Brew your own beer - great taste - easy to do - save money!

A recent price comparison report from the BBC told the following story

"For the first time, Surrey has overtaken the capital as the most expensive area to buy a drink, with the average pint costing £4.40.

"According to the Good Pub Guide, Herefordshire and Yorkshire have the cheapest pints at £3.31.

"The difference in price for a pint of beer is now more than £1 across the country, with the average tipple costing £3.60 - up by 13p on 2016."

OK, so we take the average of £3.60/pint. My home brewed beer, which is not using the cheap kits, makes me 40 pints at around 4% alcohol at 52p/pint. 

Putting it another way, my 40 pint kit saves me £43. 

Even if you buy bottles of craft beer at the supermarket for £1.49 - £1.99/500ml you can save a lot. My 40 pint/22 litre kit gives me 500ml beer for 47p

If you want great tasting beer and ales then I've found it makes sense to go for kits that include 2 cans of malt extract. The only extra equipment you need is something to brew the beer in, a hydrometer to check the beer has finished fermenting, a tub of sterilising powder to clean everything, syphon tube, pastic funnel, a bag of brewing sugar and something to put the beer in. Most of that you can get from big hardware stores (Wilkos in the UK) or from online suppliers.

Other excellent brands available!

If you're in the UK  I suggest starting off with the Woodforde Brewery kits, which are all excellent and not too expensive.


Unless you are really fussy and love glass bottles, I'd go for the 1l plastic bottles of soda water in the supermarket - they're cheap to buy, you enjoy the fizz and then re-use the bottles. Life is also easier if you have 2 fermenting buckets (they can live one inside the other when not in use) then it makes syphoning the beer into the bottles so much easier.

To make the beer you simply follow the instructions supplied: Usually this involves

1. Clean your equipment with sterilizer
2. Warm the cans of malt extract in a pan of boiling water to make it easier to pour. Empty them into the fermenting bucket.
3. Top up with required amount of cold water.
4. Add yeast and put lid on bucket. Leave in a warm place for around a week and then check how it's doing with the hydrometer. 
5. When fermentation over, syphon the beer into the second bucket, leaving the yeast deposit behind. Add required amount of brewing sugar for the bottles you're using directly to the beer and give it a stir.
6. With a clean jug and a plastic funnel simply fill your (precleaned) bottles and pop their tops on.
7. Leave in a warm room for a couple of weeks to get the secondary fermentation going (for the head) and then the beer's ready to drink in an other couple of weeks (or sooner if you're desperate!)

Enjoy!