Basic Starting Equipment for Beer/Wine/Cider

[chloris]

Hello all! I know nothing at all about brewing, and everything I've been reading has been spinning my head slightly. I'm not into the idea of making pints and pints of craft beer, but I'd really like to make small batches of things like nettle beer and dandelion wine and tasty drinks made from things I've grown or foraged, but I'm unsure exactly what equipment I need to get started. Demijohns? A brewing bucket? Airlocks? Syphons? Is the same equipment used for wine and beer? Will demijohns do for beer? Will a brewing bucket do for wine?

What would you all recommend as the very basic items of kit for someone who doesn't want to get all technical, but does want to try making wine/beer/cider?

(I know this is a very broad topic, and I've been reading like mad, but I would love some opinions from fellow grapes!)

[muddled]

I don't make beer, but for wine I use;

A bucket with a piece of muslin or a clean cotton t-towel tied over it.
A demijon (from charity shops, freecycle etc)
An airlock (from wilkos)
A funnel (also from wilkos)

and that's it for specialist equipment!

[snakeshack]

I agree with above but would buy a fermentation vessel that takes an airlock instead of the bucket, and definitely some steriliser, both available at wilkos
that's about it for beer or wine.
you will obviously need bottles for your finished product as well.

[muddled]

ah yes...I forgot steriliser. I generally blag a milton sterilising tab from someone with a new baby.

I am curious snakeshack...why the fermentation bucket with airlock? I thought we wanted rid of much gas as possible from the initial mixing (memories of a blackberry wine must explosion that looked remarkably like brains sliding down my kitchen wall)

[Bacchus]

I make mead - and the equipment is pretty much the same as you need for wine.

big fermentation bucket - £10
bottling equipment - £25 + bottles that you can probably reuse from empty wine bottles (corkers)
Big stirring spoon - £10
hydrometer - £10
airlock - £2

plus ingredients

that's pretty much it.

[Kirk]

I would say that for wine you need 2 demijohns. At some stage you will "rack" the wine from one DJ and the obvious thing is to transfer it it straight into another.

For wine you can use a bucket for the initial fermentation, just cover it with a cloth of some sort. Makes it easy to stir it and to measure the Specific Gravity.

For Wine my assortment (equipment) is Bucket, Plastic sieve, Funnel, Demijohn (2), Airlock+Corks, Wooden Spoon to stir, Hydrometer. The Hydrometer is VERY useful. Thinking about it 2 buckets could be useful, but I survive with 1.

Chemical wise: Yeast, Nutrient, Poataasium Sorbate and that is about it. I do have Tannin, Cambden Tablets, Citric Acid etc around but rarely use them, they are more in case I need them.

[chloris]

Thanks so much for all the advice, everyone. You're all fab! Homebrewing seems so intimidating when you're first looking into it.

I've gone with a basic food-grade brewing bucket + airlock to start with. Cheap is good! I've been saving swing-top bottles from beer and posh fizzy drinks for a while now, so I'm all set on the bottling front. I also nabbed some steriliser and proper brewing yeast, because somehow I doubt my baking yeast will be up to much.

My first batch is going to be nettle beer, while the nettles are still in season. John Wright's recipe in the Guardian doesn't look too intimidating, right?

[snakeshack]

I prefer a vessel with a lock as it reduces any Chance of spoiling from unwanted pathogens,I always leave plenty of headroom and any aeration from mixing soon gasses off anyway.it also means if you leave it in the initial vessel longer than you had planned(and who hasn't) it also reduces oxidation which can fade out the colours in most wines.

[chloris]

While waiting for my equipment to arrive, I did a quick sparkling cider based on this recipe. It's literally just apple juice and yeast! I bunged some bread yeast (shhh, I know) into cheap Lidl apple juice and stuck it in the airing cupboard, and whaddya know... I now have fizzy cider! It's a ridiculously simple recipe, but a total confidence boost. Hey, I kinda sorta brewed something.

Sidenote: I'm reading Emma Christensen's (the author of the linked article above) 'True Brews', and I totally recommend it for terrified newbies like me. She makes it all sound so simple.

[the big lebowski]

hi mate i have just ordered some more homebrew stuff (my 5th fv and 3rd beer keg ,be warned it can get out of control ! not that im complaining im drinking a bottle of oaked rum ale at the mo ) the deal i got was a starter kit for from the home brew shop ,it comes with everything you need and a beer keg to "rack" your beer into ,from memory my keg and keg cap (so i can inject c02 into the keg) cost about £55 (£25 for the keg and £30 for the cap and bulbs) and so everything else is free,hope this helps and good luck ,cheers

[the big lebowski]

also if your looking for recipies then you wont get much better than sparkling elderflower wine it really is lovely and the middle of june is the time to get your elderflowers so start saving your 2 liter pop bottles cos you will wish you had saved more (you can find a bit on you tube by hugh fernlywhittingsalls that shows you how to make it or keep looking on here and i`ll put a post up about it soon) ,cheers

[chloris]

Cheers, O' Dudely one! I've now armed myself with a brewing bucket and a couple of cheap demijohns and I have a few things on the go (some cider and some mead, aw yeah). I can definitely see this getting addictive. Elderflower wine/champagne is one of those things I've always, always wanted to make, because I love the cordial so much. I actually made a note of all the elderflowers in the hedgrerows near me last year, so hopefully I'll be able to collect a good batch this summer! I'm also planning to start some nettle beer tomorrow, because I have to do something with all these weeds, right?

[the big lebowski]

how did you get on with your nettle beer ? i saw my 1st elderflower fully ready today ,it will soon be time

[Ruined]

I got all my kit off of Freecycle. There was tonnes of stuff...some of which i still don't know what to do with. I got bottles, demijohns, barrels, air locks, corkers and lots of sundries all for free.

It's worth an ask.