TOP 7 best home brewers: how to brew beer, recipe, pros and cons, reviews, price

Home brewers became available to any consumer quite recently, after employees of the National Institute of Brewing of Canada developed and patented this unique and rather compact product in the late 80s of the last century. It should be noted that the first devices vaguely reminiscent of modern mini-breweries were invented in the 15th century, but were unprofitable and were soon forgotten.

Modern products are a real treasure for true admirers of a foamy, intoxicating drink; after spending a certain amount, you will constantly enjoy a high-quality, unfiltered drink of your own making and gather friends for tasting. Potential consumers will find all the nuances and answers to their questions in this article.

The Best Home Brewery for Beginners

Miniature combines for preparing a foamy drink at home. Homemade beer is usually top-fermented beer (the taste resembles ale, porter, stout). For the second type - lagers, home installations are no longer suitable; after preparation, long-term cold aging and pasteurization are required, and it is absolutely impossible to follow the technology at home.

BeerMachine

Let us immediately note that not 10 liters are produced at a time, as the manufacturer indicates, but 9. The preparation process is very simple and not labor-intensive, which is ideal for beginners.

BeerMachine

Everything takes about an hour, including washing the barrel and sterilizing it. You can use regular drinking water or filtered water. After laying the wort, 5 days later the barrel is sent to a cold place for a week. In total, after 10 days you get 9 liters of high-quality live beer. The maximum package includes:

• fermenter;
• container for wort fermentation;
• bottling tap;
• carbonization block;
• safety valve;
• pressure gauge and thermometer;
• malt extract with yeast for 10 liters of beer;
• 4 ceramic bottles;
• carbon dioxide cylinder;
• Neodisher Cl detergent.

When preparing such a drink, you need to understand that its taste will be different from Kozel or Guinness, this is top fermentation, and the product itself is light.

BeerMachine Operating Instructions

Mr. Beer Super Cup

In terms of configuration and method of preparation, the set is frankly standard. But! The design is interesting - it comes with branded glasses, an illustrated Beer guide and an accuracy game called Beer Pong. It seems like a small thing, but it is precisely because of such “little things” that people often choose a home brewery as a gift.

Mr. Beer Super Cup

Available in two sets - Deluxe and Premium, differing in the set. The latter adds 8 plastic bottles with caps, a thermometer and a stirring spoon. The entire process takes 12-14 days, resulting in 8 liters of live beer.

The kegs are made of high-quality dark plastic, which protects the beer from light and prevents it from oxidizing. Everything you need for brewing comes included, including malt extract.

Inpinto Bar and Pub 2017

The fermenter is made in the form of a wooden barrel made of dark plastic with a volume of 10 liters. There is a built-in tap for pouring, which is very convenient. The quality of the plastic is very good, the equipment is standard.

Inpinto Bar and Pub 2017

The entire process of brewing beer in InPinto is identical to the brewing process in the Mr.Beer unit. Objectively, the InPinto microbrewery is a complete clone of the above models with the only exception that it comes with a cabinet for cooling bottles for 16 bottles. They are stored vertically and horizontally.

The drink production cycle takes 21 days. Liquid ingredients are used for cooking.

Tips for home brewers

1. The first and main selection criterion will be the budget, the second – the size of the installation. The greater the productivity and yield of the finished drink, the larger the brewery. Some models occupy an area of ​​up to 40 sq.m. and they are designed for 3000 liters per day. Other - home - models are no larger in size than a coffee maker, but their productivity is tens of times less.

The most convenient for home brewing are small mini-breweries with electric heating elements.

1. For preparing the drink at home, the optimal boiler size is 30 liters. Most of the recipes are designed for 1 batch of raw materials, diluted with 25-30 liters of water.
2. To prevent the formation of pathogenic flora, the equipment should be equipped with a chiller to quickly cool the wort before adding yeast, in order to minimize the likelihood of infection.
3. Even a home installation should be equipped with a high-quality filtration system (automatic siphon with suction).
4. It is advisable to choose models with a wort aeration system to increase the amount of oxygen needed by the yeast cells to activate the fermentation process of sugars.

