The Fast Track Way to Making Beer at Home

There are a lot of people who have taken the plunge to buy all the equipment and get started making their own beer from scratch at home.  But the odds are that just as many people are curious about brewing beer at home but are pushed away by the challenge of buying all this stuff and figuring out how to do it and then the problem of the mess and the storage of equipment and beer in different phases of fermentation and completion.

For many, what is needed is an easy way to give home brewing a shot without having to go to all the effort of buying a complete set up of equipment, all of the ingredients and the bottles and storage just to find out if you like it.  What is not generally known is that there is such a fast track way to making beer at home.  By buying a simple device called a beer making machine, you can easily make a batch of beer right in the home

The good thing about a beer making machine is that it is basically a plug and go situation.  This takes a lot of the intimidation out of buying many individual units of equipment and going through each step of brewing and fermentation by the seat of your pants.  The brewing machine goes a long way to take the preparation over so you can do all the steps using the resources of the machine.  When you buy the machine, it comes with the ingredients and instructions.

The entire design of a beer making machine is based on the idea of reducing the mess and fuss of beer making for that first time home brewer who needs to have some of the joy of making their own brew but not as much of the work and the worry.  You certainly don’t have to be a beer making guru to use these user friendly machines because the instructions are clear and written in an understandable way and the ingredients come measured and ready to go.

But as with any ready made solution for discovering something as great as home brewing your own beer, there are pluses and minuses to breaking yourself in on a beer making machine.  Probably one of the biggest pluses is that they are a one time use machine that you can use and throw away.  This gets the problems of cleaning and sanitation out of the loop entirely.  All of the ingredients are prepared and ready to add in premeasured amounts so the fuss and worry about going from completely raw materials is removed as well.  It is just about as user friendly as you can make home brewing be.

The down side of using a beer making machine to break into the craft of home brewing is that because it is completely set up when you buy it as a kit, you don’t get the change to play with the ingredients and enjoy the creativity and experimentation that is a big part of why beer making is so fun.  You go through the steps and make one good batch of beer. But you don’t have the chance to make it a great batch of beer because you cannot make changes to the ingredients as you go.

Also a beer making machine is sold to make one and only one batch of beer and then you, in theory, are to throw it away.  This may seem like a big waste and you might try to clean it up to use it again.   But the real idea of the product is as a starter experience.  It really isn’t the kind of thing intended for you to buy a new kit every month and continue making that same kind of beer each time.

But keep the perspective that it is not really designed to be your total and final solution for beer making. By breaking into home brewing with the beer making machine, you get some of the experience of making and fermenting your own beer and then bottling it to serve a few weeks later as a genuine product of your little at home brewery.  And the fun of that may be a great way for you to start making beer and then grow into a hobby that may last a lifetime.

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Getting Set Up to Make Beer

The hobby of brewing your own beer at home is growing steadily as more people discover how much fun they can have making their beer at home and how great absolutely fresh beer can be.  There may be no more gratifying moment for a home brewer than to serve your own fresh beer to your guests iced down in your favorite beer mugs and hear the rave that your beer is as good as the store bought beer they like best or maybe even better!

Part of the reason for the huge popularity is that getting set up to make beer and finding good supplies and equipment is neither difficult nor overly expensive.  You can find or create the equipment fairly easily or get it discounted from others who have retired from the brewing business.  And right now there is probably a home brewing store in your town ready and able to provide you with the ingredients as well as instruction books and recipes for all kinds of wonderful tasting beers you can make right at home.  And with the explosion of web sites, ebooks and articles out there on the internet about home brewing, all the help you could ask for is at your fingertips to help you get started.

The reason different people get into home brewing vary.  Some love the social aspect as you join a large local and international community of brewers.  Another reason is that it is just great fun to assemble the equipment, learn the recipes and take a stab at making your own home grown batch of tasty beer.  Even if you “botch” a batch of beer, its all in the spirit of learning and it just drives you on to learn from your mistakes to make even better beer next time.

A third great reason is you have so much more control over your beer when you brew it yourself.  Because you are not dealing with a beer that is mass produced and shipped from hundreds of miles away, you can control the taste, the consistency and even the level of alcohol to make your beer as strong or mild as you want it to be.  And you can make changes with each batch with virtually endless variations on the recipes that are available to the home brewing community.

