Homebrewing Beer can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it.
It can be said that in the home brew industry you have 3 options or different types of homebrew beer kits
- Isomerised Beer Kits (usually pouches or cans)
- Extract Beer Kits ( Partial Mash Kits)
- All Grain Brewing ( brewing from scratch )
Modern day homebrew beer kits and starter equipment can allow you to not only be frugal but you can brew better beer than shop bought. If you are a craftbeer fan you can attempt to clone your favourite beer or be adventurous and create some truly unique beer.
If you decide to start homebrewing beer and you choose to start with a basic homebrew beer kit the equipment will always be useful for all levels of brewing beer. If you try a isomerised beer kit you can still create great beers. An isomerised extract kit is usually a pouch or can of liquid malt that has isomerised hop solution in it. You are basically rehydrating the liquid malt extract and adding the yeast and fermenting the beer. Some modern beer kits also have dry hop additions that you add directly to the fermenter this creates a nice hoppy aroma.
Extract brewing also includes brewing with liquid malt but it’s a little more hands on and you need a little more equipment but household pots etc can be used to help you create a wort with steeping grains. This steeping grain or quantity of malt will bring more freshness and body to the beer. Once you create the wort by adding the steeping grains (grains/malt in a muslin/nylon bag) to warm water you add the liquid malt. The steeping grains are added to warm water in extract brewing for e.g. 67 degrees as it converts the starches in the malt to fermentable sugars which is also known as sugary wort. The lower mashing temperatures with steeping grains will create a dryer beer and higher temperatures of say 69 will produce a sweeter beer.
All Grain Brewing is brewing from scratch using water, malt, hops and yeast. I’m a massive fan of all grain brewing it creates really impressive craft beers and allows you to really immerse yourself in the hobby, the process of all grain brewing is the longest to produce with a brewday taking around 5 hours. It’s a great way to spend a day though and the results are worth it. You can buy all grain recipe kits with instructions that have the beer style and ingredients all worked out for you or you can design your own recipes from scratch
What is critical to successful brewing of beer no matter what type of beer kit you choose is cleanliness and temperature control.
Having all equipment sterilized and maintaining a constant fermentation temperature for the yeast will make for the best brewed beer.
If you need any help at all selecting a homebrew starter kit we are happy to help, we aim to be beginner friendly and remember that we want you to brew beer consistently and successfully so you return to brew more beer time and time again