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Equipment
Beer gear
59 pieces of equipment we have written about and would buy. Every one is explained in a guide on this site, so you can read the reasoning before you spend anything.
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Built-in, dual tower
EdgeStar KC7000SSTWIN Dual Tap Built-in Kegerator
Built-in rated, meaning it vents forward and can sit flush in cabinetry rather than needing clearance on all sides. That is the reason to spend at this level: it is the only way to get draft beer into a finished kitchen without it looking like an appliance parked in a gap.
Worth knowing: Expensive, heavy, and genuinely overkill unless it is going into a built-in installation.
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Buy once, cry once
Clawhammer Supply 10.5 Gallon Electric All-in-One
220V, 10.5 gallons, heavy stainless throughout, and a company that answers the phone and publishes teardown and repair videos for its own machines. This is the one you buy if you expect to still be brewing on it in ten years.
Worth knowing: Three times the price of a BrewZilla, and it needs a 220V circuit. Overkill if you brew four times a year.
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Best for homebrewers
Kegco K309B-2 Double Faucet Digital Kegerator
Two taps, digital temperature control, and enough interior room for multiple Corny kegs, which is the configuration that suits someone brewing their own rather than buying commercial half-barrels. Kegco sells replacement parts for their towers and couplers.
Worth knowing: Bulky, and the included coupler is set up for commercial kegs; homebrewers will want ball-lock disconnects, which is a small extra cost.
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Best single-tap cabinet
EdgeStar KC3000 Full Size Kegerator
A well-built full-size cabinet with a digital display, from a manufacturer that has been in this category a long time and supports it. If one beer on tap is genuinely enough, this is a lot of kegerator for the money.
Worth knowing: One tap. Adding a second later means a new tower, which costs more than buying two-tap up front.
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Worth a look
Kegco Kegerator Full Size Keg Refrigerator - Single Faucet - D System, Stainless Steel
The previous pick here was discontinued, and this is the closest current listing in the same class at a comparable price. It fills the same slot: Worth a look. We have not tested it, and the specifics below come from the listing rather than from us.
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Conversion route
EdgeStar BR3002 Kegerator Conversion Refrigerator
A 24 inch wide refrigerator built to take full size kegs with no shelving in the way, sold without a tower so you choose your own tap count and hardware. Budget separately for the tower, faucets, regulator and CO2, because none of that is in the box.
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Best if you already own taps
EdgeStar BR2001SS Ultra Low Temp Conversion Refrigerator
A refrigerator designed around kegs rather than groceries, with no interior shelving in the way and a low temperature floor that suits lagering. You fit your own tower, so you control the tap count and hardware quality.
Worth knowing: It is a fridge, not a finished kegerator: no tower, taps, regulator or CO2 included. Budget several hundred more to complete it.
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The same machine, earlier generation
Robobrew V3 with Pump
Robobrew is the previous name for what became BrewZilla, from the same manufacturer. If the V3 is cheaper on the day you buy, it is substantially the same machine and a legitimate way to save money.
Worth knowing: Superseded by the BrewZilla revisions, so accessory compatibility can be fiddly. Check the generation before buying add-ons.
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Best value with a pump
Kegland 35L BrewZilla
The benchmark in this category. 35 litres handles 5-gallon batches with headroom, the pump recirculates properly, and the controller does programmable step mashes. Kegland sells spare parts, which matters on a machine with a pump and an element.
Worth knowing: The 110V variant boils slowly on full batches; get the 220V version if you can power it. Build quality is good, not Clawhammer good.
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Most capacity per dollar
13 Gallon Stainless Conical Fermenter
13 gallons is the practical sweet spot for someone brewing 10-gallon batches, and this is the cheapest honest path to that size. If you are already doubling your batches to halve your brew days, the capacity is the whole argument.
Worth knowing: An unbranded listing with no named manufacturer, which means no parts channel — when a gasket or valve fails you are sourcing a generic replacement by measurement. No stated pressure rating, so treat it as atmospheric. Inspect the interior welds when it arrives and return it if they are rough.
