If you love beer, then you’ve probably entertained the idea of making a unique, refreshing brew right in your own home.

If you’re looking for the best home brewing kit for beer/cider, you’ve come to the right place! We’re reviewing some of the best homebrew kit options in the market. So sit back, relax, and have an ice-cold one while reading this piece.

Before we get down to the best home brewing kit for beer/cider, let’s discuss some key factors to consider if you want to brew your own drink.

Making your own beer can be an intimidating task. However, it’s essential to note that the art of beer-making is as old as humanity itself, and the process has still remained the same. In short, if you stick to the basics, you can’t go wrong. 

Types of Beer Brewing Processes

There are two types of brewing beer at home. First is all-grain brewing. In this process, you extract sugars from milled grains through a series of processes. Second is extract brewing. Unlike the former, extract brewing involves using ready-made malt extract. In this case, the process of making beer takes less time and effort because you entirely skip the process of extracting sugar.

For beginners, it’s best to start with extract brewing. It requires less equipment without sacrificing the quality of the end product. 

Basic Equipment for Brewing Beer

Here are some of the basic equipment you’ll need to make your own beer:

• Primary fermenter with lid
• Bottling bucket with a spigot
• Airlock
• Siphon and bottling set-up
• Hydrometer
• Lever bottle capper
• Liquid crystal thermometer
• Bucket clip

It would take a lot of reading and effort to get all the basic things you need, so getting a DIY beer brewing kit is a practical option.

How Beer is Made

Homebrewing kits come with brewing instructions. However, here’s a general overview of the beer-making process. First, you need to soak malted barley in hot water. This method releases malt sugars. Secondly, you’ll boil the sugar solution with Hops to give it flavor.

Once cooled, you’ll then add the yeast to start the fermentation process. The yeast eats sugar and makes alcohol and releases CO2 as they feast. The more yeast cells are present, the better they make the alcohol. Then, when the fermentation process is completed, you’ll bottle the beer with a bit of added sugar for carbonation.

Beer-Making Tips

Keep these tips in mind to make your first beer-brewing experience a thirst-quenching success:

• Sanitize and sterilize. Just as with making anything edible, keeping all your equipment and workplace clean is crucial to beer brewing. In fact, one of the most critical phases is after you cool the beer when it’s yet to ferment, and it’s vulnerable to infections like bacteria.
• Start with dark beers. Many master brewers advise newbies to start with dark beer. Why? Simple. You can better cover up your mistakes because of its forgiving makeup as well as its lenient flavor profile. So, try making porters or stouts on your first attempts and move on to other varieties once you get the hang of it.
• Get the best quality ingredients. Like they say, garbage in, garbage out. Just like in cooking, making sure that you’re using high-quality ingredients helps ensure that the end product will also be of good quality.

Top Best Home Brewing Kit For Beer/Cider

Here are some of the beer brewing kit options in the market you’ll want to consider when making your first batch of craft beer.

Northern Brewer Deluxe Home Brew Starter Kit

This kit is Northern Brewer’s best-selling beer starter product. It promises to allow users to make beer that “tastes fresh-from-the-tap of a premium brewery, right from the first batch.” The kit includes top-quality equipment, specifically, the following:

• 5 Gallon Glass Carboy (Secondary Fermentor), Bung & Airlock
• 6 Gallon Glass Carboy (Primary Fermentor), Bung & Airlock
• Auto Siphon & Tubing
• Blowoff Hose, Funnel & Fermagraf°
• Bottle Filler & Tubing
• Translucent Bottling Bucket & Spigot
• Bottle Capper & Caps
• Brewery Cleaner & Carboy Dryer
• Carboy Brush & Bottle Cleaning Brush
• No-Rinse Oxygen Wash Cleaner 

If you’re quite nervous about learning to brew beer on your own, this kit will be your best friend. In fact, they offer multiple ways to learn, including print instructions with visuals, digital manuals, online videos, and free guided text message tutorial. Because of these learning options, you’ll feel like you’re brewing beer with a master guiding you and looking over your shoulder.

Added to that, you can also choose your own recipe kit. You can select which of these beers will best quench your thirst: Fresh Squished IPA, Irish Red Ale, Caribou Slobber Brown Ale, or Bavarian Hefeweizen.

