First Time Beer Brewing - WHERE TO START?

The 2017 Australian Home Brewer Survey outlined that one of the largest obstructions for new brewers is a lack of understanding as to how home brewing works. In fact, 49% of non-brewers stated that 'not knowing where to start' was the main obstacle stopping them from diving into the world of Home-Brewing. Well, have no fear, because the process of home brewing is not only extremely simple, it's often unnecessarily overcomplicated for first-time brewers!

It's easy to get sucked in by the aesthetic of All-Grain Brewing, but it's important to lock down the fundamentals of brewing before diving deeper. Using a Starter Kit such as Morgan's Premium Starter Kit or Mangrove Jack's Starter Brewery Kit is a fantastic way to take your first step into brewing, as the kits not only come with every bit of equipment you need, but it also will include your first batch of ingredients so you can get started straight away. At a cost of $119.95, you'll be brewing 23L of beer (or 2.5 cartons of beer). With a single carton of beer averaging at $52 (as per The Brewers Association of Australia), you'll have already made your money's worth after your first batch of beer, with even more savings to come with each batch brewed!

But enough about how much of a financial investment home brewing is, what about the procedure?

When you're getting into home brewing for the first time, it's important to note that most success comes from allowing your brew to ferment itself, and not getting over-involved in the process when you first start brewing. Most issues faced with bad batches are usually a result of tinkering with your batch too much & exposing your brew to wild yeasts and infections.

To get started with Home-Brewing, we recommend grabbing one of the aforementioned Starter Kits. Once you've grabbed one of those, and put your fermenter together as per the instructions included, this is a general 5 step run down of your home-brewing procedure:

CLEAN YOUR EQUIPMENT BEFORE USE

While your equipment will be brand new, one of the most important aspects of brewing is sterilisation and sanitisation. Your starter kits will include a liquid or powdered cleaning solution for your first clean, and using products such as Sodium Percarbonate or StellarSan Sanitiser (at the correct dilution rate) make for great No Rinse Sterilisers that are safe to use on Plastic Fermenters like the one included in your kit. There's also a range of other great cleaning products available.

ADD YOUR INGREDIENTS INTO YOUR FERMENTER

In your Starter Kit, you'll receive a Wort Concentrate (your beer) and a Brewing Sugar (what your yeast chews through to create alcohol), your brewing sugar may also be in a liquid form depending on your starter kit. If your beer is in a tin (for example, like Morgan's Blue Mountain Lager, the starter brew in the Morgan's kit), it's best to place your tin in a pot of hot water to loosen the concentrate inside so that it pours out of the tin easier. Add your Wort Concentrate and your Brewing Sugar into your fermenter, with 2L of hot, not boiling, water. This is to make sure your sugar dissolves well, as your yeast cannot chew through clumps of sugar. Once you've dissolved that sugar, top your fermenter up with an additional 21L of water. Make sure your fermenter is reading a temperature of around 20°C on your Stick-On Thermometer before you add your yeast. The optimal fermenting temperature is in the low to mid 20°C's, so adding your yeast @ 20°C will allow it to heat up during fermentation, but not ferment too hot & burn out. Give your brew a light stir for about 30 seconds after adding your yeast, as oxygen allows yeast to get a good start to the fermentation process.

CLOSE YOUR FERMENTER AND ALLOW THE FERMENTATION TO BEGIN

Make sure that the lid is sealed nice and tight, you don't want to allow anything to get in once that yeast starts working. That weird little bubbler on the top known as the Airlock allows for CO2 to escape your fermenter, whilst blocking any contaminants from getting in. We mentioned before that getting over-involved leads to bad batches, the best thing you can do for your brew is to monitor it from afar. Make sure that your fermentation stays in the temperature range of 20-25°C, if you can, 22°C is a fantastic temperature to brew at. You can use devices such as Heat Belts or Heat Pads to raise the temperature if the climate is colder, or you can place your fermenter in a bath or a larger body of water to cool down fermentation during hotter seasons.

USING YOUR HYDROMETER TO MEASURE YOUR FERMENTATION

Inside your kit you'll receive a glass Hydrometer, a long thermometer-like piece that's designed to measure the density of your liquid. This tells you how your beer is fermenting. Trying to explain exactly HOW this works might overcomplicate you on your first few batches, so it's mostly important to note this: - Take a sample of your beer every 2nd day from the tap at the bottom of your fermenter, placing it in either the casing of the Hydrometer, a Hydrometer Test Jar, or a 100ml Measuring Cylinder (always use plastic, as glass-on-glass is a breakage waiting to happen) - The further along your fermentation is, the higher your Hydrometer will rise in your sample. You're aiming to have your Hydrometer float with the beer sitting level at the 1.005 mark for your first batch, this number may vary later depending on what brewing sugars you use for other batches (some Hydrometer's may have a grey marking to indicate where the beer should sit when the fermentation is finished). It's important to hit this target before bottling to make sure you don't over-carbonate your beer, which can lead to some messy clean-ups!

BOTTLE YOUR BEER AND LEAVE TO CARBONATE & AGE

Once your beer has finished fermenting, the last step you have to take is bottling your batch. Just like the first step, make sure all your bottles are cleaned & sterilised before bottling to make sure that no infections occur during the carbonation process, or what we call "secondary fermentation". This is where the last bits of leftover yeast from your brew will chew through the carbonation drops (little sugar drops also included in your starter kit) and create CO2 that gives your beer it's much loved froth. Once you've stuck 2 carbonation drops in each of your bottles, fill them up using your bottling wand (a long, plastic spring-loaded dispensing tool included with your starter kit that fits right inside the fermenter's tap), seal the bottles with their lids & store them away in a cupboard or in a dark area with a stable temperature. Don't put them in your fridge yet, if the yeast gets too cold it won't eat up the carbonation drops in your bottle, and therefore won't carbonate your beer. Carbonation will take around 4 weeks to complete, but once that's finished you'll have a delicious brew ready to be served!

And that's it! There's not a lot to the process, and as stated earlier, the best thing you can do when you're getting used to the process of brewing is to monitor your brew rather than get over-involved with your brew! Once you get your first beer done, and have wrapped your head around the how-to's, then start experimenting with new ingredients & additions, such as hops, specialty yeasts, brewing sugar substitutes & blends & much more!

As you can see, home-brewing is an easy hobby to pick up, you can keep it as simple as you want or you can experiment & make it a challenge for yourself, that's your call!