Sorry for slow reply, been a bit busy at work lately.
RobertN laid it out pretty well. They are regular soda kegs, can sometimes be creatively scrounged, bought pretty cheap from homebrew suppliers, or you can actually buy really nice new ones from places like Williams Brewing. You will need a CO2 tank and regulator; many homebrew suppliers can supply the regulator, the tank can usually be leased really cheap from welding suppliers or anyplace that fills fire extinguishers. A 20-lb CO2 tank will last a long time. You can also get manifolds to split the gas supply into several lines, handy for maintaining pressure on several tanks. The taps are similar to the "picnic taps" used on regular beer kegs, although you can get all fancy and get real bar-type taps to mount on the door of your fridge (I haven't done this).
One really nice think about using kegs is that you can force-carbonate the beer rather than priming. You put the finished beer in the keg, chill it, then put extra gas pressure on the keg for a certain length of time (I don't have the figures in front of me, but I can get them if you're interested). This forces the CO2 into the beer for carbonation, instead of using a priming method to carbonate after fermentation. It's easy and relatively quick, and there is VERY little sludge (dead yeast) in the keg. I strongly recommend kegging, it's really not that expensive, and it beats the heck out of dealing with all those bottles.
There is a lot of homebrewing info on the web. Anyone that is at all serious about it should join the American Homebrewers Association and get their quarterly Zymurgy. American Homebrewers Association
<font color="red">Any recommendations for a no-fail, quick to drink wine as a first test? </font color>
Do you like hard apple cider? This is the time of year to get decent prices on good cider, and it's fairly easy to make hard cider. Most of the commercial hard ciders are too sweet for my taste, and if you make your own you get to choose how sweet or dry to make it. However, if you like it sweet, and also want it carbonated, it can get interesting unless you keg carbonate. I use Grolsch style bottles for my brews, and for my last cider I wanted it slightly sweet and carbonated. I used a sweet mead yeast and let it go in the secondary fermentor until completely dry. I then racked it to my bottling bucket and sweetened it with frozen concentrate before bottling. After a few days (5?) I checked a bottle and was happy with the carbonation and residual sweetness, so I refrigerated the whole batch to stop further fermentation. It didn't last long.
I've got an experiment percolating now. I've developed a taste for port as I've aged myself. A nice glass of port before the fire is great on a cold evening. I tend to prefer the ruby ports, which are pretty sweet and fruity, and I started wondering what an apple wine of port strength would be like. I had a couple gallons of a really nice cider I got locally which was squeezed from 100% Jonagold apples. It has a good acid balance for my taste, but two gallons didn't seem like enough to bother with, so I added another gallon of a store-bought cider (Pasteurized, and no preservatives). Champagne yeast will ferment to as high as 18% alcohol by volume. That calculates to a starting specific gravity of about 1.14. After adding three cans of frozen concentrate and 2.5 popunds of sugar, my cider was at a SG 0f 1.10. I've got it burping away now and plan to feed it more sugar, gradually, until the yeast gives up. That should take about three more pounds of sugar if the yeast goes to 18%, but it likely won't. When it's finished, I'll sweeten to taste, and if it seems light on buzz, I may fortify it with brandy. Applejack is taken, so I have to come up with a new moniker for this stuff which might be entirely undrinkable. Applechuck comes to mind. That kinda sounds like upchuck, which may be appropriate, but I can always use it to start fires or something.
I got the Williams Brewing catalog. Has some good info and some neat stuff. Things have greatly improved in the last few years when it comes to brewing equipment.
My daughter especially liked the concept of carbonating her own sodapop using a kegging system. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
So any of you guys have any tips for a wannabe homebrewer? Any good starter kits? How much money will it cost to start? I was thinking of putting a homebrewing kit on my Christmas list. Is there any good, affordable starter kits? Thanks.
The most important thing to remember is clean-clean-clean. It is very important to sterilize all of the surfaces that will come into contact with your mash, wort, and beer and to minimize exposure of the contents to air. Free-living organisms can make a good brew-recipe go bad fast.
As to starter-kits, any of your brewing supply stores should have the basic starter components. If you have one near you, I'd recommend talking to somebody there. There is a lot of good stuff available online now too, but when you are just getting started, the guy in the shop can help you pick out the stuff you need. There are a lot of different types of yeasts, hops, extracts, etc..., that can be a little overwhelming to a novice.
I'd probably recommend a very SIMPLE recipe for your first go, before you start experimenting too much. Get down the basics first. WATCH CLOSELY when heating your mash, IT CAN BOIL OVER IN SECONDS if you turn your back... it is a REAL MESS to clean up.
If you mind the instructions and thoroughly STERILIZE everything, you can hardly go wrong.
Good luck and have fun!!! [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Larry
Thanks for your help. Swung by one at lunch today.[I found one about 300feet from work. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] never knew it was there] I talked to the guy, and they have a starter kit that comes with all the stuff I need. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Think that will be the way to go for now.
I'm glad you found the advice useful. It is a great hobby and an opportunity to create some of the best beer that you can get. I just picked up the ingredients for my next batch. I'm making a Cranberry Amber Ale. This is the second time for the Cranberries, the first one was pretty good but a little tart. It made for a refreshing summer drink though. I'm planning to make this one a little sweeter for a nice hearty winter drink.
Well, I got my homebrew kit for Christmas. If it ever stops snowing, and I can stop clearing the drive, I am going to start my first batch. Any good web sites for the begener homebrewer?
Started a jalapeno brew last night. I have lots of jalapenos in the garden thanks to a mild fall, and since I have no tomatoes left, I can't make more salsa, so.....what to use them for. How about a pepper beer! I made a relatively light brew, with a partial mash of two pounds of pale ale malt and one half pound of wheat flakes, for body. To that, I added five pounds of DME, one ounce of Northern Brewer and one half ounce of Cascade hops, and fifteen japanenos. The peppers were a mix of small red and long green jalapenos, all from the same plant....I think the small red ones started during a hot dry spell. I sliced the peppers and left the seeds in. Came to about nine ounces of pepper slices. I did a short boil of only about 40 minutes. After cooling the wort, I pitched a nice big slug of Red Hook Hefeweisen yeast saved from my last brew. I didn't check the OG, but I did taste test for the pepper bite, and it wasn't really all that hot. The peppers are in the primary, and I'll check the heat when I rack to the secondary and add more peppers if needed. Should make a nice match to the pots of chili and mexican cornbread we'll be cooking up this fall and winter. I plan to add enough bottling DME to get a good fizz, though the pepper oils will probably prevent good head formation. Anyone else attempted a pepper beer?
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