Home brewing can be a fun and easy project to do once you gather all the essential ingredients and equipment. It may be a long process, but in the end, you get high-quality beer that you made according to your taste and with your own efforts.

Pick the Right Beer Recipe Kit

Beer recipe kits contain all the ingredients you need in order to start brewing. You only need four ingredients to create beer: barley, hops, yeast and water. Even though it sounds simple, to get quality results you need to have quality ingredients and in the perfect ratio. But instead of sourcing and measuring each ingredient on your own, you can just check out the range of ready-made beer recipe kits and save yourself the trouble.

There’s a variety of beer recipes to choose from depending on your personal taste. For instance, if you want to create something more refreshing than regular beer, you can try a homebrew recipe kit for craft session ale that features a citrusy hop aroma which will give the beer a fruity blast and a crisp refreshing finish. Once it is done, the beer will have straw-like colour, a lingering feel and a clean finish on the palate.

You can also try the homebrew recipe kits that contain pale malts and wheat malts along with Tasmanian grown eclipse hops and US magnum hops that together create the flavour of sweet mandarin, zesty citrus peel and fresh pine needles with a finish crisp and smooth bitterness. Once the beer is ready it will have a light golden colour.

The beer recipe kits of Australian grown eclipse along with NZ Wakatu hops and yeast makes for a fruity and floral flavoured beer – a unique experience for your taste buds This blend gives the beer a taste of fruity citrus, mandarin and zesty lime with a hint a floral. When the beer is done fermenting, it will have a light golden colour with a touch of hazy.

A blend of the popular US-grown Mosaic hops will give your beer a subtle yet complex taste of citrus and tropical fruits along with berry and a hint of pine. You’ll be able to feel the flavour of tangerine, citrus and mango together in this perfect mix. This blend provides for a golden colour beer.

If you want to achieve a more vibrant citrus aroma, you can try the classic American pale ale showcasing the high impact Citra aroma hops grown in the US. The taste of grapefruit and lime is backed up by the taste of tropical fruits. Everything is balanced with the help of tasty malts and you can also sense the neutral yeast character.

Essential Home Brewing Equipment

When it comes to the equipment, you’re going to need a fermenting bucket, boiling equipment, an airlock and a stirrer. You’ll need a stainless steel pot for the boiling part of the brewing. You can pick a small pot or a big one depending on the amount of beer you’re planning to brew. Along with that, consider getting a thermometer that will help you measure the temperature in the brew pot and control it. Brewing is a very delicate process, so it’s best if you have everything measured and under control instead of leaving it up to chance.

The fermenting bucket usually has 25l capacity but you shouldn’t fill it up, instead put only around 20l in it. It’s recommended to get a bucket that has a lid in order to seal the beer and prevent anything from getting inside and spoiling it. Fermenting buckets can be made both from durable plastic and glass.

The airlock is of great help in preventing oxygen and bacteria from contaminating the fermenting beer. Even the slightest trace of bacteria can significantly change the taste of the beer or ruin it completely.

The stirrer needs to be long enough for you to safely stir the warm water with the beer kit. It needs to be sanitized and made of stainless steel, although you may have something similar but wooden in your kitchen already. Wooden stirrers can be difficult to wash properly and they may have microbes on them that can further spoil the beer so it’s best not to use them.

The Importance of Proper Sanitising

Keeping everything sparkling clean is of big importance when it comes to brewing beer especially at home. The whole process of brewing is delicate and every little inconvenience can spoil the taste of your beer and the whole process along with the effort and time you put in it will be in vain. Why is this? Well, dirt and microorganisms that you failed to clean and remove properly can spoil the beer as I have already mentioned before.

You can do the cleaning with the help of special cleaning and sanitizing products or with bleach. You need to be extra careful though. If you use too many of the cleaning products and fail to efficiently remove them from the equipment they may give a weird and unwanted aroma to your beer. You may even notice residue on the beer surface which is even worse. No one wants to drink that kind of beer.

It’s also important to know that the cleaning process consists of two parts. First is the removal of stains and dirt that you can see with your eyes. The second and most important part is sanitizing – the process of reducing or completely eliminating bacteria from the surfaces and equipment.

Bottle the Beer and You’re Ready to Go!

The bottles in which you’re going to store the beer after it’s ready need to be clean and ready to be filled. It’s best if you clean the bottles ahead of time so that when the beer is ready you can store it in them. Same as with the brewing equipment, the bottles need to be perfectly clean without any trace of dirt or cleaning products that can interfere with the taste of the beer.

After you’re done bottling the beer, close it nice and tight and let it sit for two more weeks. As I said, home brewing is a long process but what can be better than custom made beer? And you never know, it may become something more than just a hobby.

After the two week period, it’s time to taste your beer! The way you serve the beer may seem unimportant to you but the relationship between the beer and its vessel is more crucial than you think. For a more authentic feel always choose classic beer glasses designed for that purpose. Cheers!