subject: Equipment needed for Brewing Homemade Beer [print this page] Equipment needed for Brewing Homemade Beer
Before You Start
If you want to start brewing homemade beers you need some things before you are ready. First determine the amount you need to brew. If you want to make a small batch of beer, you do not need much. If you, on the other hand, want to make a larger volume of beer, you need to scale things up a bit, and you probably need to purchase some bigger equipment. The fact is, you need to make sure what you have already, and what you need to buy, before you start brewing beer. Some of the things you have in the kitchen, but other things you probably need to buy.
The Equipment
Pot or Kettle - a pot is suitable for a small batch of beer. If you scale up, you need a bigger kettle
Bottled gas - only needed if you use a large kettle
Strainer - a kitchen strainer is suitable for a small batch. If you scale up, you need to get a bigger one
Water measurer - you need to know the amount af water you use
Spoon - kitchen spoon is suitable for a small batch. A big spoon is needed for a kettle
Thermometer - is needed to measure the temperature while mashing.
Chiller - is needed to cool the wort. It is possible to brew without a chiller
Fermenter/Airlock - is needed to ferment the wort to make beer
Hydrometer - is needed to measure the alcohol. If you do not care about the alcohol vol% you do not need one
Cleaning/Sanitizing - is needed to sanitize and cleaning bottles and equipment to avoid infection of the beer. However you have several options here.
Siphon/Bottle filler - is needed when you have to bottle your beers
Bottles - is needed for your beers. Start to empty and clean the bottles right away, so you have enough on bottling day.
Bottle capper - is needed to cap the bottles. You can use clip-top bottles as an alternative.
Kitchen scale - is needed to measure the amount of malt and hops.
Are You Ready to Brew?
As you can see it is easy to get the equipment for brewing these homemade beers. If you are brewing a small batch, you are probably well off already. Perhaps you just need to buy a fermenter bucket or carboy to get started. This is a good way to start your brewing career, just to see if brewing is something for you or not. However, if you want to brew a bigger batch, you must scale up a bit. It is not that difficult. Determine the amount of beer you want to brew. When this is all clear to you, you know how big the kettle must be, to make the desired amount of beer. Then you just need the equipment to fit the kettle. If you are brewing 50 liters as an example, you probably need a bigger strainer as well, and two fermenters might be better than one...
When all this is done and ready, you are ready to brew your first batch of homemade beer - cheers!
