Newbie Equipment Check

[rjanson]

Hey All,

A couple of years ago a friend of mine bought me a home brew kit for christmas. While I was ecstatic, it sat unused for a while because I procrastinate a lot, it did not come with an ingredient kit and the instructions that came with it were pretty lacking.

I finally ordered an IPA ingredient kit online and made my first batch and it was a lot of fun and now while my brew sits in bottles, I'm ready to get after it!

It seems like it's a pretty nice kit, with some quality equipment as well as some parts that should probably be upgraded. I've googled around and have not found the exact kit, so maybe it's a kit plus some other stuff that looked/sounded cool when he was shopping?

Anyway, I'd like it if someone could take a look at my setup and recommend improvements?

• 
  6 gallon aluminum stock pot (read in a couple places this is acceptable if it's seasoned first, will likely upgrade to a proper stainless brew kettle immediately)
  6.5 Gallon fermenting/bottling bucket with spigot and lid
  6.5 gallon glass carboy w/ drilled bung
  5 gallon glass carboy
  Three piece plastic airlock
  Plastic carboy drying rack
  Plastic racking cane w/ hose and bottle filler
  Stainless racking cane
  Auto-siphon
  Funnel with mesh screen
  Hygrometer w/ testing tube
  Floating thermometer (inaccurate, in the garbage)
  Bottle brush
  Carboy brush
  BBrite cleaner and iodophor (replaced with PBW and star-san)
  Bottle caps and dual lever capper
  Carboy carrier
  Large mesh bag (for?)
  Couple of cheesecloth style bags
  A cone shaped hollow plastic thing with a groove down the middle, not sure what it is/does.

So, while I'm not quite ready to build a dedicated brewery in my garage, I'm not opposed to spending a few bucks to get quality equipment, since I do plan to brew regularly now that I've gotten over the hump.

Thoughts?

 

[jtratcliff]

Looks good to me. I've been at it a couple of years and you have more equipment than me!

You'll need a better thermometer (floaters *do* suck), check homebrewfinds.com

Your large bag can be used for steeping grains, partial mash BIAB, or full BIAB if it's large enough.

Your Al kettle is fine. Don't worry about upgrading until you're ready to move to either larger batches or all grain.

Next on your list should be temperature control, and stir plate for yeast starters...

You'll consistently see brewers saying that biggest improvement in their beer came from proper temp control and proper yeast pitch rate.

 

[rjanson]

Looks good to me. I've been at it a couple of years and you have more equipment than me!

You'll need a better thermometer (floaters *do* suck), check homebrewfinds.com

Your large bag can be used for steeping grains, partial mash BIAB, or full BIAB if it's large enough.

Your Al kettle is fine. Don't worry about upgrading until you're ready to move to either larger batches or all grain.

Next on your list should be temperature control, and stir plate for yeast starters...

You'll consistently see brewers saying that biggest improvement in their beer came from proper temp control and proper yeast pitch rate.

Thanks for the input!

Good to know about the Al kettle. SS looks to be the single biggest expense I'd be facing at this level, so I can save that $ and put it into more recipes instead!

I'll read up on the temp control and yeast pitching, but would you mind summarizing for me? Is temp control about using something other than the stovetop for boiling? Controlling temp during fermentation? Both? Yeast pitching sounds like something i'm going to have to study up on...

 

[jtratcliff]

All you need to do to "season" your aluminum kettle is boil some water in it, or bake it in the oven. The walls should darken where the passive oxide layer forms... Don't scrub this off. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=110173

Temp control is for fermentation. Different yeasts have different temp requirements and the process of fermentation produces heat that can raise the beer temp 5-10 degrees above ambient. You generally want somewhere in the mid to low 60s (F) for most ales and ale yeasts. Fermenting too warm can produce off flavors.

First step toward temp control is often a "swamp cooler". You put your fermenter into a tub full of water (e.g. plastic party tub, bath tub, swimming pool) to stabilize temps. You can use frozen bottles of water to maintain lower temps in the tub. Swapping them out for new ones as they thaw. A fan to promote evaporative cooling and a towel to wick water up the sides of the fermenter can increase cooling even further.

At the next level, a lot of folks will build an insulated box around a dorm fridge or re-purpose an old fridge or chest freezer into a fermentation chamber using a 2 stage temperature controller (like ones being offer offered by Inkbird in this giveaway: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=575302). I'm still in the swamp cooler stage but looking to move a chamber soon.

Proper Yeast pitch rates can prevent off-flavors from over-taxed yeast. The Mr Malty yeast calculator is a pretty popular one to use: http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php to estimate how much yeast you need for a given brew. Often a single vial isn't enough for a 5 G batch, especially if it's a high gravity beer. Rather than buy 2 vials, you can grow a starter to get the proper amount of yeast.

A stir plate helps grow the yeast faster but isn't strictly necessary. I began making starters by just shaking the sucker every time I happened to walk by You can build a stir plate for not much money by using a cigar box, an old computer case fan, an old phone charger wall wart, and the magnets out of a dead hard drive. Lots of DIY stir plate threads to give you plenty of ideas.

Along with building starters you can start re-using yeast. Look at the yeast storage thread for good info on saving money by using yeast several times (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=519995). Stir plate helps here, too, but again, isn't strictly necessary.


Only other thing I notice is that you haven't listed a chiller of any kind. It's important to cool your wort before pitching yeast. Pitching too warm can, worst case, kill your yeast or at best result in off-flavors. Lots of folks use copper or stainless immersion chillers,or counter flow chillers (CFC), or plate chillers. Lots of DIY threads on building your own immersion chillers and CFCs. I personally do "no-chill" (or overnight slow-chill, really) in the kettle and wait until the next day to pitch. I've built a CFC, but haven't used it yet.