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.

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.

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

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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:

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:

The Essential Guide for MenThe Manual is simple — we show men how to live a life that is more engaged. As our name implies, we offer a suite of expert guides on a wide range of topics, including fashion, food, drink, travel, and grooming. We don’t boss you around; we’re simply here to bring authenticity and understanding to all that enriches our lives as men on a daily basis.