Category: Equipment

  • Finding The Best Labels For Your Home Brewed Beer

    Finding The Best Labels For Your Home Brewed Beer

    Making your own beer is a hobby that is growing fast around the world. If you really want to know what is being put into the beer that you drink, making your own beer is going to give you all that information and so much more. There are no harsh chemicals needed to make beer, and all the natural ingredients are going to be easy for you to purchase online and offline to make your own beer. You can find any basic beer-making recipe, and then make changes to the process to change the overall final flavor and taste of the beer you make.

    After a few ‘tries’ at making your own beer, you are going to create a beer flavor that you can really enjoy. We each have our own personal favorites, and as you manipulate the recipes, you can create a beer that is just right for you. You can even control the alcohol content in the beer, by determining the amount of time you leave the beer to ferment and to ‘become’ beer after you have added the yeast to the mixture. Beer making is fun, and it is not difficult at all.

    To start in the hobby of beer making, it is suggested that you purchase a beer making kit. As you purchase the kit first, you will learn how all the pros make beer. You will learn more tips and tricks for making beer so that the beer you make is going to be better overall from the start.

    While you make beer, you may find that you like one type so much that you want to start making your own beer all the time. This is going to leave you with a problem that you need to label your beer. You want to know what date you made the beer and even what type of beer you made. The labels you purchase for your beer cans, beer containers or even for the barrels you use to make beer are going to be vital to your ongoing hobby.

    Labels that you use on mailing letters that have a sticky back are going to be great for making those first batches of beer. As you continue making your own beer, you will find paper labels are going to work better, as you start putting your beer in bottles and actually having them capped or stopped. Putting the labels on the beer bottles or containers before putting the beer in, and before you put them in storage is going to help you remember which beer you want to drink first.

    Home brewing is something that is found all over the world. From the far corners of the nation many are starting to make their own beer for many reasons. We are including these reasons here for your own use, so you can determine for yourself if making beer is something you want to try your hand at!

    In making your own beer, you become master of your own home. You create the drink that your family and friends love, and will enjoy as they sip that cold beer from a frosty mug. Being able to master this talent is something that will take a little patience, and determination as you continue making batches of beer as your friends continually drink it every time they come over to your home!

  • Five Best Homemade Beer Kits

    Five Best Homemade Beer Kits

    As winter winds down and spring kicks in, chances are your mouth is watering for some ice-cold beer. Maybe fond memories of days at the ballpark are flooding into your mind or taking foamy sips with your dad. There’s really nothing like beer to bring back good times. For those of you interested in making your own brew this year, here are some recommendations to get you started. Below, you’ll find the top five best homemade beer kits on the market.

    Home Brew Academy and Midwest Supplies Kit
    The homemade beer kit that wins hands down is the Home Brew Academy and Midwest Supplies Kit. Released just this year in February 2013, it’s perfect for first-time home brewers. The kit will cost you around $130 and includes a long list of supplies. Like most beer kits, it does include a kettle, bottle and ingredients so don’t open the box and expect to start brewing if you haven’t made these purchases. Because it’s connected to an established organization, you can visit the Home Brew Academy’s website, register for free and watch video tutorials to get you started.

    More Beer!
    More Beer offers a homemade beer kit for about $110. The kit has a few of the supplies to get you started but you will also need a 5 gallon brewing kettle, glass beer bottles (you can recycle old bottles so start saving), and a beer ingredient kit for every batch. The kit comes with instructions but general feedback is that they are not very easy to follow. If you choose this kit, be sure and watch plenty of videos from other sites to get you started.

    Northern Brewers Deluxe Starter kit
    This kit gets five star ratings from reviewers. Although reviews are small in number, they all seem to be legit and give the kit great feedback. Based on what Fermenter and Beer Recipe Kit you choose, the kit will cost around $150 and comes with a free copy of their Getting Started in Homebrewing DVD. Like other kits, you will need to purchase your own beer bottles (again, you can reuse beer bottles so start a collection), kettle and ingredients.

    New Brewers Complete Homebrew Beer Making Kit by Monster Brew
    The third recommendation for a homemade beer kit is offered from Monster Brew. It costs around $150 with shipping but you’ll get five gallons of beer out of it along with the bottles to put the beer into. You’ll receive an instruction booklet as well as a variety of videos on their website to get you started.

    Mr. Beer Premium Gold Edition
    If you are looking for something super simple to brew your first homemade beer, then try the Mr. Beer Premium Gold Edition Home Brew Kit. You can buy the kit from Amazon for just $46 and you’ll get four gallons of home brewed beer. The nice thing about this kit is that if you try it and don’t like the flavor, you haven’t invested that much cash. Plus, if you have Amazon Prime you can get the kit delivered in just two days.

  • Necessary Supplies For Making Beer At Home

    Necessary Supplies For Making Beer At Home

    If you are interested in making your own beer but have no idea where to get started, this article will help by giving you a list of necessary equipment and tips on how to obtain them. While there are plenty of homemade beer kits available, there are still plenty of home brewers who would rather mix and match supplies from a variety of vendors for making beer at home. Be prepared to spend anywhere from a few bucks to a few hundred dollars based on how many of the supplies you’ll need to get.

    To give an overview, here’s what you’ll need:
    5-gallon ceramic or steel boiling pot
    2 Fermentors with Airlocks
    Siphon with Bottle Filler
    Bottle Capper
    Bottle Caps
    Large Stirring Spoon
    Bottle Brush
    Thermometer
    Hydrometer
    Ingredients Kit
    Empty Beer Bottles (you can always recycle old so start saving)

    When choosing a home boiling pot you don’t need to spend a lot of cash. Some of the cheapest ones available are home canning 5-gallon pots and they work just fine. If you have a 3-gallon pot already it will work but the larger the pot the less amount of spills you will experience.

