Homebrewing is a fun, rewarding, and relatively straightforward experience, but the equipment required for even a simple setup may seem a bit daunting to aspiring homebrewers. Fear not! This article breaks it all down for you.
This is the first in a series of articles intended to help the first-time home brewer. In it, I outline the equipment you should expect for a typical 5-gallon, all-extract homebrew setup. That's a key point, there. This article is written for the novice brewer. More advanced setups (like those required for all-grain recipes) are not covered here.
Following are details on the essentials, and I also throw in a few nice-to-have optional extras. I also point out a few important things to look out for when putting your rig together. However, if you would rather skip all the details and get right to a quick-and-dirty list, click the button below.
What Should Your Homebrew Setup Include?
I suggest all first-timers begin with a good homebrew starter kit. Starter kits abound! But not all kits are created equal. Whether you buy a pre-arranged kit or build your own from scratch, you'll need a few specific items. If you do plan on purchasing a starter kit, I advise that you do so from your local homebrew store. The staff should know their stuff, and this approach lets you see and handle the equipment in person. Not everyone has a local homebrew store, but again... fear not. The Deja Brew Blog is at your service.
Okay. Let's get started.
Stainless-Steel Brew Kettle
essential
First, you need something to boil your wort (pronounced wert). It's been said that brewers make wort; yeast makes beer. True enough, but you can't even do that without one of these bad boys.
The capacity of this kettle should be at around five gallons (18.9 liters). Anything larger is likely too large to sit on your kitchen burner and heat effectively. Five gallons is ideal for beginners performing what is referred to as a partial boil. Chances are, any all-extract recipes you brew early on recommend this approach.
Technical Note: A partial boil is a method where you boil approximately half of the intended batch volume to produce your wort. You then add water to reach the target batch volume later on. Partial boils are great for beginners because they're easily managed on a typical kitchen stove. Full boils (boiling the full volume of the wort) require extra equipment. The larger volume demands a larger-capacity kettle and outdoor propane burner to generate enough heat to boil it all. Your average kitchen stove just can't hack it.
What to look for in a brew kettle:
The starter kit I purchased included a kettle (not pictured). The kettle was a disappointment, to put it mildly. My new kettle arrived dirty, looked cheap, felt cheap (I could bend the sides easily with little effort), and gave off a strong oxidized, metallic smell.
I replaced it before my first-ever brew day, and I'm very glad I did. Pictured here is what I ended up with. I found it on sale at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and paid about US$30 for it. My upgrade was a vast improvement.
Look for a well-fitting lid and large, riveted handles that can accommodate a oven-mitted hand. A solid aluminum core is nice for even heating. Oh yeah... it certainly shouldn't be easily bendable or smell of rust.
Again, I strongly suggest shopping at your local homebrew supplier if you have one. Get your hands on the kettle. You want a good one. If you must go to the internet, as I did, consider finding a kit without a kettle and spec out your own.
21-inch Stainless Spoon
essential
What can I say? It's a big spoon. You want this to stir things up, literally. Bigger is better. Stainless steel is better still. Why stainless? Well, you shouldn't just use any spoon in your kitchen. Wood spoons can harbor all manner of nasty bacteria that can skunk your beer. And plastic? Personally, I'm never comfortable heating plastic when cooking. Plastic can also scratch easily, and those scratches can be playgrounds for bacteria. The spoon pictured is approximately 21 inches (53 cm) long.
Whatever you decide on, get a spoon specifically designed for brewing. You'll thank me later.
Sieve
nice-to-have
After boiling (and cooling) your wort, you need to transfer it into your fermenting bucket or carboy. When you do, your wort will have a lot of sediment at the bottom of your brew kettle. Some sediment may still be floating about. Best practice is to keep these sediments out of your fermenter. Pouring your wort through a decently sized mesh sieve is perfect to keep these sediments at bay. My starter kit did not include this little gem, and I highly recommend adding this to your brew-day equipment list.
I purchased this one on Amazon for under US$15. It's a 9-inch diameter, double mesh sieve with a handle long enough to span the fermenting bucket.
6.5 Gallon (24.6 liter) Fermenting Bucket and Lid
essential
The fermenting bucket is where all the magic happens. And by magic, I mean fermentation, when the yeast feast and turn your wort into gold!
Every starter kit comes with some form of fermenter, but most include a bucket. If you're making 5 gallons of beer, your kit likely includes a 6.5 gallon bucket with a gasketed lid of some sort. This lid should also include a gasketed hole to fit your air lock. Some kits include buckets with gasketed spigots to aid in transferring your beer from one vessel to another (pictured). Spigots are nice, but not strictly necessary if you have a racking cane (more on that later).
Why 6.5 gallons? The large volume of the fermenter is not an accident. Fermentation produces alcohol and CO2, but it also produces a lot of foam, called krausen (pronounced ow, as in "ouch"). You should give a typical 5-gallon batch of homebrew enough headspace in your fermenter to handle the krausen, hence the extra volume. Without this headspace, you might experience a krausen blowout, and you don't want that. Blowouts occur when the krausen builds up and clogs your air lock, and the resulting pressure blows the lid off your fermenter. All of this equals a big mess.
