Mel Smith, aka 'flounce' at theBubbler, wrote the following in his Member page journal:
Hi Keith
I thought you sold home brewing kits. Maybe I just saw them for sale on this site and assumed it was you.
Anyway...
The brewing is going great. My first batch turned out excellent I purchased:
• ‘Ale Pail kit’ from the Baraboo coffee company for around $65 (You can find them on-line at around $50). It contains a couple buckets, tubes, Hydrometer, Bottle capper, and most of the equipment you need to get started.
• And I purchased a Brewer’s Best India Pale Ale ingredients kit for $29.95. This contains the yeast, Malt extract, grains, hops, and directions you need to make your first 5 gallon batch.
• In addition, you need a large cooker. Stay away from aluminum, but I think enamel is O.K. and Stainless steel is preferred. I had a 5 gallon stainless milk pail but have now spent $50 for a 34 quart stainless turkey cooker from Sams Club in Madison. This works great because I can cook in the garage.
Beer stinks when being cooked with the hops. I discovered this at 2:30 A.M. when my wife was trying to sleep. She was not pleased with my new hobby!
• You also need about 53 returnable beer bottles. LeinenKugel’s are great. You’ll want to buy two cases plus a 6 pack and begin working on emptying them. Sam Adams will also work. Anything that requires a bottle opener and not screw off can be recapped. The 16 oz. Grolsch bottles with the wire snap tops are great too, but unless you know someone who can stand that skunky stuff, you’d have to drink about 7 or 8 (4-packs) at $8 or $9 a pack.
I may have told you more than you ever wanted to know, but if you do want to talk further, I would be more than happy to reply. I’m in an e-mail triangle with a couple of home brewers from the Boscobel area who are giving me guidance and two of my co-workers are home brewers.
Getting started is a little expensive, but there are ways to substantially cut the cost to nearly $7 per case and enjoy a much wider variety of beer than the light pilsners that dominate the American beer industry.
Have a wonderful week,
Mel
P.S. I read this quote on the internet, "Brewing beer is neither complicated nor expensive, it is up to each brewer to make it as complicated and expensive as his wife will allow"!
~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for that entry, flounce! Hope you'll keep us posted as you brew more batches of beer!
Regards,
Keith
p.s.: flounce's member page is at:
http://www.thebubbler.com/member/flounce.html
