Apparatus

The Bucket

Usually used as the secondary fermenter, this 6.5 to 7-gallon bucket is what I use first in the brewing process to sterilize all my miscellaneous items. It has a lid, capacity graduations up to 5 gallons, and a drain valve. The small tube in the picture is the bottle filler. It has a stem-valve in the bottom, which opens when pressed upwards by the inside of the bottle bottom for one-handed filling. The filler fits snugly into a clear piece of tubing fitted over the drain valve outlet.

Put a gallon of tap water, a tablespoon of TSP in the bucket and wash the stirring spoon, hydrometer, tongs, thermometer, carboy stopper and gas trap. Wipe the solution all around the inside bucket surface. Drain a bit through the siphon tube and the drain valve to clean them, too. Rinse all the items in fresh cold tap water and dry on fresh paper towels. That just cleans everything. Now, sanitize by repeating with a tablespoon of BTF iodophor in a gallon of water to sanitize everything. Immerse and rinse for at least 5 minutes. No rinsing required. This solution will NOT impart any flavor or odor to the beer.

The Brew Kettle

Except for sanitization, the activity really begins with the 'boil'.

Here, you can see my 5-gallon stainless-steel kettle on the burner which is skirted with aluminum foil to protect the range surface. It is not necessary to sanitize the kettle, it happens naturally at boiling temperatures, but you will need to scrub it with a plastic mesh pot-cleaner and TSP after brewing. I only fill the kettle half way (2-1/2 gallons) to prevent major boilover messes. It came with a glass lid that has a small pressure relief hole in it. Although not shown here, I keep the lid on during the boil to prevent ingestion of airborne contaminants (flies, moths and dust). This tends to increase the possibility of a foaming boil-over, so I unseat the cover a little to let steam escape.

I use an iron burner cover to better distribute the electric element's heat to the bottom of the kettle. Have mittens and wet towels handy to mop up spills.

The Fermenter

The fermenter is a 6 gallon (23 liter) glass carboy. This will hold 5 gallons of wort leaving a 1 gallon headspace. I always ferment in glass, for two reasons: 1) it's easier to sanitize glass, and 2) cleaning a plastic fermenter with a brush roughens it so much that they only last 5 or 6 brews before you need to replace them because scratches never really come clean. ANY bacteria, even one particle left in the fermenter, will grow to sour the wort and ruin your beer.

The other part of the fermenter is the gas trap, which is held in the rubber stopper, as shown here.

When I'm finished fermenting and have bottled, I toss in a tablespoon of TSP or ONE-STEP and fill the carboy completely, letting it soak a couple days until the debris falls from the top of the glass to the bottom. Just before brewing next time, I sterilize it with a BTF iodophor solution (see How To). Handling a full carboy with wet or soapy hands can be dangerous. Always be sure you have a good grip and support on the carboy.

The Capper

Bottling is completed with a neat little tool called "the capper".

Caps run about $1 for 50 to 55 caps. One bag is usually sufficient for a 5 gallon batch, making about 50 bottles.

The trick to using this guy is to have a helper position the bottle with the cap setting on the opening. Then you lower the capper accurately and swing the handles down, while the smooth cam-action of the tool grips the bottle ring and crimps the cap. There should be a uniform depression in the top of the cap.

Utility Tools

The major brewing utility items you need are shown here.

At the top are the bottle and carboy cleaning brushes. Below them, the funnel is what I use to pour the cooled wort, and later the yeast, into the fermenter (carboy).

Left of the funnel are the floating thermometer and a large spoon. To the right, the hydrometer and its sample bottle, used to take beginning and final specific gravities for computing theoretical alcohol content. On the far right is a racking tube (siphon) consisting of a long J-pipe with a bottom cup to help prevent picking up residue, and a flexible tube with a compression clamp.