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Largest, with a cooling coil
17 Gallon Stainless Conical Fermenter with Cooling Coil
17 gallons with an integrated cooling system, for the brewer who has decided that glycol is the endgame and would rather buy the coil once. This is the configuration commercial breweries use, at homebrew scale and homebrew money.
Worth knowing: The coil does nothing without a glycol chiller, which is a substantial separate purchase. Unbranded listing, so the same parts-support warning applies. At 17 gallons it is a two-person lift full, and it needs floor space plus dump clearance underneath.
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Simplest to live with
Brewer's Edge Mash and Boil with Pump
Fewer features and fewer things to go wrong. Holds mash temperature reliably, 110V so it runs off a normal outlet, and the interface is close to self-explanatory. A good first all-grain system for someone who does not want a project.
Worth knowing: 110V only, so boils are slow on 5-gallon batches. Less headroom than the 35L units for big grain bills.
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Programmable step mashing
Brewer's Edge SERIES 2 Mash and Boil with Pump V2
The revision adds a programmable controller, so a multi-step mash schedule runs without you standing over it. If you brew styles that want a protein rest or a step to a higher saccharification temperature, this is the feature you are buying.
Worth knowing: A programmable controller is one more thing that can fail, and the extra capability is wasted if you only ever do single-infusion mashes.
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Simplest all-in-one
Brewer's Edge Mash and Boil
A single 120V vessel that mashes and boils without a pump or a propane burner, which is the whole point of going electric in a kitchen or an apartment. Controls are a temperature dial and a timer rather than a programmable step schedule, so there is very little to learn or to break.
Worth knowing: No recirculation pump, so mash temperature is held by the element and the insulation rather than by moving wort. Step mashing means standing there and changing the setpoint yourself.
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Best for pressure fermentation
VEVOR 16 Gal Pressure Fermenter, 15 PSI
The only vessel here with a published working pressure, and 15 PSI is enough for real spunding, closed pressure transfers to a keg, and warm-fermented lagers. It is 304 stainless with a 3.5-inch tri-clamp lid, a built-in thermometer, a cooling tube for a future glycol setup, and a yeast collection bottle on the cone. At 16 gallons it is the only one here with headroom for 10-gallon batches.
Worth knowing: The published wall thickness is 0.5 mm, which is thin — this is a budget vessel, not a Blichmann. VEVOR parts support is mail-order and inconsistent; buy spare gaskets with it. At 16 gallons plus legs it will not fit in most chest freezers, so plan on the glycol route.
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Best first stainless conical
Northern Brewer Reactor Conical Fermenter
8.5 gallons of 304 stainless, which is the right size for 5-gallon batches with real krausen headroom. It has the two features that justify a conical at all — a bottom dump valve and an adjustable racking arm — plus embossed volume markings and a gasketed, clamped lid. The reason to pay for this one over a generic import is that Northern Brewer is a US homebrew retailer that stocks its own replacement gaskets and parts, and a fermenter is a thing you will need a gasket for.
Worth knowing: Atmospheric only — there is no published pressure rating, so do not spund it or transfer under pressure. No cooling coil, so temperature control means a fridge or freezer big enough to hold it. 8.5 gallons rules out 10-gallon batches.
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The kettle this recipe actually needs
Northern Brewer MegaPot Stainless Steel Brew Kettle with Volume Markings
The equipment list above says a 3-4 quart pot, which cannot hold the 6.5 gallon pre-boil volume step 2 asks for. Volume markings matter more on a high-gravity beer than any other, because 15 lb of grain and a long boil make your collected volume the variable that decides the gravity.
Worth knowing: It is a bare kettle: no valve, no thermometer, and it still needs a chiller and something to hold the grain bed.
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Worth the extra if you brew often
Vintage Shop Evill Twin Grain Mill
A 10 lb hopper, which is more than a 5-gallon all-grain bill, so the whole crush goes in once and you turn the handle instead of refilling. Named manufacturer, so replacement rollers and knobs exist in three years.
Worth knowing: Roughly twice the price of a bare two-roller mill for the same crushing action. If you brew a few times a year the cheaper mill does the same job more slowly.
