Archive for June, 2009
Home Brewing Fermentation
Home Brewing Equipment Needed To Get Started As A Homebrewer
Home Brew Equipment For The Homebrewer
Everybody loves beer and would like to make their own, but they’re not sure how to get started. The biggest question is usually what type of equipment do I need to start Home Brewing? A lot of people think that it’s very pricey and difficult to obtain all of the home brewing equipment they need to get started, but it’s cheaper and much easier than you think. This is a discussion about what primary pieces of brewing equipment you’ll need to get started with Malt Extract Brewing.
You’ll need a big pot to boil at least two gallons of water, and closer to three gallons is much better for brewing five gallon batches. Make certain your brew kettle has insulated handles so you can readily transport the hot water during brewing. You’ll also need a thermometer for taking temperature readings of your boiling liquid. Just before you add your yeast to your brew you need to make certain that the temperature is not too hot or too cold. Yeast is often very fickle and is easily killed if the temperature is too hot, and will be inactive if the temperature is too cold.
Make sure you have a good steel spoon to stir your brew, as a wooden spoon can become filled with bacteria and is not ideal to use. Once you have finished brewing the beer you will need to transfer it to a fermentation vessel. Plastic bucket fermenters are the most common for beginners, but other styles are available. You will also need a hydrometer, a device that measures the specific gravity of your beer and helps figure out how much alcohol is produced during fermentation.
Once fermentation is complete, you need to transfer your beer to a bottling bucket. To ensure your equipment will not spoil your beer, you need to use a sanitizing solution. Transferring the beer is done by using a plastic hose in conjunction with a siphon. To move the beer from the bottling bucket into the individual bottles, you will need to use a plastic hose in conjunction with a bottle filler. I recommend using a bottle filler because the mechanism inside makes bottling much easier than merely using a plain old hose.
Your home brew needs a place to go, so you also need bottle caps and glass bottles. You need roughly 50 twelve ounce. bottles for a conventional five-gallon batch of home brew. Keep in mind, each bottle must be cleaned out and sanitized before bottling your beer. The final step in finishing your bottling process is to connect the bottle caps to the bottles. For this you will need to buy a Bottle Capper, and I suggest you buy a standing or counter-top model instead of the hand held model. Remember to sanitize the bottle caps as well!
To help filter out debris from your Brewing Process you will probably want to obtain a strainer as well. If you are using a carboy (glass or plastic) to ferment you may also want to get your hands on a funnel. To remove easy sample readings of your beer during fermentation, a wine or beer thief is a helpful tool to have as well.
Anyone can become a homebrewer and brewing your own beer at home is easy! Build a Home Microbrewery with this home brew setup as a guide!
About the Author
Steve Pavilanis is an expert homebrewer and regular guy who regularly contributes articles and videos to help anyone learn how to brew beer at home. His latest eBook, “20 Insider Secrets For Learning How To Home Brew” is available at
http://www.HomeBrewVideos.com
or you can check out his blog at
http://www.HomeBrewVideos.com/home-brew-blog/
Home Brewing Tools : Home-Brewing Conical Fermentation Vessels
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3 Piece Plastic Airlock (Sold in sets of 3) $0.40 3-piece plastic airlock with a snap-on vented cover. This airlock is easily cleaned and easy to use. Fill the airlock halfway up with your sanitizer and stick in the drilled rubber stopper. Be sure to see the other products offered by Learn To Brew LLC…. |
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Johnson Controls A19AAT-2C Freezer Temperature Controller $48.50 Use this handy controller to regulate the temperature in your freezer between 20 – 80F . Great for turning a chest freezer into a keg refrigerator. Strictly a mechanical thermostat for cooling only, it is simple to use and economical. It operates with a gas filled probe on a 6-foot capillary tube. When the gas contracts or expands in the probe, it triggers a mechanical device inside the control wh… |
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Fermometer Adhesive Strip Thermometer $1.73 PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS: The Fermometer is a liquid crystal display thermometer designed to monitor the temperature of the fermentation process with convenience and precision and without the sanitation concerns of immersion thermometers. It has a temperature range of 36 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit with temperature indicators every 2 degrees. Interpolation allows for one degree temperature determina… |
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Control Products TC-9102D-HV Dual Stage High Voltage Digital Temperature Controller $58.73 … |
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RANCO ETC-111000 Digital Cold Temperature Control NEW $52.99 RANCO ETC-111000 Digital Cold Temperature Control NEW… |
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Control Products TC-9102S-HV Single Stage High Voltage Digital Temperature Controller $61.17 … |
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Lalvin EC-1118 Yeast $0.10 AKA Prise de Mousse. Saccharomyces bayanus. A low foaming, vigorous and fast fermenter good for both reds and whites. It is also ideal for ciders and sparkling wines. A very competitive yeast that will inhibit wild yeasts. It will restart stuck fermentations because of good alcohol and sulfite tolerance. This is a very neutral yeast that will have very little effect on the varietal character of th… |
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Danstar Nottingham Ale Dry Yeast – 11g $0.98 The Nottingham strain was selected for its highly flocculant & relatively full attenuation properties. It produces low concentrations of fruity and estery aromas and has been described as neutral for ale yeast, allowing the full natural flavor of malt & hops to develop…. |
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Maestro Homebrew Beer Equipment Kit w/ Auto Siphon $60.33 The Maestro Kit is perfect for the beginning brewer. Now upgraded with a Fermtec Auto Siphon, make transfers from the fermenter to the bottling bucket a simple task. Each Equipment Kit Includes: True Brew Handbook, 6.5 Gallon Primary Fermenting Bucket, 1 Lid Drilled & Grommet, 6.5 Gallon Bottling Bucket w/ Spigot, Fermometer Fermentation Thermometer, Fermtech Springless Bottle Filler, Fermtech 3/8… |
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The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition $8.43 An updated edition of the classic guide to home brewing provides a treasury of favorite recipes, advice, and lore provides for beginning through advanced homebrewers, explaining how to make all different types of beer–including stouts, ales, lagers, bittTitle: The Complete Joy of Home BrewingAuthor: Papazian, CharliePublisher: HarpercollinsPublication Date: 2003/10/01Number of Pages: 432Binding T… |