Skip to main content

Beginner’s Guide on How to Make Beer at Home

At the very least, a hobby should be enjoyable — something fun you like to do when you have free time. But, hobbies are usually even more gratifying when they’re productive. From cooking to quilting, candle making to gardening, if your hobby yields a product you can use, the activity can be especially motivating. Making your own beer at home, or delving into the world of homebrewing, is a surprisingly approachable hobby and one you can get really good at with a little practice and tinkering.

If you learn to make your own beer at home, you can tailor your brews to your exact personal tastes, whether you’re a fan of a hoppy IPA, a light lager, or a dark stout. Homebrewing can also potentially save you money — and last-minute runs to the liquor store if you realize you’re out of beer and want to enjoy one while watching the game. It can also allow you to be part chef, part scientist, and draw upon creative yet mathematical tendencies, and many people find that though it may seem daunting at first, learning to make beer at home is a fun hobby they end up sticking with and perfecting for years. Ready to roll up your sleeves and start fermenting? Keep reading to learn how to make beer at home.

Related Videos

Basics of Making Beer at Home

Beer glasses surrounded by hops.
Unsplash

Homebrewing is sort of like cooking in that there is a basic recipe to follow, yet it can be tailored and modified to yield different types of beer. However, unlike cooking — which is typically just a few hours from start to finish — making beer takes about a month from the initial steps until you can enjoy the final product. That said, they do say good things are worth the wait.

The simplest way to venture into home brewing is to buy a beer brewing kit, which will contain all the equipment, instructions, and ingredients needed to make beer at home. There are also countertop home brewing appliances if you want to get fancier with your brewing. However, you can also pick up the specialized equipment and ingredients you need at an online home brewing retailer.

Home Brewing Methods

There are three primary methods to brew your own beer. Extract brewing is the simplest, so probably the best place to start.

  • Extract Brewing: Extract brewing is the simplest method because the hops are usually incorporated into the malt extract, which cuts back the necessary ingredients to just beer yeast, corn sugar, and the malt extract in syrup or powdered form. Typically, the malt extract gets boiled in 2-3 gallons of water and then is cooled. Water and the beer yeast are added to bring the total volume up to five gallons, and then the beer wort (as it is called at this time) is left to ferment.
  • Partial-Mash Brewing: Specialty grains, like malted barley grains, are steeped and added before the malt extract.
  • All-Grain Brewing: This is the most involved brewing method because no malt extracts are used. Instead, all of the fermentable sugars are derived from malted barley (or other cereal) grains, not malt extract. Additional specialized equipment is necessary.

Ingredients for Making Beer at Home

The basic beer recipe includes four essential ingredients: water, malt, hops, and yeast.

Water

North Mountain Supply - PCT-2oz Campden Tablets on a white background.

Tap water can be fine for beginners to use, but as you hone your home brewing craft, you will likely start adjusting the alkalinity and hardness of the water, as this affects the fermentation, smoothness, and flavor profile. However, even if you’re just using tap water, it’s important to remove chlorine from the water. This can be done easily by adding a Campden tablet to the water. One tablet should be sufficient to dechlorinate 5-20 gallons of water.

Malt/Grains

Briess Dry Malt Extract on a white background.

Homebrewers can purchase malt as an extract syrup or powder (for simpler extract brewing) or as a cereal grain (typically barley). The malt is what bestows the characteristic body, color, roasted flavor, and slight sweetness to a beer.

Hops

Home Brew Ohio Us Centennial 1 Lb. Hop Pellets for Home Brewing beer Making on a white background.

Hops are a climbing plant that imparts the tangy, bitter taste and aroma to beer. Making beer at home usually involves adding bittering hops or finishing hops, unless the hops are already incorporated in the malt extract product, in which case you won’t need to add more. Bittering hops impart bitterness and are added early in the boiling process while finishing hops mostly impart aromatics, and are just added toward the end so that they are not boiled away.

Beer Yeast

North Mountain Supply Beer/Ale Yeast on a white background.

These active microorganisms are what actually ferment the sugars in the brew and convert them into alcohol and carbon dioxide gas, which is why beer is effervescent. There are different types of yeast used for ales versus lagers. The former ferment more quickly, at warmer temperatures, and at the top of the fermentation container, while the latter takes longer to ferment, prefer cooler temperatures, and ferment on the bottom of the tank.

