You Can Make Your Own Beer In A Closet

The home brewing revolution is going strong, and brewing your own beer at home has some major perks: You can design the exact beer that you want to drink, you can drink your own creations, and you'll discover that you have a lot more friends than you thought you did. Homebrew clubs and festivals in just about every major city are a great way to meet other brewers, and what started as a hobby might just turn into a full-fledged career. But if you're looking to get started and you've never brewed beer before, we admit that it can be a little daunting.

If there's a homebrew shop in your city, we suggest you drop by, tell an employee that you're looking to begin your homebrew journey, and have them set you up with your first batch (most of the equipment is reusable, so this will be the biggest outlay of money). Alternately, you can order a homebrew kit from websites like Brooklyn Brew Shop, which sells everything you need to make several varieties of beer.

Home brewing becomes second nature once you get the hang of it, but the first few times can certainly be daunting, and success isn't guaranteed. The average homebrew kit contains ingredients, a glass fermenter, a thermometer, vinyl tubing, a racking cane and tip, a chambered airlock, a brew-cap stopper, and a cleanser, and all of these components must be completely sanitized before the first drop of beer touches your setup. It's a time-consuming and delicate process, but it doesn't require too much space; you can easily do it in a closet. If at first you don't succeed, keep at it until you do. Because the reward — cracking open a bottle of beer that you made, yourself, from scratch — makes it all worthwhile.