Home Brewing:

How to Make Beer, Wine, Cider, Soda and Other Tasty Beverages

For the best-tasting, freshest and most local beer, wine and cider, try brewing your own at home. Home brewing is a fun hobby — if you don’t let it take over your life and/or kitchen, that is! Seriously, it’s that much fun, too. If you’ve never tried to brew anything before (Did you know you can make your own root beer and grape soda?), you’ll want to start by reading  Brew Your Own Beer. And if you’re excited now, you can begin to explore some of our many articles on home brew of all kinds, including beer, sweet and hard apple cider, wine, root beer, soda and more — with plenty of excellent home brew recipes and detailed information on the inexpensive home brewing supplies and equipment you’ll need. Remember: If you have questions after you get started, feel free to visit our Ask Our Experts service to post those questions. Happy brewing!

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

* Beer Making 
* Cider Making 
* Wine Making 
* Soda Making and More 

HOME BREW: MAKING BEER

Brew Your Own Beer
By Nathan Poell
Homebrewing is a lot of fun, and it gives you the chance to make any kind of beer you want. It’s relatively easy and inexpensive to get started, and making your own beer is usually cheaper, too. This article will tell you what you need to know to make a good first batch of beer with step by step instructions for a basic brown ale. Are you ready to get started?

You Can Brew Your Own Beer
By Megan Phelps
The first time you're presented with a homebrewed beer, you might feel a bit skeptical. After all, the bottle is all wrong. It doesn't have a label, and it might even be a little dusty, as though it's been sitting in the corner of someone's basement. (And maybe it has.) But if you do drink that bottle of homebrew, you'll discover that most homebrewed beer tastes as good as store-bought.

Good Libations
By Megan Phelps
For delicious and eco-friendly beverages, try local and organic wine and beer. Choosing local beverages encourages breweries and wineries to explore a diversity of flavors, and avoids the environmental costs of transporting wine and beer halfway across the country, or even halfway around the world.

Cheers to Pumpkin Beers! 
By Tabitha Alterman
Pumpkin love continues, but this time with a twist, it's not an ale but a lager, the only one of its kind in the world! Includes a link for how to brew beer in a pumpkin.

THIS BEER + THIS CHEESE Will Blow Your Mind. Seriously.
By Tabitha Alterman
Hoch Ybrig cheese from Swiss cheese maker Rolf Beeler is a standout on its own, but here are some delicious ideas for pairing it with honey, wine and beer. 

Do It! Brew It Yourself!
By the Mother Earth News editors
Make beer at home with these easy-to-follow instructions. Includes brewing instructions as well as bottling tips.

Make Beer at Home 
By Douglas Wolff
Save money and still enjoy delicious beer by brewing at home. This guide includes advice for keeping costs down while brewing as well as bottling instructions.

Adventures With Home Brew 
By the Mother Earth News editors
One writer discusses his first experience with making beer at home. Includes author's instructions as well as handy-hints.

Horst Buch's Fast and Easy Beer 
By Horst Buchs
A guide to brewing beer at home, including the formula, stirring and clearing, materials and cost list. 

HOME BREW: MAKING HARD CIDER AND SWEET CIDER

Make Your Own Hard Cider 
By Nathan Poell
Making delicious hard cider is fun and simple, and if you press your own sweet — nonalcoholic — cider, you’ll have the perfect starting place to brew your own intoxicating hard cider.

Enjoy Delicious Apple Cider, Sweet and Hard 
By Megan Phelps
If you happen to be driving out in the country on a beautiful fall day, and you pass a roadside sign that says "fresh apple cider," by all means stop! This is the time of year to enjoy freshly pressed cider, and some of the best available is from local cider mills.

Even the Drinks are LOCAL? Try Farm-fresh Apple Cider This Thanksgiving 
By Tabitha Alterman
Support America's artisan cider makers by putting locally made sweet and hard apple cider on the Thanksgiving table this year.

Fall’s Sweetest Harvest 
By John Stuart
If you want to try really delicious apple cider, look for fresh local cider in the fall. You can find it from small cider mills, or press it yourself with a backyard cider press.

Falling for Apples 
By Noel Perrin 
One of the sweetest things about homemade cider is the pressing of it.

Get Ready for Cider Pressin’ 
By Judy White
If you know what's good for you, you'll round up some jugs, and head for the nearest cider mill right away.

Juice of the Apple 
By Michael Phillips
Don't settle for thin, homogenized, store-bought "apple juice." Homegrown cider is cheaper and infinitely more refreshing.

Pouring Apple Cider 
From our sister magazine, Grit
Clyde’s Cider Mill is country’s oldest steam-powered cider mill.

HOME BREW: MAKING WINE

HOME BREW: SODA & OTHER TASTY HOMEMADE BEVERAGES

Brew Better Soda at Home
By Anne Vassal and Megan Phelps
Make your own root beer, ginger ale and grape soda with these easy recipes.

Ginger Beer
By Joan Y. Goddard
Celebrate spring by brewing this spicy, traditional Australian beverage. Includes recipe and brewing and bottling instructions. 

Root Beer
By the Mother Earth News editors
There are many variations in the formulas and proportions used in making "old-fashioned" root beer. Here is a typical recipe. 

Root Beer 
By Paul E. Johnson
Brew your own beverages from home. Includes recipes for syrup, making extract from fruit. 

Solar Tea 
By Augie O'Connor
Organic tea ideas that are perfect for sipping on a summer day, including recipes for peppermint-flower tea, peppermint-rosemary-pennyroyal tea, fenugreek-peppermint tea and licorice-flax tea. 

Sun Brewed Tea
By the Mother Earth News editors
Organic, sun-brewed tea is a healthful and delicious treat.