Equipment for Making Beer at Home

As mentioned, it’s certainly simplest to buy an all-inclusive home brewing kit, but if you’d like to go the piecemeal route, you’ll need the following pieces of equipment to make beer at home:

  • Brewing Pot: Typically 20 quarts is good, or enough to hold 3 gallons or so.
  • Stainless Steel Stirring Spoon: Used to stir beer wort.
  • Sanitizer: Used to sanitize all the implements and equipment that contacts the beer wort after it has cooled.
  • Thermometer: Used to check the temperature of the beer wort.
  • Hydrometer: Like a thermometer, a hydrometer is a testing instrument. It lets you know when it’s time to bottle the beer, the status of the fermentation, and the alcohol level.
  • Primary Fermenting Vessel: If you plan to make a five-gallon batch, you’ll want at least a six-gallon tank to have ample room for foaming.
  • Secondary Fermenting Vessel: Since the beer is finished in this vessel, get one the same size as the batch you intend to make. It should have an airlock.
  • Siphon/Racking Cane: Used to siphon beer out of the secondary fermenting vessel.
  • Bottling Bucket: You can use the primary fermenting vessel as long as it has a faucet at the bottom because a hose needs to be attached so that the beer can be transferred to bottles.
  • Beer Bottles: A five-gallon batch requires 53 12-ounce beer bottles. The bottles need to have pry off bottle caps not twist tops.
  • Bottle Brush: Used to clean out old beer bottles.
  • Bottle Capper and Bottle Caps: A bottle capper is a tool that crimps the caps on the bottle.

How to Brew Beer at Home

Bottle beer on a kitchen counter.
Unsplash

Once you have the equipment and ingredients, you’re ready to begin brewing your first batch of beer. There are tons of published recipes to test out and experiment with, and as you get more comfortable and experienced, you can customize them or create your own from scratch.

The basic steps involved in the extract brewing method are as follows:

  1. Using a brewing cleaner, sanitize all equipment.
  2. Dechlorinate and heat about 3 gallons of water until just below boiling and remove it from the heat.
  3. Add malt extract and stir until completely dissolved.
  4. Boil the brew wort.
  5. Once boiling, add your hops if the malt extract doesn’t include them.
  6. After boiling a few minutes, remove from the heat, stir thoroughly, and place the pot in an ice bath in your sink.
  7. Once your beer wort is around 90°F, use a funnel or carefully pour it into your primary fermenting vessel, leaving the hops behind if they were added separately.
  8. Add dechlorinated water until the total volume is five gallons.
  9. Stir vigorously with your stirring spoon.
  10. When the temperature and hydrometer readings are optimal for the beer yeast you are using, add the yeast according to the package directions.
  11. Stir thoroughly with your stirring spoon.
  12. Seal the fermenting vessel with the air-lock attached and filled with clean water.
  13. Ferment in temperature-controlled, dark space. Bubbles should start appearing in the airlock after 24 hours or so.
  14. Leave undisturbed. Fermentation will take between 1-2 weeks, depending on the recipe, yeast, beer you’re making, and final gravity and ABV you’re striving for.
  15. Siphon the fermented beer into your bottling bucket and then into your sanitized bottles.
  16. Seal the bottles with your bottle capper.

Editors' Recommendations

The 5 best ways to cook Lil Smokies, the perfect appetizer for any gathering
Lil smokies: These snacks may be little, but they're packing big time flavor

No matter if it's game day, or a Saturday backyard picnic, when it comes time to serve an All-American meaty treat, we suggest you look no further than the sure-fire people-pleaser, Little Smokies (AKA Lil' Smokies).  Aside from vegans and vegetarians, we can't think of a single person who would be disappointed to see a piping hot bowl of Little Smokies, complete with various dipping sauces.

These bad boys are super easy to make and are great on their own. However, if you're looking to level-up your Little Smokie game, here are some easy recipes that will have the crowd cheering.

Read more
The best tequilas you can buy for less than $20
These wallet-friendly tequilas taste much more expensive than they are
best tequilas under 20 espolon tequila

Tequila can start a party. It also can end one very quickly. Your focus should stay on those that can star at any gathering. A solid tequila doesn't have to break the bank, either. Also, keep this in mind when looking for quality tequila, affordable or not: Make sure it's 100% agave. Those headache-inducing tequilas of your past were more than likely only part agave -- they just need to be 51%. The additional sugar in those was likely your culprit.

All tequila hails from the Mexican state of Jalisco. All start as Blue Weber Agave and take a wonderful ride to reach their final destination on a drinker's palate. This Mexican spirit has a beautiful, rich history. The excellence of this well-made spirit can be witnessed even in inexpensive versions -- neat or mixed into a tasty margarita.

Read more
The best kegerators for keeping your favorite beers cold and fresh
Fresh beer is better beer. Now, you can have cold draft beer at home or on the go with your own personal beer keg setup.
best kegerator on amazon

There's a wide selection of iconic craft beers and tasty cheap beers available to drink in cans and bottles. But nothing beats a good, heady draft pint served right from a tap or kegerator. As the name implies, a kegerator is a refrigerator that keeps a keg of beer cold and fresh while allowing you to dispense the contents from a built-in pressurized tap system on top.

However, it is a costly appliance, so it’s recommended to do your homework and invest your hard-earned money in a top-notch quality unit that will surely keep your beer fresh. To help you save time on researching the best ones, we’ve rounded up our picks for the best kegerators of 2023, with our selections ranging from on-the-go options to the most innovative dual-tap kegerators.

Read more