Stuff

Anyone who knows me will tell you, I've never met a project I couldn't start. Finishing? Well that's another story.*

In general, my favorite part of starting new projects is getting all the required "stuff" that goes with them. I'm the girl who joined a gym so I could get new sneakers and cute sweatpants. My collection of scrapbooking supplies is almost infinitely disproportionate to the number of scrapbooks I've made. 

So let me tell you, beer making is an excellent hobby to take up if you enjoy collecting stuff. Even just the basics are enough to make you want to devote an entire room of your house to the craft. (They take up a lot of space, too...so an extra room isn't actually a bad idea).

"What kind of stuff do I need?" You ask? Read on.

A large pot - Most people have this already. Any spaghetti pot or stock pot will do. Mine is 3 gallons, which is probably the minimum volume you want to work with. You can get them much larger, of course, but remember that the more you're boiling at once, the more time it's going to take to get the boil going and to cool the wort. For my beginner brews, 3 gallons is really all the capacity I need. My husband is not wild about me putting his All Clad through the ice bath step of the process, as rapidly cooling a hot pot can cause it to warp. So for long term use it probably makes sense to get a pot you can use exclusively for beer. I covet these awesome pots with thermometers and spouts, but can't really justify that purchase until I'm at least few more brews in.

Measuring cup and measuring spoons - you just always need to have this kind of thing around.

A large spoon - for stirring the wort during the boil.

Glass or plastic carboys - These are the big bottles that go in watercoolers. Mine are plastic (I have a 6 gallon for primary fermentation and a 5 gallon for secondary). Glass are generally considered better because they're impermeable to oxygen, but they're heavier and (obviously) more breakable. I went with the Better Bottle carboys from Northern Brewer, which are made with PET plastic, which is also very impermeable to oxygen--so basically these are the best of both worlds. 

Carboy Bungs - Just a plastic stopper that forms an air-tight seal on the top of the carboy. They have holes in them to hold the

Airlock - A funny little do-dad that allows air to exit the fermentation bucket without letting any air in. I have the one-piece bubbler version that you fill with sanitized water or vodka.

Thermometer - When you're doing the cold break and pitching the yeast, you want to have an accurate read on the temperature of your wort.

Funnel - How else are you going to get the wort from the pot to the carboy?

Hydrometer - This is a device that measures the potential alcohol content of your wort. I'll write more about it once I understand it better. I've read that beginning brewers can skip this, which given my challenges with getting readings is probably a good idea.

Equipment cleaner - I use OneStep no rinse cleaner. Regular dish detergents are apparently no good because the added scents can cause off-flavors, and some of them contain chemicals that are bad for head retention (snicker).

Bottle brushes - I have a straight one for bottles and an angled one for the carboys.

Sanitizing solution - I use Iodophor. A tablespoon in 5 gallons of water is all you need to soak all of your equipment.

An Auto-Siphon - I've said it before. This thing is fun. Siphoning is apparently not an enjoyable process without it. I wouldn't know, because I've never tried it. All I can say, is that this is a pump that quickly and quietly moves the beer from one carboy to the next. There's very little agitation or aeration (which is good), and it's incredibly easy to use. 

A chest freezer - Yeah, this sounds ridiculous and expensive. And it kindof is. It didn't stop me from buying one, though. If you're lagering (or cold-conditioning) your beer, you want to keep it between 35 and 40 degrees. If you're like me and you live in an area where it's 65 degrees in the dead of winter and earthquakes prevent anyone from having basements, then the two most common storage options are not options for you.

A freezer thermostat - Of course, the purpose of a chest freezer is to keep things frozen, and 35-40 degrees is not frozen. So, this little device expands the range of temperature settings your freezer is capable of. I could set it at 80 degrees if I wanted (not sure why I would, though).

A food-grade plastic bottling bucket - Once secondary fermentation is done, you move the beer once more to the bottling bucket. These things look like 5-gallon paint buckets with a spigot on the side. 

Bottles - Duh. Most people recycle empties. Just make sure they're pry-off bottles and not twist-offs. Also remember that 5 gallons is roughly 2 cases, so you need to drink a lot of beer to collect enough bottles.

Bottle caps - Duh x2.

A Bottle capper - looks like fun, I can't wait to try it.

A whole bunch of other tubes and such - since I've never bottled before I'm not 100% sure how I'll be using everything. I'll update once I get to that part of the process.








* At this point, you're thinking "Well then, I probably shouldn't get too attached to this blog, should I?" But beer is different. I always finish my beer.