By its very nature, home brewing your own beer is a rewarding hobby, because come on – when you’re done, you have beer. What couldn’t be great about this? But like other hobbies, many home brewers seem to revel in making the process as complicated as possible, and their expensive, exotic brewing rigs become a badge of honor and bragging rights, which they then promote over all avenues of social media and then preach how everyone needs to use fancy equipment to make good beer. In reality, however, this is not true. Home brewing beer doesn’t have to be complicated or involve elaborate, expensive equipment. In fact, many if not most home brewers who have continued to brew for years if not decades do so because they’ve found ways to keep their process as simple as possible.
Here are 10 tips to help you streamline your home beer brewing to keep things easy and keep you brewing.
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Use a Big Fermenter
One of the easiest ways to prevent a mess during fermentation is to use a larger fermenter, such as a 9-gallon bucket, even if you’re brewing a standard 5-gallon batch. High-alcohol and wheat-based beers are notorious for foaming over smaller fermenters. Having the extra space of a 9 gallon bucket dramatically prevents the risk of the krasusen produced during fermentation overflowing the fermenter and spewing out the top. Though using a larger fermenter is a small change, it can save a lot of cleanup headaches and ensure your brew stays where it belongs – in the fermenter and not on the ceiling! -
Use a Plastic Bucket Fermenter
Yes, we admit it. Stainless fermenters look cool, but they’re expensive, and sure, glass carboys seem wholesome, but they’re heavy, breakable, and a pain to clean. Plastic bucket fermenters, on the other hand, are inexpensive, lightweight, and much easy to manage. You don’t have to worry about them shattering, and they’re just as effective at keeping your beer safe during fermentation. Plus, cleaning them is easy compared to dealing with the narrow neck of a carboy. -
Skip the Secondary Fermenter
Although old habits are hard to change, and a lot of old information keeps floating around the internet, an increasing number of home brewers are skipping using a secondary fermenter unless they’re brewing a beer with special requirements, such as dry hopping. While aging a beer in a secondary fermentater allows time for extra clarification, for most styles it’s unnecessary. If you’re brewing most non-dry hopped ales, you can leave the beer in the primary fermenter the entire time and still get the same results as if you had used a secondary. This saves your time, which is precious, and it eliminates one more piece of equipment to clean and sanitize. For more information about using a secondary fermenter, click here. -
Use an Auto-Siphon
Manually siphoning beer with a hose can be a major annoyance, but an auto-siphon makes the process simple. Most home brewers use auto-siphons these days, and for good reason—it helps you move your beer from one container to another without disturbing the sediment or introducing oxygen, which can deplete the fresh flavor of your beer. It’s a simple tool that’s well worth having as a part of your brewing equipment. -
Skip the Bottling Bucket
Yes, you read that correctly – just siphon the beer onto the floor. Just kidding – and checking if you are still paying attention or just TikToking. For most home brewers, bottling the beer is a tedious, time-consuming step. Some might even call it a pain in the ass. However, you can simplify the bottling process by filling your bottles directly from the fermenter. Use carbonation drops instead of fussing with powdered priming sugar. Just make sure to siphon carefully, especially towards the bottom of the fermenter, to avoid getting too much sediment into your bottles. This approach reduces the number of steps and equipment needed, making cleanup easier too. -
Use Bigger Bottles
Filling bottles is one of the more tedious parts of home brewing, so why not make it quicker? Using larger bottles, like 22-ounce bombers, means you have fewer bottles to fill. It’s the same amount of beer, but you’re cutting your work in half. You can still fill a few 12-ounce bottles if you like giving them as gifts, but for your personal stash, bigger bottles are the way to go. And don’t kid yourself: you would’ve drank two of those 12 oz beers, so just cut out the middle man and go bigger. -
Keg Your Beer
If you’re really serious about simplifying your home brewing process, kegging is the way to go. While it does require a bit of upfront investment, once you’re set up, kegging is much faster than bottling. Instead of filling, capping, and sanitizing dozens of bottles, you just transfer your beer to a keg, and you’re ready to go. Plus, there’s nothing quite like pouring your own beer from a tap at home, meaning it’s good for the psyche, so if you want to do something favorable for your mental health, then keg your beer. -
Skip the Hydrometer
Taking gravity readings can be useful for measuring how much alcohol is in your beer, but it’s not always necessary to take an original gravity reading. Most reliable recipes will list the expected original gravity, so unless you’re really into tracking every detail of your brew, you can skip this step and save yourself a bit of time and effort. Plus, most chill brewers drink a couple of beers while brewing, and after that, they could care a less about gravity readings, so why bother. -
Use Time-Efficient Cleaning and Sanitizing Strategy
Cleaning and sanitizing are essential parts of brewing, but they don’t have to be a hassle. Get into the habit of cleaning your equipment right after using it, while any residue is still easy to remove. A good cleaner, like PBW, B-Brite or One Step, works wonders. For sanitizing, use a no-rinse sanitizer like Star San just before you need your equipment. Disassembling parts like siphons and bottle fillers, and soaking them overnight if necessary, will keep them in good shape and ensure your beer stays uncontaminated. For more information about cleaning and sanitizing, click here. -
Brew with Extracts
All-grain brewing can be fun and gives you more control over your beer, but it’s also time-consuming. If you want to save time without sacrificing quality, brewing with malt extracts is a great option. In fact, experienced extract brewers win as many competitions as all-grain brewers. While certain styles like pilsners or lagers might benefit from the all-grain process, most styles turn out just as well with extracts. If you’re a skilled brewer, you can achieve professional results regardless if you are brewing all grain or extract, but extract can give you all of the rewards without all the extra effort. -
Use Dry Yeast
Hey, this is a rip-off! This blog post says "10 Tips", and you've thrown in an extra! You people are dishonest, and I want my money back! No, seriously, fellow brewers, dry yeast makes life easy. Its quality is equal to liquid yeast, it's cheaper (at least half the price of liquid yeast), it has the same or greater cell count, it survives just fine without refrigeration, it doesn't require a starter, and the list goes on and on. Many brewers believe liquid yeast is better because it costs more, but this is not true. Years ago liquid yeast had been better, and this reputation still follows liquid yeast to this day, but the results say otherwise. If you want to learn more about using dry and liquid yeast, click here.
So remember, there are many ways you can simplify your brewing process and spend less time worrying about equipment and procedures, and more time enjoying the fruits of your labor—delicious home-brewed beer!
