I've heard the brushes can scratch the better bottles over time also, but an overnight soak with PBW or Oxyclean free does wonders. Dump it out in the morning and a quick rinse and they're clean as can be.
Yes sir. I use the **** out of the target brand of Oxyclean free. Wine fermenters these days.
Speaking of which...oxyclean tip...overnight soak in a strong solution of oxyclean removes almost any label, if you're saving money by keeping bottles (pry off beer can be re-used, I get my wine bottles that way too).
Brew pots: I got mine from a restaurant supply store. Look around, that doesn't have to be beer specific, unless you're thinking of doing 10 gallon all grain batches where you have to have the spigot and false bottom since you can't move that much wort and grain.
Turkey fryer: I started with this, although I got a different pot. Used it for a year or so. One thing I didn't realize until later, if it's a fryer with a small ring in the middle,
Like this:
you can have problems with scorching and darkening of the wort with the heat that concentrated if you get in a hurry. My experience: I was doing a lager batch, had 2 kits. Realized the extract was about half of some of the ales I had done in the past, so I figured...hey, boil both at once, split into 2 fermenters, away we go. The beer ended up darker than it should have by a lot, and had an off flavor. Didn't realize what it was until I listened to a brewing network podcast about the boil. It was like a lightbulb. Ordered a Blichmann floor burner pretty quickly:
You can get by with a turkey fryer if you have one already, just take it easy and don't crank it all the way up to get the boil going. If you're going to buy one anyway, and won't use it for anything else, I'd recommend something with the large flame area. There are cheaper ones than the blichmann, but I had my wife convinced that I needed a new burner, so I swung for the fence. The only down side for that one if you're starting out...my 5 gallon pot is almost too small for the burner.
