Brewing at home isn’t necessarily hard. You need fairly little homebrewing equipment, and there are many different malts and beer yeasts available to help you perfect your own beer recipe over time. But for those that are just starting out, finding all those different homebrewing ingredients and supplies can seem a bit intimidating; and it’s for this reason you can find home beer kits available.
These beer ingredient kits are created for individuals who are just starting out in brewing their own beer, and they’re created under the assumption that the individual has never even done it before. Included inside the box is everything from the hops to the malted barley grains to the malt extracts that you’ll need; you’ll find everything but the equipment! You can buy beer recipe kits in many different flavors and colors, all with different beer recipes. These can be extremely helpful when you’re just starting out making your own beer, and you’re not yet sure of what flavors you like.
Once you’ve tested out several different beer ingredient kits and are ready to start branching out on your own and experimenting, you can still go by what you’ve learned trying out the different kits. By having started with blends that you know are already tasty, you’ll have that foundation from which you can build your own. Of course you can always continue on using the beer recipe kits, and making great tasting beer!
When using beer ingredient kits, remember that you’ll still typically need to have basic beer-making equipment on hand, as only really the beer making ingredients are included in these recipe kits. There is another great blog post about this, The Minimum Equipment You Need To Brew Beer Yourself. If you don’t have the equipment yet, don’t worry too much about it as beginner homebrewing equipment kits are also often available. Using both types of beer kits can really boost the convenience factor of brewing your own beer, and leave you wondering why you didn’t do it sooner!

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When it comes to storing your homemade beer, you’re going to need more than just a couple of pitchers. You’ll need to decide whether you’ll be bottling beer, or kegging beer, and both come with their own advantages.
One of the biggest advantages home brewers find with bottling their own beer is that initially, the cost of storage can be much cheaper. Rather than having to invest in a stainless-steel keg (or several, if you want to make different kinds of beer) beer bottles can be picked up more cheaply than kegs; and you can reuse them, saving you on cost, too.
Once you start brewing your own beer, you’ll also most likely want to give everyone a taste, and provide samples to all your friends and family. When the homebrew is sitting at home in a keg, you need to wait to have them over to do it. But when it’s bottled, you can take your own six pack with you the next time you go over, and even give it away as a gift.
Even home brewers that choose to keg their own beer sometimes still turn to bottling for certain types of beer. In cases such as Russian imperial stouts, or other beers that need to be stored for a long period of time before being consumed, brewers don’t always want to have a whole keg “on hold” that entire time. By placing this long-standing beer in bottles, it can be stored easily; while the beer that’s ready for consumption can be placed in the keg, and drank easily!
Definitely, both bottling and kegging your own beer come with their own advantages. But when you want to give your brew away, take it with you camping, or are just looking for the most affordable way to do it, bottling might be the best choice for you. Here’s a great blog post you might want to tak a look at on bottling your own homebrew, How To Bottle Your Beer.

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When people are first learning how to brew beer, one of their first questions is always, how long does the homebrewing process take? How long it takes to make the beer, and how long it will be before you can start drinking your homemade beer are two different things. But altogether, from the time you first start mixing your own beer, to the time you’re cracking open your first bottle, it should only be a matter of weeks.
The day you actually mix together your beer yeast, hops, malt extract, and other homebrewing ingredients to actually start making your own beer, you should probably set aside at least four hours to do it, as a first-timer. This will include the sterilization time beforehand and the cleanup afterwards; and it will also get shorter as you start brewing more of your own beer and becoming more experienced at it. But the first few times it can take an entire afternoon or more.
Once the beer has been mixed or mashed, it will then need to sit in a fermenter for about a week. This will give the beer its alcohol content, as well as a certain level of carbonation. You won’t need to do much during the fermentation stage, but you will during the bottling stage, which is next.
Bottling your own beer really only requires a siphoning hose, some beer bottles, bottle caps and a bottle capper, but it does also require about two to three hours of your time. For a 5 gallon batch of homebrew you will be bottling 50 to 55 twelve ounce beer bottles. It’s at this stage that many home brewers are the most impatient so, many choose to keg their beer, instead. This can take as little time as half an hour.
When you keg your beer you also won’t need to let it sit as long before drinking it. While beer needs to sit in beer bottles for a week or two before it reaches full carbonization, kegs can be carbonated in as little as a day.
All in all, from the time you start mixing your own special blend, to the time you’re enjoying a nice cold one, brewing your own beer should take anywhere from three to four weeks.
A great blog post that will give you a little more information on the homebrewing process is, The 3 Different Methods Of Homebrewing. There you will get a good overview of the three basic ways you can approach homebrewing as a beginner, and discover which is the best way for you.

Most people know that whenever you can do something yourself at home rather than just go out and buy it, it’s probably going to be cheaper. But is homebrewing one of those things? And if so, just how much money will you save?
First, consider that if you were to purchase a case of beer from the store, it will probably cost you at least a dollar a bottle and up. If you purchase a smaller pack, the unit price will also go up because manufacturers will typically provide small discounts the more you purchase at once. Those smaller packs can cost anywhere up to $2.00 or $2.50 a bottle.
Typically when brewing at home, you will make about five gallons of beer at a time, which is 54 bottles of beer. The amount you spend on the actual homebrewing ingredients for the beer will vary depending on the kind of beer you want to make; but typically home beer kits can cost between $30 for making a light American-style Pilsner to $60 for your heaviest of Imperial IPA’s. That means that every bottle of beer you make yourself will cost anywhere from $0.56 to $1.12 per bottle. And for those that are keeping track, that’s half the cost of even the best-discounted cases of beer you’ll find in any store.
Making your own homebrew with a homebrew ingredient kit will always be a cheaper option than buying a comparable beers at the store, but there are much bigger advantages to brewing yours too. Namely, the sheer satisfaction you’ll feel the first time you crack open a bottle of your very own blend – and every time after that, too. While there are many cost-saving benefits to brewing your own, home brewers quickly forget them after realizing all the other benefits that go along with it! So if you want to save a buck, okay brew some beer, but if you want to have some great tasting beer and have some fun in the process, okay brew some beer!
Here’s another blog post that will help you figure out how to get started: The Minimum Equipment You Will Need To Brew Beer Yourself. The post talks about the homebrewing equipment you will need to get you going.

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