Make Your Own Beer

There are several different methods to successfully brew your own beer. Most first time home brewers start by purchasing a beer making kit. These brew kits are the easiest way to explore the fascinating beer brewing process. When you buy a brew kit, most of the work is already done. Your involvement with the process is pretty much limited to reading and following the instructions. Then, just wait from a few days to a few weeks for fermentation to work its magic and you can start drinking. Any of the brewing kits make it just that easy to make your own beer. With less than an hour’s work and some patience you can have some really excellent home brew beer. While beer brewing kits will produce some very good beer, their drawback is that the recipes are prepackaged and you can’t change them. But, if your goal is simply to brew basic lagers and ales this is no problem.

How often do you pay any attention to the glass beer mug you drink your home brew beer from? If you think about it at all it’s probably just to check that nothing is growing in the bottom of the glass and that there isn’t any visible dirt sticking anywhere. After all, as one who likes to brew your own beer, the focus is on the product and not on the glass.

This is so wrong on so many levels! The beer glass, formally know as “beer glassware”, performs an unsung but vitally important function in how much you enjoy that tall, cold one after a long day at work. There are many, many different types of beer glassware, each with its own shape designed to be used with a specific type of beer. Here is a list of the most common types of beer glassware and the types of beer they are associated with. Utilizing the beer glass developed for the type of beer you are brewing will do wonders to enhance your drinking experience.

If you aren’t yet familiar with the process of how to make your own beer you are probably wondering just how hard it really is. After all, if it’s a really involved process with a bunch of beer brewing brew equipment, mixing and boiling and all that, is it really worth the effort?

Well, those are fair questions. But, in reality, the process of home beer making is not really all that difficult. While there are some cooking activities required like mixing and boiling, home brewing beer isn’t much different, or harder, than whipping up a batch of homemade chili or soup. And once you have done it once or twice to get the process down, you will be able to pretty much do it in your sleep.

The question of whether or not setting up a home brewery is legal comes up from time to time and may even be one you’re asking yourself for your own hobby, or it may be something you’ve faced from friends and family members. It’s sort of sad that anytime someone wants to do something, anything, in their own home they need to think about whether or not they actually need permission from the government to do so.

The short answer is, yes, it is perfectly legal to make your own beer with only minor restrictions. These are designed not so much to restrict you as they are to protect you, and those around you. For example, anyone that wants to sell food products to anyone else needs to follow very strict guidelines about hygiene and the cleanliness of their food preparation facility. The person making the food may resent that, but obviously the person buying the food doesn’t! Chances are you yourself take it for granted that you can go into the grocery store or any restaurant, or buy anything edible at a convenience store, and just assume that these things are prepared in a clean and safe environment.

So, if you are thinking about home brew beer as a source of income, then there are a bunch of laws and fees you will need to deal with. Probably more than it’s worth!

If you are interested in starting your brewing career with one of the many beer brewing kits you may well also want to know how involved it will be and how much space you are going to need to devote to the project. Here is a list of what is included in one of the typical “starter” beer brewing kits available from a well known US distributor for under $100. It contains everything necessary, except the beer recipe ingredients, to successfully brew beer at home.