Heya, folks.

[Gowron's Crazy Eyes]

Hey! Saying I'm new to this is overstating my experience. I'm looking into getting started brewing small beers, low-alcohol stuff. I have no equipment at the moment, my budget is almost nonexistent so I'm trying to make sure whatever purchases I am able to make are genuinely needed and worth it. I'll dig around the forums and ask questions when I have 'em. Thanks for reading and see you around.

 

[jschein]

Welcome, the forum is full of great advice. You can go fancy hi tech or very simple with minimal investment.
Good luck on your journey

 

[Donoroto]

Welcome! We all got started sometime, and we all survived it. You can get some pretty inexpensive kits that have everything you need for your first several Brews. And we're here for you.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Welcome hope you find what you need here.

 

[TetersMillBrewing]

Welcome to the group. Lots of helpful people here with a wide range of experience. One thing not to skimp on is cleaning. Beyond that, you can brew from a stove top and ferment in a bucket pretty cheap. It is addictive and really easy to build from there. Enjoy

 

[The Brew Mentor]

Welcome aboard

 

[Sandy Feet]

Questions to ask yourself:
Are you brewing on a stove or burner inside or using a propane outside? One of your biggest expenses is going to be a kettle, so where you brew is a biggie. Make sure your burner distributes heat evenly to your kettle. I was using a camp stove for a bit. The weight of the liquid was an accident waiting to happen, and I was missing mash temps. I bought a Blichmann Hellfire. It was not cheap, but I love it.
Do you have access to a cheap, used refrigerator or chest cooler? Beer is much better when you have temperature control, and you can plug a refrigerator into a $30 something controller.
What method are you going to use? How much time do you want to spend on a brew day? The quickest are extract and Brew in A Bag. Grain is cheaper to buy than extracts. BIAB will require a bigger kettle than extracts, but you can make much better beer with more choices. You will also want a wort chiller to rapidly cool down boiling liquid.
Are you going to keg or bottle? Kegging makes life easier, but the stuff is about $300 to start. Bottles will take longer and more work, but they are cheaper. Buy decent, thick, brown bottles if that is your choice.
The other stuff is only a couple hundred bucks, and if you have a local homebrew store, you can get a starter kit.
YouTube is a great place to research your brew day and what the various methods look like.
You need a software program. Obviously you found at least one. I would also read John Palmer's book How to Brew.

 

[Limey]

Questions to ask yourself:...

Totally agree with what Sandy Feet says - but don't be afraid to try an extract recipe kit to get started - it will require minimal eqipment and many of the homebrew stores will sell you a starter kit that has most of what you need except a kettle and cooler. It's how I started and it certainly produced some drinkable beer!

 

[Zambi]

Welcome!
There's a whole range of people here, willing to help.
From small to big batches
Very simple to very advanced equipment
Metric brewers & imperial ones
Just ask and we'll help where we can
Just remember to have fun

 

[Sandy Feet]

Totally agree with what Sandy Feet says - but don't be afraid to try an extract recipe kit to get started - it will require minimal eqipment and many of the homebrew stores will sell you a starter kit that has most of what you need except a kettle and cooler. It's how I started and it certainly produced some drinkable beer!

I did too. I did get some drinkable 5-gallon batches from extracts that I cooked on the stove inside, but I could never get them to ferment down the way I wanted (By the way, if you cook inside with everything closed, your house will smell like beer for about three days).
I needed a much bigger kettle to do BIAB. I was told not to buy the 10-gallon by a neighbor, but I didn't listen. It bit me in the ass and cost me a couple of hundred bucks down the road.
I did notice a 100% improvement on my first BIAB even though I made some mistakes.
Speaking of mistakes, you will make them. Learn from them and improve.

 

[Craigerrr]

Welcome.
I agree with others, a kit is a good place to get started. I still use some of the gear that came with my first kit. That was over 6 years ago.

 

[Brewer #248770]

As everyone here is saying, don't over think it. You can start off with a pot from Walmart if you are starting with extract brewing. As long as it will hold at least half of the batch size you are planning on making (give it plenty of room for boiling). Northern brewer has some great starter sets, Im am not sure what your budget is, but for about $100 to $150 bucks you could get started. Youtube is the best place to go! Thats how I learned when I first started.

 

[pauljHBOregon]

ditto what everyone else said; easiest way to start is with extract brewing (just boiling stuff in a kettle on your stove), and plenty of kits available to start with. Your biggest initial investment may be your fermenter (FV, fermentation vessel). Decide the batch size you want to start with; plenty of 1 gallon glass or plastic carboy fermenters out there, pretty cheap. If you want to make larger batches, you can invest around $130 or less for a stainless steel conical fermenter, like the 4 gallon Anvil SS fermenter (good for 2.5 or 3 gallon batches). And you will need an accurate cooking thermometer to make sure the batch is cool enough before pitching your yeast and pouring it into the fermenter, and a hydrometer to measure gravity (original gravity, OG, and final gravity, FG) to verify your beer is done fermenting. Those are the basics, and there are carboy kits that provide most of what you need.

Hope it helps

 

[Brewer #404102]

You can ferment in a large food grade bucket much cheaper and just recycle your brown store bought bottles to save $. Some of these suggestions are a bit expensive compared to how you describe your circumstances

 

[Brewdomestix]

Welcome. This can be a very cheap and rewarding hobby. Check any family, friends, neighbours whom you know that throw out suitable bottles. First batch of homebrew I ever saw and tasted was made by a friend using an extract kit and a bag of sugar in a plastic bin borrowed from the health food store I lived above wayback.

 

[Minbari]

You can definately spend some money on this hobby. but plenty of people start out with a pot and a carboy.

BTW, gowrons dead, traitor to the empire!

 

[Smash thurlby]

We all start somewhere. If you have a local brew supply. They'll point you in the right direction. Best of luck