Beginning Brewer Equipment and Brewing Questions

[Steve Russell]

I have done some research, watched a bunch of video's and have decided on an all in one. I like the Grainfather G30, the SS Brewtech brew bucket fermenter - 7 gallon, and the Grainfather sparge water heater as far as my big items. With limited space and the ease of operation it seems the best way to go for my situation but welcome any thoughts. I assume most beginning brewers like myself have a lot of questions but will peruse the forum to see if there are answers to my many questions before I post them here. Thank you in advance.

 

[Minbari]

Seems solid. I have the brewtech 7 gallon. Well made item.

At a min you will want
Hydrometer or refractometer
5star starsan
2 extra buckets (lowes)
Bottles
Caps
Capper

And always remember, after the boil, if it touches your beer. Its sanitized!

 

[Steve Russell]

Minbari, thank you for the quick response, I assumed many forum members have seen this post before..lol I have added those items to my cart in Amazon, but I am still debating whether to bottle or keg. I added other items, paddle, silicone hose, scale, airlocks, spray bottles etc so hopefully can get everything ordered by the middle of August. Steve

 

[Steve Russell]

Seems solid. I have the brewtech 7 gallon. Well made item.

At a min you will want
Hydrometer or refractometer
5star starsan
2 extra buckets (lowes)
Bottles
Caps
Capper

And always remember, after the boil, if it touches your beer. Its sanitized!

Seems solid. I have the brewtech 7 gallon. Well made item.

At a min you will want
Hydrometer or refractometer
5star starsan
2 extra buckets (lowes)
Bottles
Caps
Capper

And always remember, after the boil, if it touches your beer. Its sanitized!

Thanks for the response, I posted in the post not directly to you. I looked at your website looks like you have a good plan for brewing!

 

[Minbari]

Thanks for the response, I posted in the post not directly to you. I looked at your website looks like you have a good plan for brewing!

Thanks. Been doing it for 5 years or so. It is an endless upgrade path lol.

If you have any questions. Just post em. Lots of helpful people here

 

[GFHomebrew]

Welcome Steve looks like your going In boots and all i admire your Commitment. Your big item purchases will do you well and as you've seen there are lots of bits and bobs that will compliment that brew shipment.

Don't forget your Cleaners you've probably got Nappy san at home aka Sodium Percarbonate (non sented) this is great for cleaning your fermentors taps brew hoses followed by a hot rinse and then an acid rinse you'll be a happy brewer.
PBW is the 100% stuff a little bit stronger than nappy san it rinsed better too and is actually cheaper by weight.
With brewing you get serious about cleaning things lol it's like 60+% of your brewing.

I look forward to hearing how you get on snap some pics of your brew gear we love our brew pics.
Cheers

 

[Donoroto]

I'm a fan of kegs, but that opens a new can of worms, needing a CO2 tank, regulator, hoses, fittings, etc. Maybe bottle the first time, then decide if you want to wash bottles and add sugar to carbonate or spend $$ on kegging.

Like any hobby, the amount you can spend is near limitless...

Have a beer that you made first, then think of expanding. We are here and love to answer questions!!

 

[Mark Farrall]

Not trying to talk you out of it, but the sparge water heater is the least important of the things you've mentioned. At our scale the amount of extra sugar removed from the grains by warm water versus tap water is relatively unimportant.

 

[Steve Russell]

Thank you all for the comments, my job requires me to travel the beginning of August and all that overtime is buying my equipment. I am a NEIPA fan or Hazy IPA but that may be to robust for my first brew. I have seen a couple recipes for basic NEIPA but the dry hopping worries me some with the possibility of oxidation or contamination. As far as cleaning, I have PBW and Starsan in my cart! Kegging or bottling I will ponder over while I am on travel and I agree a hobby can be expensive. I play guitar and we have an acronym that is GAS, or gear accusation syndrome which I could see happening here. lol As far as the Grainfather Sparge Water heater, I agree with your comment Mark, I have decided to save $100 and just get a nice pot to heat up sparge water.

 

[Mark Farrall]

I wouldn't be worrying too much about the oxidation risks at dry hopping. As long as you're relatively quick and calm when you add the hops there's very little to virtually no mixing of the outside atmosphere with your fermenter atmosphere. Also if you dry hop before fermentation is finished (or add in a little sugar solution if fermentation is finished) the yeast will scavenge any oxygen that dissolves in the beer very quickly.

You're probably better off focusing your worries on packaging the beer for the oxidation issues. That may be worth a thread of it's own once you're getting closer to that and know what equipment you'll have and whether you're bottling or kegging.

 

[Minbari]

agree with oxidation. open quickly and Put in hops. just make Sure your hop sock is sanitized. It is Broken record. if it Touches The beer Post boil......sanitize!

