I found a new Home Brewing Kit for beginners that has a higher capacity than some of the compact starter kits mentioned in previous posts. The Beginners Home Brewing Kit contains all the basic equipment that you need to start brewing, but it does not contain the ingredients. I started out on a similar system, and if you like to experiment with your own ingredients, this kit might be for you. Here is what comes with the kit:
Beginner Home Brewing Kit
- 6.5 Gallon “Ale Pail” Primary Fermenter with Drilled & Grommeted Lid
- 6.5 Gallon “Ale Pail” Bottling Bucket with Bottling Spigot
- Easy Clean No-Rinse Cleanser
- Airlock
- Siphon & Bottling Set-up
- Home Beermaking Text
- Hydrometer
- Bottle Brush
- Twin Lever Capper
- Liquid Crystal Thermometer
- Bucket Clip
- Ingredients for your beer
- Bottles and Caps (The Capper does come with the kit) or Keg for your finished beer.
The best part about this kit is that the large capacity “Ale Pails” allow you to experiment with different beer recipes. Typical home brew recipes make about 5 Gallons of beer, so this is perfect for the home brew recipes you find online and in most home brewing books.
Have fun experimenting –
Cheers!
I’ve been using a pail from home depot as my primary fermenter and recently had a problem with mold after two weeks. It looks similar to this ale pale, and I was wondering if you’ve had any problems with mold?
Max – Sorry to hear about the mold; I know it must be frustrating to loose a batch after two weeks of work.
I haven’t had a problem with mold myself, but I have a good idea as to what caused this problem in your last batch. Plastic pails can scratch, and it can make the bucket harder to sanitize. Be especially careful when cleaning the bucket; never use any kind of abrasive brush or pad. Try not to store anything metal or hard in the bucket like cans of liquid malt extract or metal stirring spoons as they could gouge the plastic.
A scratch might not seem like a big deal, but it may prevent the sanitizer from reaching the exposed plastic. A primary fermenter is an ideal environment for mold – warm and wet. Examine the bucket for scratches before sanitizing. Also if you’re using bleach to sanitize I would recommend switching to a no-rinse sanitizer like Star-San. There is no rinse step, so it reduces the possible contamination points before sealing your bucket.
Side note – Make sure your bucket is made from PET food grade plastic. I’m not really sure if buckets from Home Depot are, but it’s important to check (not because of mold, but non food grade plastic can essentially leach into your brew and ruin it).
I’ll do a post on this for you later today, and I’ll email you the link when I finish. Good luck on your next batch, let me know if it continues to be a problem.
Here is some more info on good plastic primary fermenters: http://home-brewing-kit.com/home-brewing-equipment/plastic-primary-fermenter-options-for-home-brewing