Home Brewing

[ECUPirate]

Anyone doing it? Looking into starting it myself but not really sure what to expect. How much for a basic home brewing kit and ingredients? Do you need a separate fridge to brew in? I'm taking a class at Keg Cowboy in a few weeks but figured I would see if anyone on here is currently brewing.

[ersepton]

I dabble in it. I brew with some buddies who are deep in homebrewing. I would not go with a "kit" and rather piece together your own kit as funds allow. You will need different tools for different beers, and you don't have to have another fridge. Go to a brewery supply store and talk to the guys there and they can get you in the right track. Things like carboys can be bought at places like Old Time Pottery for far cheaper than ones at the supply stores. If you have a turkey fryer and pot you are well on your way. Get a cheap cooler to fabricate to your needs and pick up the other things as you need. Sanitize, sanitize and then sanitize again as you brew, also buy good bottle brushes.
It's much like fishing, you can get a zebco and some red worms, or you can throw a $30 swimbait on a $300 bait caster.....they both catch fish. Same goes for homebrewing.

[CUwildlife]

I just started messing with it. Most beginner kits seem to be around 100 to 150 bucks. Ive made my own fermenters out of five gallon buckets but would reccomend getting a kit to begin as they use 6.5 gallon buckets to allow room for fermenting of five gallons of brew. Fermenting usually takes place in a cool dark place for most brews. Lots of good vids on youtube.

[scmoose]

Youtube. Go ahead and start kegging, to hell with bottling. Check this place out as well http://www.homebrewtalk.com/ . Hours of reading here. Pretty soon you'll start building shit like this

Fermentation chamber temp controller.