Brewing/Equipment
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As you continue to homebrew you will gather a collection of homebrewing equipment. This collection will continue to grow and evolve as you continue to brew and you find what works for you.
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[edit] Basic Homebrewing Equipment
The equipment described here should be considered vital to any homebrewing set up. These items should be purchased from a reputable homebrew supply store, since the quality of materials and construction of these tools is of absolute importance. A brewer can choose to use sub-standard ingredients, and/or less than perfect brewing practices (with the exception of sanitation procedures), and still produce a drinkable beer. Conversely, even with the highest quality ingredients, and the perfect application of brewing procedures, use of poor quality equipment will invariably lead to disaster. When choosing equipment, purchase only equipment made from stainless steel, high quality tempered glass, and food grade plastics.
- Brew Kettle - A brew kettle should always be used to boil wort (unfermented beer) before pitching yeast. Some beer kits may claim that boiling is not mandatory, such as pre-hopped extract kits, but experienced brew masters know that hopping even pre-hopped extracts will result in a fresher taste and boiling ingredients will help prevent unwanted microbial infections. The kettle should be made of stainless steel, and the larger the better, but a 3-gallon capacity can be sufficient.
- Stirring Spoon - It is important to stir the wort while bringing it to a boil and while boiling to keep from scorching the solubles. The spoon should be steel or food grade plastic; never use wood or porous materials. Flavors from previous boils can transfer via porous materials, but even worse, so can bacteria.
- Fermenters - Your fermenter must be made of high quality food grade plastics or tempered glass. There are two types of fermenters commonly used by modern homebrewers; glass carboys and plastic buckets. Generally, for a five gallon (19L) batch of beer, the fermenter should have about a 6.5 gallon capacity. During fermentation, a layer of foam will form on the surface of the liquid, which is called krausen. You will need an adequate amount of ullage to prevent the krausen from contaminating the airlock. (Ullage is the space between the surface of the contained liquid and the top of the container.) It is imperative to properly sterilize fermenters before and after use, and to be careful not to scratch or damage the inside surface. You should have at least one fermenter and an additional food grade bucket to serve as a "bottling bucket." Some brewers choose to have two fermenters; one for primary fermentation and one for secondary; and a bottling bucket.
- Airlocks - There are several types of airlocks, the two most popular being the three-piece and the single piece airlocks. The goal of the airlock is to prevent foreign particles from floating into the fermenting beer while allowing CO2 to push it's way out. The one piece works similar to the drain trap under your sink, CO2 pushes on the trapping water until it pushes slightly past the bottom of the J, allowing part of the interior atmosphere to escape. In the three-piece design, the escaping CO2 actually pushes a plastic cap piece up until the gas can escape around the bottom of the cap. Another type of airlock used with carboys, is called a blowoff hose. A plastic hose is attached to the mouth of the carboy and the other end is placed in a container of water. Escaping gas simply bubbles through the water. However, without proper ullage, krausen can easily plug the hose, preventing gas from escaping, and resulting in an explosion.
- Syphon - Once fermentation has begun, and there is alcohol in the liquid, it's a good practice to avoid aerating the liquid. Yeast still in beer will oxidize and cause undesirable tastes. So, it's also good practice to carefully siphon the beer when transferring from container to container. A meter of hose will do the job, but if you purchase a kit from your local brew supply store, you will receive a racking cane, a cane clip, and a tube clip, in addition to some hose. The racking cane is a rigid plastic, cane shaped tube that when clipped to the "from" bucket with the cane clip eases the entire process. The tube clip is will allow the syphoner to stop the flow of liquid by pinching the hose; when filling bottles, it's a good idea to have an "off button."
- Bottles - A standard 5 gallon (19L) batch of beer will fill approximately two cases (48 bottles), depending on transfer loss.
- Bottle Caps - Caps can be purchased from a brewing supply store, usually by the gross (144).
- Bottle Capper - There are two main types of cappers, as pictured to the right (someday). Description of pros and cons of each should go here :P
- Hop Socks - Hop socks are knitted bags. Hop cones or pellets are placed inside a sock to allow alpha and beta acids, and flavoring and aroma characteristics to be extracted from them during the boil, while allowing the spent particles to be quickly removed from the wort.
[edit] Optional Brewing Equipment
The equipment and tools listed here can ease certain burdens of the brewing process, and/or can allow the brewer to employ complex techniques. Some of the tools can be home made, but they should be constructed using the highest quality materials.
[edit] Recording
hydrometer, log book, thermometer, clock
[edit] All Grain Brewing Tools and Equipment
Mill, Tuns, Sparge equipment, Grain sack, iodine, etc
[edit] Sanitation Equipment
Bottle washer, tree, brushes, bleach, oxyclean
[edit] Bottling/Finishing Equipment
bottle fill tube, bottling bucket, spigot, cooler, kegging, etc
[edit] Other Useful Tools
Chiller, labeling
