Home Brewing - Beer Homebrewing, Homebrewing Kits, Craft Brewing

For many people, brewing their own beer is the perfect hobby. There is the brewing process itself, allowing the home brewer to choose the perfect combination of ingredients and technique, then a period of waiting, followed by the satisfying experience of drinking the beer and assessing the result. A creative process with an added bonus! There are already many confirmed home brewing fans, as there are clubs and festivals to share this hobby.

But maybe you haven’t yet taken the plunge; don’t know if it’s for you, or maybe you just don’t know where to start. Well, you’re in the right place to find out more about the tasty world of home brewing. Here you can discover some facts, get some new ideas and meet other home brewing enthusiasts.

Why is home brewing such a popular hobby all over the world What are the advantages of brewing your own beer How much does it cost to get started in this hobby

Since pre-history, man has been brewing beer of sorts. One can have fun surmising how the first beer was made and how it was developed into a repeatable format. But for us, there is plenty of information available.

For many homebrew enthusiasts, the big appeals are those of taste and cost. You can create a beer which is entirely to your taste- or spend a lifetime having fun trying to!

In reality though, there are tried and tested methods to achieve the sort of result you are looking for fairly easily. Using the basic ingredients of grains, water, yeast and hops, by varying the proportions and length of time you can aim for a specific brew. You can brew speciality beers which are unavailable commercially, and alter the amount of alcohol in your beer. The main difference between the beers you can buy and those you brew yourself is that your own will not be pasteurised, and this makes a big difference to the taste and the way the beer ages. Basically, your homebrew will continue to change as it is still live, in that the yeast is still fermenting and has not been killed by the heating involved in the pasteurisation process. It is naturally carbonated by fermentation, rather than the artificial process involved in commercial brewing. Hence the popular term Real Ale. It is as real as you can get!

As to cost, like many things, if you make it yourself, you can save money. There is certainly some cost involved in setting up, as you will need various containers, equipment and bottles, as well as the raw ingredients. Generally, the initial investment may be from $100-$150, but subsequent batches may only cost from $20-$40, depending on your tastes. This will usually make you a standard 5 gallon (23l) batch. All the necessary equipment can be easily sourced from the many home brew shops around the country, or online.

And you don’t need lots of space either- a cupboard under the stairs, a corner of the garage, it is easy to find the space to become a home brewer. Nor should you worry about smells, if all goes as it should, there is no odour (although we’ve probably all heard some funny story about a home brewing disaster - we are sure it won’t happen to you!) Once you get started, you’ll probably want to have several batches of beer brewing, so that you have a continual supply of your favourite tipple.

If you love beer, especially something different, and spend a little bit of time and a little bit of money, then apply a little bit of patience, you could find that you have joined the many confirmed fans of home brewing as a hobby. Cheers to that!