Rating 2021 best microbreweries

BeerMachine 2000

• Material: food grade plastic
• Minimum preparation time: fermentation - 3-5 days, t = no higher than 23C, clarification - up to 10 days at t = 0-+3C
• Volume: 10 l
• Carbonation: artificial
• Gas cartridges: 3 pieces
• Extract type: dry mixture
• Pressure gauge: built-in
• Dimensions: 260x390x310 mm
• Weight: 5 kg (empty)

pros

• good compactness
• high quality
• you can experiment with recipes
• easy to use

Minuses

• not found

On equipment from Germany, you can use any dry beer mixtures from well-known manufacturers such as: Europe (Pilsner), Wild West (Canadian Dark) and Slavic (Slavonic Light).

InPinto Standard

• Material: durable plastic
• Preparation time: fermentation - at least 5 days, clarification - 16 days, can be bottled
• Volume: 9 l
• Carbonation: natural
• Extract type: liquid
• Dimensions: 210x450x250 mm
• Weight: 2 kg

pros

• the surface of the tank is decorated with wood
• ingredients - analogue from a brewery in Prague
• high quality materials

Minuses

• not found

Inpinto breweries from the Czech Republic are equipped with a durable tank, in the lower part of which there is a sediment reservoir, and a wide neck makes it easy to wash the tank. The surface is stylized to resemble oak beer barrels. The product is ideal for using any beer mixtures.

MAGARYCH 32 l cone

• Material: food grade stainless steel
• Volume: 32 l
• Carbonation: natural
• Water seal: available
• Thermometer: built-in type
• Pressure gauge: built into the middle of the body
• Two taps for draining: at the bottom of the cone - sediment, on the side - finished beer
• Dimensions: 300x300x830 mm
• Weight: 7 kg

pros

• The tank body is made without seams
• conical shape guarantees sedimentation of inactive yeast
• high build quality

Minuses

• not found

Professional form of equipment from the Chelyabinsk plant, Russia. The cone is used in world-class industrial breweries. Thanks to this design, the finished product does not come into contact with sediment, and the result is live beer of excellent quality.

BrewDemon Fermenter

• Material: food grade plastic, brown and clear
• Minimum preparation time: fermentation - no more than 5 days, clarification - up to 10 days
• Volume: 11 l
• Carbonation: natural
• Extract type: liquid
• Dimensions: 220x220x400 mm

pros

• original container shape
• thanks to transparency, you can see the whole process
• self-adhesive thermometer

Minuses

• not found

BeerMachine DeLuxe 2008 Expert

• Material: durable plastic
• Minimum preparation time: fermentation - 4 days, clarification - up to 10 days
• Volume: 10 l
• Carbonation: artificial
• Gas cartridges: 9 pieces
• Extract type: dry
• Availability of bottles included: plastic - 4x0.38 l, ceramic - 3 pieces
• Dimensions: 260x390x310 mm
• Weight: 2 kg

pros

• build quality
• ceramic bottles as a gift
• bottling system
• DVD with video instructions and beer encyclopedia

Minuses

• not found

Comparison of models

We present to your attention a table with the main technical parameters of the previously described breweries. With its help, you can visually compare several models you like.

TOP 5 models of popular mini-breweries for home

These 5 models were the most popular in 2021.

InPinto Master Pro

A rather nice, inexpensive and simple home brewer from the InPinto company called InPinto Master Pro will allow you to prepare excellent live beer without much effort. The design is the simplest and has a volume of 9 liters. Such a unit can be easily placed in the refrigerator and bring the beer to perfection at the last stage.

Did you know

Every second 10 million people are drunk on beer

As surveys and studies show, at any given time about 50 million people on Earth are drunk, and about 10 million are drunk from beer. And no wonder, because beer is considered the most popular alcoholic drink on the planet and the third most popular among all drinks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic. The first place in this ranking is logically taken by water, the second by tea.

The high calorie content of beer is a myth

The average beer, both light and dark, contains approximately 42 to 75 kcal per 100 ml, while Coca-Cola is not much lower in calories (38 kcal / 100 ml), and natural apple juice (without sugar!) is quite comparable and is 46 kcal/100 ml. Another thing, of course, is that no one will drink 5 half-liter glasses of apple juice while snacking on chips, but you already have an argument in case of an argument.

There is a special science about beer

And it is called Zythology, from the Greek Zythos and Logos, beer and study, respectively. Quite serious scientists study beer and its properties, sitting at the Munich Beer Institute. And they found out, by the way, that one liter of unfiltered milk for an adult will be more useful than a liter of milk.

