Ever since I tried my first home-brewed beer, which was delicious, I’ve been mulling over the idea of making beer at home. After all, for quite a small first investment on equipment, you can then make, with the same amount of money you’d spend on 2-3 outings, an amount of beer that will last for quite a while.

But it’s not only financial; beer brewing at home seems truly fun. And while there are always obstacles to be used as excuses (my apartment is too small, it won’t come out right, I have too many cats), the day will come when I’ll get up the courage to finally do it. Until then, here is a list of 9 great websites that can take you through the first steps of brewing your own beer, or enrich your knowledge if you’ve actually done this before.

American Homebrewers Association

The American Homebrewers Association is a huge website, and includes tons of info about brewing beer and about beer in general. To access some homebrewing information, click on “let’s brew”

Here you will find lots of useful articles and videos about homebrewing, along with useful links and recommended readings. You can choose what to read according to your level, so if you’ve never brewed before, start with “Get Started”.

Be sure to also check out the Homebrewopedia, which includes extensive lists of ingredients, recipes, brewing terms, equipment and more.

This wiki is worth a bookmark, as many other websites don’t include all this information, and it’s nice to have a source to fall back to when there’s a word you don’t understand or an ingredient you don’t recognize.

BeerSmith

BeerSmith is actually a beer-making software, but its blog includes a lot of useful information in the form of articles, recipes, a podcast, a brewing wiki and more.

The folks at BeerSmith arranged all their best articles into a book, which you can read, chapter by chapter, for free. If you’re more into audio, there’s a podcast with almost 30 episodes you can listen to on the website. There’s also a huge recipe index, containing almost 400 recipes, with each recipe including almost any piece of information you ever wanted to know about this beer.

If you’re doing this seriously, you can also get a free trial of the BeerSmith brewing software.

Drink Craft Beer

Drink Craft Beer is a general beer website, which also includes a homebrewing section.  Here you will find a step by step guide, including photos, on how to brew your own beer at home. The guide doesn’t seem to include a recipe, and it also doesn’t really explain terms, so it might be more suitable if you’ve already read some on the subject. You could also use another source to clarify terms and get exact recipes.

Homebrewing.com

This website is actually a store for homebrewing supplies (which could come in handy too), but it also includes an article section, quite a few brewing calculators, and some useful references.

You can browse the articles by subject, so this is a good place to go if you’re looking to read up on a specific topic, such as fermentation or kegging. The references are great too, and include some useful charts and lists.

Make Beer At Home

Making Beer At Home, as the name implies, tries to help you with making beer at home. While the actual content is useful, the website itself is a bit hard to navigate. If you put your heart to it, though, you can find lots of great content, such as step by step brewing guides, online calculators, a recipe index and more.

If you’re confused, you can make use of the site map to find your way around.

Basic Brewing

Basic Brewing offers its own podcast and video series, all about brewing your own beer. The podcasts and videos date back to 2005, and include lots of various beer-related topics. Unfortunately, you can’t search through them, so the only way to find something you’re looking for is by browsing the archive.

If you’re in the US, check out the “Where To Buy” section, for a list of brewing-supplies vendors in different states.

 

Brew Beer And Drink It

Brew Beer and Drink It is all about helping you learn how to homebrew. The only problem is that it’s not so easy to find that help. While it does include some very interesting content, the website is somewhat confusing to browse, and finding what you’re looking for can be a bit of a challenge. Having said that, it does include a nice collection of How-to videos about different types of beers, which you can access from this menu if you scroll down some.

It also contains a collection of articles you may find useful. There is no easy way to access them that I could find, except using the archive at the bottom. It’s worth exploring, though, as there are some interesting articles to be found.

Homebrewing Video

This is a collection of beer brewing videos, ranging from ones aimed at the very beginners, all the way to “racking to a secondary fermenter”. You can view all the videos, or screen them according to categories.

If you’re into wine making, there are some videos about that here too.

How To Make Beer Instructable

If you’re into instructables, there are several of those that show you, step by step, how to make beer at home. This How to Make Beer instructable leads you slowly through the process in a way that’s not too overwhelming. The photos seem to have been taken in a regular home, just like ours, and it includes a detailed list of equipment and an exact recipe.

There are more of these beer-making guides on Instructables, so if this one is not cutting it for you, make sure to check out the suggestions on the right side of the page.

Bottom Line

Now I’m all set, and can begin learning how to maybe start making beer at home. When I get a bigger apartment. But don’t be like me, if you’re even slightly into it, use these websites to get up your courage, go out there and make some beer!

Let us know in the comments about more good beer brewing sources, or about any homebrewing stories you’d like to share.

Image Credit: Tree glasses with different beers via Shutterstock