Beer Brewing Kit
There are several materials you will need for your beer brewing kit.
The first is a large boiling pot. It must be made of stainless steel or
ceramic-coated steel. The bigger the pot the better, because it needs to be able to hold at least three
gallons of liquid with room to spare.
Next, you will need a five-gall carboy, which is a large, glass bottle. It looks identical to the bottles that
large amounts of water are often sold in, but it must be made of glass for beer brewing. Then, you will need a
large funnel for transferring the wort into the carboy.
The next set of things to gather up begins with a six-gallon plastic bottling bucket that has a lid. This
plastic bucket should hold at least five gallons and be food-grade.
You can find such things cheap or even free at many restaurants. Then, a siphon hose. This is at
least six feet of plastic tubing that will be used to transfer beer from the carboy to the bottling bucket and then
later into bottles.
You'll also need a raking cane, which is an ingenious piece of shaped, hard plastic tubing that
connects to the siphon hose for transferring beer from one container to another.
The airlock that you will need will seal your beer from outside contamination while letting carbon dioxide
escape the fermenter. It must fit in a hole in the lid of your carboy. A simple thing you'll require is a large,
long-handled spoon for stirring.
When it comes to getting your bottles, do not use the type with twist-off caps. Any type of sealable glass
bottle is good: beer, old-fashioned soda bottles, or even champagne bottles.
You'll also need a bottle capper for securing caps onto bottles. Finally, be sure to use a thermometer that has
a range from at least 40 degrees F (4 degrees C) to 150 degrees F (65 degrees C).
Either a floating dairy thermometer or a stainless steel dial thermometer can be used. Keep in mind that the
floating dairy thermometer can be broken more easily than the stainless steel dial thermometer.
For sterilizing your equipment, use a beer brewer's iodine solution such as iodophor, in which iodine is
combined with other molecules in order to make the iodine safe for kitchen use.
This solution is easier to use than bleach, because it does not require additional rinsing. The proper dilution
ratio for iodophor can be found on the bottle's label, available at home brewing supply stores.
|