Deluxe Homebrew Starter Kit retails for $169.99 at Northern Brewer’s website.

Mr. Beer Premium Gold Edition Home Brewing Kit

If you’re looking for an affordable beer brewing kit, this is surely one of the best ones you’ll find in the market. Specially designed for first-time brewers, the kit offers the basic things you need to make your own craft beer in 30 minutes! However, it might not be the best option for people who’d like to learn the nitty-gritty of brewing beer from scratch. But it’s definitely a fun, easy kit for those who don’t have 8 hours to burn on brewing.

The kit includes the following:

• 2-Gallon lightweight fermenter 
• 11 pieces of 25 oz. reusable and shatterproof bottles 
• Ingredients

The can of brewing extract included in the ingredients is a concentrated form of all-natural malted barley and hops. Because Mr. Beer is the only homebrewing company that is owned by a brewery, the ingredients included are produced by Cooper’s Brewery – Australia’s largest craft brewery. Surely, this kit is a great buy if you don’t want the trouble of buying ingredients yourself.

You can buy Mr. Beer Premium Gold Edition Home Brewing Kit at an affordable price of $49.99 on Amazon.

Ohio Maestro Beer Making Kit

Ohio Maestro Beer Making Kit is a good option if you’re looking for something simple, durable, and could last for a long time. Added to that, it provides the basic things you’ll need to make your craft beer without costing an arm and a leg. The kit includes the following:

• 6.5-gallon fermenting bucket with drilled and grommeted lid
• 6.5-gallon bottling bucket
• Three-piece airlock (for fermenting bucket)
• Adhesive thermometer (for fermenting bucket)
• Auto siphon with 5 foot of tubing
• Combination bottle filler
• Bottling spigot
• Triple scale hydrometer
• Twin lever capper
• Bottlebrush
• 8oz of b-brite cleanser

It also comes with a handcraft brewing guide, which can help you get started with your very first batch of home-brewed craft beer. In addition, both the buckets for fermenting and bottling are made with sturdy food-grade plastic. 

The brand also recently upgraded to auto-siphon, which allows the user to transfer the liquid between buckets without much effort. However, the kit doesn’t come with a hose clamp for bottling. Even so, it includes a bottling stick that stops the bottle fill as needed.

Ohio Maestro Beer Making Kit comes with an affordable price tag of $76.40 on Amazon.

Midwest Supplies Beer Simply Beer Home-Brew Kit

This home-brew kit is another great option for newbies who want the basic equipment to start brewing without spending a small fortune. This kit promises to simplify the process of beer-making for anyone without previous experience in brewing. 

The kit includes the following:

• 6.5-gallon bottling bucket, bottling spigot, bottle filler, bottling tubing
• 6.5-gallon fermenting bucket, grommeted lid, airlock
• Beer bottle brush, bottle capper, and 60 red bottle caps
• Siphon, siphon tubing
• Instructions
• No-rinse oxygen cleanser

Not included in the kit are some things you also need for making beer: a kettle, empty 12 oz beer bottles that accept pry-off caps, and a beer recipe kit. All of these inclusions are also available on the website.

Midwest Supplies Beer Simply Beer Home-Brew Kit retails for $54.99 at Midwest Supplies’ website.

The Catalyst Fermentation System

Last but not least on our top picks for the best home brewing kit for beer/cider is this product from Craft a Brew. The brand takes pride in offering the same features as high-end and pro brewing equipment. The system has the following features: 

• 6.5-gallon capacity conical tank with a 45-degree angle
• 3″ butterfly valve
• Durable strength stand
• Silicone gasket lid with multi-surface contact

The parts of the system are made from high-quality materials; BPA-free, scratch-resistant, dishwasher-safe, and FDA approved.

This fermentation system is multi-functional. It uses one vessel for the whole beer-making process, including primary and secondary fermentation, yeast harvest, and bottling. Added to that, the system allows for easy removal of kettle trub – these are the sediment, hop matter, tannins, fatty acids, and all the other particles you don’t need for your beer. All you’ll need to do is to attach a mason jar at the bottom, open the valve, and let the trub settle on the jar. You can then close the valve and remove the trub hassle-free.

You can buy the Catalyst Fermentation System for $199.00 at Craft a Brew’s website.