Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?

Originally Posted by jhedrick83

Looking for a bit of advice here. I've been wanting to get into home brewing for a couple of years and I'm hoping start of next year I'll start to have some time to dive in. My question is what level of starter kit should I go with? A simple Mr. Beer, your basic 5 gal. Starter kit or a step up with a 2 stages of fermenting carboys? Do I need a wort chiller or am I good without to start? If it matters I usually drink (and would most likely be making) Porters, Stouts, Irish Reds and the occasional IPA. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

Go with simple, quality materials and equipment. You can start with fermenting in a closed bucket to start with. Eventually, you definitely want to move to fermenting in a glass carboy. difference is that in the bucket, you will not be able to blow-off the fusel oils, which is the byproduct of fermentation. In a closed carboy system, you will blow-off this byproduct, which results in a cleaner tasting beer. Read up on this.
A very important thing to remember when steeping grains is the temperature of the water. The water temperature needs to be no more than 150 to 160 degrees. If you steep above that, you will likely get a bitter note to your beer from tannins leaching from the grain husks.
Another good tip is to look into Wyeast liquid yeast packages. Great stuff! You can make the exact same batch with a different yeast strain and get a very different style beer/ale.
Read up on your hops and their IBU's. Some hops like Cascade and Perle are very bitter and can result in overtopping what otherwise would be a great porter, stout or brown ale. The Noble hops are good ones to start with. Very forgiving, lower in bitterness, can be used for bittering or finish hopping. Great favors, too!
Good luck!