In addition to all your home brewing equipment you also need to get all of your home brewing supplies or ingredients. Depending on which type or style of beer you want to create will determine precisely what home brewing supplies you'll need. If you are going to make your own beer for the first time you might like to look into selecting a kit with all the required supplies.

Here's a list of the home brewing supplies a common kit will contain:

• Malt Extract Syrup

• Specialty Grains (some kits have this)

• Grain Bag

• Hops

• Yeast

• Priming Sugar

Now let’s look at the home brewing supplies and provide you with a basic idea of how you are going to be using them.

Malt Extract Syrup:

Making use of malt extract is something which helps make home brewing less complicated. Malt extract is made from concentrated sugars extracted from malted barley. You'll find it for sale in either a syrup or powdered form. The syrups are about 20% water, therefore 4 pounds of dry malt extract (DME) is approximately comparable to 5 pounds of malt extract syrup. Additionally, malt extract can be bought in both a hopped or unhopped variety. Munton & Fison, Alexanders, Coopers, Edme and Premier are all very good brands. When purchasing malt extracts ensure that you look at the list of ingredients to avoid any choices with additional processed sugars. These refined sugars are sometimes added to Light Beer-style kits.

Anytime you are home brewing using unhopped extract you will have to add 1-2 ounces of hops during the course of the boil for bittering and flavor. Hops may also be added to the hopped extract brews towards the conclusion of the boil to give extra hop character to the finished beer.

Specialty Grains:

Specialty grains are small amounts of certain kinds of malted barley that are utilized to improve your extract brewing. This method doesn't require any more equipment besides a grain bag and provides you a lot more versatility in creating the wort for your desired type of beer.

Grain Bag:

The grain bag is used to steep your specialty grains in the wort within your brew kettle.

Hops:

Hops can be a very involved subject. There are lots of varieties of hops, yet they are generally divided into two main categories: Bittering and Aroma. Bittering hops tend to be high in Alpha Acids (the main bittering agents), usually over 10%. Aroma hops are lower, around 5%. Some types of hop varieties are in between and can be utilized for either purpose. Bittering hops are put in at the beginning of the boil and generally boiled for an hour. Aroma (or finishing) hops are added closer to the end of the boil and they are typically boiled for 15 minutes or less. A mesh bag, known as a hop bag, is often utilized to help retain the hops during the boil to make removing the hops easier before fermentation. Straining or removing the hops previous to fermentation is advised.

Some more advanced brewers also add hops to the fermenter for increased hop aroma in the finished beer. This is called dry hopping, however, normally this is done during a secondary fermentation.

Yeast:

The yeast is one of the most crucial home brewing supplies. Without it there would be no fermentation and therefore no alcohol. Additionally, it plays a significant role in determining the flavor from the beer. Different yeast strains will yield unique beers when pitched in identical worts. Yeast can be purchased in both liquid and dried types. For those who are a first-time brewer, dried ale yeast is normally suggested. A few leading and well-performing manufacturers of dry yeast are Yeast Labs, Cooper’s, DanStar, Munton & Fison and Edme. Try to avoid any no-name yeast packet that came taped to the top of the can of malt extract. You have got no idea where it came from as well as how old it is.

Ale yeasts otherwise known as top-fermenting due to the fact much of the fermentation activity occurs at the top of the fermenter. In contrast lager yeasts do their job at a slower pace and remain toward the bottom of the fermenter. The fermentation temperature is another significant difference. Ale yeasts require warmer temperatures, most will go dormant below 55F (12C), in contrast Lager yeasts will happily accomplish the task at 40F. Utilizing lager yeast at ale temperatures 65-70F (18-20C) will result in a beer with mixed characteristics, a slightly fruity tasting lager, called California Common Beer. Anchor Steam Beer is among the most recognized examples of this particular style.

If this is going to be your first home brewing attempt you most likely desire to use an ale yeast, because of the fact it's going to finish fermenting much quicker. An ale yeast normally takes only a couple weeks compared to a lager yeast which might take between 4 to 6 weeks to completely ferment.

Priming Sugar:

Priming sugar will be put into the beer once it's finished fermenting. This is usually done in your bottling bucket before the beer is bottled. This method of introducing a tiny bit of fermentable sugar just prior to bottling gives the beer carbonation after a couple of weeks of conditioning.

Now that you've got a sense of what home brewing supplies are needed all you have to do is select a style of beer to make. Once you have all of the home brewing equipment and supplies you're prepared to get started making your own beer.