Make Your Own Beer, Without a Stove

The Problem

Ok, so, beer can be quite expensive. After a while, you will start to notice that you are spending more money than you should on beer; well, if you're like most college students, that is (note: if you are under 21, you shouldn't be drinking anyway, it's important to wait until you are 21 to start drinking...)

Many people toy around with the idea of making their own beer, it seems like a great idea, doesn't it? The problem is: most kits require you to make 5 gallons of beer at a time, and require a stove. I tried this...and it worked, but it was a TON of work, and the product wasn't great. Now that I have an apartment, I make my own beer, the real way, and it is very delicious. I actually just bottled 25 bottles of a Hefeweizen, and it should be delicious.

The Solution

Anywho, back to the topic at hand; making your own without a stove. The Mr. Beer kit is really great for starting out at making beer. While you do not make world class beers with Mr. Beer, you can make a very tasty product, and you will definitely enjoy making, and drinking it. We figured out you could have 2 gallons of beer ready to drink per week when I first started doing this. Our plan was to buy up to 9 Mr. Beer kits and have 18 gallons ready per week. Then, we would sell the beer and make a handsome profit. (This did not work because 1. It is Illegal, and 2. It requires large amounts of capital, and 3. It is Illegal. Don't make beer if you're too young, and DON'T EVER SELL YOUR BEER!)

You can get a kit from Amazon, or other websites, and it will have enough to make one batch of beer (2 gallons). After that, you can buy refill kits to keep making beer. You might need some bottles, as well to fill up with delicious beer. Once you have the things you need, there is a slight change in procedure that you will need to follow, but I have outlined it below.

1. Sanitize the keg as usual: all sanitization steps will be exactly the same
2. Sprinkle a little bit (1 teaspoon) of the booster into 4 cups of water in a microwave safe container which will hold the liquid. Microwave until it is nearly boiling (microwaved water will not actually boil, unless a container is made for it)
3. Stir in the booster, slowly
4. Stir in the canned malt extract. Re-microwave to heat up if required
5. After this, all the steps are the same. I have made Mr. Beer with the microwave before, and it turned out great. I highly recommend it.

Once you get into this, it is possible to catch the "bug" of homebrewing. Once you have the space to do it, and you would like to step into "real" beer making, you can try out a few sources for information. One is a DVD that is pretty popular. It lays out all the steps needed to make beer from malt extract. There are further DVD's with more advanced techniques.

Some books that are also helpful are:

• The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papaizian
• Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels
• Clone Brews by Mark Szamatulski
• How to Brew by John Palmer - This one is free online, and has all the basic info you need
• Brew Your Own Magazine
• BasicBrewing Podcasts - Video and Radio podcasts dedicating to the art of brewing beer

So, that's a basic overview of how to get into brewing your own beer; in a small confined space, and in an apartment. Once you get into brewing beer, it can take off and you can start making lots of beer :) I currently have probably 100 bottles in my stash, just waiting for a thirsty day.

Happy Brewing!