Wine maker, first time beer brewer

[danlatimer]

Hey all,

I've been making wine for ~10 years and I'd like to start making beer. Since I have all the equipment to make wine I'm wondering what would be my best bet for buying beer supplies. I think beer starter kits would contain most of the things I already have.

Current equipment that might be useful for beer making:

Primary Fermenter
Carboy
Hydrometer

I'm looking to dip my toe in with something easy like a festibrew pack. I have a few questions that if anyone here can answer I'd be very appreciative.

1. Is there other equipment I'll need other than what's listed?
2. I'm considering buying a 20L keg (and I guess you need a CO2 container?). I'll probably be brewing for a while so I don't mind investing if people think they are worth it. Would this be a good way to store it or is there another alternative that would be better?
3. Anyone know a place I could get a decent price for the Keg/CO2 container?

Thanks,

Dan

Edit:
4. Any suggestions on festibrew packs that would be a strong IPA, Something like Boxing Rock's Vicar's Cross would be amazing

[LeafMan66_67]

Hi Dan,

Welcome to the Brewnosers! It looks like you have the basic equipment you need to make the jump from wine to Festabrew, assuming you have a good cleaner and sanitizer, airlock, spoon, etc.. Have a search around this forum for some alternative instructions to go along with the Festabrew kits.

The West Coast IPA makes a good IPA, and remember that all of the kits can be dry hopped for some added hop aroma.

[mr x]

[RubberToe]

Welcome!

[jeffsmith]

[danlatimer]

Thanks for all the welcomes guys and thanks for the advice LeafMan66_67. I'm definitely going to look into adding some dry hops. I'll let you guys know how it goes!

[kenny10]

Welcome

[chalmers]

Welcome aboard!

As Leafsman said, with the gear for wine, you've got most of everything you need for fermenting beer from Festabrew kits. One thing to keep in mind with beer is that fermentation temperature can be less forgiving than with wine. Ideally, for an Ale, you want to be in the 17-19C region. This will help prevent the yeast from producing some non-ideal characters. Take the included instructions with a grain of salt. Many folks will do an extended primary fermentation (2 weeks isn't out of the ordinary), and forgo transferring to a secondary completely. One of these days we'll get a proper set of instructions on here...

As for where to buy kegging gear, if there's nothing available in our Classifieds forum, then there are a few spots in town that carry kegging gear. Everwood Avenue, Noble Grape, and Maritime Beer & Wine all carry the necessary kits.