The supplies you will need to get started are easy to find and not very expensive either.  Probably the best way to get a feel for what the best equipment is and who are the suppliers to favor would come from becoming a regular at home brewing clubs and gatherings and making some friends there.  If you make it well known that you are a “new recruit” and need some mentoring in how to get set up, you will be overwhelmed with offers for you to sit in on a brewing session or two to get a feel for the process.  If you take advantage of their zeal to help you get started, you will be way ahead on the game when you go shopping for the stuff you need to get set up to make your own beer at home.

The equipment you will need is pretty much only used for brewing beer so you will need to think of storage.  The pot for boiling your initial wort and the equipment to handle the beer, filter it and ferment it are all made in sizes and at prices to encourage the home brewing markets.  You can find them at retail prices at your home brewing retail outlet in town.  You can use the internet and shop second hand shops to get better prices.  But many like to patronize the home brewing store that helped them get their start just to make sure they stay in business to keep selling you great fresh ingredients.

That same retail outlet will be a good source for the grains, yeasts and hops you need for the actual production of beer.  Freshness is the key so communicate with the management of the store to learn of just how fresh those things are. As with the equipment, you can buy these things from the internet and that is fine.  But get to know your supplier whoever you use and make sure you are confident you are getting the highest quality materials to make your home made beer. It will make a big difference.

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Going to the Source to Learn Home Brewing

The time between when it first dawns on you that you could start learning to brew your own beer at home and when you actually take a stab at it is often a long one.  For one thing, it takes a pretty significant learning curve to even begin to visualize that it possible to make beer at home.  Oh, you may have heard about home breweries but to think of doing it in your own home setting is a leap of understanding that takes some time to get through.

The internet is often a source of information that we go to start learning more about a new area of life like home brewing.  Perhaps that is how you found this article and that’s good.  That means you are off on the right foot and using free information from people who have already learned a few things about brewing at home to get your orientation to what it would take for you to learn to brew your own beer at home.

As often happens with any new area of interest, if your fascination with how to brew beer at home starts to get some momentum, it’s a good way to go to log on to the major home brewing web sites and begin to get oriented to the methods, the equipment and the process of brewing beer at home.  Do be aware that some of these sites get very technical and it’s easy to get intimidated.

But if you can just get an understanding about the equipment and the ingredients and some basic ideas of how the process would go if you were the one doing the brewing, that is a good start.  Because online articles and web sites mix expert knowledge with newcomers orientation, if you do stumble into a section of those sites that you don’t understand, just surf on to pages that are intended to help you where you are and understand that when you get to that level that that technical sophistication, you can always come back to these pages.  Just build a good bookmark library because it will serve you well.

But to pick up speed on learning the real details of what brewing is all about, you don’t have to depend just on reading or books.  Because brewing beer in your own home is more than just book knowledge, it is handling of equipment and ingredients, the more direct exposure you can get to the brewing process, the better.  But it is also very likely that you developed your interest in home brewing while enjoying a good brew at your local brew pub.  Most towns have brew pubs where home made beers are sold in just about every flavor, color ant texture.  Many times these brew pubs grew up out of a home brewing hobby that just got bigger and bigger until it became an enterprise and a money making business

That is why most brew pub owners are more than happy to give tours and lessons in home brewing.  This is probably some of the most value exposure you can get to how the process of home brewing works.  By walking through a brewery where the beer you make is made, you can step through the process to get a feel for how you will proceed.  You can see the boiling pots, how the strainers are used and the filters and fertilizers and everything that is needed to take beer from raw materials to the finished state of a fine brewed beer.  In fact, with a little charm and by working for free, you may be able to apprentice in the brew pub making beer.  This time will be tremendously valuable to you to help you learn the ropes of making your own beer.

You combine this hands on knowledge with what you are learning on line and from other training sources along with what you can learn by networking with other experienced home brewers and you have a powerful source of knowledge that will pay you well when you start making your home beer yourself.  And that knowledge will result in some great tasting beers from your kitchen so you will be glad you took the time to learn all you can before taking the plunge.

