Day One

So here it is. My first proper blog and it's on a subject I've only just recently ventured into and know next-to-nothing about. What could possibly go wrong? The intention is to publish my exploits into the world of homebrewing (beer to start with) and to document each brew as I go. It's a subject I've been interested in for ages (beer, pubs, breweries - what's not to like?) so why not try and brew my own?

So to find out more information I'm off to the local library in the rain. Nah, of course not. Like most people these days my source of all knowledge is the sofa and the internet. So here goes Google...

Right. Er... Mashing, lautering, sparging, fermentation, conditioning, wort, malt extract, yeast, enzymes, dextrins...... Blimey! Where do I start? Maybe they do those homebrew starter kits they used to do years ago. That's gotta be the way to go, surely. More Googling...

Oh yes, here they are, but there's loads of 'em! What to choose? Articles on the 'net have warned me off the beer-in-a-bag jobs and I'm hardly going to learn anything about the brewing processes with them but, as it turns out, I don't see any of these for sale anyway. What I do know is that as I'm starting from scratch it would make sense if I got a kit which came with the basic tools and containers.

OK. I think I've narrowed it down a little. There's two I fancy my chances with:

• Coopers Micro-Brew Kit
• Muntons Micro Brewery System

They're the same price (£59.99) but the Coopers (an Australian company) is a lager kit and the Muntons (a British company) includes Woodforde's Wherry, a branded Norfolk Best Bitter. So, Aussie lager or Brit bitter? Being someone who's not afraid to drink most beers (hell, I've worked in Belgium!) I don't really have a preference.

As luck would have it one of my local homebrew shops, Geoff's Wine & Beer Making, has both of these two starter kits in the window display which tells me that I'm on the right track. Surely Geoff wouldn't sell them if they were crap? Into the shop then for a nose around.

It turns out that the main difference between the 2 starter kits is that the Coopers kit includes a fermenter to brew the beer in before transfering it into the 30 supplied plastic bottles for secondary fermentation and conditioning whereas the Muntons Micro Brewery System uses a pressure barrel to do the lot it from start to finish.

I leave the shop 20 minutes later with a rather large red box in my arms. I went for Coopers kit in the end as it contained everything I needed to do my first brew. To be fair, the other kit contained everything that I would need too but I felt the Coopers was a bit nearer the "traditional" brewing method as it also comes with a "bubbler" airlock and a hydrometer for measuring the specific gravity during the fermentation period.

Another reason is that the Mrs drinks lager and not bitter so I've justified the cost of my new hobby already by saying her that she'll be able to benefit from the results although I get the feeling that she's not looking forward to my homebrewed amber nectar as much as I am!