Maltose Falcon, checking in.

I just brewed a Belgian Abbey Dubbel today using 8 lbs Belg Pils, 2 lbs Munich, 1/2 lb Caramunich, 1/2 lb Special B, 1/2 lb Flaked Barley, 60 minute single infusion mash at 154*F, later addition of 1 lb 40 srm Candi Syrup, 1 lb 90 srm Candi Syrup, Wyeast Belgian Abbey Ale yeast, 1.75 oz Tettnanger 4%AA FWH, 0.5 oz Czech Saaz @ 8 min, 1/4tsp Grains of Paradise @ 2 minute.  I know the Grains of Paradise are not to style for a Belgian Dubbel, but I just wanted to experiment a bit since I've already brewed this style a few times prior.

To the point, I'm going to Copy & Paste this reply I sent to a friend a few months ago since they posed a similar question.  The product checklist at the end is full of hyperlinks for your convenience.

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Hey peeps,

The absolute minimum equipment I would recommend for a bare-bones, partial boil system:
Kitchen Stove
3 Gallon stock pot (for boiling your extract with water & hops)
6 Gallon food grade plastic bucket with lid and airlock (for fermentation)
Auto siphon (to move your fermented beer into a bottling bucket or keg)
5 Gallon food grade plastic bucket with valve spigot (for bottling)*
Bottling wand (attaches to valve spigot for easier transfer into bottles)*
Star-San sanitizing solution and an alkaline cleaning solution (e.g. Powdery Brewer’s Wash aka PBW)
Caps and capper device for your recycled bottles
Hydrometer (to measure sugar levels before and after fermentation in order to determine efficiency and ABV)
Thermometer (to verify wort is cool enough to pitch your yeast)
* The Bottling wand and second 5 gallon spigoted bucket is not necessary if you are kegging.  You can also bottle directly from your fermenter, though your beer will likely contain more sediment and you’ll want to use pre-measured compressed and hardened sugar drops placed into each bottle since you would not want to actively stir priming sugar into your fermenter for fear of introducing contaminants and/or oxygenating the brew (and you need to make sure you have the proper added sugar level per bottle in order to make sure your bottles won’t explode from too much CO2 buildup).  To fill from the fermenter requires two people, where you would use the auto syphon to fill bottles, kinking the line in between fills to stop the flow.  Can get messy.


Now, for a proper full boil extract based brewing system that can be expanded to a moderate efficiency all grain system with the purchase of an additional 5 gallon stock pot and nylon bag for “brew in a bag” style all grain brewing (this is what I’ve been doing lately while I wait for my electric brewery to come to fruition):
High Pressure Propane Burner with Propane tank (I use this one, Pete uses this one)
6 Gallon+ stock pot (for boiling your extract with water & hops or for mashing all grain brew in a bag style)
6 Gallon+ food grade plastic bucket with lid and airlock OR 6 Gallon+ glass carboy with bung and airlock (for fermentation)
Auto siphon (to move your fermented beer into a bottling bucket or keg)
5 Gallon+ glass carboy for secondary fermentation (or to use for a separate fermentation on, say, apfelwein!)
5 Gallon+ food grade plastic bucket with valve spigot (for bottling) OR just get a Cornelius Keg System and forget about bottles for now.
Bottling wand (if you’re going the bottling bucket route)
Immersion or Counterflow chiller (to bring your hot wort down to yeast pitching temperature in a reasonable time)
Star-San sanitizing solution and an alkaline cleaning solution (e.g. Powdery Brewer’s Wash aka PBW)
Caps and capper device for your recycled bottles
Hydrometer (to measure sugar levels before and after fermentation in order to determine efficiency and ABV)
Thermometer (to verify wort is cool enough to pitch your yeast)

Here are a couple of package options (none include the stock pot):
Bare Bones: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-basics-equipment-kit.html
With 5 gal (secondary or apfewein) Carboy: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-starter-kit.html


If you want to go all glass, which will protect you in the long run from potential contaminant issues that stem from the microabraision that occurs on all plastic fermenters over time, but is also a little more difficult to work with in general (more difficult/dangerous to carry/move), you can piecemeal a system with these:
23 L (6 gal+) Carboy
Carboy Bung & Airlock
Carboy Cleaning Brush
Star-San No Rinse Sanitizer (a must!)
PBW Alkaline Cleaner (removes beer skank/stone from the inside of your carboy)
Caps and Capper (if you’re bottling)
Keg system (if you’re kegging, also pick up some growlers for shorter term portability)
Immersion or Counterflow Chiller (can easily build your immersion chiller, but NYBS offers them at a fair price)
Thermometer
Auto Siphon

Some ideas for you to chew over.
Happy brewing! =]
~M.

