Home brew beer there is nothing like it. You have all the equipment for a great home brewed beer but you don’t really know where to start. Yes, there are instructions but you need to know the stuff they don’t tell you, well here it is…

1. Start Simple
I know it’s hard but start simple and then work your way up to the fancy beers, resist that urge to load it up with a heap of additional ingredients. Keep it straight forward for you first few brews to perfect it and then you can add those exotic spiced once you’ve got it down packed.

2. Clean and Sanitise
Make sure everything is sanitised, it is the most important part of making good beer and trust me you will notice the difference. There is no need to sanitise any of the equipment that will touch the wort because the boil will take care of that. Also make sure you have sanitised the bottles and caps once the beer is ready too.

3. Chill Fast
After the boil is complete, you want to chill the wort as quickly as possible. When the wort is hot it is more prone to infections so get it out of the danger zone and chill that beer as quickly as you can, this will also reduce the haziness in the finished beer and it will also give the beer a longer life.

4. Aerate the Wort
The cheapest to aerate the wort is shaking the hell out of it for several minutes – make sure the wort is in a sealed sanitised bucket, place a folded towel on the ground and vigorously rock the bucket back and forward until it is nice and frothy.

5. Pitch Enough Yeast
Healthy yeast is essential, the dry yeast is the easiest usable product but you are limited with your brand choices, it does have its benefits though – higher number of cells per package – and that’s what you want.

6. Control the Fermentation Temperature
Now that you’ve rapidly chilled your beer, aerated the wort and pitched the right amount of yeast you can sit back and let those yeast cells do what they were made to do. To maximise the yeast cells make sure you have them at the right temperature. Most American and English beers perform best between 17-20 degrees celsius.

7. Take Notes. Read. Share
Once you have done your first batch you will see that it’s easier than it looks. It’s making great beer that isn’t so easy but make sure you take notes so you can learn from your mistakes, keep repeating the steps and you will get better with each batch. Don’t forget to share your information to all home-brewers can learn from your mistakes and successes.