Our Deluxe kit includes all the items in our homebrewer start kit but adds in a Carboy fermenter so you can ferment 2 beers at the same time or to use as a secondary fermenter. Below, you will find a description for each of the items included in this kit which has everything you need to make your first batch of beer. Many of these items may look quite foreign at first, but each item has a specific purpose.

1. Alkaline Wash (2 oz. packet) - This is a small amount of cleaning powder, but it should get you through the first batch or two. Cleaning all of your brewing equipment after each use is extremely important if your goal is to consistently make great beer.
2. Star-San Sanitizer (4 oz jar) - This solution is to be mixed at a rate of 1 oz of Star San to 5 gallons of water. We like to mix up a batch of sanitizer on every brew day or bottling day and make sure all of our equipment that is going to come into contact with the beer is sanitized. This is assuming the equipment is clean to begin with. We recommend CLEANING all equipment after use, and SANITIZING all equipment prior to use.
3. Nylon Carboy Brush - This is the longer brush with a 90 degree curve at the end. This curve is made to allow you to reach all of the tough-to-reach spots in your 5 gallon PET carboy.
4. Nylon Bottle Brush - This brush is intended to clean stubborn residue that may form in bottles after a few uses.
5. 20 Quart Stainless Steel Stock Pot - The perfect sized stock pot for brewing partial boil, extract batches of beer. This stainless pot will last forever. Bar Keepers Friend is a great cleaner for stainless steel.
6. 18” Boil Proof Plastic Spoon - Food grade, heat resistant plastic spoon used to stir your ingredients in during the boil. Also good for stirring your wort prior to adding your yeast. This plastic spoon will not scratch your plastic fermenter.
7. Floating Thermometer - Ideal for measuring the temperature of your water/wort during the grain steeping process. Also helpful when chilling your wort to yeast pitching temps.
8. 6.5 Gallon Food Grade Plastic Fermenter/Bottling Bucket - This will act as your PRIMARY fermenter, as well as your bottling bucket. Make sure you have the spigot attached (also make sure it is water tight) before you dump your beer into this bucket to ferment!
9. Adhesive Fermometer - An adhesive thermometer meant to be stuck to the side of your fermenting bucket. This will give you a good idea on what the temperature of your beer is during fermentation.
10. 3 Piece Cylinder Airlock - This piece allows CO2 created during fermentation to escape, but does not allow oxygen or foreign contaminants in. Stick this into the small, grommeted hole in the lid for your 6.5 gallon fermenter. Fill about halfway up with sanitizer solution.
11. Bottling Spigot - This piece allows for easy, low-turbulence flow from the bottom of your bottling bucket when bottling time comes. Also acts as a seal for the hole in your 6.5 gallon fermenter during primary fermentation.
12. Hydrometer - This piece should be wrapped up tightly in bubble wrap. It is a very delicate (they break quite easily), but important piece to the brewing process. It measures your specific gravity, which allows us to determine the amount of alcohol that is created during fermentation.
13. Auto-Siphon (w/ 5 feet of tubing included) - The auto-siphon is the long two-piece plastic item that should be in it’s own bag. One piece is a long plastic tube and the other is the plunger/racking cane that goes into the plastic tube. Attach the tubing to the top end of the racking cane (not the plunger, but the other side). You may have to heat the tubing up with hot water to make it more pliable, and easier to get onto the racking cane. The auto-siphon is arguably the most important tool in a home brewer’s arsenal. It allows us to “rack” (a fancy word for “transfer”) our beer from one vessel to the next without agitating the beer.
14. 5 Gallon Carboy - This is your ‘secondary fermenter’. It is a smaller size for a reason. The primary fermenter (your 6.5 gallon bucket) is larger to accommodate the foam that forms during fermentation. Once fermentation is complete (about 1-2 weeks after the yeast has been pitched), use your auto-siphon (make sure everything is SANITIZED!) to transfer the beer to this 5 gallon carboy to further condition for another 1-2 weeks. Ideally, you will have a minimal amount of headspace in the secondary fermenter. Oxygen is the enemy of beer! It causes off flavors and destroys hop flavor/aroma rather quickly. Also, when transferring from the primary fermenter to the secondary, try to avoid the thick layer of sediment (known to brewers as the ‘trub’) at the bottom. This sediment is mostly made of yeast, proteins and hop matter. It is no longer needed once fermentation is complete. **Important Side Note: Always make sure your beer is done fermenting before you transfer it to the secondary vessel! Do this by taking consecutive hydrometer reading. Once the readings have stabilized over a 1-2 day period, the yeast should be done working and the beer should be ready to transfer.**
15. #10 Drilled Rubber Stopper - This piece goes into the opening on your 5 gallon PET carboy. It is drilled to fit the 3 piece airlock, and keep the vessel sealed and safe from O2 and/or contaminants.
16. Bottle Filler - This piece is about 12 inches long and allows for easy filling of bottles. The spring at the tip allows liquid to flow only when the tip is pressed on.
17. Wing Capper - The wing capper has two plastic handles that serve as levers. This is the tool you will use to seal your bottle caps onto your bottles. There is a small magnet on the bell that grabs the cap and allows for easier capping. Press both levers down onto the top of the bottle (you don’t have to press TOO hard) and release. Your bottle cap should be secured tightly.