Best home brew kits: make your own beer today

published 3 April 2020

Whether you crave a juicy IPA or a heavy stout, there are few more satisfying feelings than sipping a beer you’ve crafted at home. More Brits are getting their DIY beer kicks by embracing the joy of homebrewing.

However, starting out can be daunting. Recipes are everywhere, from beginner to intermediate to expert, but you do need to spend a few quid on some basic equipment to get started.

Most homebrewers start small and expand their process and equipment as knowledge, skill levels and confidence develop. This beginner’s equipment list is designed for those using malt extract (rather than all-grain) as the sugar source to brew their beer, coupled with a small proportion of speciality grains to add distinctness in style.

A lot of these things come as part of homebrewing kits, which are a great jumping off point for budding homebrewers. They introduce you to most aspects of the process while leaving plenty of room to grow. Here are some of the items we consider to be essential and some upgrade picks.

This isn’t the only way – everyone has their own process – but it’s the way we learned. Cheers!

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Best homebrewing equipment for beginners

A brew kettle can be really fancy, or just the largest pot you have in the house. This is where many beginner brewers steep a small amount of specialty grains in a bag, in a process called mashing, before boiling a solution with malt extract and hop additions to create wort (young beer).Initially, you do not need a massive brew kettle because many home brewers start with small 1 gallon batches or supplement concentrated wort with water after the boil. However, we’d recommend a 5-gallon (23 litre) pot.

Once you have cooled the wort (use an ice bath, or buy the immersion chiller in this guide) you’ll need to decant from the brew kettle to the demijohn (a plastic or glass container, often called a carboy). To do this, use a funnel with a sieve to filter out hop matter.This is where the magic happens, the yeast you add at this stage consume the sugar and turn it into alcohol, producing CO2 as a byproduct. Here you’ll need an airlock and bung to allow the gas an escape route, while preventing bacteria from entering the beer.