New to Home Brewing

[richiericho20]

I am looking to start home brewing for the first time. Does anyone know what is the best way to get started?
Is a kit the way to go, or get the equipment individually? I've also read that the instructions with the kits are
not always the best to follow. Any tips would be a great help.

[bullfrog]

When we talk about kit instructions, we generally are talking in regards to the tins of pre-hopped extract that you just add water and sugar to to make beer, not the equipment in which we're brewing.

You could certainly do worse than to get yourself one of the Coopers starter kits or, if you have a homebrew store near you, then pop in and ask them about getting started. You'll end up with all the same gear, you just may get better quality bits and bobs from the dedicated shop. It also isn't a bad idea to get to know your local homebrew shop, if you have one, as their advice can often be helpful when you're just starting out. Note that there are definitely some homebrew shops that are better than others so make sure to read as much as you can on the art, as well as just following advice from a bloke in a shop blindly.

Hope that helps and welcome to the obsession!

[Gill]

Note that there are definitely some homebrew shops that are better than others so make sure to read as much as you can on the art, as well as just following advice from a bloke in a shop blindly.

I learnt that one fairly soon.

There are heaps of options, depending how much you want to spend. Have a read of the forum, especially the 'stickies' up the top (like this one viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1966).

To start with a kit brew all you need is:
a kettle
probably a bowl
a stirrer
a fermenter
a sanitising/sterilising agent
ingredients! (kit, dextrose/malt extract/brew enhancer, water, yeast)
(probably something else I forgot)

helpful:
hydrometer
thermometer

On top of the standard kit stuff, you may want to get a bench capper too (if bottling, which I think is easier to start with).. I used a hand one only once and ended up bleeding (slight exaggeration but it was close).

finally, I found the biggest improver to be fermentation temp, being up in the northern heat. Throwing the fermenter in the bathtub with some water and a 2L block of ice a day keeps it nicely at 20C for me (good temp for your ale yeast)

The instruction on the kit aren't usually too bad except for specifics like temperature I think.

Just be clean and you should be fine.

Have fun with it!

[emnpaul]

I'd say a decent hydrometer is pretty handy when starting out. It will give you a pretty good idea what your beer is doing in the fermenter and help you get your head around the process and when it's ready to bottle. Sadly the Cooper's kits no longer include the good quality glass hydrometers which you will have to get from a dedicated home brew shop or online. Bench cappers are a damn fine bit of gear but first you'll need the bottles to bottle into.

Hope this helps.

[jello]

A couple tips I can think of....

Be patient.
Kit yeasts are okay, but third party yeasts are better. eg. US-05 by Fermentis is a popular dry yeast.