Home Brewing Recipes

Easy Home Brew Recipes

For thousands of years, people have been brewing alcoholic beverages in their own homes. Beginning in ancient Sumer (often referred to as Sumeria), where the fermentation process was discovered, the practice of brewing beer and similar beverages has been passed down from person to person, country to country and culture to culture for over 11,000 years. During that time, many different types and recipes for home brew have developed. If you’re looking to get into the art of home brewing yourself, trying out simple home brew recipes is a good way to get your feet wet.

A Simple Recipe

Assuming that you have all the necessary equipment, such as a beer brewing kit, a large pot (ideally five gallon capacity and made of stainless steel or enamel), a long handled stirring spoon, and bottles for storing the beer once it’s done, you’ll just need to gather the ingredients for your beer. You can check your local listings for a wine-making supply store or even get them offline.

There are several different home brew recipes out there when it comes to beer. Each brewer may have their own secret ingredient or add some special combination of herbs or spices to give their beer a unique flavor that’s all their own. When you’re first starting out, begin by testing some very basic home brew recipes.

Your shopping list for most simple beginner’s home brew recipes will look something like this:

3.5 lbs. of malt extract

½ lb. of crystal malt grain

¼ lb. of pale malt grain

¼ lb. of oat grain

1 to 2 oz. of hops

1 package of brewer’s yeast

3/8 cup of corn sugar

To make your beer, steep the grains for 30 minutes. Once they have steeped for this long, strain them, and add them to the large brew pot along with a gallon of water and the malt extract. Allow this mixture to boil. As soon as it starts to bubble, add half of the hops and let it continue to boil for an hour. Remove the hops from the brew pot and add the rest of the hops. Let the mixture (also called wort) boil for another half an hour.

Once the mixture is done boiling, let it cool. After it has reached room temperature, strain the plant material from the wort and pour it into the large glass bottle in your beer brewing kit. Add the brewer’s yeast, and place the airlock on the bottle. After 7 to 14 days, your beer should be done fermenting and ready to bottle.

More Home Brew Recipes

The recipe outlined here is only one of many. If you’re looking for something a bit more advanced, try doing a search on Google. You’ll find several websites and blogs dedicated to the pursuit of the perfect home brew. Just take a few minutes to peruse the various recipes you find and pick one that appeals to you.