Technical note: A potential upgrade or additional piece of equipment you might want to consider is a glass carboy. These are ideal for fermentation because the glass lets you see what's happening inside your fermenter. If you do decide to upgrade, I suggest glass, as it does not scratch, is sturdier, and is easier to keep clean. Your carboy should also be 6.5 gallons. Some brewers use the glass carboy for secondary fermentation, but that's another blog post altogether.
Additional 6.5 Gallon Bucket for Bottling
essential
You need this bucket for mixing your fermented beer and corn sugar before bottling. This may also include a gasketed spigot. Most kits include this item, but you may find that your kit only has one lid. This is not an accident, as you really only need to seal the fermenter. The spigot on the bottling bucket is nice. I use an auto siphon from my fermentation bucket to bottling bucket as a personal choice, but the bottling bucket has no
trub in the bottom, so I like the spigot. I just attach some hose and a bottling wand, and off I go. Trub, by the way, is the accumulation of all the unfermented gunk, such as proteins, hops, and dead yeast.
Air Lock
essential
Next is a very important piece of equipment: the air lock. Airlocks come in two main varieties: Two-piece and three-piece. These simple devices have a very important job. Fermentation creates a lot of CO2 gas. That gas needs to escape your fermenter, but you don't want to let any ambient air in, which can bring bacteria along for the ride and ruin your beer.
Enter the humble air lock. Adding a small amount of sanitized water to an air lock lets the CO2 bubble out of your fermenter. The sanitized water creates a seal that prevents ambient air (and bacteria) in.
Many kits I've seen come with two-piece air locks. Two-piece airlocks are generally harder to clean than three-piece air locks. To the date of this writing, I've only used a two-piece air lock, but I just purchased a set of three-piece air locks that I intend to use in my next batch. The three-piece air locks I purchased appear more sturdy as well and only cost me about US$7 for five. Regardless, both styles work just fine, and the type you use comes down to personal preference.
Lab Thermometer
essential
Your brew day set up should also include a lab thermometer, and your starter kit likely comes with one. You use this to measure the temperature of your wort periodically on brew day. In more advanced, all-grain brewing, this essential item comes into play as well. Some brewers recommend dial thermometers. These are nice because they're not as fragile as glass thermometers and typically come with a clamp that attaches to the side of your kettle.
Hydrometer and Test Jar
essential
This is where more science enters the picture. You need a hydrometer to take a few specific gravity readings of your beer before and after fermentation. These readings (original gravity and final gravity) let you calculate your alcohol-by-volume (ABV), apparent attenuation, and calories. You also need this equipment to ensure that fermentation has stopped, indicating it's time to bottle. You can upgrade to a refractometer if you prefer, but I'll cover that in another article.
See my
Homebrew Calculators page to help determine these calculations for your brew. Hydrometers are easy to use, so if you're worried about this part, don't be. It's really quite easy.
Food-Grade Tubing
essential
How do you get your beer from one vessel to another? Easy answer. Tubing! Most kits come with ample, but if you're spec'ing out your own set up, make sure you use clear, food-grade silicone beverage tubing. Your local homebrewing supplier will have plenty. I suggest maintaining two lengths of tubing: One for siphoning across fermenters or from fermenter to bottling bucket and one for bottling itself.
Auto Siphon / Racking Cane / Bottle Filler
nice-to-have
An auto-siphon is not required if using buckets with spigots for fermentation. However, this is a very nice little addition to any brew kit.
Spigots and buckets are convenient, but I can't help think the main reason kit suppliers moved to the spigot setup was to save money. Also, if you ever graduate to glass carboys for fermentation, you will definitely need an auto siphon.
A bottle filler is a wand that you attach to one end of a length of tubing. Look for one that is spring-loaded. The idea is, you attach it to the siphon or spigot via tubing. After elevating the bottling bucket on a counter, gravity does the rest, and the spring-loaded wand lets you draw beer into each bottle. Insert the wand into a bottle. Press down to fill the bottle. Lift up to stop. Done.
Bottle Brush
essential
Here is another essential piece of equipment that no homebrewer should be without. You need clean bottles before bottling your beer. You can upgrade to different tools that accomplish this, but a bottle brush is still essential in this homebrewer's opinion. The size you need depends on the type of bottle you're using. Look for a brush with sturdy bristles, preferably with some bristles at the end to help scrub the bottom of each bottle.
The bottle brush that came with my starter kit was terrible. I barely got through cleaning 24 bottles before it was pretty much useless. I'm not sure how long these typically last, but I think 24 bottles is on the low end of that scale.
Bottle Capper
essential
Ah, the bottle capper. This is a spring-loaded mechanical apparatus that crimps steel crown caps to your bottles.
It's very easy to use. Just place the cap on the bottle. Place the capper on the cap. Press down evenly and firmly with both handles. Viola!
