How to brew your first batch of beer
Eight minutes, one batch, start to finish. Watch it once before brew day, then put it on next to the fermenter and follow along.
Your first batch in five steps
- Sanitise. About 15 minutes. Fermenter, lid, airlock, tap, spoon, anything that touches the beer. No-rinse sanitiser, a good swirl, drain. Most first batches that go wrong went wrong here.
- Pour and top up. About 10 minutes. Wort into the fermenter, top up with cold water to the line on the kit, stir. Check the temperature: 18 to 22 degrees for an ale.
- Pitch the yeast. About 5 minutes. Sprinkle it on top, lid on, airlock in and half full of water. Somewhere out of direct sun with a steady temperature. Brew day is done.
- Ferment. 10 to 14 days. The airlock bubbles for the first few days. That is fermentation. You are finished when bubbling has stopped and the hydrometer reads the same two days running.
- Bottle, wait, pour. Two weeks. A carbonation drop in each bottle, cap, and keep them somewhere warm. Two weeks later, fridge one overnight and pour. You made that.
Four weeks from brew day you are drinking your own.
The one mistake that ruins a batch
Sanitising. Not the yeast, not the temperature, not the water. If something that touched the beer was not sanitised, the batch will tell you in three weeks. Use the sanitiser in your kit on everything, every time.
Do not have a kit yet?
Every beer starter kit brews a full 23 litre batch and comes with the fermenter, airlock, tap, thermometer, capper, carbonation drops and sanitiser you see in the video. Add any recipe kit or fresh wort kit as your first beer.
Stuck on a step?
Reply to any of our emails or ring the shop. The team answers, and we have been doing this since 1968.