The way you choose to brew beer can depend on many factors such as time, cost, level of experience preferences in taste etc. We’ve briefly explained the various techniques below, along with the pros and cons of each method.
Kit + Kilo (Canned Kits)
This is the easiest and cheapest way to get into brewing, and is the method you will follow with our 23L starter kits. You start with a can kit that contains a liquid extract of malt and hops – this contributes all the colour, flavour, bitterness and aroma to your finished beer. You add the contents of the can to your fermenter along with an additional kilo of fermentable sugar (detrose, booster or dry malt extract). Add two litres or so of boiling water to dissolve, then top the fermenter up to the 23L mark with cold water and pitch yeast.
Pros: cost effective, less time required
Cons: less customisable, less personalised
Extract
A more involved process than kits, you use liquid malt extract to give you the sugars, colour and malt flavour. You can also steep some specialty grain (such as crystal malt) to add extra colour and flavour. The wort is boiled with hops pellets to extract bitterness, hop flavour and aroma, then cooled before adding yeast and fermenting.
Pros: a better, more personalised result than kits
Cons: more time investment and equipment required
All Grain
Using no malt extract – all sugars, colour and malt flavour is extracted from cracked malt via a process of “mashing”, then sparging (draining the wort from the grain and adding more hot water to the grain to extract additional sugar), then boiling with hops as per extract brewing.
Pros: the ultimate level of control and personalisation
Cons: much larger time investment and equipment cost, brewing sessions can take around 6 hours.