sixty 375ml bottles for each brew. Plastic ones can be bought but I've found they are hard to keep clean.
Reusing old beer bottles is the trick taken by most homw brewers.

Caps are something you will need. If you have bought the pastic bottles then the caps are with them.
But if you are using old beer bottles you will need caps.
Caps come in three kinds. Crown Seal, Twist seal and Duel seal.
If your bottles have a thread then twist seals are for you. If they don,t then you need crown seals. Duel seals fit both. That is the easy way if you have both kinds of bottles.

The next few things are not esential but do come in handy, especially when you think something may be wrong.
A liquid crystal stick on thermometer to go on the side of your container with a range of at least 16 to 34 derees celsius.
The other is a beer hydrometer to measure the specific gravity of your brew to give you an idea of what stage it may be up to.

Also a priming sugar spoon is handy as it has both half and full spoon measures and is designed to fit the mouth of the bottle. Perfect for priming those bottles.

All of these can be purchased at your local brew shop but can be found else where. e.g. Supermarkets.
The last thing that will come in very handy is a bench capper.
Use of these is a must when capping glass bottles as the device supplied with most brew kits are a knock on style of thing requiring the use of a mallot. I just could not bring my self to hit the caps on for fear of a bottle shattering and consequent injury that may have occured to my hands.

As I have already indicated all of these items can be purchased in on place, The Home Brew Shop. That is where all your home brew beer woes can be answered.

So that every thing you need excluding ingredients. But that is another story. You may like to read the article on the ingredients before you go off and buy your equipment as it may save you a second trip to the supermarket or home brew shop.