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senorcafe said:
Im going to be receiving the joy of home brewing for christmas and im wandering what supplies i can pick up before i start reading

i assume i will need

• a heat source
  
• a large pot
  
• a bucket
  
• a fermenter
  

Whats a good source to get grains, hops and yeast other than a home brew shop, there's none in my city

and am i missing anything, and suggestions on set up

thanks yall

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Heffy said:

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senorcafe said:
Im going to be receiving the joy of home brewing for christmas and im wandering what supplies i can pick up before i start reading

i assume i will need

• a heat source
  
• a large pot
  
• a bucket
  
• a fermenter
  

Whats a good source to get grains, hops and yeast other than a home brew shop, there's none in my city

and am i missing anything, and suggestions on set up

thanks yall

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I assume you are doing extract. If not you will need much more equipment.
Either way, you will need a wort chiller. They can be made pretty easily. The immersion style is best for beginners who don't have a valve on their kettle.

Also you definitely want a hydrometer. Otherwise you will have no way to test the alcohol content, or confirm that the beer is finished.

Also I would recommend Star San as a sanitizer. It really is the best product on the market for homebrewers.

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NO Extract for me i wanna start with the raw grains and do all the fun stuff
to my understanding extract beers dont taste as tasty no?

enjoy the links very much

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Heffy said:
Extract beers can be fine.
Usually steeping specialty grains in the boil improves the flavour.

If you want to go all-grain you will need to buy or build a mash/lauter tun.
This is quite a bit more work than using extract, but it's worth it IMHO. I can post a pic of my mash tun tomorrow if you like.

I know where you're coming from though. Dumping cans of syrup into a pot feels like cheating.

P.S. I would go steel for the mash tun. Plastic Gatorade type containers work but I personally don't think much of them.

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senorcafe said:
ive been reading and in all the teks i see people force carbonating their brew

why force carbonate?
how do you naturally carbanate your beer..... isnt that what the yeast are for (other than alch)?

joys of home brewing should be here any day now

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senorcafe said:


im trying to keep to a code of natural beer as i start out remaining simplicit but still gaining quality beer

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senorcafe said:

thanks sooo much man! thats an awesome amount of goodies

ive been pointed towards joy of home brewing so i got it but it should be filled with valuble info

ill be back with ?s but for now im sittin stale waitin fer mula and time

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LunarEclipse said:

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senorcafe said:


im trying to keep to a code of natural beer as i start out remaining simplicit but still gaining quality beer

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The keys to quality beer

1.  Quality ingredients.  Leaf hops from Puterbaugh farms so cheap by the pound why pay the brewshop by the ounce for stale hops?  Malt = imported is often better look to England Crisp for Maris Otter Pale and the glorious Golden Promise and Germany for Pils.  BestMalz is killer German pils.  Likewise imports often better for specialty malts.  I am not a big Briess or Great Western fan partly because their quality sux partially because the are ConAgra as for GW.  BrewBrothers.biz great source for cheap malts.

2. Water.  Filtered is better.  Do you want chlorine or fluoride or who know what else in your beer?  PS you either get a filter or you are a filter think about it.  Nice to have Reverse Osmosis to fine tune mineral levels to soften if your water is hard for lagers etc. that benefit from soft water.

3.  Sanitation.  Be klean and be sanitized.

4.  Don't use pellet hops, corn sugar, cane sugar, molasses, or brown sugar in your beer in spite of what some idiot posted on a recipe.  Don't do it. 

5.  Get your process right.  Understand what you are really doing so you can fine tune things and improve.  Measure and pay attention.  Don't be all fucked up when you are brewing wait till later.

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senorcafe said:
^^^ awesome input

id like the tradition aspect of whole hops, so its mainly preferencde which ill form through actual brewing

is it really that easy to screw up a brew? or let me rephrase that... is it that easy to brew an undrinkable bucket of fermented crap...

im sure it is but i would think its not that hard to follow steps and come out with a beer

im guessing the problem with adjuncts are burning them?

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I've brewed enough beers that I didn't want to drink at all. My main obstacles have been fermentation temperature, unfiltered tap water, and air quality(full of bacteria) in the ghetto ass apartments I've had to live in.
I dealt with these problems by not brewing in the summer, buying a chlorine filter for my water, and doing all my racking outside.

Your ability to taste beer will have an effect too. I've had some beers that got too hot and tasted terribly phenolic to me(undrinkable IMO), but people at parties happily suck them back like it's going out of style.

"Adjunct" covers an incredibly broad range of ingredients. This year I added all my adjuncts post-fermentation. Once my cold goes away I'm going to bottle my cinnamon ale. I also have a cherry barley wine that I'm going to age on the fruit till maybe March and then bottle. Maybe I'll snap a picture.

Also I agree with Geokills. Brew simple recipes at first, in fact I would recommend doing the same recipe a number of times. If there are any off flavours in the beer you want to isolate them with as few variables as possible.
Once you master the basics though, adjuncts are super fun. As soon as it thaws this year, I am planning to make a Vanilla Oak Aged Imperial Stout.

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ToolTroll said:
This is dry-hopping? And you let it sit for how long?

