Everyone loves beer and wants to create their own, but they're not sure how to get started. The number one question is usually what type of equipment do I need to begin home brewing? Home brewing equipment required to get started is surprisingly quite cheap and easy to find, but most people incorrectly think it's expensive and difficult to find. This is a discussion on what primary pieces of brewing equipment you'll need to get started with malt extract brewing.
For a five gallon batch of home brew, you'll need a large pot to boil at least 2 or 3 gallons of liquid. Make certain your brew kettle has covered handles so you can readily transport the hot water during brewing. You will also need a thermometer for recording temperature readings of your boiling liquid. Just before you add your yeast to your brew you must ensure that the temperature is not too hot or too cold. If the temperature is too hot it can kill the yeast, and too cold the yeast will simply not do anything.
You'll need a big steel spoon to stir your homebrew, and do not use a solid wood spoon as it may contain bacteria that could possibly infect your beer. Once you're done with brewing the beer you'll need to transfer it to a fermenter. Plastic bucket fermenters are the most common for beginners, but other styles are available. To measure the alcohol content of your beer you'll need to buy a hydrometer, a gadget that measures the density of your brew.
Once fermentation is complete, you must transfer your beer to a bottling bucket. You must use a sanitizing solution to cleanse your brewing equipment so your beer does not become infected with bacteria. To transfer the beer you'll need to use a siphon along with a plastic hose. After the beer has been transferred to the bottling bucket, you will need another plastic hose plugged into a bottle filler to fill each individual glass bottle with your home brew. Bottle fillers are spring loaded and make filling the bottles much easier than using a simple hose.
Of course you'll need bottles and bottle caps for your home brew. A typical 5 gallon batch of homebrew requires roughly 50 12 ounce bottles. Keep in mind, each bottle must be cleaned and sanitized before bottling your beer. The last step in finishing your bottling process is to connect the bottle caps to the bottles. For this you need to buy a bottle capper, and I suggest you buy a standing or counter-top version instead of the handheld model. Remember to sanitize the bottle caps as well!
You may also want to buy a strainer to help filter out hops and other brewing sediment from your pot before you move your homebrew to your fermenter. If you are using a carboy (glass or plastic) to ferment you also want to get your hands on a funnel. To remove easy sample readings of your beer during fermentation, a wine or beer thief is a handy tool to have as well.
Anyone can become a homebrewer and brewing beer at home is easy! Utilize this home brew equipment list to build a microbrewery at home!