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Wort chiller
Northern Brewer Copperhead Copper Immersion Wort Chiller
Step 4 gives you the choice of a chiller or an ice bath. An ice bath on 6 gallons of imperial stout wort takes the best part of an hour, which is an hour of exposure you do not want.
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Best overall starter kit
Northern Brewer Brew Share Enjoy Starter Set
Fermenter, airlock, thermometer, sanitiser and a full ingredient kit in one box, so nothing is missing on brew day except a pot. Northern Brewer is a US homebrew retailer that stocks its own replacement parts, which matters the first time you split a gasket.
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The vessel everything else attaches to
5 Gallon Home Brew Keg - New Ball Lock - Stainless Steel
A 5 gallon ball-lock Cornelius keg is the standard vessel for force carbonation at home: it holds exactly one homebrew batch, it seals at serving pressure, and every gas fitting and disconnect sold for homebrewing is made to fit it. Buying new means new gaskets and a lid that seals on the first try.
Worth knowing: Ball lock and pin lock are not interchangeable. Ball lock is the common homebrew standard, so buy the disconnects to match rather than assuming.
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Brew kettle
CONCORD Stainless Steel Home Brew Kettle Stock Pot with Weldless Fittings
A tripel is a high-gravity beer, so the pre-boil volume and the boil-off both run large. Valve and thermometer are already fitted.
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Best budget starter kit
Northern Brewer Essential Starter Set
The same siphonless fermenter design in a leaner package. If you already own a large pot and a thermometer, this is the cheaper honest route to a first batch.
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Oak, the slow way
1 Gallon American Oak Aging Barrel, 5 Litre, with Stand and Spigot
Imperial stout is the style people actually barrel-age. At one gallon you can commit part of the batch, and the two-month conditioning step above becomes the start of the process rather than the end.
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Grain mill
FERRODAY Malted Grain Mill, 2 Roller Stainless Steel
Pilsner malt is a single-malt bill, so crush quality is the whole of your efficiency. An adjustable roller gap is the only way to tune it.
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Same idea, wooden hopper base
Mrbrew Grain Crusher Homebrew Malt Mill, Manual with Wooden Base
A roller mill sold with the base already made, so it sits over a bucket without you building a frame first. That is a genuine convenience on a mill that otherwise needs somewhere to clamp.
Worth knowing: The wooden base is the part that limits it: it fixes the height and the bucket size you can use, where a bare mill can be mounted to whatever you already have.
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Gas supply
5 lb. Aluminum CO2 Cylinder with CGA 320 Valve
Five pounds is the size that fits beside a keg in a refrigerator and still carbonates and dispenses several batches between fills. The CGA-320 valve is the standard beverage-CO2 thread, so any homebrew regulator will thread straight on.
Worth knowing: It ships empty. You have to find a gas supplier or a welding shop that fills or exchanges CO2, and an exchange cylinder may come back scuffed.
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More plates, more surface area
HFS 40-Plate Stainless Steel 304 Homebrew Wort Chiller Heat Exchanger
Forty brazed stainless plates give a large heat-exchange area in a unit that fits in one hand, and it chills wort as it flows rather than in a batch. That is why a plate chiller reaches pitching temperature in minutes where an immersion coil takes half an hour.
Worth knowing: You cannot see inside it. Hop and trub debris lodges between plates and must be back-flushed and recirculated with caustic after every use, and a plate chiller that is not cleaned properly is the worst infection risk on a brew day.
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Budget stainless immersion
Stainless Steel Immersion Wort Chiller
The same idea without the brand markup. For 5 gallon batches with cold tap water, an immersion coil is an immersion coil.
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A first extract kit
Home Brew Ohio Imperial Pale Ale Beer Ingredient Kit
Malt, hops and yeast measured against one recipe, which is exactly what the pro tip below about starting with extract kits means.
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The full-size ingredient kit
Irish Stout Ale Home Brew Beer Recipe Ingredient Kit, 5 Gallon
The same batch size as this recipe, with the grain bill and hops pre-assembled. Worth comparing against sourcing the fermentables list above yourself.
