Homebrew Beer
How to Homebrew Beer
Homebrew Beer is a little bit more complicated than trying to home brew Cider or Wine. I suggest new brewers give brewing Cider and Wine a go first before moving onto the more complicated Homebrew Beer recipes. It takes a little bit more time too but to be honest it’s still no harder than cooking your dinner so there’s no excuses for not giving it a go!
There are two ways to Homebrew Beer that I’m going to talk about. The first method is pretty simple and the second method is only slightly harder (but still much easier than any “all-grain” methods).
Homebrew Beer using Liquid Malt Extract
- Using a can of hopped Liquid Malt Extract syrup (usually 1.5 kg) which is available from all good homebrew shops, pour about a quarter of the cans contents into 2 litres of water. Gently heat to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring well to mix in the syrup. Let it cool to room temperature and then add your brewers yeast.
- Pour the brew into empty bottles and screw on your Home brewing caps.
- Leave the bottles to ferment for about 5 – 7 days in a cool, safe place, out of direct sunlight and then refrigerate for 2 more days before drinking.
Homebrew Beer using Dry Malt Extract
For this method we will need 500 grams of Light Dry Malt Extract (DME). We will also need to use our own hops as our DME is likely to be un-hopped. This gives us a lot more control over the flavours and aromas of our homebrew beer. For this recipe I will use 12 grams of Cascade hops.
- Bring a couple of litres of water to boil and add your Dry Malt Extract mixing and stirring it well. Add 6 grams of hops (I use those fill your own loose tea teabags as hops bags) Steep for 30 minutes. Then add the remaining 6 gram teabag of hops and let it simmer for an additional 4 more minutes before removing both hops bags.
- Let the brew cool to room temperature before pouring it into your two 2 litre plastic bottles. You will need to top them up with some more fresh, clean water until the bottles are about 90% full. You must leave a gap at the top of the bottles to allow room for fermentation bubbles/froth.
- Now add your brewers yeast, give the bottles a little shake and then leave the bottles to ferment somewhere safe and out of direct sunlight. Check on them every few days to make sure that the brews are continuing to ferment and that they haven’t become stuck fermentations.
That’s it, now just let it ferment for a week or so and then clarify the bottles in the fridge before drinking.
The great thing about home brewing beer with Pat Mack’s Home brewing Caps is that you can complete the entire brew in a one step process. All other homebrew kits require a two step process. One step to brew the alcoholic content and then a second step to create the beer’s carbonation. With your home brewing caps however you can complete both of these steps at the same time.
It not only saves time but by removing an entire step from the process it makes home brewing a far more consistent and successful hobby.
To find out about the new Pat Mack’s Home Brew Beer Kit click here.
More Homebrew recipes
More Homebrew recipes can be found in my “Pat Mack’s Home brewing Caps Instructions and Recipe Guide” which can be downloaded absolutely free right here.
The guide comes in the form of an eBook .pdf file that can be viewed on Adobe reader. It contains some great home brewing instructions and insights as well as an additional homebrew recipe guide.
Why not also try giving the Homebrew Beer – Guinness recipe a try.