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The Heart of Home Brewing

Can you remember the moment you first got the idea in your head to take up brewing your own beer at home?  For many it is a tour of a brew pub or some other behind the scenes exposure to all that happens when good beer is made.  Before that one pivotal moment, you may have never even thought about beer being made at all.  The origin of beer was the liquor store or the market and that was that.  But when you realized that not only does beer go through a fascinating transformation from grains, hops and malts to this delicious brew you enjoy but that you can make your own beer if you want to, that is when the idea of becoming a home brewer started to become a reality in your mind.

For others that moment of realization that home brewing could be a whole new world may have happened when you first were exposed to “real” beer, as the home brewing enthusiasts call it.  That is when you sampled a brew that was not made by one of the big retail beer makers like Budweiser, Coors or Miller and you discovered what beer tasted like when it came directly from the brewing process to your glass.  That may also be the day you found out what an amazing diversity of beer types, textures and flavors there were.  And for many when you realize that you can find a diversity of beers that is almost as extensive as in the wine world that it is often very difficult to go back to boring old pasteurized beer again.

So if you are about to “make the leap” to become a home brewer yourself, you are about to step into a rich and full world that is full of history, culture, tradition and new friends and associates.  You won’t just take up the hobby of brewing beer, you will “become” a home brewer which is a unique kind of individual indeed.

It isn’t hard to “define” home brewing because the term is self explanatory except to go on to say that it is entirely possible for you to make high quality beer right in your own home with a small investment in equipment, the base ingredients that are readily available as well and the love and patience it will take to learn the process.  But the process is not difficult which explains why home brewing is a passion and a hobby that is growing in popularity more and more every year.  You might be surprised who you know who has a love of brewing beer because it is not just the hard core beer drinker you might know.  Because brewing beer at home is as much about the art and the craft of making a quality beverage, home brewers come from every walk of life there is from bartenders to ministers and from college professors to librarians.

The heart of home brewing is the fun, the excitement and the fulfillment creating your own batch of delicious beer can bring.  But what transforms home brewing hobbyists to life long makers of beer is the challenge of always finding new blends, new methods and new ways to make their beer even more flavorful than the last batch.

Be forewarned that a zeal for becoming better and better at home brewing can be habit forming.  But if you get hooked, you will meet thousands of others in your town and around the country and the world who have the same addiction as you.  It’s a wonderful addiction that you will never regret catching because brewing beer at home can provide decades of fun and enjoyment making your own blends of beer.  But it provides something else just as good which is really great tasting beer.  So enjoy.

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Getting that First Batch of Beer Brewing

Beer is such a popular beverage because it has such a deep earthy flavor and because the variety of flavors, brands, colors and textures of beers is so diverse that you can explore a new brew each and every time you want a beer and never get bored.  And yet most of us pretty much settle on one taste and stick with it.  That is until we discover brew pubs. That is when our eyes are opened to the idea that we don’t have to depend on Budweiser and Miller for good beer.  It can be made right at home.

Some of the finest beers you could hope to taste are not made in the big commercial factories but in small brew pubs all around the country.  So if you have discovered some particularly flavorful home brewed beers, it isn’t long before you might decide to take a stab at brewing a batch yourself.  Be careful because once you start experimenting with brewing your own beer, you may become hooked into an addictive hobby that will provide hours of fun as you tinker with your recipes, get new and better equipment and become a true beer expert in brewing your own custom blends for the best flavored beer.

But it all starts with that very first batch.  You might approach that moment when you decide to make your first batch of beer with some fear and trembling.  But keep your spirit of adventure and experimentation because, after all, if you bought good equipment, you will get the hang of it.  As the wise man said, that the journey of a hundred miles begins with the first step.  So too your journey toward becoming a master brewer starts with your first batch.

The process of brewing that first batch is pretty simple actually.  Here are the steps to go through to get your first brew underway.

. Gather the ingredients to have them on hand as you step through the brewing process.  You don’t’ want to have to stop and go dig something up so have them ready to go when they are added in as the brewing process is underway.

