I've gone and done it now!

[sirjohn]

<font color="red">I've gone and done it now!</font id="red">

I went to Homebrew HQ today (Sunday) and purchased a full brew kit.



I already had the "Joy of Home Brewing" so I opted to pick up "The Home Brewer's Companion". I also spent a few extra bucks on the bottle capper as this appeared to be a bit better then the 2 hand lever capper and the latest BYO Brew mag.

Now that I have most of the tools I think I may need I would like to ask the members what else I may have over looked.

Please note that I'm planning on purchase an 16qt deep turkey fryer to make my wort and also planning on making a bottle dryer. I'm not planning on buying a carbination kit until later next year (Need to let the wife settle down a bit first-[B)] )

My first brew will be a Cooper's Wheat Beer. I hope this will be ok for my first run as I want to taste the difference between Cooper?s and the Mr. Beer's kit.

If you want to see what comes in the kit I have linked a slide show. All comments are welcomed. If anyone will be making another batch this month please let me know (If you don't mind me visiting) so I can watch how this is done.

If folks don't mind traveling to the Colony area (North Dallas) I don't mind hosting on a Saturday or Sunday for folks who would like to help a new brewer out. See you at the meeting.

Thanks,

John

http://img153.imageshack.us/slideshow/p ... 47mfr.smil

[MixnMatchBrew]

That covers the basics. I suggest you get a bigger pot if you are boiling outside. 40 quart would be good for 5 gallon batches.

Good to see you jumping in.

Leroy (kingsbrew) is in Colony so he would be a good person to get with.

[Captain Kangabrew]

I would also recommend a larger pot. In order to do a "full wort boil" you will need to boil about 7 gallons of wort (28 qts) to get 5+ gallons of finished beer. You need the additional capacity to avoid boilovers. Like Wayne said, 40 qts would be great.

If you are going to boil the full volume of wort, you should also be thinking about an immersion chiller. To start off you can always place your kettle in an ice bath. Make sure the kettle will fit in your sink, and keep a bag of ice in the freezer for brewdays.

Finally, I'd recommend another book. "How to Brew" by John Palmer is the best brewing book in my opinion.

[RobDrechsler]

if you can't find a 40+ quart pot to your taste, Walmart has a 22 qt SS pot for less than $45.


also, you can find John's book at his web sight..

http://www.howtobrew.com/sitemap.html

[BrotherhoodBrew]

also, you can find John's book at his web sight..

http://www.howtobrew.com/sitemap.html

thats a good start but the new version of the book is much better than the website I would suggest picking up a copy of it.

[Bill Lawrence]

In my humble opinion, the single best thing you can do to really improve the quality of the beers you brew is to control fermentation temperature (assuming of course that you have sanitation under control). Unfortunately, what that means around here, especially in the summer, is that you need either a freezer or refrigerator as well as a temperature controller. The longer I engage in this hobby, the more I am convinced that yeast management is critical to making good beer and controlling fermentation temperature is a really big part of that. You can make very good, award winning beer with extracts and from what I hear, the dried yeasts available now will do a pretty good job for you (although I have not messed around with them myself except for bottle conditioning). At the end of the day though, if you try to brew ales using standard American or English ale yeasts at room temperature, you will end up with way too many esters, phenols and most likely alot of fussel alcholols which will be very noticable in the flavor of the beer (very fruity, hot solvent taste).

The guys are right in that a full wort boil is very handy and your hop utilization will improve with a bigger boil volume although even some of the big boys do concentrated wort brewing adjusting to final O.G. at the end of the brewing session. I use a couple of converted beer kegs for boiling liquids and that works out pretty well for me. I bet if you talk to some of the guys, you might find a source of kegs cheap. I also agree that cooling the wort down without either a counterflow chiller or immersion chiller is a great big pain. You can build either of these items yourself, I still use the counterflow chiller I built more than 10 years ago (of course, I am really cheap but what can I say). Cooper is pretty expensive but I think you will agree it is worth it after using either of these just once. I am seriously considering making myself an immersion chiller to go along with my counterflow chiller when making lagers in the summertime. If you want equipment/set up ideas, I recommend going over to the Iron Mash contest and just checking out what some of the contestants are using, it will give you some great ideas if you can stand the heat. It's not really all about the equipment though, you can make pretty fantastic stuff with a couple of plastic buckets and some tubing.

[Mike Grover]

In my opinion the #1 item not included in the kit is some type of chiller for your wort. I made my first 2-3 batches without a chiller. Fortunately it was in the winter, and I just let the wort cool on the front porch. However, even though it was in the 40s outside, it still took a LONG time for the wort to chill. For summertime wort chilling, a submersible pump in a cooler full of ice water is a must. You can use this setup for either an immersion chiller or a counterflow chiller (though I prefer the latter). I bought a submersible water fountain pump at my local Home Depot for about $30 and picked up a couple of short garden hose sections for a few bucks each.

[Captain Kangabrew]

This is some great info for beginning brewers. Keep it coming! Although I am not sure that the original poster is still around, this is a good discussion for those new to the hobby or looking to improve their beer.

A dedicated, temp-controlled chest freezer as a fermentation chamber probably helped my beers out the most.

I also use a submersible pump to recirc ice water through my immersion wort chiller after I get down to around 110F. Very helpful during the summer months, if only I would buy enough ice!

If I ever find the funds, my next upgrade will be a March pump to recirc the wort while I'm chilling. Do a search for "Jamil whirlpool chiller" to find the link.

BTW, what ever happened to Sirjohn anyway?

[sirjohn]

Hello Captain Kangabrew and Gang,

Still arround... Just was noticing the post and didnt know if it was a glich due to the move to the new site. Still have the setup (great buy) and looking to brew another wheat shortly in it.

I still don't have a wort chiller as I use the sink to cool down my wort. Yea I know it's a bit of a pain but it does work. I have upgraded to a chest freezer and hope to see great results with tempature control.

Well hope to talk with you folks soon...

John

[RobDrechsler]

In my humble opinion, the single best thing you can do to really improve the quality of the beers you brew is to control fermentation temperature (assuming of course that you have sanitation under control). Unfortunately, what that means around here, especially in the summer, is that you need either a freezer or refrigerator as well as a temperature controller

I left my fermenter sitting in a tub of water, that helped a bunch..