What do we need

I'll outline how my brewing process unfolds over time to help list out all the things we need in the basement. All amounts are based on a 20l to 25l end product.

Brew day

My brew day takes about 3 to 4 hours from start to finish. Doing 10l or 20l is pretty much the same time. I haven't done any brews much bigger than that but I suspect anything up to 30l is doable in the same amount of time with a similar system as the one I'm describing.

Preparation

I start my brewing session by milling grains, about 5kg for a 20l batch. For this you need two things.

1. a kitchen scale to weigh the grains
2. a mill with adjustable spacing
3. a container of some sorts to weigh the grains in
4. a container of some sorts to catch the milled grains in

I use my Kenwood kitchen aid to mill and a 10l food grade bucket to collect the milled grains. This takes about 10min.

Mashing

I used to mash on my stove top, but recently switched to a bucket system. For the stove top brew I did a BIAB (brew in a bag) system which is basically a huge tea bag you dump into the pot. Anyway, the point of mashing is to steep the grains for 60min at about 64°C in about 20l of water. I use a 2000watt submersion boiler I got off amazon which takes about 30min to go from 40°C to, what we call striking temperate, which is about 67°C. My heating element is plugged into a temperature controller, also from amazon, and this keep the mash stable for the whole duration. So, in short we'll need:

1. a source of fresh water
2. a mashtun (big vessel we can heat up to our desired temperature)
3. a heat source of some sorts (can be electric, gas, ...)
4. a big spoon to stir the mash from time to time so it doesn't get stuck

During this hour there is not much to do but wait and have a beer. At about 15min from the end, I start heating up about 10l of sparge water to about 70°C. This will be used in the next stage. I often weigh my hops at this stage, so we'll also need:

1. a kitchen scale
2. a couple, two or three, small containers to put the weighed hops in

From mashing to boiling

Once the 60min are up it is time to extract the wort from the mash. Wort is basically the water without the spent grains. For this we'll need a filter system. With a BIAB system this is super easy, you just lift the grains out and let them leak into a second bucket. We'll probably end up with a all-in-one system that has this built in though.

We'll now try to extract the most sugars as possible from the mash. The spent grains will have absorbed a lot of water, probably about 5l so we'll need to make up for that. This is what the sparge water is for. It is poured over the spent grains and caught in the second bucket. While this is happening, which takes some time, we can already bring the wort to a boil.

At this stage we'll need:

1. a bucket to collect the sparge water in
2. a heating source to go from 67°C to a rolling boil
3. a vessel to boil the wort in

The sparge water is added to the wort and brought to a boil all together. Going from 67°C to 100°C takes about 30min on my 2000watt system.

Boiling

Not a lot is happening here so it's time for an other beer. We need to boil the wort for about 60min and add hops at specific times. The amount of hops and timing is very variable but I tend to go for two additions. One in the beginning for bitterness, and one at flameout (the end) for flavor. At the minimum we'll need:

1. a couple of hop bags

I use this time to prepare the fermentation vessels. This is basic sanitization. For this we'll need some specialized products, the most famous one is called Starsan.

1. sanitization product

Chilling

Once the boil is finished we want to cool the wort as quickly as possible. We want the wort to go to about 30°C at the maximum, and colder is better, with 20°C as a minimum. My current system is very ghetto, I cool by placing a bit metal pot in my sink with cold water that I refresh every 15min, but there are very nice systems on the market.

1. a chilling coil
2. a water pump
3. about 100l of cold water

Transfer to fermentation

Once the wort is at room temperature we can go ahead and transfer it to a sanitized fermentation vessel. Here we'll add the yeast, put on a water lock and clean up.

1. precision scale to weigh the yeast (about 10g for a 20l batch)
2. fermentation vessel
3. water lock

Clean up

We'll have about 10kg of spent grains to get rid of, plus heaps of tools to clean. I do everything by hand in my shower and kitchen so some sort of flexible wet room is advised.

1. basic cleaning products
2. lot's of water and a way to get rid of it

Fermentation

Nothing to do here but wait. It takes about 2 weeks for the main fermentation to complete.