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Refill, if you already own the gear
Craft a Brew Hefeweizen Recipe Refill
An ingredients-only refill for 5 gallons. Cheaper per batch than a full starter kit and the right choice if you have a fermenter and a kettle already.
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Or something gentler
Brewer's Best Kölsch Home Brew Beer Ingredient Kit, 5 Gallon
A clean, pale, low-hop style. Faults hide nowhere in a Kölsch, which makes it a better teacher than a big hoppy beer for a first batch.
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The whole grain bill in one box
Brewer's Best Weizenbier Ingredient Kit
Covers the fermentables, hops and priming sugar for a 5-gallon batch of this style, so the only thing left to source is the yeast. Buy one of the two strains above separately and pitch that instead of whatever dry sachet the kit ships with.
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Smaller and cheaper
Ferroday 20 Plate Wort Chiller, Stainless Steel Brazed Plate Heat Exchanger
Twenty plates instead of forty, at roughly half the price. For 5 gallon batches with a pump and reasonably cold water this is enough exchange area, and the smaller body is quicker to flush.
Worth knowing: Half the surface area means you either run the wort through more slowly or accept a higher outlet temperature. Undersizing a plate chiller is the usual reason people conclude they do not work.
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Best regulator
MRbrew 0-60 PSI CGA-320 Keg Regulator
Standard CGA-320 inlet, so it fits any US CO2 tank, and a 0-60 PSI range that covers both serving pressure and a burst carbonation. The 5/16 inch barbed outlet takes standard gas line without an adapter.
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Set the pressure, see both numbers
YaeBrew Dual Gauge CO2 Regulator for Draft Beer Homebrew Kegerator CGA320
Dual gauge means one needle shows what is left in the tank and the other shows what you are actually applying to the beer. Carbonation is a pressure-and-temperature calculation, so a regulator you can read precisely is what makes the volumes-of-CO2 chart usable rather than decorative.
Worth knowing: A single regulator sets one pressure for everything downstream. If you want one keg carbonating at 30 PSI and another serving at 12, you need a second regulator or a secondary manifold.
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Fastest route to carbonated beer
UP100 Homebrew Cornelius Style Keg Carbonation Lid Kit with 0.5 Micron Stone
A replacement corny lid with the diffusion stone already plumbed through it, so gas enters the beer as fine bubbles from below instead of sitting on top waiting to dissolve. It turns overnight carbonation into a job measured in hours.
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Clean before you sanitise
Five Star P.B.W. Cleanser
The alkaline cleaner that removes the residue sanitiser cannot penetrate. Scratched plastic and old tubing harbouring soil is the usual source of a recurring infection.
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The problem wet hopping creates
Hop Spider 300 Micron Mesh Stainless Steel Hop Filter Strainer
Wet hops are used at roughly five times the weight of dried, because they are mostly water. That volume of vegetal matter in a kettle absorbs wort and clogs everything downstream. A hop spider holds the whole charge in one removable stainless basket instead.
Worth knowing: The basket restricts how freely wort circulates through the hops, so utilisation is lower than free-floating hops. With wet hops, where you are already using a large charge, that trade is usually worth making.
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Sanitiser
Five Star Star San, 32 Ounce
Acid-based and no-rinse at working strength, so sanitised gear goes straight back into service without a tap-water rinse undoing the work.
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Bottles
FastRack Amber Beer Bottles 12oz, Pack of 24
Note that a tripel carbonated to Belgian levels puts real pressure on glass. Use bottles rated for it and inspect for chips before filling.
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Capper and caps together
Craft a Brew Capping Kit with 100 Bottle Caps
A capper plus enough caps for two batches. Caps are single-use, so the bag runs out long before the capper does.
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False bottom
Krome AG405 Stainless Steel False Bottom for Homebrew Pot: 12"
Holds the grain bed off the bottom so wort can be drawn from underneath it. This is the part that makes step 5's sparge possible without the stuck sparge listed at the end of the article.
