Vintage Iron
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2018
- Messages
- 117
- Reaction score
- 33
So....I'm brand new at this.
Never brewed beer other than at a local "brewery" that charges you a lot of money to "brew your own beer" which basically consists of dumping stuff into the boil and coming back two weeks to bottle it. (eyeroll)
I've been reading lots of your great forum posts and watching quite a few YouTube videos over the past month. I'm pretty sure I understand the basics.
Wash and sanitize EVERYTHING.
Boil
Sanitize
Cool
Sanitize
Pitch
Sanitize, blah, blah, blah....
I managed to score a sweet deal on a couple of Corny Kegs, a regulator, and a C02 tank off CL this past weekend. Yes, that's right...I've never brewed a drop of beer in my life, and the first purchase is a couple of kegs and a tank. (My wife of 20+ years is more than willing to confirm that I am "certifiable")
Anyway, I already have a turkey burner with a 7gal aluminum pot that will work great for the boil. (My plan is to try a simple 5gal extract kit for the first brew.) We can upgrade to better boil equipment after a few batches if needed.
I could really use your help in getting the rest of my equipment configured correctly. With the thought of starting off with a minimal amount of gear, I was thinking of buying a 6.5gal fermenting bucket with an airlock and spigot, (basically a bottling bucket) then go right from the fermenting bucket, into the keg via gravity and a length of beverage tubing once the fermenting is complete The goal here is twofold; 1) I'm cheap, so less gear is better, and 2) taking this route seems to be the most straightforward with the least opportunity to screw something up in regards to sanitizing etc.
Questions:
1) What am I missing from this set up? Do I need anything else? (I know a way to measure specific gravity is nice, but I'm going to hold off on that for now as it seems more of a luxury with the prepackaged extract kits?)
2) Will this work? Can one drain the fermented wort (beer) from a bottling bucket without picking up the settled yeast through the spigot?
While I'm trying to keep costs down I also know that "first cost is cheapest cost" so if it would make more sense to get a better fermenter, I'm certainly game. (I'd love to buy a Speidel 30L if that will get the wort directly from fermenter to keg)
Please... Any thoughts you have to my approach are very much appreciated.
Never brewed beer other than at a local "brewery" that charges you a lot of money to "brew your own beer" which basically consists of dumping stuff into the boil and coming back two weeks to bottle it. (eyeroll)
I've been reading lots of your great forum posts and watching quite a few YouTube videos over the past month. I'm pretty sure I understand the basics.
Wash and sanitize EVERYTHING.
Boil
Sanitize
Cool
Sanitize
Pitch
Sanitize, blah, blah, blah....
I managed to score a sweet deal on a couple of Corny Kegs, a regulator, and a C02 tank off CL this past weekend. Yes, that's right...I've never brewed a drop of beer in my life, and the first purchase is a couple of kegs and a tank. (My wife of 20+ years is more than willing to confirm that I am "certifiable")
Anyway, I already have a turkey burner with a 7gal aluminum pot that will work great for the boil. (My plan is to try a simple 5gal extract kit for the first brew.) We can upgrade to better boil equipment after a few batches if needed.
I could really use your help in getting the rest of my equipment configured correctly. With the thought of starting off with a minimal amount of gear, I was thinking of buying a 6.5gal fermenting bucket with an airlock and spigot, (basically a bottling bucket) then go right from the fermenting bucket, into the keg via gravity and a length of beverage tubing once the fermenting is complete The goal here is twofold; 1) I'm cheap, so less gear is better, and 2) taking this route seems to be the most straightforward with the least opportunity to screw something up in regards to sanitizing etc.
Questions:
1) What am I missing from this set up? Do I need anything else? (I know a way to measure specific gravity is nice, but I'm going to hold off on that for now as it seems more of a luxury with the prepackaged extract kits?)
2) Will this work? Can one drain the fermented wort (beer) from a bottling bucket without picking up the settled yeast through the spigot?
While I'm trying to keep costs down I also know that "first cost is cheapest cost" so if it would make more sense to get a better fermenter, I'm certainly game. (I'd love to buy a Speidel 30L if that will get the wort directly from fermenter to keg)
Please... Any thoughts you have to my approach are very much appreciated.