Homebrew for beginners - Your first beer kit

These instructions cover the basics of brewing your first beer kit. Brewing your own beer from a kit is a fun and straightforward process. We assume no prior knowledge of homebrewing and do not presume any pre-existing knowledge of techniques or terminology.

Whether you've tried someone else's home brew, are a real ale drinker or perhaps just want to save some pennies you're probably reading this because you have decide to have a go yourself. Good on you! Brewing your own beer is an immensely satisfying experience. Whilst most brewers have their own specific opinions about how things should or should not be done, what beer kits or equipment are best but in reality much of this is down to taste and personal preference. Buy a decent quality kit, we'd advise against opting for the cheapest or the strongest (any students out there!) and just get stuck in. You'll leanr the most from your own experience and as long as you stick to the basic rules of thumb and have the patience for it to mature sufficiently it's actually pretty hard to go too badly wrong.

Key homebrew tips before we start

Beer kits have made the art of home brewing almost fail safe, there are things that can go wrong but very seldom is it fatal. The key tips to remember are firstly sterilisation, cleanliness and filling your bottles 25mm from the top to minimise the possibility of bacteria getting into and damaging your beer (NB it only damages the beer's flavour not your health!). Secondly is patience, a well matured beer takes 8-10 weeks to brew from start to finish, you can drink it after 4 weeks, but it's SO much better after 8!

OK, so assuming you've bought you're first starter kit lets get started on your first homebrew...

1. Lay the contents of your kit out on a flat surface. To start you should have a brewing barrel, lid, rubber lid seal, airlock, airlock grommet, tap, sodium metabisuphite, beer kit, sugar or dextrose, and a hydrometer (optional but very useful). Take your barrel and screw out the bung in the tap hole and screw in the tap.
2. Mix up a sterilisation / cleaning agent (such as Campden tablets or Milton) in the bottom of your barrel in the following way. Put two litres of lukewarm water in the bottom of your barrel and dissolve in it two tablets/ teaspoons of your sterisiation/ cleaning agent. Rotate your barrel around to ensure it gets a good wetting, but it is the gas given off that does much of the sterilising so it is not necessary to have the whole interior of the barrel immersed in the solution. Wash all of your other equipment in the solution also.
3. Look at your lid, if not already there, you will need to drill out the airlock hole. Make sure you don't drill the hole larger than the diameter of the grommet and keep the sides as smooth as possible to get a tight fit.
4. After the solution has been in the barrel for 30 minutes or so, pour some out through the tap to make sure that the tap is sterilised and tip the rest away. It is not a bad idea to use some of this solution in your airlock, so that if you have a overly excitable homebrew that bubbles out through the airlock you reduce the chance of bacterial infection.
5. Run a hot tap in a sink, fill the sink 3-4 inches then having taken the lid off your beer kit removed the yeast packet and the instructions label, soak your beer kit in the hot water first, this makes it easier to pour.
6. Boil up two litres of water and pour it into the bottom of your barrel. Take a tea towel, pick up your beer kit and remove the lid with a can opener, pour the malt/hops mixture into the barrel. Pour out as much as you can and then pour boiling water into the near empty can giving it a good stir around, to remove as much of the malt as is possible. The malt gives your beer its body so the more you can extract from the can the better! During any stirring process it's preferrable to use plastic implements instead of wood as acteria ingrained in wood can spoil your homebrew. Stir the malt and water well making sure the malt has fully dissolved.
7. Now pour in 1kg of white sugar (or dextrose) and give your homebrew another good stir to dissolve the sugar and then top up with 20 litres of cold water.
8. Put the rubber seal into the lid and insert the airlock. The water or solution in the airlock should be about half way up the barrel of the airlock on both sides.
9. When the homebrew has cooled (to a temperature around 25 degrees Celsius) add in the yeast by scattering it over the top of the brew. Then give the whole mixture another good stir. If you have a hydrometer run some brew off and take a reading, then screw down the lid tightly. Once you have screwed down the lid check that you have a good seal by pushing in the side of the barrel until air is expelled from the airlock, if the barrel has sealed the water in the airlock should stay lop-sided once you let go the sides of the barrel.
10. Now place your barrel in a warm place (homebrew temperature should not drop below 18 degrees or rise above 25). Within 24 hours you should start seeing the CO2 bubbles given off by the fermentation gently bubbling out of the airlock pushing.
11. After 5 to 7 days fermentation will have largely completed. however leave for a few more days as some homebrews continue to gently ferment which does not push gas out through the airlock. If you have a hydrometer fermentation can be assumed to be complete if you have a hydrometer reading of less than 1008.
12. Bottling time, whilst tedious cleanliness here is vital if you don't want bacteria spoiling your beer (particularly if you have got your bottles from a long dormant storage place), so clean and sterilise them very carefully indeed. Thoroughly clean bottles in hot water making sure all visible traces of mould are removed. Now mix a crushed campden tablet or milton based solution, 1 teaspoon to a cup of water, pour it into the first bottle and from the first to the second etc, most normally you'll need to sterilise a dozen 2 litre bottles (or equivalent) and don't forget the caps. The bottles should now be primed with three level teaspoons of white sugar per 2 litre bottle.
13. Fill all bottles up to around 25mm from the top and cap. If you are using plastic bottles simply screw on the lids, or if using glass and a crown seal place the bottle onto a wooden surface and strike your capper firmly with a mallet. A lever capper or bench capper is a good investment for those with longer term homebrew intentions but the wooden type is a good cheap method for those getting started. Once you have capped your bottle give the contents a good shake up to dissolve any sugar left in the bottle.
14. Keep bottles in a warm place (around 20 deg C.) for around 3 days, then (uing all your patience!) store for a further 6-8 weeks.

If you don't have the patience it's no problem to taste after 2 weeks, however young beer will have a more yeasty homebrew flavour which disappears after 6 to 8 weeks. As you become an experienced home brewer you will learn to start a new beer batch part way through your existing one to prevent the temptation to drink your homebrew, certainly don't do you or your homebrew the injustice of letting others taste it before having let it brew to it's full flavour!