Is there anything vital missing from this budget home brewing starter pack?

hatrickpatrick

So I'm on a bit of a tight budget at the moment and hoping to finally get into home brewing this spring. HBC has various different starter packs containing the necessary equipment. The cheapest one, predictably, is known as the "student starter pack" (recently renamed to the "Christmas starter pack" but that's probably changing back to "student" now that Christmas is over) - just wondering is this missing anything vital to the brewing process? As in, is it good enough to be worth the investment or will I just end up wanting to upgrade soon after buying it, thus rendering it a pointless false economy?

http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/the-hbc-christmas-starter-kit-ale-p-874.html

Includes:

25 Litre Fermentation Vessel Takes airlock (Full Colour-Graduated)
Large Self Adhesive Liquid Crystal Thermometer (10 to 40 oC)
Bubbler, Plastic with Red Cap
Bung Bored
Hydrometer plus sampling tube
Syphon
Twin Lever Capper
Crown Caps (40)
Steriliser
1 Ale Kit
1kg Brewing Sugar

Photo:

http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/images/student%20starter%20kit.jpg

(EDIT: Not embedding this as it's feckin' massive)

To my untrained eye, the only thing that's missing here is a glass carboy for secondary fermentation, but it seems like I can just buy that separately after trying making a few basic brews myself and just add it to this setup once ready. So with that in mind, can any of ye experienced brewers see anything wrong with this kit which would justify going for one of the more expensive options when starting out? Will this work for an intended long term brewing hobby, or is it like buying a guitar, where your average "starter guitars" have such appalling construction that you just end up scrapping them and buying a more expensive upgrade after a few months if you're in any way serious about playing?

Any advice would be welcome!

RasTa

Yeah it's fine. Never use secondary, it's a waste of time. Second bucket is handy for bottling or one bucket just for batch prime bottling and another fermentation bucket for two brews on the go at once.

Plastic cheaper then glass for carboys.

For the future it depends if you want to just do kit brews or start adding grains(partial then full mash). Price goes up then although equipment can be gotten cheaply these days second hand.

mordeith

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

So I'm on a bit of a tight budget at the moment and hoping to finally get into home brewing this spring. HBC has various different starter packs containing the necessary equipment. The cheapest one, predictably, is known as the "student starter pack" (recently renamed to the "Christmas starter pack" but that's probably changing back to "student" now that Christmas is over) - just wondering is this missing anything vital to the brewing process? As in, is it good enough to be worth the investment or will I just end up wanting to upgrade soon after buying it, thus rendering it a pointless false economy?

http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/the-hbc-christmas-starter-kit-ale-p-874.html

Includes:

25 Litre Fermentation Vessel Takes airlock (Full Colour-Graduated)
Large Self Adhesive Liquid Crystal Thermometer (10 to 40 oC)
Bubbler, Plastic with Red Cap
Bung Bored
Hydrometer plus sampling tube
Syphon
Twin Lever Capper
Crown Caps (40)
Steriliser
1 Ale Kit
1kg Brewing Sugar

Photo:

http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/images/student%20starter%20kit.jpg

(EDIT: Not embedding this as it's feckin' massive)

To my untrained eye, the only thing that's missing here is a glass carboy for secondary fermentation, but it seems like I can just buy that separately after trying making a few basic brews myself and just add it to this setup once ready. So with that in mind, can any of ye experienced brewers see anything wrong with this kit which would justify going for one of the more expensive options when starting out? Will this work for an intended long term brewing hobby, or is it like buying a guitar, where your average "starter guitars" have such appalling construction that you just end up scrapping them and buying a more expensive upgrade after a few months if you're in any way serious about playing?

Any advice would be welcome!

Obviously you'll need bottles but apart form that I can't see anything you'd need urgently. Although a bottling wand is a fantastic addition. Also you don't really need a secondary fermentation vessel. No harm but easily can get by without one

hatrickpatrick

RasTa wrote: »

Yeah it's fine. Never use secondary, it's a waste of time. Second bucket is handy for bottling or one bucket just for batch prime bottling and another fermentation bucket for two brews on the go at once.

Plastic cheaper then glass for carboys.

For the future it depends if you want to just do kit brews or start adding grains(partial then full mash). Price goes up then although equipment can be gotten cheaply these days second hand.

Eventually I will indeed want to go into more complex brewing but I'll probably stick with kits for the first few months. From what you're saying, I can just go with this and augment it later with extra gear, as opposed to having to flat out replace this kit once I move on to more advanced brew?

Regarding secondary fermentation, as I'll be bottle conditioning at least at the start, a friend recommended considering secondary fermentation to minimise the amount of sediment which goes into the bottles, as the bottle conditioning will inevitably produce more and you don't want a whole pile of it in the finish product if you can avoid it. But he could have been talking out of his bollix.

aaronm13

Agree with the above, secondary is a waste of time so just get an extra plastic bucket for bottling. I'd definitely get a bottling wand, cheap and so handy. Nothing in that kit will ever be a waste, I still use most elements in my starter kit. But if you get the bug you'll be buying a lot more stuff along the line. Good luck with it.

Bogwoppit

Another plastic bucket, a bottling wand and I’d also add a proper thermometer, those stick on ones are ****e.

BeardySi

The only thing that's an absolute must is a real thermometer.

LCD ones are only good for seeing if your fermenter is in the right ballpark temperature. No good for pitching temps which is what you really need one for.

I'd definitely recommend a bottling bucket and bottling wand. They make life a lot easier and aren't expensive. Plus if you're racking your beer off the trub and into a different bucket before bottling you'll be reducing the amount of sediment that will wind up in the bottles.