[Closed] Making your own beer

beer can be made for very little money (bags filled with yeast/hops etc that you fill with water and put in a warm dark place are available).

Making 'proper' beer will take lots of time, knowledge and fun (I guess).

Do you mean from a kit or from scratch using hops, etc.

I used to male my own beer from kits. Initial set up for all the gear cost a bit, buckets, heaters, bottles etc. It always tasted very much like a strong wheat beer - I always liked it.

I make my own from raw ingredients (malt/hops/water/yeast), did a 10 gallon batch last Saturday 🙂

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk is where you should go.

kit beer is easy, just make sure everything is clean, then clean it again, then sterrilize it, then clened, then sterrilized again!

Dont use anything with a stong flavour smell nearby (leaving it in a cuboard with washing powder makes the beer taste of soap!)

Do it in 2 barrels, one for fermenting, one for maturing, that way the yeast settles quicker.

Transfer the beer about 2 days later than the packet suggests (after the bubbles stop), that way you knock out most of the yeast in the first stage.

Depending on how well you do it you can end up with something as good as if not better than most real ales from the bottle, at worst you get stones bitter! Most of the time it's about on a par with pub beer. Creamflow is also possible but requires a propperly pressurised barrel.

about 4in5 batches are a success, with practice it gets more consistent and tastier (learning how much hop extract to add, tempreature etc)

Brewing suggar is the best way to make it tasty, granualted just makes it taste like cheep cider.

Equipment is cheep secondhand, just make sure its all there and leakproof, CO2 purge lids are worth their weight in gold as they mean you can drink the barrel at your leisure (just top it up once a week/after a heavy night) rather than getting hammered trying to drink it all.

Dont bottle it unless you realy want to keep it or have lots of grolsh flip lid bottles, the caping devices snap necks of bottles and the rest will blow up!

Have a look at Brubox by Bru pack and Woodfordes (google).

Box do a kit in a polypin that can be used with refills up to 6 times. Results from both have had excellent reviews by CAMRA peeps. As stated before, clenliness is a BIG deal.

Best of luck. Let us know results if you have a go.

How much would it cost to get started on making my own beer?

about 20/25quid or so for the kit (brewing bucket, siphon stuff, paddle, bottle caps and cap presser etc) maybe 30/35odd if you also need bottles. that though is a one off cost.

brewing kits can be had for under a tenner, personally i would'nt use one, but for 18+ plus you can get some very nice kits. brupack i've always had good results from.