How to Make Beer at Home on Your Hob: A Beginner's Small-Batch Guide

You don't need a garage full of equipment to make proper beer from grain. With a large stock pot, a mesh bag and your kitchen hob, you can brew a small batch of real all-grain beer in an afternoon. The method is called brew in a bag (BIAB), and it's the easiest way to learn how beer is really made before spending money on a full brewing system.

Kit Beer vs Hob Brewing: What's the Difference?

A beer kit gives you malt that's already been mashed and concentrated into a tin: you just dissolve it and ferment. Brewing on the hob means doing that first part yourself: soaking crushed malted grain in hot water (the mash) to release its sugars, then boiling that sweet liquid (the wort) with hops. It takes longer, but you control every ingredient, and the flavour is noticeably fresher.

Small batches of around 5 litres (roughly 8–9 pints) are ideal for the hob: the volumes fit an ordinary large pan, and the grain bag is light enough to lift safely.

What You Need

Ingredients

  • A SMASH all-grain kit (5 litres): pre-measured malt and a single hop variety with instructions. Choose from Citra, Mosaic, Cascade, Galaxy, Simcoe, Amarillo and more.
  • Yeast: a clean ale yeast like Safale US-05 lets the hop character shine. One sachet is more than enough for 5 litres.

Want to design your own recipe instead? Pick from our crushed malts and hops, using the malt selector and hops selector to compare them.

Equipment

How to Make Beer on Your Hob: Step by Step

Always follow the volumes and hop timings in your kit's instructions. The steps below explain what's happening at each stage.

1. Heat the water

Heat the mash water to a few degrees above your target mash temperature, typically around 70°C. The grain will cool it down when you add it.

2. Mash the grain

Line the pot with the straining bag, stir the grain in thoroughly so there are no dry clumps, and check the temperature: you're aiming for around 65–67°C. Put the lid on and hold it there for 60 minutes. Wrap the pot in a towel to keep it warm, or give it a brief burst of heat if it drops, stirring as you go. This is when enzymes in the malt turn starch into fermentable sugar.

3. Lift and drain the bag

Lift the bag out and let it drain into the pot. A colander or oven rack over the pot makes this easier. Pour a little hot water (around 75°C) over the grain to rinse out extra sugar if your instructions call for it. Take care: wet grain is heavy and very hot.

4. Boil and add hops

Bring the wort to a rolling boil and boil for about 60 minutes, adding hops at the times your recipe gives. Early additions add bitterness; late additions add flavour and aroma. Leave the lid partly off so unwanted compounds can escape, and never leave a boiling pot unattended, as wort boils over very easily when it first comes to the boil.

5. Cool it quickly

Stand the covered pot in a sink of cold water and ice until the wort is around 20°C. Cooling quickly helps clarity and reduces the chance of infection.

6. Ferment

Transfer the cooled wort to your sanitised fermenter, take a hydrometer reading, and add the yeast. Fit the airlock and leave it at 18–20°C for 1–2 weeks, until the hydrometer reading stays the same for two days in a row.

7. Bottle and condition

Bottle with one carbonation drop per 500ml bottle, keep somewhere warm for a week, then somewhere cool for at least another week. Work out your strength with our free ABV calculator.

Tips for Brewing on a Hob

  • Straddle two rings if your pot is wide, to reach a rolling boil faster.
  • Keep the lid nearby during mashing to hold temperature, but partly off during the boil.
  • Use a timer for hop additions; it's easy to lose track.
  • Clean the bag straight after use and dry it fully; it's reusable for many batches.
  • Start simple. A SMASH (single malt, single hop) beer teaches you exactly what one malt and one hop taste like, which makes designing your own recipes much easier later.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you really brew beer on a normal kitchen hob?

Yes. For small batches of around 5 litres, a standard gas, electric or induction hob can mash and boil comfortably. Larger batches need more power, which is when brewers usually move to an electric all-in-one system.

What size pot do I need?

At least 10–12 litres for a 5 litre batch. You start with more liquid than you finish with, and you need headroom to stop it boiling over.

How long does it take?

Brew day takes around 3–4 hours, most of which is waiting. Add 1–2 weeks to ferment and about 2 weeks to condition, so you're drinking it roughly a month after brew day.

Do I need a mash tun?

No. The brew-in-a-bag method uses your pot as the mash tun and the bag to separate the grain. Read more in our guide: What Is a Mash Tun?

Is it cheaper than a beer kit?

Not per pint. A 40 pint kit is cheaper per pint than a 5 litre all-grain batch. Hob brewing is about freshness, flavour and learning the craft, and it's the cheapest way to try all-grain brewing before investing in bigger equipment.

What's the next step up?

Once you're comfortable, you can scale up to full 23 litre batches. See our beginner's guide to all-grain brewing and all-grain vs extract brewing.

Ready for Your First Hob Brew?

Grab a 5 litre SMASH all-grain kit, a brew-in-a-bag straining bag and a 5 litre fermenter, and you've got everything you need to brew real beer from grain in your kitchen.

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