Today you can buy ancient Egyptian beer

Not literally, of course, but only recreated after analyzing the vessels in which the ancient Egyptians stored beer. The beer is produced in Britain, called “Tutankhamun” and costs 50 pounds per bottle. By the way, we can assume that this beer is prepared according to the world’s first recipe, since it was invented in ancient Egypt, approximately 9.5 thousand years BC. The Egyptians drank their intoxicating drink through a straw, since they did not know how to filter beer.

Beer instead of water

...used in Europe in the Middle Ages. We can easily imagine the quality of water in wells in those days by analyzing the number of epidemics, not to mention the evil enemies who deliberately poisoned wells during wars and confrontations. Since fermentation kills most pathogenic bacteria, Europeans preferred to drink beer instead of water with an unknown composition. In addition, beer also dulls hunger quite well, as it is rich in carbohydrates. And, although we remember that it is not very high in calories, it all depends on the quantity - for example, a completely pious monk-brewer (namely, the monks were in charge of brewing) could drink up to 5 liters of intoxicating drink a day, and this is already at least 2000 kcal.

Why do we love beer?

The reason for the love of beer is considered to be its taste and aroma. Beer contains quite a lot of calories; it was not for nothing that in the Middle Ages it was quite seriously called “liquid bread” - the drink was a significant help in the menu of the poorest peasants of medieval Europe.

Beer owes its current popularity to new traditions of its use. They drink it with friends, after a hard day at work, at family parties, after a bath. Beer is a frequent companion for watching your favorite programs and films.

DIY home brewery

You can find different instructions on how to assemble a home brewery with your own hands. To do this, you will need simple parts and a large container for preparing the drink. The drink can be brewed from whole malt or concentrate. The second option is simpler - this substance is sold in stores along with brewery equipment and is a natural product after evaporation.

You can make a home brewer yourself:

• take a large saucepan or other metal container with a capacity of 10, 20, 50 liters or more;
• drill two holes for the tap and thermometer with a drill;
• install the faucet and thermometer using adapters;
• install the filtration system according to the drawing;
• install a chiller - a device for cooling the container.

Equipment for producing beer at home is sold in specialized stores. You can also buy ingredients and accessories for brewing here. Such devices are guaranteed and function correctly. However, a homemade mini-brewery will also last a long time and will brew a high-quality drink if assembled according to the instructions.

The principle of design and operation of devices

The equipment necessary for preparing “real craft” is divided into 2 groups:

1. Extract microbreweries. They consist of fermentation tanks and a faucet with a hydraulic shutter. In the container you can prepare a drink from thick malt syrup or powder. Manufacturers offer different forms of the device: from a compact miniature barrel to an ordinary-looking bucket. The units are designed to produce beer from 6.5 liters to 30 liters in one working cycle. Using beer wort, from which moisture has been removed and turned into a concentrate, is an ideal brewing option for beginners or lazy brewers who do not want to wait for the full production cycle. In this case, the beer preparation time is minimal.
2. Full cycle functional devices. If you want to learn the brewing process “from A to Z,” you can buy equipment that will help you learn the secrets of real brewing. The units are designed for full cycle technology. Models differ in configuration, type of heating element, and controls. Using such devices, you can prepare a natural malt product using the most modern options.

Brewery selection criteria

Experimentation is not a difficult job at all. Simply combine different types of dry mixes

and create the unique taste and aroma of your signature beer.

The device, patented about 15 years ago by Canadian scientists, completely destroyed all the myths that making beer at home is impossible.

On the contrary, given that the production technology is simple, you can absolutely safely drink your own brewed beer and know exactly what ingredients are present in it. You can brew stronger beer, or, conversely, prepare a low-alcohol drink.

For a beginner who has decided to purchase a home mini-brewery, deciding which model to choose for the home is quite difficult. There are quite a large number of them on the market, differing in size, materials of manufacture, consistency of the products placed in it, packaging and, of course, price.

The dimensions of the device should be your first consideration, given that you plan to use it at home. Production technology also plays an important role when choosing a model. Some models of home brewers provide for the initial fermentation of the product at home at room temperature and the subsequent, final stage of beer preparation, which must take place in the refrigerator. That is, the owners of such units should expect that at home, in their refrigerator, there will be a brewery, which takes up quite a lot of space, for several days.

