Almigo brews a beer part 1 - One man, half a plan

So I've talked the talk for long enough, time to walk the walk. Or in this case, get down and dirty in brewing my very first home brew. Before anything though, we're going to need a plan...

This wasn't part of the plan..

Son, before you do this engine swap heart transplant beer brewing, you're going to need a few things.

While I built up a decent collection of tools while building a home made arcade machine, sadly none of them (especially the circular saw) will come in handy here. Time to splash a little cash (not much, I'm still not a millionaire yet) on my initial setup.

To do the boiling bit - the soup cauldron. (Already owned)  

I bought this for my wife years ago to make soup in. In it's time it's made plenty of the soup stuff. Now it gets to do something far more fun, namely brew a beer or two. Or enough for my wife to buy me a dedicated beer brewing pot so I stop stealing hers. I forget what size it is (21 ltr maybe?) but it's more than enough to do the trick here.

To do the fermenting bit - the fancy carboy. (Haven't bought it yet) 

I really love the look of the All In One Home Brew Beer Starter Kit from the Small Batch Brew Co - the glass carboy just makes me want to pretend to be an apothecary or mad scientist (brew my pretty, brew!). You can buy the basic carboy a little cheaper without the extras but I love the look of the goodies involved too. Also I'd be more confident in screwing up just five liters of brew instead of thirty in my first few brews. We can always upgrade from here if this hobby really gets out of control...

To do the storage bit - many a spare bottle (Bottle collection almost ready)

Given that I'm only brewing 5 liters at a time and these are 355ml bottles, I only need 14 of them in one hit. Easily done, only a couple of Brooklyn Lagers to go. Also I've been reading that brown glass is much better for bottling than clear glass as you don't want nasty light to get in and do nasty things to your best work. Must remember to buy some more caps though..
(BTW - wouldn't recommend the raddler, it was syrupy and ultimately awful...)

To do the capping bit - the poppa capper (Still looking) 

Plenty of examples around locally thankfully. $20-30 seems to be the going rate for the cappers by themselves, $50+ and you usually get other things thrown in for good measure (like a fermenter or two). So I'm keeping an eye on Gumtree to see what bargains can be had. Thankfully I have plenty of time before the time to pop a cap (or 14) comes along.

To get the bottles open again - my god, what an amazing bottle opener! (Already owned)

I got this amazing bottle opener as a thank you present from my brother in law's wedding recently. Nothing says 'I'm damn serious about opening a bottle of home brew than a repurposed .50 cal shell (I think it's .50 cal, I have no idea about firearms.)

And finally, something to brew - The IPA looks good...

After a big 2017 full of tasty IPA's, the City Warrior IPA is looking mighty good  and it's made for small batch setups. What a triumphant first brew this would be if I could pull it off. But first things first, rest of the setup first...then we get down to brewing.

Whee, I'm excited already. Next update coming soon!

Latest in the series of Almigo brews a beer:

2. Hilarious lessons in what not to do

3. Introducing Cappadonna