How to make beer

Best beer making tips and techniques – what matters and what doesn’t

A typical beer kit

How to Make Beer – Part 1

Ingredients

If you are a beginner, or just want to play it safe, start with a good kit. I love Coopers Kits, as you can tell. For your initial brews, choose a kit plus 500 grams of light malt.

Tip 1: Never use dextrose or cane sugar – always use malt.  Light malt (powdered or liquid) is a good start, but just remember that malt ferments less than dextrose, so you may want to work on about 25% more than the recommended sugar quantity.

Tip 2: Don’t be tempted to put in too much malt. Because it does not fully ferment, it will leave More >

How to Make Beer – Part 2

Three days in…

By now, you should have a fermenter bubbling nicely.  You are now looking for an opportune time to rack your brew. This gets it off that initial mass of yeast, which causes “yeast taint”. You need to judge this – you  want to pick a time when the bubbling is starting to slow but has definitely not stopped.

Tip 5: Until now, the airlock is just an indicator of brewing activity. The bubbling is CO2 and this sits on the beer, as it is heavier than air, and stops the air getting to the beer and making it go More >