**Edit as I keep being asked in the comments: Once you’ve your brewing equipment bought, you’ll just be buying beer kits, which cost €25-30 each, and each will make 46 pints. So the cost per pint is around €0.55-0.65.**

I’ll start by saying that I’m a homebrewing novice, and I only started brewing in the summer. There’s probably better ways of doing this, but as someone totally new to it, I found the following works well for me and is based on my own kit and preferences. I’m also not affiliated with any store or anything.

Homebrewing is always something I wanted to get into but found daunting. Then I read a great [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/o7vvle/lads_how_do_we_combat_minimum_unit_pricing_mup/h31mo74/) by /u/HatrickPatrick on homebrewing and decided to make the plunge. It’s much, much easier to get into to than I thought and the beer is excellent (way better than most beers you’d buy in the shops).

First of all, you’ll need a kit. [This](https://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4&products_id=874&zenid=os6pt6peau5jgmkjgsg9l4htb6) is what I used, although I also bought a [fermenting bucket with a tap](https://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/33-litre-fermentation-vessel-with-tap-airlock-bung-p-245.html?cPath=2_26) as they’re much easier to use.
I also bought [two packs of swing top bottles](https://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/amber-swing-top-bottles-brown-glass-500ml-20pack-includes-swing-top-p-920.html?cPath=2_172) as these can be easily reused every time without needing to buy bottle tops.
If you want to use regular bottles, you’ll need a different capper as the one included in the set is terrible. I use [this one](https://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_24&products_id=2488&zenid=os6pt6peau5jgmkjgsg9l4htb6)

You’ll also need a beer kit, which contains everything you need in terms of brewing. I personally love Mangrove Jacks, and find their IPA is especially good. For starting out, I’d reccommend their [American IPA kit](https://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/mangrove-jacks-craft-series-american-pale-ale-with-dry-hops-25kg-40-pints-recipe-no11-p-4369.html?cPath=1_270) as the hops will mask the taste even if you make a mistake, and be a lot more forgiving. Basically the beer kit has a twin pouch, one side is “wet” and contains a malt sludge while the other side of the pouch is “dry” and has little packets of hops, yeast etc.

In terms of brewing, you just need to follow the instructions on the beer kit, but the first thing is to sanitise everything. The starter kit above includes sanitising gear so you just use that and clean everything that’ll be in contact with the beer: everything from the inside of the bucket to your stirrer (I use a wooden spoon) to the bottles themselves.

Once everything is clean, you squeeze the “wet” side of the beer kit into the fermenting bucket, then add 3 litres of boiling water and then a kilogram of sugar (you can get dextrose sugar for brewing but I personally use plain old table sugar from Lidl). You then top up the bucket with cold water until you’ve reached the required level (it’ll be on your beer kit).

You then need to check the temperature of the beer: too high and the beer will taste off, too low and fementation will be much slower or even stop altogther. You want it beloew 25°C, then stir in the yeast packet.

You then need to half fill the bung with boiled water (which has been left to cool) then put it in the bung. Make sure the seal on the bucket is tight and leave for 7 days. Temperature is very important, you want it between 20-25°C, so use a heat pad if needed.
After 7 days, you pour some beer into your testtube and add the hygrometer. It’ll float at a specific reading, if it reads around 1.020, you can add the hops by pouring them into the bucket. If not, leave it a few more days until you get the right reading.

After 7 more days, (14 days since you started), test the reading again, it should be around 1.008. If so, you can start bottling.
For bottling, add a teaspoon of table sugar to each bottle, then fill with wort (the bucket’s contents) from your fermenter’s tap. Seal it and leave somewhere warm. It’s very important that your bottles are cleaned with the sanitising solution before you add the wort, to stop the beer going off. It’s very important to keep the beer away from sunlight which can ruin the beer, so a warm press etc is ideal.

After 2 weeks in somewhere warm, you can move the beer to somewhere cold. Ideally a fridge, for a week or so, or longer if it’s somewhere not as cold. This allows the beer’s carbonation to reduce and if you open it without it being cooled, the beer will shoot out the top of the bottle like shaken coke. If your beer is STILL too carbonated, putting it in the freezer for a couple of hours just before you open it will reduce it nicely.

Again, I’ll stress that I’m no expert on brewing so there’s probably better ways of doing things, but find the above works for me and I’ve consistently made beer which I’ve genuinely enjoyed drinking. There’s definitely nicer beers in craft beer shops but Mangrove Jacks make beer which is much nicer than the majority of what I’ve bought. It’s much cheaper as well, once you bought the initial gear, each beer kit for 46 pints will cost you around €25-30. I can’t reccommend home brewing enough.

