My $0.02 about beginning brewing equipment:

My $0.02 about beginning brewing equipment:

I do not recommend buying a 'beginner's kit' or anything like that. You will end up with glass carboys which can break very easily. You can imagine the risks of hollow glass vessels filled with 40lbs of liquid, being raised, lowered and moved around. Wet hands are the only thing necessary to ruin your day while handling them. Just forget glass carboys altogether! Brewing in glass is obsolete. You'll also get a fermenter with a spigot, which is not necessary. The spigot is a point of weakness and easily caught on a door jamb. There's also other stuff that isn't exactly what you want or is just unnecessary. So, buy it all separately.

If you bottle, always get oxygen absorbing caps. Oxygen is one of the worst enemies of beer.

EQUIPMENT (everything necessary unless otherwise noted):

http://northernbrewer.com/sanitizers.html

1 One Step

1 Fermtech Blast Bottle and Carboy Washer

1 Beer Bottle Brush

1 Carboy Brush

http://northernbrewer.com/ferment.html

1 7.9 Gallon Fermenters

2 Bubbler Air Lock

2 Three-Piece Airlock

1 Better Bottle Plain 6 Gallon

1 Carboy Dryer

1 No. 10 Drilled Stopper

http://northernbrewer.com/siphon.html

1 Auto Siphon 5/16"

If you are bottling:

http://northernbrewer.com/bottling.html

Red Baron (Emily) Capper

Beer Bottles 12 oz.

O2 Absorbing Caps-144 ct

http://northernbrewer.com/thermometers.html

1 Fermometer

1 Large Dial Thermometer 9" probe

http://northernbrewer.com/hydrometers.html

1 Triple Scale Hydrometer (optional, unless you care about specifics like attenuation and alcohol content)

http://northernbrewer.com/kettles.html

1 5 Gallon Stainless Kettle

http://northernbrewer.com/stir-strain.html

1 21" Stainless Steel Spoon

1 Nylon Hop Bag 8" x 9 1/4"

BEER KITS:

I like to get mine from http://www.midwestsupplies.com/ because you get a free flip-top style 32oz bottle. The bottles are usually pretty expensive to buy and ship otherwise. The northerbrewer.com site has great beer kits, too. I alternate depending on what I feel like brewing.

YEAST:

I find the easiest to use is the Wyeast brand "Smack Pack." It is also called "Activator." It is completely sterile while it multiplies for 2-3 days. If you use the "Propogator," you will need an Erlenmeyer flask and extra DME (dry malt extract) to cultivate the yeast culture (wait till later to add this step). Either way, you want to start working with the yeast about 2-3 days before you plan to brew. This isn't 100% necessary, but I get 100% results doing it this way.

BOTTLES:

I bought, by the case, the beer named Grolsch in order to harvest the bottles when finished with the beer. That is a neat trick if you like Grolsch because of the way the prices work out. Specifically, if you buy the empty flip-top style 16oz bottles and have them shipped to you, the cost will be about $60 total per case. That is the same price you will pay for a case of Grolsch. It's like getting free beer!

OTHER:

You need to get a plastic tub from Walmart. It should be similar to the ones you get when you rent a keg. They usually have rope handles and are typically priced under $10. You also should get a short length of garden hose. I think mine is 6ft long. I would also recommend getting some quick disconnect (QD) fittings (garden section). One for the bottle washer, one for the hose, and one for the faucet itself. In order to connect the QD to the faucet, an adapter is necessary. That can be found at Home Depot (I think Northern Brewer has one on their website somewhere). Also, get Teflon tape (plumber's tape) for the QD fittings.

I just brewed a raspberry wheat and a saison. They are sitting downstairs at 68-70 degrees F, which is perfect for ales. You will be brewing ales unless you invest in a refrigeration unit in which to lager, or you have access to a chilly cave. The beer will turn out best when fermented in the range of 66-72 degrees F. Total fermentation of ales lasts for 2-6wks, depending on style and personal preference, along with the yeasts' longevity and resistance to alcohol. You need to think about racking (transferring to another vessel) into the carboy. Think about the area needed for these things. The kitchen usually works great. Bottling is usually messy and the kitchen works well for that, too. One last thing: If you order anything from Midwest, you can request a DVD that will step you through the brewing process in a demonstration format. It's free. I usually get the DVD anyway and give it away.

Kegerator Photo Tutorial

Parts:
---> Safety goggles!
Sanyo 4912M refrigerator
Corded drill (strong motor)
Piece of wood: 5 3/4 wide x 5 3/4 long x 1/2 thick
Hole saw: Doorknob sized
Tap Tower assembly
Dish draining mat: plastic
Small, round plumbing clamps
Tube of silicone sealant
Caulking gun
Paper towels
Felt-tip marker
Straight razor blade
Set of pliers
Rotary cutting tool
CO2 cylinder w/ regulator assembly attached
17 inches of thick wooden dowel
Tube of Liquid Nail adhesive
Phillips head screwdriver

From unboxing to completion....a kegerator.

