An airlock fermenter, therefore, is needed. For the majority of home brewers, a good carboy, typically a glass bottle that holds 5 to 6 gallons of brew, will do. A high quality plastic bucket is also not an uncommon choice among serious brewers. On top of these, other equipment needed are as follows: funnel, straining tools, siphoning equipment, bottling equipment, thermometer and hydrometer, wort chiller, and cleaning and sanitizing tools. This article, however, will focus solely on how you can save money by brewing your own beer. So without further ado, let's break down the reasons on how home brewing can help you cut costs You typically start by purchasing a brewing kit. It's an investment on your part, so you should consider first whether you're willing to brew your own beer long term. This is especially true if you are using old bottles with labels. The old bottles for use in bottling the brew should be soaked in a mixture of water and ammonia. After that, just rub off the labels to clean it up. Be sure to exercise safety precautions since you are handling ammonia. Carefully clean old bottles with the use of the bottle brush. Depending on the coverage of the guide, it could serve to provide the necessary information to create brew according to a recipe, provide recipes, or the combination of both. A guide may also detail the different processes of creating the most common brews prepared in non-commercial scales. For starters, a guide that covers all the basic information you need should do. When malting, the starches are converted into sugars. And these sugars in turn are fermentable. Now if you are just new in home brewing and would like to play with specialty grains, then start with the crystal malt. You can never go wrong with these grains since these are known for mild flavor. Cara-Pils. In places where the whether is extremely cold, you will need belt heaters to maintain the required fermentation temperature, like wise you need also chillers or coolers in places where the whether is extremely hot. Other uses of these devices are for quick and easy cooling and heating purposes during the whole process of brewing to fermentation.