Equipment for beginners?

[Greynolds16]

Hi everyone,

I am brand new to home brewing and I have completely done a deep dive into making beer at home. I am wondering what equipment others have found helpful or wish they would have had early on.
Right now I have a pretty rudimentary system (regular pot instead of a stainless steel kettle, sparging all grain batched using a mesh strainer under a pasta strainer, and back into the regular pot for the boil- no hydrometer for gravity readings). For bottling I do have some equipment that has been helpful (bottling bucket with spigot, bottle filler, autosiphon to rack from the 1 gal glass carboy to the bucket).
Any additional things to pick up from the brew shop?

 

[bracconiere]

uhhh...for a 1 gallon glass carboy batch...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Coleman-1-Gallon-Jug/13848699
edit: for maintaining mash temp for a 1 gallon batch......

 

[Jag75]

I would look into some of the starter kits. If thats not ideal for you get your hydrometer, test tube , wort chiller, ect....
Starter kits are your friend plus you get a free beer kit with them.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

If you decide to buy a brew kettle, and you're trying to decide between 5-10 gal, or between 10-15 gal, ALWAYS GET THE BIGGER POT!!!

Everybody on HBT tried to tell me, and I didn't believe them. Now, I have two brew pots.

 

[Velnerj]

Look into biab (brew in a bag) and buy a huge pot. One idea if you have electricity option is to get a strong induction burner (rather than propane) that's something I wish I could do but I brew outside without electricity.

Also I thought I would never get into it because, contrary to the popular opinion, I enjoyed bottling, but... kegging systems are amazing.

 

[bracconiere]

contrary to the popular opinion, I enjoyed bottling,

yeah, i started kegging at ~18, before i decided to enjoy working...but when i tell people i honestly enjoy working now, they tell me i'm a sick man......

 

[Rob2010SS]

Look into biab (brew in a bag) and buy a huge pot. One idea if you have electricity option is to get a strong induction burner (rather than propane) that's something I wish I could do but I brew outside without electricity.

Also I thought I would never get into it because, contrary to the popular opinion, I enjoyed bottling, but... kegging systems are amazing.

You enjoyed bottling?!?!?! Can I ask what part?

That was the one thing that we eliminated after our first batch. We went to kegging on batch #2 because we hated bottling so much haha. To each their own though.

The one thing I wish I had early on was a JaDeD Hydra Wort Chiller. I know they are pricey but believe me when I tell you they are worth every penny. That thing was amazing for 6-7 gallons of wort - boiling down to pitch temp in like 8 minutes.

 

[Cellar_Dweller]

Check out More Beer's premium starter kit. Get everything the list that you don't have.

Look into BIAB as someone else said. It will greatly simplify things.

Maybe a grain mill. The Cereal Killer seems to be the cheapest of the lot. I have one and it works great. Once you start amassing grains and hops I'd recommend two scales. One that measures up to say 90 lbs or so for grain and such. The other one should be more sensitive, like one of the little pocket ones that has a resolution in hundredths of grams. That's great for hops and mineral additions. I find I use both of these quite a bit for other things, especially in the kitchen.

Get two hydrometers. If you are brewing small batches, then one of the cheap refractometers will allow you to maintain precious volume and get initial gravity readings with a couple drops of wort instead of a whole tube.

 

[Tommydee]

Find someone exiting the hobby and/or buy a good burner, large kettle, temp probe, if you're super careful, find the post on here showing horrific glass carboy injuries, then ferment in glass carboys....carefully. (They are cheap, and nearly free used...and ferment as good as anything.) Start and stay with BIAB. Just use a sleeping bag on top to maintain mash temp. Join a local club. It facilitates doing all of this and learning much faster. Get a dedicated freezer and temp controller as your first upgrade to control ferment temps. Or use kveik, but I don't since I have yet to fall in love with a kveik beer.

 

[Squirrels]

I would say kegging equipment was a game changer for me. I don't like the fiddlyness of bottling beer... Especially 10 gallon batches.

 

[dwhite60]

I'm a minimalist.

Five gallon bucket, five gallon kettle. I do three gallon BIAB. Standard tracking cane and hose. Bottles and capper.