Remove the plastic lid from the fridge. The fins underneath the plastic lid need to be carved out. I used a razor blade, applying pressure straight down to slice through the plastic. Do this wherever the fin attaches to the rest of the lid. I then bent the fin back and forth until it was loose enough to bend almost horizontally. While holding it down on its side, I sliced through the base of the fin where it attached to the lid. Most came off in one large piece!

With the fins removed, I pushed the razor horizontally to shave any remaining fin flat with the surface. You need to get it smooth so the 1/2 inch wood board will adhere evenly.



This model's (Sanyo 4912M) lid's center was obvious from the finished side, but I still drilled a pilot hole from the center of the unfinished side. The next step is to drop the 5 3/4 x 5 3/4 x 1/2 wood board into the area the fins once occupied. Re-attach the lid with ALL the screws. Attach a hole saw and let 'er rip! I recommend using the size that is commonly used to drill holes for doorknobs. You can find that at Dome Hepot or Woeles. You can see the metal disc and core sample from the insulation. Neat!

Make sure you go slower when you get to the inner plastic lining. It seems like it would be easy to snap this type of plastic if you are really bearing down on the drill. Let the hole saw teeth do the work for you!



After drilling the hole, remove the lid again. Caulk the underside of the lid around the hole as well as both sides of the wood. Re-attach the lid with the wood underneath. I used a crap-load of silicone to waterproof the freshly-exposed substrates. The last thing we want is a bunch of moisture ruining the insulation or rusting out the exposed metal. I squeezed out the silicone onto my index and middle finger and distributed it evenly around, above, below and inside the hole. Let this cure overnight, fixing anything you missed the next day.



My tap tower came with some huge nuts that just don't fit the ball lock MFE connectors. I sliced those off, then attached the correct ones. I found some small clamps at Woeles after about 30 minutes of searching the plumbing fitting section. If you find the ones shown here, count yourself lucky. I used an ordinary set of pliers to crimp them onto the lines. Be careful not to bite into the lines with the clamps too much or you risk creating a cut. That might be a problem later when you pressurize the system. After dropping the lines into the hole, align the tap tower so that it is facing you and mark the holes.

A word of warning: My tap tower's holes were not properly aligned with the dispensing heads. If I would have aligned the base holes instead of eyeballing the heads, I could have ended up with a cock-eyed tower. Make sure you pay attention to the heads, NOT the screw holes in the base!

After marking your holes, drill in the same manner you did to cut the large hole. Be careful when you get to the inner plastic lining. Screw on and tighten.




I want to hide the 5 pound CO2 cylinder within the kegerator. There are two obstacles: space is at a premium and the cylinder is somewhat awkwardly shaped with the regulator assembly attached. As you can see below, there is a very small shelf-like surface at the rear of the fridge. I reasoned if I could augment that partial base with another partial base, the result would support the cylinder while saving space. This way, the cylinder will sit behind the two 5 gallon soda kegs and the door will close.




To support the CO2 cylinder, I cut out a small piece of a drainage mat (Mal-Wart). I used a rotary device for this with a round cutting head. I found that although the mat would melt slightly when cut at higher RPM's, the higher speed was necessary to overcome the drag imposed by the thick plastic. Next, I Liquid Nail’ed a set of 8.5 inch (length) dowels to the shelf's underside. The width of the dowel is the thickest I could get. The dowels came as a single, 5 foot long rod which I cut using a circular saw. I placed the dowels towards the front of the shelf to balance the weight properly. The rear of the shelf is supported by the 'shelf-like surface' I mentioned earlier. More dowels may be added in the future if the plastic deforms under the weight of the cylinder, but for now two dowels is sufficient.


Unfortunately, the shelf was a little too wide to allow the right-hand keg to fit inside the fridge. I made a slight modification on the shelf and everything fit! I used a marker to draw the line where the keg would be pushed the furthest forward while still allowing the door to close. The picture below shows the keg just a little behind the mark thanks to the shelf modification. I suppose I could have done some modification to the door, but that would have created other moisture holes and the finished product might not have been so solid.



If you use a rotary device with a cutting blade, do NOT try to cut the included glass shelves. That will end poorly for you and the glass shelf. The shelves are constructed of tempered glass and will shatter if sufficient pressure is applied.



Success! The regulator assembly is visible behind the kegs. Now, pressurize and enjoy!



I want to thank Chad Dickerson for the original tutorial: HERE

This site has lots of knowledge on kegging, including technical info on pressure: HERE

Here is a concise kegging FAQ: HERE