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Brewing TipsWe shared a post recently about a how it can be easily sucked into the trap of buying lots of equipment that you might not need at the early stage of your brewing journey. So, we figured it was probably a good idea to highlight some of the equipment & tools a beginner would probably need to start producing some amazing beer.
If you’re absolutely new to brewing, before you buy anything you need to ask yourself if you want to do extract, partial mash or all grain brewing. If you spend long enough searching all over the web, you’ll find a lot of people share their opinions as to why the method they use is superior than the others but in our opinion, what ever method means you get to brew beer and enjoy the whole process is the best for you.
We’re going to list a few items that you’ll need regardless of the brewing method you’re using.
There are many options on the market nowadays, all of which vary from entry level all the way up to the semi-pro home brew solutions. Price is normally a deciding factor when buying any new products but that’s not always the case when we’re talking about fermenters. The biggest thing to consider when picking a fermenter is the size and the material. Currently on the market you’ll find plastic, glass & stainless steel.
My preferred option is Stainless Steel due to the strength of the material whilst making it really easy for cleaning and once you’ve brought one you’ll never need to get another one (unless you brew more beer). Glass is another good option but the strength of the material can make for an eventful brew day if it was to fall over and smash. Finally, the other option which is possibly the most widely used type of fermenter with beginners is the plastic fermenter. Whilst you can produce some amazing beer using a plastic fermenter, you should be careful when cleaning. If you scratch some of the plastic inside the fermenter, some bacteria can hide in there and infect your beer.
We’ve highlighted our favourite fermenters for each material. Make sure you pick up an airlock, you’ll need one of those for sure.
You’ve probably heard it a hundred times but it might be worth me highlighting it again, ‘Brewing 90% cleaning, 10% brewing’. It sounds crazy and it’s slightly exaggerated but there is some truth in it. Let’s put it like this, if you don’t clean your equipment, there’s a pretty high chance of an infected beer. No one wants that unless you’re creating some crazy sort of sour beer. Investing some money and getting your hands on some good cleaning brush and a cleaning solution such as Starsan will set you up in the right direction. All throughout my brew day I will have a spray bottle which has some solution made up which comes in really handy when I need to use random spoon or other items that will touch the beer, I would just spray it a few times and then it’s all good to go.
You’ve spent all the money and time insuring the beer turns out right, now’s the time to bottle or get it ready to serve. I rarely bottle now but when I do it’s good to know that I have reliable equipment available. There’s only a few important items that should make it into your start up kit. The first is some sort bucket you can transfer the finished product into, this is where you’ll add your priming solution. I like to use one with a tap if it’s at all possible otherwise I would suggest picking up an auto syphon. This allows you to get a steady flow of beer into the bottles without having to syphon the beer out yourself using your mouth. You might need to use need to pick up a bottle capper if you’re not using any swing top bottles. Finally, the only other item you might need to bottle your beer is a bottling wand. To use a bottling wand you would just attach it to the tap or auto syphon and then add a slight bit of pressure to the bottom of the bottle and then the beer will start flowing into the bottle.
Starting out brewing is very exciting but it can be a little daunting . We’ve gone a head and highlighted a few starter kits that might be helpful. Get in touch if you have any questions or feel free to contact the sellers, they are very helpful.