Equipment To Get Started
The first thing you will need is an Equipment Starter Kit for either wine, beer or cider. These kits contain all the necessary homebrew equipment (fermenting vessels, thermometers, hydrometers etc). You may need to collect empty bottles (although we recommend the use of Coopers OxBar bottles). In the colder months, a heating belt (brewbelt) may be required to keep the temperature of your brew high enough for the yeast to work properly.
Next you will need a wine/beer/cider ingredient kit. These kits contain the raw ingredients (malt extract or grape juice etc) that you are going to ferment. They also contain yeast and any other ingredients you will need. The beer equipment starter kits usually come with a beer ingredients kit, but the wine starter kits usually do not so you will have to buy one separately.
Many beer kits require the addition of sugar. You will get a better result if you use Brewing Sugar (Ingredients and Chemicals Section). Malt Extract or Spraymalt (also in the Ingredients Section) can be used instead of sugar to give a maltier beer. Beer kits are designed for the ingredients recommended by the manufacturer, and replacing sugar with malt extract may alter the manufacturer's intended taste and mouth feel of the beer. For this reason, we suggest using the ingredients suggested by the manufacturer. Muntons say that all of their value kits can be significantly improved by adding spraymalt instead of sugar (their top of the range kits are already 100% malt). Coopers recommend various fermentable combinations depending on the beer kit. Some Belgian Brewferm kits work better with Candy sugar.
We have a "Bundle Options" facility with our beer kits; this allows you to select the best fermentable combination and saves you money too.
