Real Ales for the Home Brewer - recipes based on commercial real ales for the home & craft brewer

Equipment

When you look in a home brew shop you will see a wide range, sometimes a bewildering range of equipment, and it can be off putting.

Never fear....you can brew with the most basic of set ups and then expand your brewery as time goes by.

For kit starters you will need:

A 25l brewing bin / fermenting bin
A length of syphon tube
A barrel (you might also need small gas cylinder to keep pressure up when pouring)
or
x number of bottles (you might also need crown caps & a capper)
A stirring implement
Thermometer
Steriliser (such as Chempro SDP or Sodium Metabisuphate)

And that's it!

If you are using PLASTIC bottles then they MUST have held a fizzy drink before hand! Only these bottles are designed to withstand pressure.
if you are using glass bottles then they must also be suitbale for holding pressure, and if you are using glass bottles then you will need crown caps (metal bottle tops) and a capper

Optional extra's would be a hydrometer and jar, this bit of kit allows you to see the starting gravity of your beer and then by using it at the end you can see if fermentation has finished as well as work out the strength (OG-FG divided by 7.45)

Other equipment which you might want to consider as time goes on:
Finings (to help clear the beer)
Another fermenting bin or 5 demijohns (this enables more clearing of the beer before bottling etc)
A boiler (if mashing)
A mash tun (if mashing)
You can also buy a combined mash tun boiler
Mash bag
Decent digital weighing scales with 1gm increments

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