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Or buy the recipe rather than the parts
Craft A Brew Bone Dry Irish Stout Recipe Kit Refill, 1 Gallon
A one-gallon version of this style with the grain, hops and yeast already matched. Useful for testing the style at a fifth of the commitment before scaling the 5 gallon recipe above.
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Makes bottling day survivable
WENNING Manual Beer Bottle Capper Tool with 150 count Beer Bottle Caps,26mm Beer Corking Machine for Home Brewing（Crown Cap WN005）
The previous pick here was discontinued, and this is the closest current listing in the same class at a comparable price. It fills the same slot: Makes bottling day survivable. We have not tested it, and the specifics below come from the listing rather than from us.
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Line length is not arbitrary
Kegco 5'/3/16" ID Beer Line with Hexnut Assembly
Beer line resistance has to balance serving pressure or you pour foam. Five feet of 3/16 inch is the usual starting point for typical homebrew serving pressures, and it comes with the hexnut already fitted.
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Hops
Learn To Brew Cascade Hop Pellets for Home Brewing, 1 lb
A pound of Cascade covers the late additions step 3 asks for across several batches. Session IPA leans almost entirely on late and dry hopping, so quantity here is not extravagant.
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Barrels need upkeep
Oak Aging Barrel Restoration & Maintenance Kit, 1 to 5 Litre
Small barrels go sour or dry out between uses. This is the neutralising and swelling routine sold for exactly that problem.
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Faster readings during the brew
Brix Refractometer with ATC, Brix 0-32, for Home Brewing and Wine Making
Two drops of wort instead of a test jar, and automatic temperature compensation means no correction maths on brew day. For checking mash runnings and pre-boil gravity, it is the difference between measuring and not bothering.
Worth knowing: Refractometer readings are distorted by alcohol, so once fermentation starts the raw number is wrong and needs a conversion. It does not replace a hydrometer for final gravity.
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Or avoid the lauter entirely
Brew Bags Reusable 3 Pack, 26"x22" Fine Mesh Strainer Bag
A high-wheat mash is exactly the case where brew-in-a-bag earns its keep: there is no grain bed to set, so there is nothing to stick.
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The oxygen-absorbing caps this step means
144 Oxygen Absorbing Beer Bottle Crown Caps
The liner scavenges the oxygen trapped in the bottle headspace after capping. It does nothing about oxygen picked up during racking, which is the larger source.
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Stone on its own
Carbonating Stone with 1/4" Barb, 0.5 Micron
If you already have a spare lid or a fitting to put it on, the stone is the part that matters. Half a micron is the standard pore size for carbonating and for oxygenating wort.
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Oak, the cheap way
American Heavy Toast Oak Chips for Wine or Home Brew Beer, 4 oz
Heavy toast gives caramel and smoke rather than raw wood, which suits a roasty base. Chips give up their character in weeks, so taste weekly rather than setting a date.
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Gas in, beer out
PERA Ball Lock MFL Disconnect Set with Swivel Nuts
Grey for gas, black for liquid, and they are keyed differently so you cannot cross them. A spare pair costs almost nothing and saves a brew day when an O-ring finally goes.
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And something to put them in
CARGEN 14 inch Cotton Brew Bags for Grain and Dry Hopping, 15 Pack
Loose pellets in a fermenter make racking miserable. A bag keeps the dry hop contained and comes out in one piece.
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Bottle conditioning
Priming Sugar 5 oz, Two Packages
Step 5 is conditioning and bottling. A tripel is carbonated higher than most ales, so measuring the priming sugar rather than estimating it matters more here than usual.
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Water is part of the style
Calcium Chloride, 2 oz
Pilsen's water is famously soft and low in everything. Home tap water is usually the opposite, and small calcium additions are how brewers correct the mash pH without adding the sulfate and chloride character a pilsner should not have.
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Clarity in a very dark beer
Whirlfloc Tablets, 10 Tablets
Half a tablet at 15 minutes drops protein haze. It will not change the colour of an imperial stout, but it does improve the mouthfeel and the stability of a beer you are about to age for months.