How To Get Started Homebrewing - A Beginner’s Guide to Making Beer from a Kit

Posted by Courtney Schatz on Sep 15th 2021

Brewing your own beer is easier than you might think. It's similar to cooking in that you're going to need two main things to get started: ingredients & equipment.

Ingredients

First let's talk about ingredients. There are two main types of brewing, extract brewing and all-grain brewing. All-grain brewing is when brewers use grain to create the wort in the brewing process. Extract brewing is when malt extract, either in liquid or dried form, is added to create the wort. Today we will be focusing on the ingredients & equipment used in making beer with an extract kit.

Most beginners start with extract brewing because it takes less time and requires less knowledge to get started than all-grain brewing does. You can get an extract ingredient kit with all of the ingredients you will need to make your first batch of beer, including malt, hops, yeast, specialty grains, priming sugar, and spice packs. They will also include a muslin grain bag to steep any specialty grains, as well as crown caps to use during bottling, as well as instructions on how to actually brew the beer.

Extract kits usually come in either one or five gallon batch sizes. It's up to you to decide how much beer you'd like to make for your first batch. Some factors that may influence your decision are how much space you have to brew in, your budget, and how much time you are willing to dedicate to homebrewing. Many homebrewers start with one gallon batches and once they get a bit more comfortable they move on to five gallon extract batches.

If you'd like to check out some extract ingredient kits for yourself, you can find them here:

One Gallon Extract Kits

Five Gallon Extract Kits

Equipment

The second piece of the homebrewing puzzle is your equipment. Similar to ingredients, you can purchase an equipment kit with everything you need to make a batch of beer, available in one gallon and five gallon options. There are different options available that may include some accessories that make the brewing process go a little smoother. However, at the basic level, most equipment kits include a primary fermenter, a test jar, hydrometer, thermometer, auto-siphon, airlock and tubing.

A couple of items that most kits don't include that you will need are a brew pot, cleaning & sanitizing solution, and bottles. We carry all of these items in a variety of sizes and brands. For a brew pot, you'll want something that is used exclusively for homebrewing in order to avoid potential bacterial contamination. We recommend PBW as a cleaner and Star San as a sanitizer. Bottles used for beer are usually our 12 oz or 22 oz amber glass bottles. The crown caps provided in the ingredient kit will fit either size bottle.