Start up costs

pog it

Hi there!

Am thinking of starting a little home brewery, just for personal drinking, and more out of the need for another hobby to take my mind off work and study.

Has anyone here done this before and if so, what were the approximate costs? Also, any general advice? Do you have to have any particular skills to be good at it?

Sky King

I bought a beginners kit today for under 80 quid.

http://www.homebrewwest.ie/coopers-diy-beer-kit-new-with-vwp-sterilizer-246-p.asp

Havent used it yet though.

Martyn1989

Patience is the first hurdle, but once your first brew is finished its not too bad because youve got beer to drink.

Sanitation aswell, even though its stressed over and over again I let my standards drop and ended up pouring out 10 gallons of high quality vinegar. Dont let that discourage you, just be extra careful.

Your starter kit will cost in the region of €60-€100, that will keep you going for the first while. Then if you want to move on and get a little more involved in the process the basic pots you have at the moment will suffice. You only need to invest in boilers and stockpots if your looking to do mini mashes and things a little more involved again and this can be done as cheaply or as expensively as your budget will allow.

Its like any hobby in the sense that theres a mountain of little bits annd pieces that can be got to make it more convenient and easier on brew day, its about picking the ones that are actually worth while.

Baneblade

ordered the same kit as sky king yesterday and its being delivered today, nice and fast

Skill wise the beginner kits seem straight forward enough, there are video links on the page linked above that show it being done

BeerNut

Have a look at this guide too.

hardCopy

That Coopers kit will give you enough to be getting on with.

I've done the blond ale (lager) that came with the kit and more recently a turbo cider.

The ale turned out well, but a little weak, and shifted fairly quick when offered to my friends. But the cider is fantastic, nicer than bulmers and very alcoholic.

micropig

for brewing cider start up costs can be really cheap

i bought the following off ebay:
air lock, bottle cap with pre-drill hole & bung,yeast, siphoning tube
cost approx: €5

5L water battles in aldi fit the pre-drilled lid-for fermenting vessel

Milton for sterilizing
pure apple juice

rubadub

micropig wrote: »

Milton for sterilizing

Milton=sodium hypochlorite +table salt.

Thin bleach is sodium hypochlorite, milton is just 5 times the price as it has a baby on the front, while no mammy would dream of cleaning bottles with 'toilet cleaner'. Tesco do a thin unperfumed bleach really cheap.

You can do without it too. You can get apple juice in 1.5L or 2L containers, just open it up, maybe pour out 100ml for some head room and pour in some yeast, then put the cap back on loosely. You can fill old 2L PET bottles too and leave the cap on loose, no need for an airlock. PET is better as you can see what is going on.

After they are done fermenting the cartons or 2L bottles will also fit in the door of most fridges where it tends to clear faster. Then you can slowly decant into another 2L bottle or smaller 500ml PET ones and then add your priming sugar. A syphon tube is not even essential as a 2L is easy to pour.

All you really need to get is yeast, I would recommend proper yeast, not baking yeast.

Baneblade

i was checking the hydrometer i got with the coopers kit earlier and it was showing 0.995 with tap water.

i saw water was supposed to be 1.000
is this normal and due tap water being chemically treated?

BeerNut

Did you calibrate the reading for temperature?

Baneblade

no, there was no mention of that on the kit instructions

BeerNut

And we're back to Brewing Rule Number 1: ignore the kit instructions :P

Hydrometers are only accurate in liquid which is 20C. When taking a reading you also need to take the temperature of the liquid and adjust the reading accordingly, if you want it to be accurate.

This is the calibrator I use.