. It all starts with water.  One gallon of good water will do.  You don’t need specialty water as tap water in most areas of the country does well due to a good combination of minerals that actually makes the beer taste better.  So get a gallon of water boiling in a large pot capable of holding 2-3 gallons of water.  You need that extra space for adding ingredients.

. The first ingredient to add to the boiling water is the brewing yeast that you bought just for this purpose.  The yeast will have specific instructions but in essence you will mix the yeast with piping hot tap water and stir it in a separate pot or pan until it becomes a thick paste.

. You can prepare the yeast while the water boils and when it’s ready, add the mixture to the water.

. Once the yeast is mixed in well, add the malt extract that you bought for this brewing process.  Make sure the malt is mixed in well and dissolved before moving on.

. Hops will come as pellets when you bought them from the supplier so add them when the water is boiling again and allow the entire mixture to boil for another five minutes.

. During this preparation time, get your fermenting equipment sanitized and ready to go.  As the brewing process approaches completion, fill the fermenter about three quarters full with cold water from the tap.

. The strong beer you have boiled is called the “wort” which is now ready for fermenting.  Pour the hot wort into the cold water in the fermenter.  What you are looking for is an end result of five gallons of mixture in the fermenter so if you don’t find you are at that level, add more water.

The brewing process is done and you can follow the directions for fermenting that are provided with the equipment or that you learn from other resources about the fine art of fermenting beer.  Now it’s just a matter of letting nature do what it does to ferment your beer.  Enjoy the anticipation as you allow the fermenting to continue and then enjoy the flavor of your very own first batch of home brewed beer.

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A Perfect Hobby for that Guy Who Loves Beer

If the man in your life is thinking of getting into brewing beer because he loves drinking different beers, there are some solid reasons to encourage that enthusiasm.  Your first reflex might be that he already has a love of beer and that making his own is going over the top.  But in truth, making the move toward home brewing has a lot going for it and it is a very creative and productive approach to the love of fine beers.

There is a difference between a true lover of beer as a fine beverage and the average “beer guzzler”.  Beer actually has a rich history and the diversity of flavors, textures and blends of beers is almost as strong as the wine culture which we know is one where real connoisseurs know what a fine wine is.  So the move toward making beer identifies with that side of the beer culture that seeks the finest in flavors in beer and seeks to become part of the way very good beer is made rather than just be a consumer.

By encouraging your beer connoisseur to develop this new found passion for beer making, you are emphasizing the noble and creative side of his love of good beer. And the new social connections that novice beer makers find at retail beer brewing stores and local societies devoted to this hobby will help him become educated in the best way to make a truly fine beer at home.   Once that home brewing hobby takes off, the passion to make beer becomes more about improving the quality and taste of the beer he makes even more than just drinking a beer that you made yourself.  And that is a productive and creative way to approach his passion for beer.

Along with the creative side of beer making, if you start to produce your own beer at home, there are some economic benefits.  Like everything else, beer prices are going up.  But the costs of making a batch of beer at home are phenomenally low if you break it down to a per glass cost.  Now there is equipment to buy up front.  But it’s a myth that getting set up for making beer at home costs an arm and a leg.  You don’t have to set up a brewery on the scale you may have seen when you toured the beer factory in St. Louis last summer.  There are beer kits that give you all of the basic equipment you will need and you can usually have a home beer production factory going at home for under $200.   And when you consider you can make many gallons of great tasting beer with that same set up, that’s a pretty smart investment.

It’s not out of the question that if your beer loving guy develops his abilities as a Brewmeister, you may find a market to sell the beer he makes.  There are lots of brew pubs that specialize in quality home made beers.  So if he can develop a unique taste and recipe that can be replicated consistently, you may be able to bottle it and sell it at local pubs.  If that beer gets some popularity with the local beer drinking popularity, you may be able to make back your investment in equipment and supplies to make beer and even turn a nice profit from a great hobby.

These are all good reasons for you to encourage that fascination with how to make beer at home in your loved one.  And if you jump in feet first and become a beer maker yourself, this new hobby can become a family affair and a wonderful way to share the fun together.  And who knows, you may even get to be a bit of a beer connoisseur yourself!

Thanks for stopping by! Please share with us your home brewing experiences, ideas and tips.