# I Have Wine Making Equipment. Is That All I Need To Make Beer?



## critterhunter (Oct 29, 2010)

I'm just now making my first batch of wine- pear. I've also always wanted to make my own beer, and now that I've got a 7 to 7.5 gallon plastic fermation bucket (with lid) and a 6.5 gallon carboy, I'm wondering what if anything else I would need besides ingredients to make beer? Run down a quick list of what is needed to make beer hardware wise. As for bottling, I plan to stick them in 40 ounce bottles with screw on caps that I usually buy when drinking beer anyway. Any disadvantage to that? Just would really like for somebody to clue me into what all I need hardware wise. Is it any harder to do than wine?


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## BIGJEFF (Oct 29, 2010)

If you make beer from a "juice" kit, you need nothing more than what you have and it's just as easy as making wine...
I would buy a different primary because beer leaves more of a taste-smell than wine and you don't want that transfered inti your next batch of wine.


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## cpfan (Oct 29, 2010)

critterhunter:

it depends on what recipe you will be following. Many kits in the US make 5 US gallons, so if you will be putting the beer into a carboy, you will need a 5 USG carboy. Some beer recipes do not call for a carboy.

I make kits that make 6 US gallons, so use a 6 USG carboy. 6.5 USG would be too large IMO.

If you will be bottling in glass bottles, you will need a beer capper.

Steve


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## mxsteve625 (Oct 29, 2010)

Screw caps don't work well with beer. If you don't keg you will have to prime the beer with priming sugar and let it sit for about two weeks to carbonate. Screw caps may not hold as the pressure builds up in the bottles.

Steve


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## cpfan (Oct 29, 2010)

mxsteve625 said:


> Screw caps don't work well with beer. If you don't keg you will have to prime the beer with priming sugar and let it sit for about two weeks to carbonate. Screw caps may not hold as the pressure builds up in the bottles.
> 
> Steve


Steve:

Are you talking about screw caps on PET bottles (like soda pop)? Cause they work just fine. You can even re-use the caps. The beer does not last as long as in glass, but it's not a problem for most beer makers.

Maybe you're talking about standard screw cap glass beer bottles. Because they have worked just fine for me, although I do find them a little harder to apply. I use a bench capper, and have no experience with hand cappers.

Many people will not use screw cap glass beer bottles because of comments that the glass is thinner and more prone to breakage. I agree that most of the screw cap glass bottles are lighter and thinner. They are designed to be used once only. But here in Canada we are blessed with some screw cap beer bottles that are designed to be refilled by the breweries. Heavier and thicker. Many Canadian beer makers use them all the time. Some US beer makers visit Canada to get these empties.

Steve


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## mxsteve625 (Oct 29, 2010)

Steve...Point well taken. However i think here in the states I will stick with the tried a true method.


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## Wade E (Oct 29, 2010)

Unless you are making a no boil kit you will need a 5 gallon brew pot or there abouts to steep the grains in. If using a smaller pot I would advise you to get some foam buster or alike which as your boiling it can really foam up and make a huge mess on your stove top and this stuff works amazingly well to knock the foam down.


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## Arne (Oct 29, 2010)

Wade,
Do you want to expand oh how you know the brew spews all over your stovetop? Oh and also what does swmbo say about the top of the stove?? lol, Arne


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## Malkore (Nov 18, 2010)

A lot of extract beer kits don't need a full boil...but you will need a 3 gallon kettle still. Brewer's Best kits definitely take into account the hop utitlization loss on smaller boil volumes. Even then, the thing will boil over if you're not watching it, especially at hop additions.


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## Wade E (Nov 18, 2010)

Yep, the hop additions during a boil will almost always catch you off guard the first few times.


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## mxsteve625 (Nov 18, 2010)

This is the method I use to prevent Hot Break or Boil Over:
After steeping the grains bring the tea-bagged water to a boil. remove the pot from the hot burner and add malt extrat to the pot stiring for 3 to 5 minutes. Turn heat down by 1/3 and return pot to hot burner. Slowly bring back to boil adjusting heat to avoid a boil over (Hot BReak). Establish a rolling boil.


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## Malkore (Nov 19, 2010)

Not to confuse terms, but you get 'hot break' material which is coagulating proteins and hop bits when doing a full boil, not really with extract kits but when using partial mashes or all grain recipes.

+1 tho for getting it off the heat, so your extract doesn't burn on the bottom over the heat.


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## Wade E (Nov 19, 2010)

It can happen with extract depending on the amount of proteins in the extract but not typically.


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## ChuckE (Nov 21, 2010)

critterhunter said:


> I'm just now making my first batch of wine- pear. I've also always wanted to make my own beer, and now that I've got a 7 to 7.5 gallon plastic fermation bucket (with lid) and a 6.5 gallon carboy, I'm wondering what if anything else I would need besides ingredients to make beer? Run down a quick list of what is needed to make beer hardware wise. As for bottling, I plan to stick them in 40 ounce bottles with screw on caps that I usually buy when drinking beer anyway. Any disadvantage to that? Just would really like for somebody to clue me into what all I need hardware wise. Is it any harder to do than wine?



The 6.5 gallon carboy would be perfect to ferment the standard size, 5 gallon batch of beer. You need room for at least an extra gallon to allow for the krausen. If you don't make this allowance you WILL end up with a mess. Below is a pic of beer krausen.






You'll need to boil your wort, typically 1 hour. A 7.5 gallon pot works well for a 5 gallon batch. You need extra space to prevent a boil over. If you don't have a pot that large you can split it over two pots, or boil condensed wort and add water after the boil.

Boil overs can happen any time, but they're most likely to occur at the beginning of the boil. Watch it like a hawk at that stage.... and I wait a few minutes to add the hops, which make a boil over more likely.

If you have a good local home brew shop, they can hook yo up with recipes and such. If there isn't one close by, you may want to try these guys. http://www.listermann.com/Store/products.asp?id=35


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## Wade E (Nov 21, 2010)

Thats a pretty serious krausen yoiu have there!


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## ChuckE (Nov 21, 2010)

Wade E said:


> Thats a pretty serious krausen yoiu have there!



It's just a pic I found on the internet.


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## Julie (Dec 6, 2010)

rahnjoseph said:


> I know many facts about wine making but dont know about the fermentation wait and all.



Hi Rahnjoseph,

Welcome to winemakingtalk. I must ask - what is it with you people from Madhya Pradesh, India that when you sign up here you say you are from Australia? And are you making any wine?


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