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What You Will Need to Start Brewing Your Own Beer
So you have decided
you want to start brewing your own beer from home. Most likely
you already have sense of what a good beer is and probably already
enjoy having a few occasionally. However, if your favorite beers
are more along the lines of Bud, Coors, and Miller than home brews
will probably not be your thing. Home brews fall along the line
of micro brews and if you do have a taste for these, already have
a variety that you enjoy, and like trying new and different
flavors, than home brewing will definitely be your style.
Begin by making sure
you purchase a brew kit and a few extraction ingredient kits too.
You will also need to buy a pot that can boil two to three gallons
of water at one time. The bigger the pot, the easier the brewing
will be, so even if it can boil more than two or three gallons,
that is fine. Do not forget the beer bottles. You will need
enough for five gallons of beer, approximately 54 bottles that are
12 ounces in size. The beer bottles that you purchase cannot be a
twist top either.
Finding a brewing kit
should not be too difficult. Essentially every local or internet
home brew store sells them and even some novelty shops
occasionally. One thing to look for though is that the
fermentation bucket has a gasket seal, many stores sell them
without. You need this seal because sanitation is a very critical
part of the entire home brewing process. A website called
www.makebeerathome.info highly recommends that any fermentation
bucket you choose should have a thick seal to make sure that your
beer does not become contaminated. Unfortunately, around 90
percent of the home brewing kits that are sold in stores and
online are only good enough to store food in, but do not have the
gasket seal that you need. So, look carefully and make sure of
what you are getting before you purchase.
Next, you will also
need to make a few other purchases to make sure you have all the
items you will need or make sure that the kit you purchase has
these items included. If not than you will need to get them, they
are:
-
A
primary fermentation container that can hold 6.5 gallons
-
A
bottling bucket with a spigot that can also hold 6.5 gallons
-
A
Better Bottle PET secondary carboy fermentation bucket that
hold up to 5 gallons
-
The C-Brite sanitizer
-
A
twin level capper
-
Also a triple scale hydrometer
-
Pre-drilled universal carboy stoppers
-
A
liquid crystal thermometer
-
A
siphon hose that has the shut off clamp
-
If possible a Fermtech auto siphon
-
A
bottle filler
-
A
bottle brush
-
An airlock
-
Of course also the
instructions.
It
does look and sound like a lot, however once you have all of these
items you are ready to start and will rarely ever have to replace
any.
Lastly, the most difficult part about home brewing your own beer
is trying to transfer the liquids from one container to another.
When home brewing your beer you cannot start a siphon with your
mouth. Due to contamination and possibly poisoning, this is not
an option. Using an auto siphon solves this problem. You will
need to pull up and then push down a few times to get the siphon
started. Once you have done this you will use the Better Bottle
PET carboy for the secondary fermentation process, this will
actually create a clearer beer. This carboy weighs less than
glass, but performs exactly the same and there is no chance of it
breaking.
When you first begin brewing it may take a few times to get the
hang of the process. However, once you do you will be able to
make your own beer any time you like, as long as you give yourself
enough time to go through the process.
Article Source:
http://www.beermaven.com |
