Comments on: What equipment do I need to brew beer at home?

By: oikos

oikos — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:55:59 +0000

The kits such as Mr Beer, that brew 2 1/2 gallon batches, are not worth getting. The standard equipmentt kits are fine to start with. You can often get a good deal on eBay, especially if you can buy a used one. You will gradually add to your stock of equipment, either building or buying.

I use a mix of bleach and TSP to clean really cruddy bottles and soak off the labels. Then I rinse and rinse and rinse. Any bleach left in the bottle ruins the beer. After emptying a bottle, I triple-rinse and then set it aside for sanitizing. My sanitizer of choice is One-Step. It has the same active ingredient as Oxi-Clean but less insoluble filler. Some people use an iodine-based sanitizer but only on glassware; it stains plastic.

For basic instruction, I like Papazian’s book The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing.
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By: ffl04122007

ffl04122007 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:42:59 +0000

You should check out the How to brew web site by John Palmer. The equipment link is:

http://www.howtobrew.com/equipment.html

I would only use bleach to sanitize my equipment if I did not have anything else available. The best way to clean your equipment is to use fragrance free Oxiclean. For sanitizing purposes I would look into one of the contact sanitizers either Star San or Iodophor. They do a much better job and won’t stress your equipment the way bleach will.
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By: Beefsteak

Beefsteak — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:02:59 +0000

Northern Brewer has some great starter kits, link is below. I would also recommend Star San sanitizer. It’s a no-rinse sanitizer, it’s extremely easy to use and as the name states, it requires no rinsing. I’d recommend going with the basic kit, then upgrading your equipment if you keep up with brewing.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/starter-kits
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