Home brew beer kit can with malt extract next to a fermentation bucket

How to Use a Home Brew Kit: Step-by-Step

What Is a Home Brew Kit?

A home brew beer kit is the simplest way to start making your own beer. Each kit contains a can of hopped malt extract — essentially a concentrated, pre-flavoured wort — along with a packet of yeast. You add water, ferment, and bottle. The result is a proper, drinkable beer that you made yourself.

The popular Coopers range produces around 40 pints per batch in a wide variety of styles:

What You'll Need

Step 1: Sterilise Everything

Before you do anything else, sterilise all your equipment with Young's Cleaner/Steriliser. Mix the powder with water in your fermentation vessel, swirl it around so it coats the inside, then do the same with your airlock, syphon, and hydrometer tube. Rinse thoroughly and allow to drain.

Step 2: Prepare the Malt Extract

Stand the can of malt extract in hot water for a few minutes to soften it. Pour the contents into your fermentation vessel and rinse the can with a little hot water. Add approximately 1.5–2 litres of boiling water and stir thoroughly until fully dissolved.

Step 3: Add Sugar and Top Up

Add 1kg of brewing sugar and stir until dissolved. Top up to the 23-litre mark with cold water. Take a reading with your hydrometer and note this as your original gravity (OG).

Step 4: Pitch the Yeast

Sprinkle the yeast sachet over the surface of the liquid. Fit the lid and insert the airlock (half-filled with water). Move the vessel somewhere warm and stable — ideally 18–22°C.

Step 5: Ferment

Leave undisturbed for 5–7 days. After around 5 days, take daily hydrometer readings. When two consecutive readings show the same gravity, fermentation is complete.

Step 6: Bottle Your Beer

Add one carbonation drop to each sterilised 500ml bottle. Use your syphon to transfer your beer, then seal each bottle with a crown cap and your capper.

Step 7: Condition and Wait

Leave capped bottles at room temperature for 5–7 days, then move somewhere cool and dark for at least another week before drinking.

Troubleshooting Tips

  • No bubbling after 48 hours? Check the lid is sealed and the airlock is fitted correctly.
  • Beer is cloudy? Add beer finings a day before bottling.
  • Flat beer? Make sure you added carbonation drops and bottles were capped tightly.
  • Over-carbonated? Fermentation wasn't fully complete. Always use your hydrometer.

Browse the full Coopers Home Brew Kit Range and all equipment at Brewco.uk.

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