How To Brew Your Own Beer
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 Ever wish that you could brew your own beer from the comfort of your own home?
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The basic homebrewing equipment isn't very expensive at all. In order to start brewing your own beer at home, you'll need to have the following items on hand (or you can just buy a beer kit - more on that at the bottom of this page): Brewpot A brewpot is a large pot made of stainless steel or enamel-coated metal that holds at least 16-quarts of liguid. You might already have a big pot somewhere in your home, but it won't work if it's made of aluminum or if it's a chipped enamelized pot, so you'll be better off just buying a brew pot. Otherwise, your beer will end up tasting odd. The brewpot is needed for boiling up the beer ingredients, also referred to as "wort,". Primary fermenter The primary fermenter is where you keep the wort after boiling, where the beer starts to ferment and becomes alcoholic. The primary fermenter needs to have a minimum capacity of 7 gallons, as well as a lid that seals airtight and accommodates the airlock and rubber stopper. You can't make one of these out of random crap in your garage – you have to buy one that's made specifically for brewing beer. You need to make sure that it's made of food-grade plastic so your beer will ferment properly. Airlock and stopper The airlock allows carbon dioxide to escape from your primary fermenter during fermentation, thus keeping it from exploding, and doesn't allow any of the air from outside to enter. It fits into a rubber stopper that has a hole drilled into it, and the stopper goes in the top of your primary fermenter. The stoppers are sized by number, so you need to figure out what size of hole you have and what kind of stopper fits it. Plastic hose A five-foot length of food-grade plastic hose. It's used to transfer beer from place to place, and you'll need to keep it clean and be on the lookout for kinks and leaks - these are bad. Bottling bucket A bottling bucket is a big, food-grade plastic bucket with a spigot at the bottom. It needs to be at least as large as your primary fermenter, as you'll have to transfer all of the beer from your primary fermenter to your bottling bucket before you can bottle your beer. Bottles Once the primary fermentation process has been completed, you'll need to transfer the beer into bottles for secondary fermentation and convenient storage. Obviously you'll have to have enough bottles on hand to store all of the beer that you're planning to brew. The best type of bottles for holding beer are solid glass ones with smooth tops that you can cap with a bottle capper. You can use the plastic bottles with screw-on lids if you want to, but they look awful and they aren't as good for fermentation. Plus, everyone knows that putting beer in plastic bottles is as lame as it gets, and makes you look like a total loser in front of your friends and family. It's up to you of course, but we recommend you use the glass bottles instead. One last thing - Regardless of whether you decide to use glass bottles or plastic bottles, they should always be dark in color. Light will degrade the quality of your beer, so the bottles that you use to keep it in needs to be as dark as possible. Bottle brush A bottle brush is a slim, curvy brush that looks like a toilet scrubber that you use to clean the inside of a bottle. The equipment you use to brew beer needs to be squeaky clean, and a bottle brush is a ver important piece of the cleaning gear that you'll need. Bottle capper If you decide to do the right thing and buy glass bottles to hold your beer, you'll need to have a bottle capper in order to get the caps on the bottles. And of course, you'll need some bottlecaps, too - you can get these from any brewing supply store online. The best type of bottle capping device is one that you can secure to a hard surface and operate with one hand while holding the bottle with the other. There are less expensive ones that need to be operated with both hands on the capper, but these can be difficult to use, so you get what you pay for. It's just a matter of preference and/or how much money you're willing to spend. Stick-on thermometer This is a thermometer that you stick to the side of your primary fermenter to check the temperature. You can buy them on the internet, at a store that sells brewing supplies, or even from a pet store or aquarium store if you're really desperate (they're also used for fish aquariums). Household items Along with the specialized brewing equipment mentioned above, you'll also need to make sure that you have the following household items lying around somewhere in your house (if not, you'll need to buy them):
Once you've got all these things, you're ready to go and start brewing your own beer! Of course, if you prefer to go the easier, less expensive route, a ready-to-use beer kit is perfect for beginners to learn the ins and outs of brewing your own beer and eliminates the hassle of having to buy everything seperately and put it all together. If you're new to the world of beer brewing, I would strongly recommend you start with a beer kit as it will walk you through the process and make it pretty much impossible for you to screw up while you learn. Mr. Beer has some great beer kits available for less than $100 - You can check them out by clicking on the picture below:
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