In order to brew beer there is some equipment that you can’t get away with not having. This list is the bare minimum of things you will need. Once you brew your first batch and become hooked you will want to upgrade and add more equipment to make things easier. This, however, should get you started. All of this equipment is available at Northern Brewer.
- One Step Sanitizer-Being clean is the most important step in brewing. One step is a powder that when mixed with water will sanitize your equipment before and after a brewing secession.
- Carboy x 2-This is the glass jug that your beer ferments and ages in. Don’t skimp here. You can probably brew beer in a plastic bucket that some companies offer, but this is not a good solution. You will need 2 of them. One for primary fermentation and one for secondary.
- Carboy brush-As discussed in other posts you will need this to clean the carboy between secessions.
- Stopper-This will seal the carboy from air getting in. It should have a hole in it for an airlock.
- Airlock-The best kind of airlock is the bubbler style. It prevents air from getting in but lets air escape freely.
- Racking cane and cover-This allows you to siphon your beer from carboy to carboy as well as bottle your beer. It snaps on top of the carboy and when you blow into one side of it, it starts a siphon.
- Siphon Hose-This hose should fit snugly onto your racking cane. It should be at least 6 feet long.
- Funnel-A funnel makes pouring wort into a carboy easy and mess free.
- Empty Pop Top Bottles-If you plan on bottling your beer you must use pop top style bottles, and not twist off bottles. Twist off bottles do not create a good enough seal to store fresh beer in.
- Bottle Cappper-This tool will allow you to bend bottle caps onto bottles.
- Unbent Bottle caps-These bottle caps have the skirt bent wide open. This allows you to put it on top of your bottles and use a bottling tool to bend them onto the bottle. Used bottle caps will not work here.
- Bottling cane-A Bottling cane attaches to end of your siphon hose and turns the beer flow on and off while filling bottles.