Starting out home beer brewing
Brewing beer at a home is a fascinating hobby the more you learn about it the more you get out of it. It can be bit daunting though knowing where to start, from choosing the right equipment to choosing the beer kit.
You can often buy home brew beer kits in supermarkets, there is a supermarket near us that regularly has offers. I do think though the best place to go is to a proper home brew shop there you can get lots of advice and you’ll see all the equipment you need. I started using a Geordie bitter kit. This is a good place to start as the Geordie range of kits are very easy to make and you get good results. I still use Geordie beer kits although I now customise these using a range of hops and malts.
The basic equipment you will need is a 5 gallon fermenter, some sterilising powder, a siphon pipe, and a big plastic spoon. You can buy the plastic spoons from the home brew shop these are designed to reach the bottom of the barrel and stirs the beer. Also a good idea is to buy a hydrometer and a the thermometer.
Once your beer has finished brewing you have a choice of whether to bottle the beer or put the beer in a barrel. I find the best thing is 2 L pop bottles, the ones you get fizzy drinks in. You will need 11 bottles to bottle a full beer kit.
When choosing a beer kits the best advice would be to choose a beer which you like to drink in the pub. The most difficult type of beer to make are lagers, this is because during the fermentation process the beer needs to be kept around 12°C. The best type of beer to start brewing with are the bitters these can be brewed at room temperature, so don’t need any careful monitoring.
I chose a Geordie bitter kit to start with, after that I used a Woodforde’s Wherry beer kit. The Woodforde’s Wherry is a two-part kit and is slightly more expensive than the Geordie beer kits but you do not need any additional sugar. When making beer with a Geordie bitter kit or any of the economy kits, you will need a kilogram of sugar. I found the Woodforde’s Wherry no more difficult to make than the Geordie bitter kit, but I did find that the beer tasted a lot nicer.
Similar Posts:
- None Found