Equipment Needed to Brew

I got all of my equipment from a brewing supply store in Minneapolis called Midwest Supplies. I bought a kit that had almost everything I needed to get started.


It was missing a few things that make brewing a lot easier.

One thing it was missing is a http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=7733.
You need a wort chiller because you have to cool your boiled beer ingredients down (wort) to lower than 80 degrees before you add the yeast. A wort chiller does a 5 gallon batch in 10 minutes. The quicker you cool the wort the better.

The next thing you need is a wine thief.
A thief allows you to pull liquid out of your fermenter very easily. You need to be able to do this so that you can take specific gravity readings.

The final thing you need is a bottle tree.
It makes it really easy to sanitize your bottles and dry them.