Home Brewing For Beginners
Making home brew has been a very satisfying pastime for many a beer drinker for many years. In recent years it has become easier and easier to make beer in the comfort of your own home. Home brew starter kits and ingredients are now available online, in specialist stores and even in some high street supermarkets.
First-time home brewers would be well recommended to purchase a kit from one of the many places where they can be found. There are various types of starter kits usually ranging from about 20 for the most basic.
When purchasing a starter kit for making your home brew, you should ensure that it has at least the following items: a fermentation bucket, something to extract the beer from the fermentation bucket i.e. a syphoning tube and of course the key ingredients of the brew: yeast and malt extract. Sometimes you will get sugar provided but the cheaper the kit, the more you’ll have to buy. You will of course need some receptacle to store it in.
Once you have your equipment, the fun can begin. Mix your ingredients as per the instructions on your kit in the fermentation bucket. Once you have added all of your ingredients to the bucket, the final (and most crucial) ingredient is the yeast. These little fellows will eat through virtually all of the sugar and turn into alcohol.
Fermenting the mixture in the bucket is known as the first fermentation process and once this is finished after approximately 4 to 6 days, the brew will require transferring for the second fermentation either to bottles or to a pressurised barrel. The mixture should then be stored for a further 2 weeks until it is ready, but it must be primed with some extra sugar (about 1 teaspoon per litre) in order to complete the fermentation in the receptacle(s).
Find out more about purchasing home brew supplies online!