If you do not have the opportunity to keep a brewery in the refrigerator at home, pay attention to models that have manufacturing technologies that allow beer to mature in bottles. That is, after completing the first stage of brewing, you pour the drink into bottles and calmly store them on the shelves of the refrigerator

What it is

Let us immediately note that there are amateur products for brewing - for use at home and professional ones for brewing beer in industrial volumes, for example, for a beer restaurant or bar. A home brewing machine is a compact product with which anyone can provide themselves and their friends with freshly brewed natural beer.

The volume of finished products depends on the size of the tank in the mini-brewery that will be used at home, but it is no less than 10 liters. If you have a large refrigerator and a large company of lovers of this noble drink, you can purchase equipment with working tanks of 22 liters or more. You can not only use these recipes, but also subsequently, by experimenting with different ingredients, create varieties of homemade beer.

Tips for choosing

Several recommendations will help you make the right purchase and not regret your choice after a while:

1. If you are buying a model for home use, then buy one with a capacity of 10 liters. Breweries with a 50 liter tank are most often used in production.
2. It will be difficult for a beginner to start cooking right away, so it is better to buy a model with a full set of controls that may be needed for the first kneading of ingredients.
3. Since the brewery requires careful maintenance, having special cleaning products included in the kit will be an additional plus.

Home mini-breweries are an interesting leisure activity, a good gift and excellent beer

Why do people love beer?

As a matter of fact, there is no clear answer as to why people like to brew and drink this particular foamy drink. Some people are delighted with the original taste and aroma of this ancient drink, some appreciate its ability to quench thirst, others like the light, cheerful hops. What about our ancestors?

They also liked beer. In Rus' it was brewed back in the 9th century. And the popularity of this drink has not waned over time.

Despite the fascination with affordable, mass-produced beer, an increasing number of people today are coming to the conclusion that the best beer is live beer. That is, one that does not contain preservatives, dyes and cannot be pasteurized. Beer brewed according to recipes proven over centuries.

Beer with the warmth of human hands

In the 21st century, handmade items and products become especially valuable. Indeed, everything that a person’s hand touches carries not only practical benefits, but also special energy. Today, beer lovers and connoisseurs of eco-friendly living even have the opportunity to brew their own beer!

Moreover, this can be done without building a special room and purchasing expensive equipment. It's very simple: home mini-breweries!

What kind of beast is this home brewer?

By purchasing one of the kits under the general name “Home Breweries”, you receive a compact installation in which fermentation and post-fermentation of beer will take place, as well as bags with the necessary components and a set of bottles for bottling your homemade foamy drink.

A home mini-brewery allows you to brew absolutely natural live beer with your own hands in a time of 1.5 weeks. By the way, you can brew up to 23 liters of excellent home-made beer at one time.

How to brew beer yourself?

The technology for making beer at home is very simple (provided you use microbreweries).

A certain amount of clean water must be poured into the brewery itself (tap or boiled water is not suitable). The exact volume of liquid you will need is indicated in the instructions for the specific model. Hopped beer wort and yeast are also poured there (everything is included with the installation or purchased separately in our online store). The tank is tightly closed and sent to a dark place for several days to allow the beer to ferment. During the active fermentation phase, if you listen closely, you can hear gurgling sounds. Soon they will stop.

This means that the next phase has begun - the uniform development of yeast. After a certain period specified in the recipe, the mini-brewery needs to be moved to a cool place where the post-fermentation processes will take place. After a few days, the drink is ready to drink!

Based on our experience and numerous customer reviews, the mini brewery works great! The main thing is not to experiment at the initial stage, but strictly adhere to the recipe.

Interesting Facts

Useful tips based on reviews from owners of the best breweries for home use: 1. High-quality, fresh ingredients are needed, they should be stored strictly in accordance with the requirements. 2. Tap water is not suitable for preparing a quality drink. You can use spring or bottled purified water. 3. The brewery must be disinfected before use. 4. For better control of beer preparation, you can additionally purchase a thermometer and pressure gauge. 5. It is better to bottle finished beer into glass bottles: this increases the shelf life. 6. Roasted malt is used to prepare dark beer.

It must be remembered that excessive consumption of foamy drinks can lead to poor health. Beer is also contraindicated for pregnant women and children.