Homebrew Guys
“Build It and You Shall Brew” By Don Rowell and Paul McDermott
S
ometimes we have a tendency to put the cart before the horse or argue which came first, the chicken or the egg. (Chicken!) We’ve written several articles on how to brew, what to brew, bottling issues, but nothing in-depth on what you need to get started other than an ingredients kit. In this issue we’ll discuss some equipment you may need to brew from bare bones to “wow!” and from deep pockets to penny poor. Don’t be intimidated about getting into homebrewing because you think you can’t afford it. There’s nothing further from the truth. When we started brewing, we were penny poor to say the least. So listen to us, we’re speaking from experience. To get started, you probably already have the majority of the equipment you need right at home. You’ll need a decent size cooking pot, stove, stirring spoon and funnel. All
52 | Carolina Brew Scene | Fall 2018
you need to acquire is a fermenter, a siphon, bottling bucket, bottles, caps and bottle capper. All of this can be purchased as a kit for under $75. Once you have your equipment starter kit and ingredients kit, your ready to go! (On how to brew, see Homebrewing 101 in the Summer 2017 Issue). As mentioned before, homebrewers tend to grow their brewery over time to absorb the costs of new equipment. If you have the cash up front, there are all kinds of nice equipment on the market. Complete systems with electronic controllers, heating elements, pumps, temperature-controlled fermenters, you name it. They even have systems out there that are an all-grain all in one brew system and fermenter. That’s right, only one vessel! Some of these systems are so nice they will almost brew by themselves. Of course a lot of these systems cost thousands of dollars
and out of most peoples budget. It seems as if companies come out with new gadgets everyday to make homebrewing easier. Like we said earlier, when we started off, we were penny poor and built a lot of things ourselves. We were “old school” and brewed “old school”. For the most part we still do. We’re still using the same direct-fired mashtun and boil kettle we’ve been using for the last 10 years. Of course we’ve added vessels, pumps, quick connects, etc. over the years. Building your brewhouse or upgrading your brewhouse to a larger size can be done cheaper than you may think if you put your head to it and do it over time. We’ll use our personal journey into homebrewing to give examples of how
