Home brewing is an increasingly popular trend in Australia. New homebrewers are attracted to the idea of learning a new skill, saving money, and having a few of their own beers to celebrate when they’re done!
It can, however, be confusing to know where to start when selecting your first home brew kit.
In this article, we list a few of the best home brew kits available in Australia and also include a buyers guide covering the basic questions you may have when making your selection.
1. Craft A Brew Reusable Home Brew Kit (Top Pick)
This popular craft beer brewing kit comes with everything you need to get started on your home brewing adventure.
The components are high quality and the brew size of 1 Gallon (3.8 litres) is perfect for someone starting out. This kit includes all the basics you’ll need to brew at home, including the carboy, a racking cane (for filling bottles), air lock, thermometer, tubing and clamp, funnel and sanitizer.
The ingredients included are dry malt extract, hops, grains, yeast, a grain steeping bag.
Note that while this is an entry-level kit, it does require you to complete the important boil process (unlike pre-boiled canned kits like Coopers).
You’ll, therefore, need a large pot to complete the boil. Other optional upgrades include a hydrometer (for measuring alcohol content) and auto-siphon bottle filler.
You can select whether to purchase a kit with ingredients to make American Pale Ale, Dry Irish Stout, Hefeweizen, Oktoberfest Ale, or Hard Cider. Because you’re completing the boil process, you have the flexibility to alter the recipes as you gain confidence.
Ready for your second brew? Simply pick up a Craft A Brew refill kit and try out a new style.
What We Like:
- Affordable
- Small batch brewing provides versatility
- Includes real hops and steeping grains for extra flavour – great for craft beer lovers
- High-quality glass carboy
What We Don’t Like:
- No bottles included
- Smaller volume (3.8 litres)
2. Coopers Beer Home Brewing Kit
As far as making your own beer goes, this is as easy as it gets. Simply mix the ingredients into the fermenter along with the yeast, fill with water and leave to ferment, then bottle into the plastic PET bottles included.
What makes the Coopers kits so easy to use, is that the wort (the liquid extracted during the process of mashing) is supplied as part of the kit. In other kits, such as the Craft A Brew kit, homebrewers need to create the wort themselves through the mashing process. Having the pre-made wort means no pots, no boiling, and no cooling before adding yeast.
Another big ease-of-use factor is the inclusion of PET bottles. This removes the need to source your own bottles (and potentially a way to cap them).
What We Like:
- Large volume (23 litres)
- Easy to use
What We Don’t Like:
- Less involved brewing process
- Lots of plastic
3. Mangrove Jacks Traditional Home Brewing Kit
Mangrove Jacks is another no-fuss home brewing kit designed for those who want to make big volumes of beer with minimal effort.
The kit includes a 30 litre fermentation barrel, lid, tap, stick-on thermometer. bubbler airlock and grommet, hydrometer, brewer’s spoon, cleaner, sanitiser, bottler, sediment reducer, brush, and 30 PET Bottles.
The ingredients are a Mangrove Jack’s Traditional Series Pouch and Mangrove Jack’s Brew Enhancer, along with carbonation drops to be added during the bottling process.
What We Like:
- Contains everything you need
- Large volume
What We Don’t Like:
- Extract brew only
4. Morgans Beginners Beer Home Brewing Kit
The Morgan’s Premium Starter Kit is a large volume kit that contains everything you need to make beer at home.
Similar to the Coopers and Mangrove Jacks kits, the Morgans kit comes with a large plastic fermentation tub, spoon, bottling valve, stick-on thermometer, PET bottles and caps, tap, airlock, sanitizer, and a hydrometer.
It uses a pre-boiled beer concentrate that is combined with Morgan’s body blend and yeast. This mix simply needs to be kept at the appropriate temperature for the required number of days before transferring into bottles with the provided carbonation drops.
What We Like:
- Large volume (23 litres)
- Easy to follow process
What We Don’t Like:
- Less involved brewing process
Home Brew Kit Buyers Guide
If you’re new to home brewing, the options out there can be a bit daunting. Keep the following things in mind when making your selection:
Types of Home Brewing
The best type of kit for you will depend how much of the brewing process you want to complete yourself, or how many “short-cuts” you want to take.
Here are the common types of home brewing:
Beginner Kits – no boil
This is the easiest way to brew beer at home. The process involves adding a can of wort (pre-mashed) to a fermentation vessel along with yeast, then bottling it once the primary fermentation is complete.
Beginner Kits – with boil
These beer kits also come with a can or pouch of hopped malt extract but they require you boil it in a pot for around 1 hour. This is a slightly more involved process as once the boil is complete you’ll need to get the liquid down to around 20 degrees before adding the yeast.
Extract Brewing
This is a very popular type of brewing and many beginner kits (such as our top pick) incorporate this method into a starter kit. Extract brewing involves using malt extract along with hops and other grains for steeping. This brewing process gives you a lot more control and freedom to experiment, try other people’s recipes etc. This type of brewing is where you can start to make some really great tasting beers.
All Grain Brewing
All Grain Brewing is the same process as used by commercial breweries. With all-grain brewing you’ll start out just with the raw ingredients – barley, hops, yeast and water. The process is similar to extract brewing but you need to complete the mashing process yourself to extract the sugars from the malted grains prior to the boil. Because of this, you’ll need a bit more kit if you want to go down this road. It does, however, offer the most flexibility and room for growth of any of the type of brewing available.
Brew in A Bag
This style of beer brewing is becoming increasingly popular as it is a way to do all grain brewing without all the equipment. This technique utilises a mesh bag for the mash process, meaning you don’t need to invest in a big stainless steel mash tun.
Things to Consider when choosing your home brew kit:
Batch size – Small batch size is great if you’re starting out as any mistakes aren’t a big deal. They also mean you get through drinking your beer faster, so you can get on to trying a new style or recipe.
Recipe kit – Good beginner brew kits will contain a list of recipes for you to experiment with. Recipes that are customisable are a bonus, so you can easily sub in local ingredients (from your local brew shop) or tweak things to experiment with different flavours in your beer.
High-quality components – The last thing you want is a valve leaking or a bottling wand breaking during your brewing process. Try to opt for a kit from a reputable manufacturer and with positive reviews.
Ease of Use – Homebrewing can be a fiddly at the best of times, especially the various transporting of liquid from one vessel to another. Look for kits that have been created with ease-of-use in mind. This may include things like a small and manageable batch size, or handy extras like an auto siphon.
Beer bottles – Many of the entry level kits contain plastic PET bottles. However, if your kit doesn’t come with bottles, you’ll need to source these yourself. You can re-use old bottles (make sure the are pry-off caps as screw tops aren’t strong enough) or you can buy a pack of grolsch-style long-neck bottles. If you collect ordinary style beer bottles, note that you’ll need both a capper and caps before bottling day.
