What to brew… what to brew?

The basic home brew kit

For Christmas or for your last birthday your wife/parents/kids bought you a homebrew kit. Maybe you treated yourself to that collection of the odd assortment of equipment: a bucket, a kettle, a thermometer, a hydrometer, maybe a couple of carboys. You want to brew a beer.

You love beer. You especially love that Pale Ale brewed at your local brewpub or that Kölsch brewed at the microbrewery just down the street. You want to make beer that tastes as good as that, or better. You know you can do it. You are all psyched up for that first brew day. You’ve read Papazian; you’ve read Palmer (twice); you’ve digested Brew Chem 101. You are ready to make your first batch.
For a minute or two you contemplate making some Goat Scrotum Ale just so you can hand your buddy a bottle and say, “Here suck on some Goat Scrotum,” but you start to think you need a better reason to pick a recipe than the potential for beer-belly laughs from your mates — you’re going to make 40 pints of this stuff after all and you want it to be good. What should you brew? Read the rest of this entry »

Getting into Home Brewing on a Budget…

Article by Aaron Wittenberg, re-posted from The Home Brewers Knowledgebase »

Money is a concern for just about everybody. While making beer is cheap, buying the initial equipment is not necessarily the cheapest part. This can run under $100, to over $500. That is a big chunk of money when you live on a budget.

Here are some tips I have learned over time to help save money. These can be used by anybody to save money. You will find these especially useful if you don’t have any equipment yet, and want to get it very affordable.

- Check craigslist or even post a message asking for equipment.
Buckets, carboys, airlocks, bottles, anything. Some brewers are getting out of the hobby and want to ditch their stuff at a fraction of the price.

- Look at pawn shops, second hand stores, garage sales, and other places for things. I have seen old water jugs (carboys) sold for less than half retail price. I bought a used carboy at an auction for $7, and it already had a thermometer on it! Read the rest of this entry »

Coopers Micro-Brew Kit: Instruction Booklet

I frequently get requests for the instructions to the Cooper’s Micro-Brew kit. Click the link below to download a PDF version of the instruction set:

Coopers Micro-Brew Kit: Instruction Booklet

Can I make my own beer?

Really?

If you can boil water, follow instructions, and keep things clean, the answer is yes! There are differing “levels” of home brewing, from very simple to fairly complex (but all are doable):

All-in-one kits: If you are wanting to dip your toe into home brewing, but not quite ready for a commitment to getting the usual brewers equipment, then these are for you. These kits contain everything you need, are relatively inexpensive, easy to use and produce good beer – Mix, Brew, Bottle, Drink!. The only con is that the ingredients come all pre-mixed, so you don’t have the same control as with extract and all grain brewing.

Read the rest of this entry »