In this video, I would like to go over the optional upgrades we have for our starter kits. I'll go over what the additional items are, and why they are a good choice. All of these upgrades are built off of the basic starter kit. Lets start off with the starter plus kit. The upgrades here are a stainless steel spoon, an auto-siphon, and ''How To Brew'' by John Palmer. The stainless steel spoon is an essential piece of equipment when boiling your beer ingredients. The spoon is used to stir the extract, keeping it from sinking to the bottom of your kettle and burning. The auto-siphon is a handy time saver, that allows you to start a siphon in a quick, sanitary fashion. ''How To Brew'' is one of the most complete books on home brewing in publication. It will instruct you on every aspect of beginner brewing, and help guide you thru more advanced beer making methods.
Next, lets take a look at the starter plus with secondary kit. This kit will include everything in the starter plus kit, as well as a 5 gallon Better Bottle secondary fermenter, a #10 drilled stopper, and an additional 3 piece airlock. This option allows you to transfer your beer to a secondary fermenter, which will help clear your beer of any sediment and help improve the final beer flavor. Using a secondary fermenter allows you to lager your beer, or add dry hops for additional flavor and character. We use the plastic better bottles to save you in shipping, as well as trips to the emergency room when heavy glass carboys slip and break. The #10 stopper and airlock are used to seal the better bottle from air that can contaminate your beer.
The next step up is our Deluxe Bottling Package. This is designed to be the ultimate package. In addition the the starter plus with secondary, we throw in a handsome stainless steel pot, two cases of 24 12 ounce bottles, a copper immersion chiller with faucet adapter, and a test tube for you to float your hydrometer in. The included 5 gallon pot is designed for home brewing, and is the perfect size to make any of our Alpine Brew Kits. The two cases of bottles will hold your first batch of beer, and can be re-used over and over. The copper immersion chiller is a fast and economical way of safely cooling down the unfermented ingredients after boiling them. This will help improve everything in your beer, from flavor to finished beer clarity. We include a faucet adapter, so you can hook the chiller up to an indoor sink.
If you don't like the idea of filling 48 bottles, we designed the Deluxe Kegging Package as well. After the starter plus with secondary kit, we continue on with a 5 gallon pot, and a copper immersion chiller and faucet adapter. Instead of bottles, we include a fully refurbished 5 gallon soda keg, an empty 5 pound CO2 gas tank, a double gauge regulator with all of the fittings you need, and finally a picnic tap handle. The 5 gallon soda keg is a standard in the home brewing industry, and we completely refurbish and pressure test each keg. Because of safety issues, we can't ship full gas tanks, but they can be filled at any local welding supply shop. The regulator has gauges representing the pressure in the gas tank and in the keg, allowing you to easily see how much gas you have left, as well as closely control carbonation levels. The included picnic tap is great for parties and for use in refrigerators that can't have holes drilled into them.