 

[GFHomebrew]

Maybe consider kegging for that closed transfer capability as well as a pressure fermentor such as the Fermzilla Allrounder .

 

[Donoroto]

As far as the Grainfather Sparge Water heater, I agree with your comment Mark, I have decided to save $100 and just get a nice pot to heat up sparge water.

That's exactly what I do. I either heated up on the stove, or use the sous vide heater to get to a specific temperature.

 

[Minbari]

seriously consider re circ brewing too. HERMS or RIMs works really Well and it sparges as you go.

 

[Steve Russell]

I appreciate all the feedback, I wish I was as seasoned as all of you, but I guess I will learn from my mistakes. Once I get my equipment I will let you all know, and of course make a decision on my first brew. Yes it's going to be very basic, I really want to do a NEIPA or Juicy Hazy IPA but I might just be throwing my money away...lol

 

[Zambi]

I would suggest trying a fairly simple beer initially, so you can dial in your equipment.
Maybe a Blonde or a SMaSH beer?
Good luck and keep us posted!

By the way, you do not need expensive equipment to make good beer, but it is nice
Most important: sanitation, temperature control and patience

 

[Sunfire96]

Agreed with starting with a simple brew and working your way up from there. Maybe something you can repeat a few times to dial in your process. If it's overly hoppy or dark/roasty, it may hide off flavors in your final beer that could help you determine what parts of your process need tweaking/revision.

I might even recommend starting with a $10 plastic fermenting bucket for your first few batches until you learn what features you want in a fermenter. The brew bucket look nice, but lacks some features that other fermenters in that same price range have (yeast collection, pressure transfers, etc.). If I could go back and respend the first $200 I spent on brewing equipment, I would buy very different things than I got the first time around.

The important parts of this process are cleaning/sanitation and temperature control, just like everyone says

I started brewing last year and went straight to all grain, and I regret not starting with extract. Like anything else there's a learning curve, and I feel like I forced myself to go too steep too fast and my first dozen brews were lacking because of it. Same with bottling/kegging. Bottling is simpler in concept and requires less expensive equipment, but takes more time and patience. I'm just now looking into a kegging and dispensing system and have only bottled so far.

Get your large pot for heating sparge water, but maybe do a few extract batches with a plastic bucket fermenter until you really nail down the sanitation, boiling/cooling process, yeast health, and fermentation aspects. Just my two cents. You're gonna love brewing no matter what equipment you buy and welcome!

 

[Steve Russell]

I would suggest trying a fairly simple beer initially, so you can dial in your equipment.
Maybe a Blonde or a SMaSH beer?
Good luck and keep us posted!

By the way, you do not need expensive equipment to make good beer, but it is nice
Most important: sanitation, temperature control and patience

Thank you for the feedback, I will definitely start with something like a blonde. I agree with sanitation, when I brewed many years ago, I ruined 3 to 4 batches of beer because of sanitation and oxidation.

 

[Steve Russell]

Agreed with starting with a simple brew and working your way up from there. Maybe something you can repeat a few times to dial in your process. If it's overly hoppy or dark/roasty, it may hide off flavors in your final beer that could help you determine what parts of your process need tweaking/revision.

I might even recommend starting with a $10 plastic fermenting bucket for your first few batches until you learn what features you want in a fermenter. The brew bucket look nice, but lacks some features that other fermenters in that same price range have (yeast collection, pressure transfers, etc.). If I could go back and respend the first $200 I spent on brewing equipment, I would buy very different things than I got the first time around.

The important parts of this process are cleaning/sanitation and temperature control, just like everyone says

I started brewing last year and went straight to all grain, and I regret not starting with extract. Like anything else there's a learning curve, and I feel like I forced myself to go too steep too fast and my first dozen brews were lacking because of it. Same with bottling/kegging. Bottling is simpler in concept and requires less expensive equipment, but takes more time and patience. I'm just now looking into a kegging and dispensing system and have only bottled so far.

Get your large pot for heating sparge water, but maybe do a few extract batches with a plastic bucket fermenter until you really nail down the sanitation, boiling/cooling process, yeast health, and fermentation aspects. Just my two cents. You're gonna love brewing no matter what equipment you buy and welcome!

Thank you for the recommendations, I did brew some beer about 10 years ago and after the 4th batch I was able to get a decent tasting beer. I did use extract at that time along with a car boy for fermentation. I will revisit the SS brew bucket and comparison with other fermenters and instead of a bucket maybe start with a plastic fermenter.

 

[Sunfire96]

Thank you for the recommendations, I did brew some beer about 10 years ago and after the 4th batch I was able to get a decent tasting beer. I did use extract at that time along with a car boy for fermentation. I will revisit the SS brew bucket and comparison with other fermenters and instead of a bucket maybe start with a plastic fermenter.

Good deal! Welcome back to the dark side