Am I ready?

[mulliganx]

I am going to be brewing very soon and want to make sure I have everything I need.

I purchased the Brewing Starter Kit with plastic carboy (link below)

I will be using the 5-gallon carboy included in the kit as my secondary.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/plastic-brewing-starter-kit.html

From reading on the forums it looks like it would be helpful if I purchased additional equipment shown below.

Wort Chiller
Straining Bag
Liquid Yeast
6.5 Gallon Plastic Carboy (primary)
Bottles
Star San
Bayou Classic Aluminum Turkey Fryer Stockpot - 30 qt (brew kettle)

I will be using the ingredients from a prepackaged beer kit on midwest..

I think I have everything covered, but wanted to run this list to the forum first to double check.

Thanks

 

[helibrewer]

Plastic carboys come in 6 gallon size, the 6.5 gallon is glass. 6 gallon should be large enough but use a blow off tube and maybe some FermCap anti-foam.

To do full boil you really should get the wort chiller, no other practical way to cool that volume in a timely manner. 30Qt is too small for the boil kettle, my rule is to have 2X the batch size in boil volume. Again, anti-foam might help you get by with the smaller kettle but you will want a larger one, trust me. If your batch size is 5 gallons and you boil off 1-1.5 gallons per hour you are really pushing the limits of a 7.5 gallon kettle.

 

[flars]

The Super Agua Bench Capper is very efficient to use. Wing capper could be held in reserve.
A beer/wine thief for taking hydrometer samples. Or a nice turkey baster.
More bottle caps because you may forget you don't have enough for your next batch.
The book "Joy of Homebrewing".

Self study course, "The Art of Developing Patience".

Looks like you are fairly well set.
Have fun.

Have seen the thread on the need or no need for a secondary vessel?

 

[jrgtr42]

as far as fermentation goes, you do have everything you need.
USe the 6.5 gallon bucket with the kit as your fermenter.
For simplicity's sake, I would recommend against using a secondary for your first brew - it really doesn't gain you anything and it adds twice the opportunity for infections and oxidations.
If you plan to do a full boil, the the turkey fryer / stockpot is very helpful - though you will need to watch carefully as you come to temp to avoid boil over.
Wort chiller also is very helpful, though a water / ice bath is also effective.
I wouldn't bother with the extra carboy to start with.
THe kit does include a sanitizer, though Star San is also good and easy to use.
Obviously you will need something to bottle into - I use bombers that I save from commercial brews. They have the bonus of being nearly free (not counting the cost of the contents, or the 5 cent deposit in this state.)
For yeast, the pre-pack kit will have it, and probably the option to upgrade to liquid yeast.
You will generally want to make a small starter for a liquid yeast - a bit of dry malt extract boiled with water and put into a clean, sanitized growler will be sufficient.
Also, if you haven't already, read Palmer's book, How To Brew - you can read an older edition online for free, or buy the current, updated version.
Also, read Charlie Papazian's Joy of Homebrewing.
Both books are indispensable and should be part of every homebrewer's library.

 

[RM-MN]

Plastic carboys come in 6 gallon size, the 6.5 gallon is glass. 6 gallon should be large enough but use a blow off tube and maybe some FermCap anti-foam.

To do full boil you really should get the wort chiller, no other practical way to cool that volume in a timely manner. 30Qt is too small for the boil kettle, my rule is to have 2X the batch size in boil volume. Again, anti-foam might help you get by with the smaller kettle but you will want a larger one, trust me. If your batch size is 5 gallons and you boil off 1-1.5 gallons per hour you are really pushing the limits of a 7.5 gallon kettle.

I'm going to disagree with this. I do 5 gallon batches in a 30 at pot quite often. You do have to be watchful of it just as it comes to boil as that is when you can boil over. If you watch your burner you can keep it at a slow rolling boil and will boil off less than a gallon too.

I chill my pot by setting it in a big tub of water. I'll let the hose run so I exchange the hot water with cold since the hot water will run over the side while the cold will sink to the bottom to displace it. If it is winter I will dump snow into the water to keep it cold instead of running water constantly.

I never use a blow off tube either because I chill the wort to below the yeast's preferred range and then let it warm to just the bottom of that range. This keeps the speed of the ferment down so I don't get a huge head of krausen and also keeps the yeast from creating fusel alcohols or esters that give off flavors to the beer. When the bubbling stops, I let it warm up to the low 70's until it is finished.