If you haven't brewed anything yet, I'll echo the others and recommend starting with some basic kit-brewing equipment and get a couple of kits under your belt. This way you can familiarise yourself with the basics of your equipment, and find a sanitation and temperature control routine that works for you, as these are the two most important things to get right and you don't want to waste a day doing an all-grain brew just to ruin a batch because of the fundamentals. Plus, it will give you a chance to see if brewing really is for you without investing heavily, and the equipment you get will be things that you will need if you then upgrade to all-grain.
There are lots of options available from The Homebrew Company, Homebrew Online, The Homebrew Shop, BrewUK and others, which sell their own equipment bundles as well as branded pre-packaged starter kits from Brewferm, Woodfordes, Cooper's and Youngs. Make sure to look at at the 'discounts' section on here, as some of these online shops have a 5% discount for members of this forum.
Personally, I would aim for a 33L fermentation vessel without a tap, as the extra head room will help prevent overflowing when fermenting beers with large krausens. They are also the easiest to clean and can be submersed into a flexi-bucket with an aquarium heater for temperature control (I would invest in a
ã3 40L flexi-bucket and
ã8 75W heater as they make a cheap temperature control option this time of year). An fv with airlock isn't necessary, though it won't do any harm. I just crack the lid slightly when fermenting and have never had any problems with it. Similarly, stainless steel is nice and shiny, but an unnecessary luxury - there are many other things I would invest in first before going for one of these, plus they can be a pain if you later upgrade to a brew fridge for temperature control. I would also go for either a
separate bottling bucked with a tap and bottling stick, as siphoning off the trub allows you to batch prime your beer and prevents you from stirring up sediment when faffing around grabbing empty bottles and putting full ones down, or go for a starter kit with a pressure barrel. Personally, I'm not a fan of pressure barrels for multiple reasons, but other people swear by them. In terms of bottles, some cheap PET one can get you started, but the glass ones are nicer. After my initial outlay I've been collecting and recycling empty bottles, and helping to 'clear up' after parties, so now I have loads. Another point is many of the starter kits come with stick-on strip thermometers which aren't accurate. I'd invest in a good electric or spirit thermometer, as it will prove invaluable. Finally, a starter kit with a decent twin-lever capper, like the ones that comes with the Homebrew Company kits, can save you head-aches down the line and should last until you (almost inevitably) decide to buy a bench capper.
The trial jar, siphon tubing and hydrometer are all much of a muchness, though I prefer the smaller trial jar and hydrometer from Homebrew Online, as it means I waste less beer when doing hydrometer readings. You can start with any sanitiser, most starter kits come with VWP or an oxi- based no-rinse one, though boiling water and diluted thin bleach will also do the job. Eventually you might want several for different purposes. I use oxi-clean for cleaning things that have caked on, VWP for heavy-duty sanitation, and star-san for spraying down surfaces, scissors, caps..., and boiling water for things that can stand it (i.e. not plastics that go soft with heat).
