Brewing beer at home from start to finish (with diagram)

Home brewing with an all-in-one brewer is simpler than many expect: one vessel mashes, lauters and boils; one fermenter; and a keg or some bottles for the finished beer. The diagram below sums up a whole brew day.

Brew day (4–6 hours)

1. Mill the malt: crack the kernels but keep the husks whole as a natural filter bed.
2. Fill with water and heat to strike temperature (usually 65–67°C), then add the malt.
3. Mash for 60 minutes: the malt's enzymes convert starch to sugar. Multi-step schedules can run automatically.
4. Lauter: lift the grain basket and sparge with 76–78°C water to rinse out the sugar.
5. Boil for 60 minutes with hops per the recipe: early additions for bitterness, late for aroma.
6. Whirlpool: stir to spin the trub and hop debris into a cone in the middle of the kettle.
7. Chill quickly to 18–20°C (ale) or 10–12°C (lager) with an immersion or counterflow chiller.

Fermentation (1–3 weeks)

Transfer the wort to a sanitised fermenter, pitch yeast and hold a steady temperature. Ales take 7–10 days at 18–20°C; lagers need 10–14°C for two weeks, then cold conditioning. A pressure fermenter with a spunding valve lets the beer carbonate itself in the tank.

Packaging and serving

• Option 1 — Keg: closed-transfer to a Corny keg, carbonate with CO₂ (or already carbonated under pressure) and pour from a kegerator.
• Option 2 — Bottles: bottle with a little priming sugar so the yeast carbonates in the bottle; ready in about two weeks.

Which kit should you buy?

KRS suggests three combos: Essentials (brewer + fermenter + accessories), Complete (adds temperature control, chilling and filtering) and Kegging (adds a keg, tap and bottling tools). See them and build your own below.