Home Brew Guide

The advent of simple-to-use commercial-grade brewing kits has revolutionised the home brewing world to the point it's now possible to fast-track professional methods, on a much smaller scale. Believe me, with a bit of planning you can produce some pretty good stuff in your own kitchen and without any previous experience, by just using this simple home brew guide. Aside from the fun element, there is also a substantial financial saving with a 750ml serve of a simple recipe costing as little as a dollar. Countries often have excise taxes on alcahol, but there is no tax on home brewing and it is perfectly legal in most regions. First, let me explain some brewing fundamentals. The main ingredient is malted barley. Brewers receive this intact. We then crush it and mix it with hot water. In the resulting warm porridge (mash) the natural malt enzymes convert the starch to sugars. This is important because yeast can ferment sugars but not starch.The brewer will then collect the resulting liquid (wort) and boil it with hops for bittering and flavour. Finally, the wort is cooled and fermented with a specific strain of yeast. As a result the sugar is consumed and alcohol, CO2 and flavour is produced. The actual process is a bit more complex that this but you can still do it yourself at home.

However, there is an easier way for the beginner: home brew kits. This way, most of the brewing has already been done. Professional brewers have made the wort and concentrated it so all you have to do is sort of a cordial beer.

I won't go into all the details as these are generally outlined clearly in the kit instructions but it is extremely easy: Mix the extract with water, add yeast and wait two weeks, bottle the beer and wait another two weeks for it to carbonate.

Of course there are a few details that need attention along the way, most importantly to keep all your equipment clean and sterile.

The only other gear needed is a fermentation bucket with an airtight lid, an airlock and a tap ($40), and a hydrometer (from $12), a simple instrument that measures the amount of sugar in the beer before and after fermentation and therefore can tell you when your beer is ready to bottle.

The ingredients for one batch (20 litres) will set you back as little as $18. Alternatively, and I would recommend this, you can get a starter pack that includes everything you need to brew 20 litres plus a few handy extras. This will cost $100-$150 and can be found at your local home brew shop, online home brew shops, Bin Inn or maybe even a well-stocked supermarket. This also makes the perfect Christmas present for the (wo)man who thinks (s)he has everything.

When the beer is fully fermented (this takes one to two weeks) you add a bit more sugar and bottle it. The extra sugar will ferment in the sealed bottle and since the resulting CO2 can't escape it will dissolve into the beer and carbonate it.

Again, this is all explained in the kit instructions. Bottles can either be PET plastic bottles from home brew shops or recycled commercial beer bottles. It is important that the bottles can withstand some pressure otherwise they might explode, so if you go with glass bottles I recommend the bigger ones (500ml and up) as they are made of a thicker glass than standard 330ml stubbies. You will also need to invest in a capper ($30) and some extra time to clean and sterilise the bottles. Once you have mastered brewing the kit you may want to venture further, this is where it can get really addictive. There are a few easy steps to enhance your kit:

1. Change the yeast. I would recommend getting a proper strain from a homebrew shop. The Safale range is an excellent choice.

2. Temperature control. It is important to keep the fermentation temperature relatively stable as large swings can put the yeast to sleep or produce undesirable flavours. Most yeast in the beginning works best around 20C. Keeping the temperature within 2C of that will improve your home brew immensely. An easy way to cool the fermenter is to wrap it in wet towels, or put it in a tub of cold water if it's really warm.

3. Adding hops. The kits already contain hops, but not many. Adding a few more will give your beer better flavour and aroma.

4. Finings. Adding a bit of gelatine to the fermenter before bottling will clear up some of the haze often found in homebrew.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. For enthusiastic homebrewers there are virtually no limits. There are hundreds of different malts, hops and yeast strains that can be combined to produce thousands of different beers.

The next step in your home brewing career is likely to be partial mashing, where you mash grains of your choice and boost the beer with pre-made malt extract, and then all-grain brewing, where you do everything from scratch.