Preparing for 1st Mash best place to buy? To keg or not to k

[tannerman]

Hi,
I have just spent the evening dragging all my gear out of the garage and trying to remember what the hell it all does. I eventually overcame my inbuilt yorkshire thrift by throwing away the yeast , finings irish moss etc with best before dates of 1994. In an effort to keep on the right side of my dear mrs, I carted it all upstairs to do the cleaning in the bathroom. I put the mash tun in the bath to clean it and then decided to test it still works. I eventually got it up to intermittant boil ( I have a direct lead to the element for the boil stage) all seemed OK until I was finished and took it out of the bath............ and oh dear what a mess it has made, It didn't enter my mind that the plastic bath would melt so easily!!!
I am now making up a list of what I need to buy.... which internet shops do you guys use ? Also I am a bit unsure of wether to bottle or keg. I never actually managed to make kegging work when I was brewing before. I have a rotokeg and also a barrel, the last thing i bought was the "beer king" method with 5 litre kegs ( which have now dissapeared) I am tempted to try and use this if I can get the small kegs. The thought of a failed brew worries me as the last 2 I did ( 15 years ago) were failures..... what should I do??

[GrowlingDogBeer]

There are lots of sites in the LINKS section on this site that we would support.

It you want grain and hops and yeast I would recommend the malt miller.

Anything else then either you Local Home Brew Shop (LHBS) or any of the sites linked to in the link section,

Shame about the bath, but we all have to make sacrifices to produce good beer.

Good luck with your next brew.

Before you get started again get yourself a copy of Graham Wheeler's Brew your own British Real Ale.

[dannable]

Just make sure everything is sanitised and be prepared to accept that the first brew isn't going to be the best you've ever made. But, all being well, it won't be far off!

1994? remember, it's a best before date, not a toxic to all life forms after.. date!