The Bar Towel

How much roughly would it cost to start up a small hombrew operation?

Including a good how-to book, ingredients, bottles, and a decent equipment setup?

depends on how elaborate you'd like to start off. a good startup kit usually runs around $100, but generally won't include bottles or a large pot. bottles are easy to get, just save up your non-twist bottles. most folks have a 4 or 5gal pot that is suitable for doing extract brewing. so you can get up and running for around that price. there's always add-ons: upgrading from plastic bucket fermenters to glass carboys, more carboys, etc. that can increase the price, but that's a good guideline.

if you want to get into all grain, you need more equipment and are going to lay out more cash to start, but most beginners start with extract and later (or not ever) move on to all grain. the good news is that most of the stuff you'll get for extract brewing can still be used for all grain.

the other option is a shop where you brew there using all their gear. it's not a bad way to start, giving you a rough idea of the process and the work involved before you lay out cash to get a kit.

when starting out it's always easiest to have an experienced brewer there to show you the ropes. we often have people drop by on our brew days, but the full all-grain mayhem is a little much for most beginners.

if you have any other questions, feel free to drop me a pm/email.

Loblaw's stores (including the Real Canadian Super Store) have a decent starter kit for around $50. They also have a two handed 'wing' capper for around $15.

As Grub said, start saving all those non-twist off bottles that you can't return anyway!

You'll also need a large pot (preferably stainless steel), at least 3 Gal size.

I've never used an extract kit, I read a couple dozen books & started straight from the grains. It probably would be better to start with a kit though. The Australian Brewery Coopers makes some good extract kits, and Magnotta use to offer fresh wort kits as well (not sure if the still do).

I haven't read Palmer's book, but from what I hear, it's probably the best:
http://www.howtobrew.com/

The magnotta stuff is called Festabrew. I don't know anyone that's personally used it, but I've been to a couple of homebrew shops that carry it & get positive feedback.

http://www.betterbrew.com/beer/festabrew.html

Thanks for the info guys.

So what are all the different pieces of equipment I would need? I don't want to get overly elaborate, just want a nice middle of the road starter set.

Minimum:
Big pot
stir spoon
big plastic bucket or carboy
some plastic tubing and/or a funnel depending on the carboy/bucket


Better:
bucket AND carboy, get a spigot on the bucket for bottling
bottle capper & a bunch of bottles, or a keg if you want to go straight to that.

here's a bunch of kits at morebeer. they all list the contents, so that'll give you some good ideas as to what to get, from basic to deluxe: http://morebeer.com/browse.html?categor ... d=&x=1&y=1

as you can see, you can go from $69US to $479US depending on how much you'd like to invest. i'd suggest starting with one of the cheapest kits and building on it with time. you can even order from morebeer if you like. shipping will probably suck on a kit, but there aren't a ton of local options. the only local i use is http://wineandbeerfactory.com/ in brampton. no starter kits on the website, but i think he has one in-store.

www.paddockwood.com is a good source for stuff as well.

Here is the list of GTA resources that I've put together:

http://heinous.org/wiki/GTA_resources

My starter kit was:
-5 Gal Bucket
-3 Gal stainless pot from discount store
-Long Spoon
-Hydrometer
-Thermometer
-Bottle capper
-bottling hose and spigot on bucket
-bottle filling wand (plastic pipe with a valve)
-Coopers extract kit
-beer brite sanitizer
-Air lock for bucket lid

You can pretty much buy all of the equipment you need, minus the brew pot, from any Wine Kitz store. They have a pre-packaged starter kit that's pretty convenient for the beginner.