Over winter vacation I helped my brother-in-law brew his very first beer -- all-grain brown ale (Sam Smith style). I encouraged him to build his system up over the next year or so. I said focusing on the bare bone essentials is good for now. Most of the items can be found at Goodwill and swap meets. His parents frequent those so he gave them a list to watch for. In the meantime, even though I am in a different state, I started wastching Freecycle and Craigslist to help him out.
The first items I scored were the 40 qrt cooler and the 3-gallon blue cooler, both in mint condition. The 40 qrt he will use as a wort chiller. He will run copper tubing through an ice bath in the cooler. The wort will run through the tubing. He lives in an apartment, so he needs to be efficient with water. The 3-gallon cooler can be used to run sparge water. He will convert these himself DIY-style. The 2-gallon igloo was found on the freeway and would work well for a small scale distery.
Craigslist SF had 2 carboys for sale at $15 each and a bottle capper at $20. $15 is a good price for a carboy and is what you should aim for at the max. New they cost over $30 each and the bottle capper is $35-40. My sister-in-law (married to my blood brother) went for me because she was close to the seller. She was nice to the seller and went home with all three items for $20 total. A super sweet deal! No chips on the Mexican-made carboys with caps included.
There is some surface rust on this bottle capper, but nothing coke and tinfoil can't clean up. In it's current state I would lube the stock then sand down the rust and it with wet sandpaper to smooth out and mount this to a work bench and call it a day.
The first items I scored were the 40 qrt cooler and the 3-gallon blue cooler, both in mint condition. The 40 qrt he will use as a wort chiller. He will run copper tubing through an ice bath in the cooler. The wort will run through the tubing. He lives in an apartment, so he needs to be efficient with water. The 3-gallon cooler can be used to run sparge water. He will convert these himself DIY-style. The 2-gallon igloo was found on the freeway and would work well for a small scale distery.
Craigslist SF had 2 carboys for sale at $15 each and a bottle capper at $20. $15 is a good price for a carboy and is what you should aim for at the max. New they cost over $30 each and the bottle capper is $35-40. My sister-in-law (married to my blood brother) went for me because she was close to the seller. She was nice to the seller and went home with all three items for $20 total. A super sweet deal! No chips on the Mexican-made carboys with caps included.
There is some surface rust on this bottle capper, but nothing coke and tinfoil can't clean up. In it's current state I would lube the stock then sand down the rust and it with wet sandpaper to smooth out and mount this to a work bench and call it a day.
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