Your first brew — a beginner's walkthrough
A practical end-to-end walkthrough of brewing your first beer, from kit selection to packaging day.
Estimated time: One brew day plus 2-3 weeks of fermentation and conditioning
Why bitter for a first brew
A simple British Ordinary Bitter is the most forgiving introduction to brewing. The style tolerates a wide range of fermentation temperatures (you don’t need precise temperature control), the ingredient list is short (one base malt, one specialty malt, one hop, one yeast), and the finished beer is enjoyable to drink within two weeks of brew day. We use our Everyday Bitter recipe below.
Equipment you actually need
- Brew kettle — at least 25 L. Our 30 L stainless kettle is the obvious recommendation.
- Fermenter — glass carboy or food-grade plastic bucket. 23 L minimum.
- Airlock + bung to fit the fermenter
- Long-stemmed spoon for stirring the mash
- Hydrometer (or refractometer — we sell a handheld one)
- Auto-siphon for transfers
- Bottling bucket and bottles — or a keg if you’re getting fancy
- Star-San and PBW for cleaning and sanitising
Brew day, in order
- Morning: Mill the malt (or buy pre-crushed). Heat strike water to ~72 °C.
- Mash: Combine grain with water at a ratio of about 3 L per kg of grain. Hold at 67 °C for 60 minutes. Stir every 15 minutes.
- Sparge: Drain the wort into the kettle. Add fresh hot water (~76 °C), stir, drain again — repeat until you have ~26 L in the kettle.
- Boil: Bring to a rolling boil. Add bittering hops at start, flavour hops with 15 minutes left, aroma hops at flame-out.
- Cool: Cool wort to 19 °C as quickly as possible. An immersion chiller is the standard tool; a cold-water bath works in a pinch but takes longer.
- Pitch: Transfer to sanitised fermenter, sprinkle the dry yeast on top, seal with airlock.
- Ferment: 7 days at 19 °C. Resist the urge to peek constantly.
After fermentation
- Check FG: When gravity doesn’t change over 3 days, fermentation is done.
- Cold-crash: Optional. 48 hours at 1-3 °C drops the yeast for clearer beer.
- Package: Bottle with priming sugar (~5 g/L) or keg and force-carbonate.
- Condition: Bottles need 10-14 days at room temperature to carbonate fully.
What can go wrong (and isn’t a disaster)
- Lag is normal. It can take 24-48 hours for visible fermentation activity to start. Don’t panic.
- High FG can be a measurement error. Refractometers need correction for alcohol. Hydrometer reading is the truth.
- Off-flavours from temperature. If your fermenter was warm (>23 °C), you’ll get fruity esters. Drinkable, just different.
- Cloudy beer. Yeast haze fades with time. Cold-conditioning helps.
If you taste something genuinely off, see our off-flavour reference for diagnosis.
Suggested products
- Fermentis SafAle S-04A clean, fast-fermenting English ale strain in dry form — a workhorse for bitters, milds and porters.
- Maris Otter Pale MaltThe classic British base malt. Rich, biscuity wort with enough enzymatic power to convert itself and an adjunct or two alongside.
- East Kent GoldingsThe English noble. Earthy, gently floral, slightly honeyed — the hop character of British ales and the foundation of cask-conditioned bitter.
- Glass Carboy 5 Gallon (23 L)A classic glass carboy for primary or secondary fermentation. Doesn't scratch like plastic, doesn't permeate oxygen like PET, and lets you watch fermentation directly.