How to start All Grain Beer Brewing? Part 2 – How to start brewing your first batch?

Most people start brewing beer by jumping right in to a 5 gallon system with 5 gallon kits but most of us simply can’t afford that type of investment and with 1 gallon producing about 10 bottles that would easily equal 50 bottles, I simply can’t commit to 50 of any one beverage. If you think about most craft beer drinkers we love to try new things and can you even imagine filling your fridge with 50 of the exact same thing, I would enjoy the first 10 and then from there I think I would dread knowing I had 40 more to go. My personal recommendation for any new brewer is to do everything in small 1 gallon batches which will yield you 8 to 10 bottles per batch. This makes it easy, affordable and fun as you get to experiment a great deal and if you are lucky enough to make a beer that you absolutely love and may want to share with friends and family then go for it and brew a big 5 gallon batch at that point. Justifying the cost of equipment needed to brew a 5 gallon batch make a lot more sense once you know what you are doing and have a few or even several dozen small 1 gallon batches under your belt.

Here are a few of the 1 gallon kits currently available on the Internet although if you have a local Brew Supply shop please check with them as it is always a great thing to support your local small business owners:

Midwest Supplies LINK – This kit is my personal favorite which includes more than most kits for the money and the only thing you need to supply are the bottles which if you are making beer for the first time I can only guess you have been drinking it and can save up 10 bottles for your first batch. Of course you will need a pot or two but if you don’t have those you can easily buy one locally or from Midwest Supplies at the same time. This kit even includes your first recipe kit, an American wheat. A newer kit from them that I would suspect has all of the same items but a different Recipe Kit, an American IPA  LINK

Northern Brewer Homebrew Supply LINK – Another great kit as it is what I consider a complete kit as it gives you everything you need to do your first batch and even allows you to pick the style you want to do as you first brew but please note a lot of the choices are not 100% all grain and many include extract malts. I do think the most people should brew something simple for the first brew like an American Wheat, IPA, Pale, Hefeweizen, Blonde or like brew. Please remember this kit will also need you to supply your own bottles and kettle but those are items you will probably already have. They also have a few special kits like this White House Kit with only two choices of “honey” type beers LINK. They also have a Wil Wheaton VandelEyes kit LINK but as you will notice in the picture they are using extract malts instead of 100% all grain but it is still a nice starting point if you must.

Brooklyn BrewShop LINK – This is my least favorite kit as I feel they charge more for a lot less as the kit is $10 less than the kits listed above and they do have a nice selection but you don’t get an auto-siphon, spring tip bottle filler, bottle caps and capper like the all the other kits above include. They will sell you the capper and caps for an extra $20 but you are still left with a manual siphon and no spring tip bottle filler which helps to reduce the amount of oxygen that gets into your bottles. Plus their kits don’t appear to include the normal brewing socks included by most other kits including those from Midwest Supplies and most likely Northern Brewer Homebrew Supplies. As all kits don’t include bottles or a kettle you will need those plus either a really fine mesh strainer that can hold up to 2 lbs worth of grain or brew socks other fine mesh bag to help complete your brewing process. I do not recommend this kit for a beginner as it simply isn’t a good value compared to the ones listed above and for a first time experience I personally feel it could be very difficult to do by yourself if someone with experience isn’t assisting you.

Mini Monster Bookshelf Brewery LINK – These look like great kits also but sadly I would rank them with Brooklyn BrewShop kits as they are missing the finer things that can be found in the Midwest Supplies and Northern Brew Homebrew Supply kits. IPA version LINK

Remember to keep it simple and learn as you go.

Here are some photos of what it looks like to prepare, brew and then setup your 1 gallon bottle for fermenting:

Always sterilize your and then layout everything you will need to complete the job, as you will notice I also like to put everything on fresh paper towels just to play things on the safe side of cleanliness.