In many countries and cultures around the world, home brewing was a very popular craft for centuries. Drinking water was (and is) a luxury in many countries and alcoholic beverages, where it is now as normal as drinking water in many Western countries. Homebrewing of beer and wine was very popular for more than 11,000 years.
These days we can buy everything in stores and most western countries have clean and good water. Because of this, there is no longer a need for homebrewing, so that doesn’t explain the growing popularity of making your own beer and wine. Learning a new trade like brewing is a wonderful hobby that more and more people do every year.
As with any other trade or hobby, you need some equipment to get started. It’s an initial investment, but if you’re smart, you can recoup the cost of the homebrew equipment before you know it. So, let’s take a look at how you do it and what you need for it.
Home brewing hardware
The most important brewing equipment you will need is a home brewing kit, and this kit is essential for your new hobby. Homemade kits aren’t hard to find, but you have to buy a good one because you’ll be using it over and over again. Every time you go to brew a new beer or create your own wine, you will use your home brewing kit. Good is not the same as expensive because most good prep kits are relatively inexpensive.
You can often find used equipment on online sites or on eBay, but we recommend that you buy new equipment, especially if you are using it for the first time. You have to make sure you have everything you need and with a suitable kit you know that everything is there.
For home brewing, you need a kit that contains:
One plastic fermenter with lid for 6 gallons of beer, thermometer, hydrometer, sediment reducer, large plastic scoop, airlock, bottles, lids, spigot, bottle tube, one pack of beer kit (beer kit, brewing sugar, yeast and carbonation drops and a DVD or instruction book.
You also need a prep pot that can hold at least 3 gallons of boiling liquid, this means it must be a really large pot. There are many different prep pots available in a variety of sizes and qualities.
Homemade ingredients
The ingredients are not considered home-made equipment, but they are so important that we want to mention them here anyway. When you’re just getting started brewing, you want to make sure everything goes according to plan, and when you use a pack of beer kit (beer kit, brewing sugar, brewer’s yeast, and carbonation drops), you’re sure that the ingredients are in the correct proportion. There are beer kit packages for every type of beer like Stout, Lager, Ale, Bitter, and many others.
When you have more experience, you can create your own recipes with your own combination and proportion of ingredients. For now, you just need the right home brewing equipment and the right ingredients that you can buy in a pack.