The Essentials Revisited

Time to revisit the basic necessities of a fresh home-brewery. 


After reading, take a look at the Gold Complete Beer kit in the brewing equipment section of the amazon items on the left of the blog. The Home-brew kit listed there is an amazing deal, and the only thing you need to buy on your own is caps and a pot (as well as the ingredients).


Here are the very basics of what you most definitely need to start brewing (minus the ingredients, that's up to you to buy separately).

Sanitizing Solution

The first and most important step to brewing is Sanitizing. Never forget to sanitize and do it even if you just have tiny doubts. Sanitize everything the wort touches. A bleach solution can also work, but we have found out that this powder cuts a lot of steps out. If you do not sanitize, you may catch fire and become a small pile of ash... and your beer could spoil in a matter of weeks.

Fermentation Bucket

The fermentation bucket is where all the magic of yeast eating sugar and pooping out alcohol takes place. It is a wondrous experience, and smells fantastic if you stick your nose right up to it. You need a bucket or a glass carboy (I recommend a food-grade fermentation bucket for basic brews) and a bucket with a bottling spigot cuts the entire bottle racking step right out. Some think it is easier to use a siphon/racking tube to bottle, but why not save money if you can?

Airlock

You will then need an airlock. This allows you to monitor the fermentation through little bubbles of escaping gas.

Boiling Pot

The boiling pot is where you will brew your wort, the sugary delicious maltiness that the yeast so craves. You will need at least a three gallon pot to make your life easier.

Hydrometer

After the brewing is finished and your malts and hops are added to perfection, you will want a hydrometer to test the gravity of your beer. This will, after taking a first reading and final reading (after fermentation) tell you what your ABV will be. Not necessary but useful if you want to know how strong your beer is.

Bottling Mechanism

After all is said and done, you will need to bottle your beer, and this little booger is what attaches the caps to the bottle to prevent bad beer.

Your own personal Beer Daemon.

This is probably the second most important step (after sanitizing) to brewing, because if you do not have a Beer Daemon to make sure the yeast eats, then who will keep them in line? The Beer Daemon is there to control the yeast and make it create the most bad ass beer ever. So you have to get one. 

Other than all these essentials, you will need ingredients which include:

Malts

Hops     (All of your choosing)

Yeast

Bottles

Bottle Caps

And that is what makes beer. I do believe I covered everything but if I forgot anything let me know so I can fix it.