As anyone who likes to frequent the types of restaurants who display the brass brewing equipment they create their own "house beer" in will tell you, learning how to make beer the way these establishments do is both simple and a lot of fun once you learn about the homebrew recipes and brewing supplies out there.

Obviously it's not possible to fit the the sort of equipment the restaurants use into an apartment or most homes, let alone afford the sort of huge expense that comes with producing large quantities of beer, but worry not - home brewing requires only a fraction of the equipment. Indeed, you'll be amazed at how easy it actually is to create a delicious brew with the minimum of equipment.

To make a start all that is actually needed is some ready-made malt with hops and a fermenter jar with an airlock (six gallons in size). Malting grains was a previously difficult and messy process but with the advent of malt extract in cans it's now extremely straight forward.

It's honestly as easy as this:

Mix.

Brew.

Bottle.

Enjoy!

The actual mixing is done in the fermenter we mentioned before - hot water, malt kit, add cold water and then the yeast. It's similar to a bread machine but even easier. The brewing itself is done by the yeast so no extra work for you followed by simply bottling the result and enjoying the results!

The other benefit to home brewing over buying commercial beers other than the sense of achievement and the fun of it, is the huge money savings you can make. Six gallons of your favourite recipe will cost you between twenty and thirty dollars. Compare that to the big brands and tell me which is most cost efficient!

Last but most definitely not least comes the taste! Home brewed beer just tastes better - why else do the restaurants who brew their own do so much better than the places who just churn out the mass produced stuff you can buy at the gas station? It's because their beer is freshly made, crisp tasting and refreshing.

You can make that beer yourself and taste the difference.