This is secretly one of my favorite activities in the entire process. I list this as essential, but it's not needed if you're opting for swing-top bottles or racking directly to a keg. Most beginners rack to bottles, so I list this as essential.
Sanitizer
essential
Don't let the fact that I saved this item for the end fool you. Sanitization is probably the single-most important aspect of home brewing. If you skimp on anything related to your home brewing setup (hint: don't skimp on anything), this is not the item to skimp on.
All starter kits should include some form of sanitizer. Mine came with two packets of powder to mix with water. Be advised that these kits don't provide much more, and if you intend to brew more than one batch of beer, you will need more soon.
To really do it right, I recommend buying
Star San. This is a concentrated contact sanitizer specially formulated for the brewing industry. A few seconds of contact with Star San completely sanitizes your equipment without adding any off flavors to your beer. This can save you a lot of time and eliminates using chemicals like bleach.
Star San is pretty cheap too. I bought 32 ounces of Star San for US$25. One ounce of Star San mixes with 5 gallons of distilled water to make a sanitizing solution. I only needed one gallon of sanitizer for both brew day and bottling day. That came to 6 ml of Star San to one gallon of distilled water. That's 160 gallons of sanitizer for $25 (plus the cost of the water). And once mixed, the solution is reusable!
Do. Not. Skimp. On. Sanitization. More on this in a future post.
Spray Bottle
nice-to-have
Did I say that was the end? Not quite. Spray bottles are cheap and convenient. During brewing and bottling, you will encounter times when spraying a little sanitizer on some equipment is helpful. Simply fill it with sanitizer solution and you're all set.
Basic Homebrew Kit Essentials:
- 5 Gallon stainless-steel brew kettle
- Stainless steel spoon
- Sieve
- 6.5 Gallon fermenting bucket with gasketed lid
- 6.5 Gallon bottling bucket
- Airlock
- Lab thermometer
- Hydrometer and test jar
- Clear, food-grade silicone tubing
- Auto siphon (racking cane)
- Spring-loaded bottle filler
- Bottle brush
- Bottle capper
- Sanitizer
- Spray bottle
What Else Do You Need to Consider?
Although not part of any kit, you want to be aware of these items and factor them into your expenses.
Ice
As mentioned earlier, you need to cool your wort after the specified boiling time. The faster you cool your wort, the better. Early on in your homebrewing journey, an ice bath is sufficient. In fact, many all-extract recipes recommend this approach. Pour some ice water in your kitchen sink and insert your hot brew kettle to cool. The ice water should rise to the level of your wort. Be advised that you will likely need to add more ice as your wort cools. Follow the recipe guidelines and test the temperature with your (sanitized) thermometer.
This process cost me one whole standard bag of ice. You could use ice from your freezer just as easily, but I like having ice around for drinks, so I opted for a store-bought bag. Later on, you might consider an immersion wort chiller and forgo the ice bath. Wort chillers are a bit pricey, but they cool the wort very quickly and come highly recommended by many experienced homebrewers.
Water
To make beer, you need enough water to meet the batch volume demands of your recipe. If your tap water is good enough to drink, it's good enough to make beer. At least, that's what I've read. Still, I know my tap water is chlorinated I don't want any off flavors in my beer, so I opted to purchase bottled drinking water.
My local Wal Mart offers a bottle exchange program of Primo brand water for 5-gallon jugs of reverse-osmosis, filtered drinking water for about US$7 per jug. I want good beer, so I use the best water I can find.
Bottles
You can write volumes of information on bottles. Many blogs and brewers have. Many options are available, including your typical 12-oz amber glass bottles (standard or long neck), 375 ml and 750 ml Belgian-style bottles, and swing-top to name a few. Various so-called bottle guides exist, and I encourage you to read them.
Chances are, if you're just starting out and you live in the United States, you're going to opt for the classic 12-oz long-neck bottle.
You can recycle or buy new. It's your choice. I feel like I shall one day end up being THAT guy... hovering around my party guests, making sure they don't toss any bottles in the trash. You may be surprised how much you come to value these things.
Whatever you decide, make sure you DO NOT use screw-type bottles. You want the pop-off kind that require self-sealing crown caps.
Bottle Caps
Speaking of crown caps... You will want plenty of these. Your starter kit might include these, and new bottles typically come with enough caps, but you will eventually need more. Luckily, these are pretty cheap. You can pick up 144 caps for about US$7.
Recipe
Oh yeah. You need this too. Most kits come with a recipe, and many suppliers exist. Be advised that these recipes typically come as all-extract or all-grain (advanced). With all the suppliers around, it's no surprise at the variety of recipes to try. It seems like nearly every popular brand has a clone recipe out there to try. Eventually, you may want to dabble in all-grain brewing. When that day comes, you will more than double your options for recipes or even try creating your own.
And that's about it. The main idea is to have fun, enjoy the process, and enjoy your beer. The term craft beer starts off with the word craft, after all, and that's an important distinction. We do this because we love beer, but chances are you're also doing this because you want to craft it.
Happy brewing!
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