Using bottles is time consuming on bottling day (due to the need to clean and then fill each bottle) but you can get kegs once you’re willing to invest in the hobby which is more expensive but easier to clean and reduces the time from start to drinking from 6 to 2-3 weeks.

If anyone has any questions, feel free and I’ll answer as best as I can. If anyone more experienced than me sees any mistakes, ommissions or faults, please let me know and I’ll be happy to correct them.

26 comments

  2. I started like you at the start of covid, with the kits. Sometimes I still buy one now and again.

    Now I mostly gather whatever fruit is going seasonally on the hedgerows or trees, buy a LOAD of sugar and some packets of brewers yeast and pour warmed water into the vat.

    Then after a week or two when fermentation starts, sieve the fruit and strain the liquid off through a cheesecloth (or a teatowel, but that’s a mess 😂).

    I leave it for another while, then when I have time, I bottle it in plastic bottles (for champagne) or Grolsch ones for beer and cider with the flip lids, burping every day (sometimes twice) to release the CO2. When I think it’s boozy enough (I don’t own a hydrometer), I stick it in the fridge to stop fermentation.

    The cheapest, most delicious booze money can buy.

    Summer
    – Elderflower: my favourite, makes an incredibly delicious champagne. Follow the steps above basically but the flowers need to be gently brushed to remove bugs while retaining the natural yeast which will spur fermentation. Lemon zest and juice also gives this a fruity, summery taste. It’s ready for drinking in eight weeks but I leave a lot of it for the year so it’s really boozy and we can drink it when prepping next year’s.

    Autumn
    – apple and/or berry cider: don’t be worried about the apples being tart because berries and sugar will brighten it up. You can always taste test and add more sugar when bottling

    – elderberries: makes a delicious red wine with a quite tart flavour. Be sure and taste to add more sugar. I also add raisins I steep in warm water (like the lemon zest in the champagne) because they add sweetness and the yeast on them also spurs fermentation.

    Any other suggestions for free booze, I’d love to hear them.

  5. This is a free online version of the home-brewers Bible: http://howtobrew.com/book/introduction.

    While I understand minimum alcohol pricing might force many into homebrewing, I would recommend against it as a way to merely make cheap booze. It’s a hobby like any other and requires patience, reading/researching and trial and error to make beer that you can be really proud of. If you’re genuinely interested in beer and are willing to learn it as a craft, well then it’s easy and fun.

    However, if you just want alcohol for the sake of alcohol, there are probably easier ways to go about it. OP sounds like an open-minded person who enjoys the hobby as much as they do drinking. This is the right attitude to get the most out of it as a hobby.

    FYI, when you move to grain, the price per batch drops even more significantly. 10 euro per batch. But it does require investing in more equipment which means you take an initial loss.

  8. Nice write up thanks, looking to get back into myself i have the same fermenter with a tap but its been lying around a while now sealed of course… Would you think a water bleach solution be enough to clean it, or juts scrap it and get a new one?

  9. As someone who bottles and kegs homebrew, I will sum up the advantages and disadvantages of the types of bottles and kegs just to add something more into the discussion.

    Bottles

    – Swing top bottles. Advantageous in that they are reusable for a long time with dozens of uses possible so long as the rubber washers are kept in good condition, and they are reasonably cheap to replace anyway, they give a lovely pop when you open them which is just cool imo, and the produce minimum amounts of waste. Disadvantages are that they are pretty expensive, usually running around 2.50 euro a bottle, the rubber seals cannot be cleaned using phosphoric sanitising solutions (starsan, chemsan etc.) as it reduces their integrity and need to be washed and dried separately, and sometimes the seals can fail to seat right which makes your beer foul and it is harder to spot.

    – Bottle Caps bottles – Advantageous in terms of cost as they are cheaper than swing tops, you can reuse commercial bottles so long as they are not twist off tops, bottle caps are pretty cheap, 1000 of them is around 20 Euro, and are easy to sanitise. Disadvantages is that there is some waste produced with the bottlecaps, capping takes the longest of all the bottle types as you need a press (hand ones are cheaper and easier to store, but pillar presses are quicker to use), there is a very remote possibility you will crack the glass when capping which is annoying to clean up, occasionally a cap will fail to seat right which requires recapping but this is easily noticeable.

    – Plastic PET bottles – Advantages are that it is the cheapest out of all the bottle types with bottles running around 50 cent with the caps, they are reusable caps which just require a bit of elbow grease to tighten, these are also the safest bottles to use if you are scared of making bottle bombs, as you wont end up with glass shards everywhere, they can also be rough handled a bit more than glass bottles. Disadvantages are they are a bastard to clean, you cannot use a dishwasher or oven to wash them (for obvious reasons) so you need to use a brush, they are also the least long lasting of all the bottle types with around 10-15 uses being average before the bottles get fatigued and fail to seal properly. Also do not use regular PET drink bottles for homebrew, the PET brewing bottles have brown colouration which prevents the beer skunking, and reusable bottle caps.

