Homebrew Kits - How to Homebrew Beer from Kits

If you are new to homebrew this a the simplest place to start. You will need several pieces of homebrew equipment, these can often be bought as a "homebrew starter kit" which contains the basic items and of course a beer kit. A wide range of homebrew beer kits are available including kits from Brupak, Muntons, Milestone and Woodfordes to name just a few of the best that contain larger quantities of wort and require less sugar producing a better beer. If you're looking to try a kit for the first time a good starting place would be:

• Muntons Premium Gold Pale Ale kit
• Muntons Gold Imperial Stout kit
• Muntons Premium Gold Smugglers Special Pale Ale
• If your like a good bitter, for choice I would pick Woodfordes Nelsons Revenge Strong Bitter

Homebrew Equipment you will need

Large Saucepan or Boiler

Personally I would recommend going for a "burco boiler" you can buy these on ebay you could use a very large stockpot but when you boil the wort, it has a habit of boiling over and making a mess of your cooker! Also a 5 or 10 gallon burco boiler will save you having to pay out again if you choose to move to brewing from the grain for which a boiler is necessary. The added bonus of the boiler is that you can experiment adding hops to your beer kits to make them more interesting. But if you have a big stock pot in the kitchen cupboard that will do.

Long Metal / Plastic Spoon

You need a long spoon or spatula to stir the wort, metal is ideal as it does bend and go soft when it gets hot, but the plastic ones are ok.

Fermenting Bin

Usually 25l (5 gallons) in food grade plastic with a lid

Syphon tube

You use a syphon tube to transfer your beer into bottles or keg after fermentation, this avoids getting air in your beer which can make it go off ie convert the ethanol (alcohol) into ethanoic acid (vinegar).

Hydrometer

A Hydrometer lets you check the gravity of the beer (how dense it is). At the start of the brew your beer contains lots of sugars which increase the density, this gives you the "original gravity" or OG of the beer. At the end of the fermentation, you are looking for the gravity to fall below 1010 for the majority of beers, if it stops before this, your yeast may have died and you will need to repitch a different yeast to start it again

Barrel / Bottles

Regardless of whether you want to bottle your beer or barrel it, I would recommend putting it in a barrel after fermentation and leaving it there for a couple of weeks before transfering to bottles if desired, this greatly reduces the sediment in the bottles and makes for a more consistent product. If you plan to barrel you can leave it in the original barrel though I prefer to transfer it off the sediment after the first two weeks.

Selecting a homebrew beer kit

A good beer kit makes a big difference, as a rule of thumb look for one that contains as much malt and requires as little additional sugar as possible as these will produce a brew with more flavour. Try these:

Getting the best out of your kit

• Make sure all your equipment is sterilised with a good sterlising solution. If it is really dirty, try putting it in the dishwasher, I like to use antibacterial wipes on everything before I put it away, this retards bacterial growth so it's cleaner next time you get your stuff out, pay particular attention to handles and hard to get corners, be very careful not to scratch your equipment as this creates a breeding place for germs
• If you can boil all your water this is ideal, you can precipitate unwanted salts and "Burtonise" your water by adding 2 teaspoons of gypsum (calcium sulphate) and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt to you boiling water and then after 15 minutes boiling adding 1 teaspoon of magnesium sulphate and allow the salts to precipitate before use.
• Boil up the wort and water as per your kits instructions, if you want to experiment a bit look out for hops that you could add to aid the aroma of the brew, try a variety Goldings or Hallertau for a lager
• Make up your liquor to the correct volume, ideally end up with a liquor at about 30 degrees C, if you can get your brew started at 25-30 degrees and then keep it warm (I like to ferment in the kitchen wrapped in some loft insulation) it will ferment more quickly and cleanly producing a more consistent result, a normal 1040 OG beer can ferment out in 3 days in the right conditions, if it start cooler or isn't properly aerated it can take up to 10 days.
• Now aerate your liquor, this helps the yeast to work. The yeast needs oxygen, sugar and the correct temperature to work (20-30 degrees) the best way of doing this is to pour the liquor from one fermenting bin to another, I like to use one fermenter with a tap and then let the liquor run into another fermenter slowly sprinkling the yeast in as I go, if you aren't happy with the yeast that comes with your kit try Safale S-04 Yeast which is a good all round dry ale yeast. Note: aeration must be done when the temperature has reached pitching temperature as at higher temperatures oxgen doesn't stay in suspension
• Put you fermenter somewhere at a comfortable room temperature, ideally low 20's and wrap it up to keep it warm, loosely cover and leave to begin ferment. It is important that the beer is not infected by any natural yeasts as this will spoil the tastes so make absolutely sure that everything is properly clean from this point on.
• After 2 days, carefully syphon the brew into another fermenting bin, this called "dropping" and aids getting the trub (dead yeast) out of your beer. Note: When ever syphoning your beer avoid getting air into the beer and be prepared to lose a bit, when you get down to the trub stop as soon as cloudy liquid is being syphoned, it's better to have 38 pints of fantastic beer than 40 pints of cloudy ropey beer
• Once fermentation is complete carefully syphon off the trub into a barrel and leave for a couple of weeks. At this point you could drink it from the barrel (best left for a month to age) or syphon into bottles and leave to naturally condition for a couple of months, if you are in a hurry for your bottled beer, you can add a spoon full of sugar to the beer before syphoning to reaactivate the yeast and quickly prime but this adds more trub to your bottle, if you can wait, patience is the best policy. Personally I like to transfer to a Cornelius Keg though at this point for a more professional result