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
CLOSE YOUR FERMENTER AND ALLOW THE FERMENTATION TO BEGIN
USING YOUR HYDROMETER TO MEASURE YOUR FERMENTATION
BOTTLE YOUR BEER AND LEAVE TO CARBONATE & AGE
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!