    Kegs

    – Plastic consumer Kegs, These kegs run around 50-100 euro for a 40 litre version, they are mostly plastic and the build quality is variable but with some work can be made serviceable, usually by re-greasing the seals, and sanding the seal joins to remove burrs. They can be pressurised by both chargers (little metal tubes of compressed gas like whipped cream cartridges) and using gas tanks.

    – Real Kegs – These are basically any type of keg which is built like those used in pubs and breweries, they run anywhere from 150-1000 euro depending on the keg you want and new vs used, they require gas pressure regulators and a CO2/Nitrogen tank to keep them pressurised, which makes this set up pretty expensive. I never bother with my keg anymore as its too much hassle to sanitise and service.

    Pressurisation gases and methods : Note : Please make sure you buy food grade gases when you are buying tanks or chargers, airsoft, balloon etc gases are not safe for use in making food or drink.

    – Chargers are used to pressurise the keg to allow both the beer to be forced out and to give some head to the beer, as the gas drops you will need to use chargers to recharge the gas pressure in the keg, a rough rule of thumb is a charger is needed for every 10l of beer in the keg, you can use either nitrogen or CO2 depending on the beer style you are serving, food grade chargers are generally around 1 euro each, they are a cheap solution to have your own draught beer. They require a small charger holder which screws into most keg gas connectors

    – Gas tanks – Basically food grade CO2/Nitrogen in a giant tank, pretty expensive as even the smallest tanks are around 200 euro, however getting them refilled is far cheaper once you have a tank, you require the use of a regulator to connect to your keg to maintain a steady pressure which is another expense, generally I would only recommend this setup to someone who is very enthusiastic about their homebrew.

  10. Dabbed in making beer using the kits, I’ve 3 barrels so i can 2 kits on the go and stagger them.
    I use the third to help condition/clarify the beer or to help bottle, rather than but the sugar into each bottle I transfer to the clean barrel, add all the required sugar, mix and leave for a half hour or so and then bottle.

  11. Outside of the initial equipment startup costs. How much is it essentially per bottle out of curiosity? I’m sure a lot cheaper than buying but nonetheless just curious

  13. I live in apartment and I don’t know if I’d be able to do this as it’s hard to keep the temp stable and I don’t have anywhere dark to keep the beer.

  14. Great overview! One comment though: you talk about cleaning the equipment, but I’d go one further – you need to [sterilise everything](https://youtu.be/vSoshc1ukGY). In brewing, you need to slaughter every single stray bacterium and yeast spore you can since even the tiniest contamination can change the character of the beer completely, and rarely for the better.

  15. God this looks really fun, I may give it a go at some point in the future.

    Thanks for the write up! I’m keeping this

  16. Hold up… I brew my own occasionally…. stop talking about it or it’ll become more popular and they’ll come up with a tax

    Mums the word

  18. Just bottled my first today. Mangrove jack juicy ipa.

    I didnt transfer from the fermentation bucket to the second bucket to bottle and ended up with hops clogging the bottling wand constantly. Ended up with 32 bottles instead of 40. Ill know better for next time. Think I’ll pick up an auto start syphon

  19. Homebrewing is great fun. The biggest “tricks” in my experience is to sanitize everything *everything* and to stick to the recipe.

    Highly recommend the Homebrewer’s companion by Charlie Papazian.

  21. I’ve a big post about this upcoming in the next couple of days, will teach folks here how to brew and each batch for ~€16 😈 Glad to see my posts about it are having an impact and that you’re enjoying the hobby!

  23. Ah Jesus I’m not reading all that sorry 😂.
    I bought a full kit from Brew West bottles and all. It was brilliant. It was a gift but I really enjoyed making it and drinking it.

  24. Brewing 13 years now.. My biggest tip is if your using tap water leave it out over night or treat with a Campden tablet .. Most of our tap water has chlorine.. Chlorine and yeast produce a terrible off flavour that tastes like sucking on a bandaid.. Lots of people that start with kits get this flavour and end up thinking that’s what homebrew tastes like.. Its a great hobby and you can produce excellent beer at home that’s as good as any craft beer.. Check out the national homebrew club and find a local club.. Its a very social hobby and you’ll find people that will help you out when your starting off

  25. Elder flower wine is pretty easy and one can brew a 12% batch of 25 liters for less than €10.

    The cheapest and potentially nastiest way to make booze is to throw water, sugar and brewers yeast into a bucket, come back to it a few weeks later and pour in a few bottles of cordial or soda stream mixers and yeast killer of course.

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