    A five-gallon bucket will work fine as your fermentor and can be purchased at any hardware store. Make sure to thoroughly clean and sterilize your bucket.

    When considering a thermometer, make sure you pick one that can reach at least two hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit. It needs to be a floating thermometer that is of good quality to make sure there are no discrepancies in temperature.

    Chances are you have familiarity with reading thermometer but have never had to work a hydrometer. You’ll need a hydrometer to gauge the progress of the fermentation process. Resist the temptation to check your hydrometer too often as each time you do there’s a chance of airborne microbes causing infections in your brew.

    You’ll need the bottle capper to make sure your bottle caps on screwed on nice and tight to your beer bottles. You can buy both the capper and the caps themselves at a beer brewery store or there are many online vendors. If you are planning on reusing your beer bottles, you’ll need a bottlebrush to make sure you can thoroughly clean the used bottles. You want your bottles as clean and pure as possible for making beer at home.

    With so many ingredient kits available for purchase, it is more cost effective to purchase a pre-assembled kit. The ingredient kits run around $20 for making beer at home and will produce around three gallons of beer. If, however, you are feeling nostalgic and want to assemble your own, make sure you do your research and purchase high-quality ingredients.

    If you’ve read through the equipment list and feel overwhelmed, then don’t worry! There are many companies that offer pre-assembled kits and can save you lots of time and research. As with anything, do your research to find the best kit for you when making beer at home.

  • Home Brewing Beer With CO2 Can Go With A Pop

    Home Brewing Beer With CO2 Can Go With A Pop

    Beer has been brewed at home, more or less for the past several thousand years. There is not much said about the practice before the nineteenth century. At some point though, men figured out that CO2 (carbon dioxide) was needed for brewing beer at home. This most likely strengthened the fascination with home brewing. Larger breweries were not quite so thrilled with the home-based competition.

    The Inland Revenue Act of 1880 in the United Kingdom demanded private citizens to pay for a license in order to pursue their pastime. The same types of hardships were felt by home brewers in the United States. A law passed in 1920 banned anyone, private of company to produce alcohol. Organized crime saw a boost in activity during the famous “Prohibition” period.

    Times have changed now and home brewing is enjoyed by many, with interest in the process growing as more time passes. It can be a very relaxing and enjoyable hobby. There is some work that goes into making beer at home, but it is minimal and the result is something really great that you can share with friends and family.

    What CO2 Is To Brewing Beer At Home

    Brewing beer at home is not at all difficult as long as you can and will follow directions. There are four basic ingredients necessary for every batch you make:
    Water
    Yeast
    Malted Grain
    Hops

    There is a fifth ingredient, but it arrives a little late to the party: carbon dioxide, or CO2. You cannot brew beer at home without it. Actually no one can brew beer anywhere without carbon dioxide. How do you get it? It is produced by the yeast and hops in the beer. There is an important process of aging that is necessary if you want really good beer.

    Once bottled, leave it be for no less than two weeks. It is during this time that the carbon dioxide is produced and your beer is carbonated. There are a few other ways to add CO2 to your home brewed beer, but the aging is still something to allow.

    The quick way to possibly add CO2 to beer brewed at home is to pump it into your keg or container directly. This speeds up the aging process and gets you to your brew a lot faster.

    The more traditional way for home brewing beer with CO2 is by adding wort to the finished product before sealing it. Wort is simply unfermented beer; adding that for the yeast produces carbon dioxide.

  • A Home Beer Making Kit Will Improve Your Popularity!

    A Home Beer Making Kit Will Improve Your Popularity!

    It is a well known fact that Americans love their beer and desire nothing but the best from their beer. No doubt the large commercial beer manufacturers hold a considerable chunk of the beer making pie, but the number of home beer makers too has steadily been rising.

    In fact, the popularity of home brewed beer has risen dramatically during the past twenty years or so, and custom made beers are more popular now than ever before.

    Only Need a Few Hundred Dollars to Get Started

    The American taste for beer is quite sophisticated and faced with an inexpensive as well as easy method of making home brewed beer has only stoked the fire of brewing beer at home. You may only require a few hundred dollars investment to purchase the required home beer making kits along with ingredients before you are well on your way to preparing homemade beer.

    You can easily source home beer making kits from homebrew supply stores who stock not only the kits, but also the required ingredients as well. Before you actually get stuck into brewing beer at home you should be well acquainted with the different home beer making kits available that each comes with different supplies.

    At the very least, your home beer making kit must include vital items such as the brewing kettle that is usually made from stainless steel and is used to make the wort. You should select a brewing kettle size that can hold at the very least twice the amount of beer you wish to brew.

    Another important piece of equipment that your home beer making kit should have is the fermenting container which holds the brew at the same time as the yeast performs its function. In addition, the container should allow the brewer to check the fermentation that is going on, and it should also have an airlock to let gases escape.

    Your home beer making kit should also have a hydrometer which is a tiny probe whose function is to measure the wort’s specific gravity while fermentation is taking place, and also before the fermentation process begins. A good thermometer is also necessary to check the temperatures between a low of sixty degrees Fahrenheit and a high of two hundred twelve degrees Fahrenheit at which point water begins to boil.

    A very important facet of brewing beer at home is cleanliness and so you should ensure that your home beer making kit also has a sterilizer and it should also come with a racking cane, associated tubing as well as racking bucket – all of which help in transferring the fermented beer into a temporary location before it is actually bottled.

    It is not unusual for home beer making kits to not contain bottles, caps as well as cappers which you will require for storing the fermented beer from the racking bucket into the bottles. With these pieces of equipment you should have no difficulty in brewing your beer at home.