Home Brewing Supplies - Brewing Supplies You'll Need

In addition to all your home brewing equipment you also have to acquire all of the home brewing supplies or ingredients. Based on which type or style of beer you want to make will determine precisely what home brewing supplies you will want. If you are going to make your own beer for the first time you might like to look into buying a kit with all of the necessary supplies.

Here's a list of the home brewing supplies a common kit will contain:

- Malt Extract Syrup
- Specialty Grains (some kits contain this)
- Grain Bag
- Hops
- Yeast
- Priming Sugar

Now let’s look at the home brewing supplies and provide you with a basic concept of how you are going to be using them.

Malt Extract Syrup:
Using malt extract is something that helps make home brewing easier. Malt extract consists of concentrated sugars extracted from malted barley. You'll find it for sale in either a syrup or powdered form. The syrups are around 20% water, therefore 4 pounds of dry malt extract (DME) is approximately comparable to 5 pounds of malt extract syrup. Additionally, malt extract can be purchased in both a hopped or unhopped selection. Munton & Fison, Alexanders, Coopers, Edme and Premier are all good brands. When choosing malt extracts be sure to look at list of ingredients in order to avoid any varieties with additional refined sugars. These refined sugars may be put into Light Beer-style kits.
Anytime you are home brewing using unhopped extract you'll need to add 1-2 ounces of hops over the course of the boil for bittering and flavor. Hops can even be added to the hopped extract brews towards the end of the boil to provide increased hop character to the finished beer.

Specialty Grains:
Specialty grains are small quantities of certain types of malted barley that are utilized to improve your extract brewing. This technique does not require any special equipment except a grain bag and provides you a good deal more flexibility in creating the wort for your intended kind of beer.

Grain Bag:
The grain bag can be used to steep the specialty grains in the wort within your brew kettle.

Hops:
Hops can be an involved topic. There are numerous kinds of hops, but they are generally divided into two primary groups: Bittering and Aroma. Bittering hops are high in Alpha Acids (the main bittering agents), normally higher than 10%. Aroma hops are lower, approximately 5%. Some hop varieties end up being in between allowing them to be utilized for both purposes. Bittering hops are put in at the start of the boil and typically boiled for an hour. Aroma (or finishing) hops are added near the end of the boil and they are typically boiled for 15 minutes or less. A mesh bag, referred to as a hop bag, is often utilized to help retain the hops during the boil to make removal of the hops easier before fermentation. Straining or removal of the hops previous to fermentation is recommended.
Some more advanced brewers also add hops to the fermenter for greater hop aroma in the finished beer. This is what's called dry hopping, but it's usually done during a secondary fermentation.

Yeast:
The yeast is one of the most important home brewing supplies. Without it there'd be no fermentation and hence no alcohol. Additionally, it plays a significant role in determining the taste from the beer. Different yeast strains will produce unique beers when pitched in identical worts. Yeast can be purchased in both liquid and dried forms. For those who are a first-time brewer, dried ale yeast is generally suggested. A few leading and well-performing brands of dry yeast are Yeast Labs, Cooper’s, DanStar, Munton & Fison and Edme. Avoid any no-name yeast packet which came taped to the top of the can of malt extract. You've got no idea where it came from in addition to how old it really is.
Ale yeasts are classified as top-fermenting due to the fact that since of the fermentation activity takes place at the top of the fermenter. In contrast lager yeasts work at a slower rate and remain toward the bottom of the fermenter. The fermentation temperature is another fundamental difference. Ale yeasts require higher temperatures, many will go dormant below 55F (12C), while Lager yeasts will happily work at 40F. Using lager yeast at ale temperatures 65-70F (18-20C) can lead to a beer with mixed character, a slightly fruity tasting lager, known as California Common Beer. Anchor Steam Beer is among the most well known examples of this unique style.
If this is going to be your very first home brewing attempt most likely desire to use an ale yeast, since it's going to finish fermenting faster. An ale yeast usually takes just a couple of weeks compared to a lager yeast that may possibly take between four to six weeks to completely ferment.

Priming Sugar:
Priming sugar will be added to the beer once it is done fermenting. This is done while in the bottling bucket right before the beer is bottled. This technique of adding a small amount of fermentable sugar just before bottling gives the beer carbonation following a week or two of conditioning.

Now that you have a sense of what home brewing supplies are required all you need to do is pick a style of beer to make. Once you have the necessary home brewing equipment and supplies you will be ready to get started making your own beer.