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and for a simple brew the only racking id probably doing is
going from the mash tun to
the wort chiller to
the fermenter

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senorcafe said:
and on avergae how long does 50lbs of "base" malted barley last you on 5 gallon batches

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senorcafe said:

i have a big alluminum stock pot

should i get a stainless steel? i was thinking 7 galons

will the alluminum work

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Simply stated, YES an aluminum stock pot will work just fine as your boil kettle, mash tun and/or hot liquor tank without incident.  There is some concern that the acidity of the wort can cause issue with aluminum, which is valid if the environment is acid enough... however wort is very rarely below a pH of 5, and for the relatively short time that it is in contact with the aluminum, I would not be concerned. 

The point made about using caustic or highly acidified cleaning solutions on aluminum is definitely important to be aware of... but that stuff really only needs to be used on the cold-side brewing equipment (i.e. fermenter, hoses, pumps, gaskets, airlocks, etc).  For the hot side stuff (brew kettle, mash tun, HLT), I just use a mild detergent and some elbow grease to get 'em clean.  Afterall, sterility is not a concern with hot side equipment since the boiling process will kill any rogue bacteria or organism that may have taken hold during those initial phases of the brewing process.

All that being said, steel is the better choice, and you should ultimately move towards all stainless steel products if you want to make the best, most consistent brew you can make.  But don't let the fact that you only have an aluminum pot presently, deter you from tackling your first few batches while you seek out the perfect steel kettle for your purposes.

Lastly, a 7 gallon kettle will suffice for producing 5 gallon batches of brew, and can be used for mashing light to moderately high gravity all grain brews.  For the biggest of barely wines or if you wanted to start producing 10 gallons of the same wort, you would probably want to step up in size.

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Heffy said:

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LunarEclipse said:

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senorcafe said:


im trying to keep to a code of natural beer as i start out remaining simplicit but still gaining quality beer

---

The keys to quality beer

1.  Quality ingredients.  Leaf hops from Puterbaugh farms so cheap by the pound why pay the brewshop by the ounce for stale hops?  Malt = imported is often better look to England Crisp for Maris Otter Pale and the glorious Golden Promise and Germany for Pils.  BestMalz is killer German pils.  Likewise imports often better for specialty malts.  I am not a big Briess or Great Western fan partly because their quality sux partially because the are ConAgra as for GW.  BrewBrothers.biz great source for cheap malts.

2. Water.  Filtered is better.  Do you want chlorine or fluoride or who know what else in your beer?  PS you either get a filter or you are a filter think about it.  Nice to have Reverse Osmosis to fine tune mineral levels to soften if your water is hard for lagers etc. that benefit from soft water.

3.  Sanitation.  Be klean and be sanitized.

4.  Don't use pellet hops, corn sugar, cane sugar, molasses, or brown sugar in your beer in spite of what some idiot posted on a recipe.  Don't do it. 

5.  Get your process right.  Understand what you are really doing so you can fine tune things and improve.  Measure and pay attention.  Don't be all fucked up when you are brewing wait till later.

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I disagree.

Pellet hops are actually better than leaf hops in almost every way.

Imported malt is not consistently better than domestic malt. Malt quality has much more to do with weather and cereal diseases than the region. 2010 was a much better year than 2011 for malt in general. This past year I got some 2011 Marris Otter that was nowhere near as nice as the G&P Canadian 2 row I had left over from 2010.

Also, adjuncts have their place in some beers. I disagree with your attitude of "don't use adjuncts at all, ever!"
Brown sugar for instance can be used when you are brewing a strong beer, but want to avoid having an extremely thick body.

Everything else you said is spot on though. Especially about the water filter. Cannot compromise in this area because chlorine will make your beer smell like a dentists office.

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I recently just started brewing as well, ive just bottled my first batch last week from a straight coopers heritage lager kit (first batch was to keep it simple as possible to get the process right). Its nothing special but it's drinkable but still too young.

I just brewed my second batch the other day (Oatmeal Stout partial mash for St. Patties Day) and the recipe I used had adjuncts like brown sugar and molasses. You said that brown sugar is for stronger beers without adding too much body, wouldn't this be a little counterproductive for an oatmeal stout? Granted its only 250g of brown sugar, not sure if it'll make a huge difference. Does the molasses do anything else to the beer aside from altering its flavour?

Also I read that a great way to start all grain brewing is to do SMaSH beers (Single Malt and Single Hop). That way you can get the process of all grain down really easy because the recipe is so simple and you can learn exactly what effect and flavours certain grains and hops will bring to your beer because it'll be just one variety of each. I'm thinking of making my next batch (and first venture into all grain brewing) like this. I'm guessing they wont be very interesting or complex beers but it sounds like it would be great practice/experience. You can always build on them and add more hops or specialty grains next time around and see how it changes, right?

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senorcafe said:
is it just me or do hops look tasty

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Not sure about taste, but damn do they ever smell good!