Dry hopping

When making an IPA, you'll want to add fresh hops after about 2 weeks, and let them in for a small week. For this we'll need an other hop bag and scale. The bag should be sanitized.

1. a kitchen scale
2. hop bag

Bottle day

For a 20l batch you'll need about 70 bottles cleaned, sanitized and ready to go. Make no mistake, cleaning takes a lot of time. To clean a big batch of bottles I need about an hour and a half by myself. The tools are easy though.

1. steady flow of water
2. bottles to clean
3. sanitizing product

To actually bottle we'll first transfer the fermented liquid to a second vessel with a tap at the bottom that has been sanitized. In this vessel we'll need about 7grams/liter of dissolved sugar (in water) for bottle carbonation. I do this with a silicone tube and old school suction power.

1. silicone tube (about 2m max)
2. scale to weigh the sugar
3. kettle to boil some water

Once the fermented beer is in the secondary vessel we can bottle. For this we need a bottling tool and a capping tool. It's handy to have the bottling tool on some tubing so you're more flexible. Anyway.

1. some tubing
2. a bottling tool
3. a capping device

Final cleaning

There is not much to clean up on bottling day. A just bottling day takes about two hours for a 25l batch with a very minimal cleanup.

Recap

1. a kitchen scale to weigh the grains
2. a mill with adjustable spacing
3. a container of some sorts to weigh the grains in
4. a container of some sorts to catch the milled grains in
5. a source of fresh water
6. a mashtun (big vessel we can heat up to our desired temperature)
7. a heat source of some sorts (can be electric, gas, ...)
8. a big spoon to stir the mash from time to time so it doesn't get stuck
9. a kitchen scale
10. a couple, two or three, small containers to put the weighed hops in
11. a bucket to collect the sparge water in
12. a heating source to go from 67°C to a rolling boil
13. a vessel to boil the wort in
14. a bucket to collect the sparge water in
15. a heating source to go from 67°C to a rolling boil
16. a vessel to boil the wort in
17. a couple of hop bags
18. sanitization product
19. a chilling coil
20. a water pump
21. about 100l of cold water
22. precision scale to weigh the yeast (about 10g for a 20l batch)
23. fermentation vessel
24. water lock
25. basic cleaning products
26. lot's of water and a way to get rid of it
27. a kitchen scale
28. hop bag
29. steady flow of water
30. bottles to clean
31. sanitizing product
32. silicone tube (about 2m max)
33. scale to weigh the sugar
34. kettle to boil some water
35. some tubing
36. a bottling tool
37. a capping device

Grouped recap

1. a scale

   1. a kitchen scale to weigh the grains
   2. a kitchen scale
   3. precision scale to weigh the yeast (about 10g for a 20l batch)
   4. a kitchen scale
   5. scale to weigh the sugar

2. a mill

   1. a mill with adjustable spacing

3. a few large, 20l, containers

   1. a container of some sorts to weigh the grains in
   2. a container of some sorts to catch the milled grains in
   3. a bucket to collect the sparge water in
   4. a bucket to collect the sparge water in

4. small pots to temporally store stuff in

   1. a couple, two or three, small containers to put the weighed hops in

5. water supply

   1. a source of fresh water
   2. about 100l of cold water
   3. lots of water and a way to get rid of it
   4. steady flow of water

6. a brew system

   1. a mashtun (big vessel we can heat up to our desired temperature)
   2. a heat source of some sorts (can be electric, gas, ...)
   3. a heating source to go from 67°C to a rolling boil
   4. a vessel to boil the wort in

7. a spoon

   1. a big spoon to stir the mash from time to time so it doesn't get stuck

8. hop bags

   1. a couple of hop bags
   2. hop bag

9. cleaning products

   1. sanitization product
   2. basic cleaning products
   3. sanitizing product

10. cooling coil

    1. a chilling coil

11. a pump or flowing water

    1. a water pump

12. fermentation vessel

13. water lock

14. bottles to clean

15. silicone tubing

    1. silicone tube (about 2m max)
    2. some tubing

16. kettle to boil some water

17. a bottling tool

18. a capping device