The Bar Towel

tateneil · Joined: 11 Nov 2009 Posts: 3

Hey,

I'm eager to start brewing my first batch, but I'm having trouble finding equipment. I live in the west end and the only place I've found nearby that sells a kit is Wine Kitz. It goes for about $100. Their kit comes with a 5 gallon fermenting pail and carboy, plus all the other stuff I would need to brew a batch. This is great, but I don't have a 5+ gallon pot to boil wort, and I'm not in a position to drop another hundred getting one. Besides, I'm really interested in just starting out with small batches

So, does anyone know how I could get my hands on a basic homebrew kit for about $100 (ideally less) that's just 1 or 2 gallons and would have everything I need to get started? Failing that, I just need a 1 or 2 gallon fermenting pail, as I've managed to track down the other stuff separately (even a 3 gallon carboy).

Would there be a problem if I only put a couple gallons in the 5 gal pail and carboy? What could I expect?

A lot of questions, I know. But any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated (most likely with a bottle of my first batch if you're in the neighbourhood and are feeling brave).

Thanks,
Neil

The_Jester · Joined: 06 Dec 2007 Posts: 351 Location: Peterborough

The only question I can answer is that I don't believe that there'd be any problem putting smaller batches into the pail and carboy. I've done it without any negative side effects.

You could probably get a cheap pot (mmmmm . . . cheap pot) somewhere, but with it you'd have to be really careful to avoid scorching.
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matt7215 · Joined: 05 Sep 2008 Posts: 1059 Location: Cambridge

you could always just do partial boils as well, assuming your not starting all grain. as for using the 5 gal equipment it really depends on what style your planning to brew and how long your planning on letting the beer spend in the fermentors.
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JerCraigs · Joined: 25 May 2003 Posts: 1877 Location: North York

You can get smaller carboys but what I usually do is partial boils and add water to the carboy. I think thats what most/many people using a stove to do the boil do.

You can use a bigger carboy/pail for a smaller batch, it just exposes it to more air, which may or may not have a significant effect.

Derek · Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 1681 Location: Kelowna, BC

Partial boils are certainly a good start.

My set of stainless pots were really cheap... (I think they're 4.5, 3.5 and 2.5 Gallons) for around $25 a set at an "Xcess Cargo" type place. You could check liquidation world too.

I do full wort boils with the large pot on the big stove-top burner & the medium pot on one of the other burners. I think one big pot would take forever to boil on the stove anyway.

If ever I get a turkey frier type setup, I'll need to get a bigger pot (or convert a keg).

jaymack · Joined: 29 Sep 2005 Posts: 291

Not sure if you subscribe, but BYO magazine recently did an excellent piece on small-scale brewers. Great ideas for limited space and money.

tateneil · Joined: 11 Nov 2009 Posts: 3

Thanks for the replies and great ideas.

A couple more questions: does anyone here skip the fermenting pail and go straight to a carboy? what kind of success have you had vs the plastic pail? What challenges does it present (aside from getting the wort into it in the first place - very large funnel)?

Thanks

jcc · Joined: 08 Aug 2007 Posts: 76 Location: Toronto

I haven't used a pail in ages.

Only issue I've found is you have to be cautious about vigorous fermentations if your carboys aren't large enough to allow for a lot of krausen. I always use a blowoff tube on my carboy ever since I painted the ceiling with a stout I was brewing once. Airlock got blocked and blew the bung out followed by a geyser of krausen. Ceiling is still on the list of things that I need to repaint.

jcc

phirleh · Joined: 20 Nov 2008 Posts: 279 Location: Waterdown, Ontario

I remember seeing a blog entry on a small 1 gallon homebrew kit offered from Brooklyn Brew Shop
http://brooklynbrewshop.com/store/ on Alan McLeod's Good Beer Blog
http://beerblog.genx40.com/archive/2009/october/backtothefuture

I don't know if you can get them up here or if anyone else offers this kind of thing in Canada, but this seems like the ideal thing for apartments or small batches.
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