Welcome to homebeerbrewkits.com where I will help you find the perfect home beer brewing kit for you, whether you’re just starting out or an experienced brewer. This site won’t cover HOW to brew necessarily, but your kits will come with instructions, so don’t worry you’ll be able to make beer as soon as you get your kit. I will probably add specific instructions and articles in my blog as this site grows.
What are the Basic Ingredients and Equipment You Need for Brewing?
We live in a good time for making beer at home. Because craft beer has exploded in popularity in the past several years, a lot of people want to learn to make it at home. There is now an abundance of ingredients and supplies that are easily available to us for purchase to make brewing beer at home easy and convenient. I’m going to give you options on basic kits that supply the bare minimum of what you need to brew as well as kits that have more equipment and / or ingredients. Like anything else, you can get as in depth with home brewing as you want or keep it simple. Either way you’ll be able to make good beer.
The basic ingredients and equipment you need to start brewing are as follows:
A Recipe “kit“. This is made up of yeast, hops, and either dry or liquid malted extract or grain (depending on the kit you buy). These ingredients will all come separately within the kit and can be bought separately as well. I just listed them together in this list as they all go together and are required to make your mash.
Fermenter. This is typically a brewing bucket or carboy that you will put your wort in to pitch your yeast so it will ferment once it cools down to temperature.
Airlock. It sits atop the fermenter to let the CO2 escape as the beer is fermenting.
Sanitizer. Cleanliness is key in brewing. If your equipment isn’t clean and sanitized your beer will not come out very good and you might have to pour it down the drain. There several types of sanitizers but I’ve only listed one under “other supplies” or click on the link above.
Hydrometer or Refractometer. This measures the dissolved sugars in your wort to determine how much alcohol is in your beer. There are other tools that do the same thing such as a refractometer amongst other items. The hydrometer is the least expensive option. Just verify if you have one in your kit or not.
Siphon / Tubing. This is used to move the wort from one container to another. Where I use it the most is when I move my fermented wort from one bucket to another (secondary fermentation) so that anything that has settled in the bottom of the first bucket doesn’t get moved into the second bucket.
Bottles. You will definitely need these and I’m not sure I’ve seen a kit yet that had any included. I have a link on this site as well to purchase separately if you need them. You may want to keg your beer in lieu of bottling, if that’s the case you’ll obviously need a keg and the parts and pieces that go with it. I will have a link for that eventually.
Bottle Caps and Bottle Capper. These may or may not come in your kit – some of them do and some don’t – but just know you need these if you’re going to bottle your beer.
Brewing Kettle / Pot. You will need something to brew your mash in and these aren’t included in most starter kits. I have a link on this site, as well, for some. You certainly could use a pot you already have, you just want to make sure it’s large enough. There are some additional options as you evolve such as all in one brewing systems that I will eventually have some links for.
There is so much more equipment and supplies you can buy for brewing beer but the above items are necessary to at least get started. I’m going to continue to add more equipment to this site daily.
How Much Beer Do I Want to Make?
Most home brewers brew beer in 5 gallon batches. When I brew that’s typically the amount I make and it yields approximately 40-50 bottles. One of the pros to that is you get quite a bit of beer at one time that can last a while. I like to give some of it away to friends so having a lot of it makes that easy to do. (provided it came out good enough to share). On the other hand, sometimes you don’t want to drink that much of one style of beer, which in turn is why the 1 or 2 gallon batches might be a good idea. This way you can make multiple styles in small batches and possibly try something new.
What Else Do I Need?
In addition to the items above there are other items that you don’t necessarily need but are helpful in brewing. I just don’t want you to not be able to brew realizing you don’t have everything you need on brew day.
Keg or Kegging System. I mentioned bottles above but wanted to make mention of kegs in lieu of bottles. I currently don’t have anything on this site related to kegs but wanted to mention as an alternative to bottles. This is more of a preference on how you want to store or serve your beer. Kegging makes it nice because you don’t have to wait as long to start drinking your beer since you can force carbonate it using CO2.
Wort Chillers. This is for cooling your wort down to a temperature that you can pitch your yeast at. This is not necessary as you can just let the wort cool down over a period of time but the chiller will cool it down at a much faster rate. There several types of chillers and I have them listed under “other supplies” or click on the link above.
Thermometers. A lot of kits have some type of thermometer included and I made it a point to mention the ones that don’t. You’ll want one in order to gauge the temperature while you’re brewing your mash. There are multiple types of thermometers and I have a couple listed under “other supplies” or click on the link above.
Labels. These aren’t necessary but can make your bottles look cool and you can have fun designing them or you can purchase some preprinted ones that you can write on. There are several companies out there that will print some for you as well.
Conclusion
Brewing beer is a lot of fun and there are endless styles and flavors out there. Don’t be afraid to experiment or make mistakes. Even the best brewers get something wrong from time to time. You’ll learn more from your mistakes than you will by any other means.
Lot of great information here! Good job!
Thanks Steve. I appreciate it.
Hey there! What a cool niche to be involved in. Crafting beer at home is such a cool and trendy hobby to get into, and can possibly lead to a bigger business venture! The only criticism I would have on this page is maybe adding some more graphics. Your list of “everything that you would need to start brewing” was very overwhelming as I know nothing about any of the things you have listed. Maybe adding graphics by each item needed would help not only to break up the paragraph, but would make it easier for people to find the things they need because they know what it looks like….if that makes sense? But all in all, very cool and informative post! If beer was something I would be into enjoying, I would definitely come to your page to look for tips and tricks!
Hi Steph. Thank you for looking at my site and commenting. I actually like the idea of adding an image of some kind next to each item I have listed. Very good advice, I will actually do that right away. Cheers!
Brewing beer at home can be so much fun, specially if you want to experiment with some craft beers. As a student, we were always looking at ways to save money, while also being able to get a good tipple. A good friend was brewing his own beer, but many of the batches were almost undrinkable.
I am sure he would have benefitted from all the information you are sharing here. There was always a lot of sediment at the bottom of his beer, so I don’t think he siphoned it, most probably too eager to start drinking the latests brew.
Thank you for sharing your expertise, I will be sharing this post.
Hi There! Thanks for taking some time out to review my site. I chuckled about the comment you made about your friend’s beer being undrinkable as I’ve had a few of those. 🙂
Sediment was an issue for me too when first starting out. I’m going to use that as inspiration to add some additional filtration options to the site and even blog about it.
Thank you for your comments. I do appreciate them.