As well as the equipment required for brewing with kits you will need the following items.
Boiler. A boiler capable of boiling a minimum of 3 gallons, but preferably 5 or more. While stainless steel stockpots are available for use on a cooker top, dedicated homebrew boilers are generally a better option. They can be fitted with a tap to make running off from the boiler easier which in turn can be fitted with a device for holding back the hops known as a hop strainer.
Grain Bags. These are cheap nylon or muslin bags available from homebrew shops. They usually have a draw string to secure the specialty grains and can be put straight into the boiler and left there through out the steeping period (usually 30 mins). After the 30 mins is up they are fished out and given a gentle squeeze to extract the remaining sweet wort. Muslin bags are generally used one or two times only but the nylon bags can be used repeatedly. After use the bags should be emptied out, rinsed thoroughly in hot water and dried. There is no need to use soap or wash in a washing machine, as amongst other things any soap residue can taint subsequent batches of beer.
Chiller. These commonly come in two varieties, the counter flow chiller as seen here, http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/cooling.htm and the immersion chiller.The immersion chiller, while not quite so efficient is the cheaper and easier option to make and are is available from better homebrew shops. This is put into the boiler to cool the wort to yeast pitching temperature to facilitate the cold break.
Hop Strainer. These are simple devices,
which are attached to the back of the boiler tap to and hold back the hops while
draining the cool wort from the boiler. The hops that are held back form a
filter bed and also serve to filter out the hot and cold break material known as
the trub.
Liquer Tank. This is simply a container for your brewing liquer; technically the term is Hot Liquer Tank (or HLT). These are sometimes used by home brewers when all grain brewing but as there is no need to heat any water in extract brewing other than what’s in the boiler, I’ll refer to it as a liquer tank. Fermenters with taps or plastic barrels make good liquer tanks. If a polypropylene fermenter is used, they can be converted at a later date to a HLT by adding a kettle element a heat resistant tap when moving on to all grain brewing.
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