How to Make Cheap & Quick Beer

Save money by brewing your beer at home.

If you'd like to reduce your beer costs, you can purchase an inexpensive home brewing kit and brew 60 to 70 bottles of beer in two weeks. Once you've collected the brewing equipment and purchased the malt extract kit, you can begin the fermenting process over the course of a Saturday afternoon. Within a week, the beer will be ready for bottling. The beer, however, will require a second week to clarify and develop carbonation. Bottle your beer in 2-liter bottles to save time in cleaning 60 to 70 individual 12-oz. bottles.

Things You'll Need

• Malt extract kit, any flavor (includes 40-oz. can of malt extract and yeast packet)
• 8 cups white sugar
• Soap
• Household bleach
• Small bowl
• 2 large cooking pots
• Plastic bucket and lid, 7 to 10 gallons, food-grade quality
• Measuring cup
• Measuring teaspoon
• Plastic siphon hose, 5 feet long
• Long wooden spoon
• 12 plastic bottles, 2 liters

Instructions

1. Wash your hands, the plastic bucket and your cooking pot with soap and warm water. Sanitize the bucket with a 5 percent bleach solution.

2. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Pour the water into a small, clean bowl and allow it to cool.

3. Bring 1.75 gallons or 30 cups of cold water to a boil. Add the can of malt extract and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in 7 cups of sugar, cover and allow to cool.

4. Pour 4.25 gallons or 66 cups of cool, previously boiled, water into the plastic bucket.

5. Pour the malt extract and sugar solution into the plastic bucket once it has cooled. Stir the 6 gallons of liquid.

6. Pour the contents from the yeast packet, included in the kit, into the small bowl containing the cup of boiled water. The water must be at room temperature before you add the yeast. Mix the yeast thoroughly with the water using a clean spoon.

7. Pour the hydrated yeast into the plastic bucket when the 6 gallons of liquid have cooled to room temperature. Stir well. Place the lid on the bucket. Allow the liquid to ferment in the plastic bucket, at room temperature, for 7 days.

8. Clean the plastic siphon hose and the twelve 2-liter bottles with soap and warm water. Sanitize the hose and bottles with a 5 percent bleach solution.

9. Add 2 tsp. of sugar to each 2-liter bottle. Siphon the beer from the plastic bucket into the 2-liter bottles using the plastic hose. Avoid vacuuming yeast sediment from the bottom of the bucket. Cap each bottle, and shake to dissolve the sugar.

10. Place the bottles in a cool, dark location for at least 7 days to allow the beer to clear. Following this period, the beer will be ready for consumption.

Tips & Warnings

• Be sure to thoroughly rinse the bleach from the equipment before using.

References

• Eartheasy: Simplest Homemade Beer
• Lemis: Greg's Quick and Easy beer