Item 3: Airlock and Stopper: This is a clever piece of technology with two main functions: one to stop outside air getting into your fermenter, and the other to let the carbon dioxide out. It’s extremely important that the carbon dioxide produced during fermentation is allowed to escape - otherwise you could have one messy explosion on your hands.

Item 4: Plastic Hose: You need a plastic hose to feed beer from one container to another. You can definitely improvise with this one, as long as you’re using food-grade plastic and you keep it squeaky clean.

Item 5: Bottling Bucket: This is just a bucket made from food-grade plastic to hold your beer once it’s fermented. It’s here where your ale gets mixed with priming solution to prepare it for that first swig.

Item 6: Bottles: These bottles are used to store your brew in once it’s ready. You can use anything from plastic pop bottles (cheap and you’ll be doing a spot of recycling) to glass bottles (better practice but harder on the wallet) as long as they are have good air-tight caps and are made from a dark material. Light is beer’s biggest enemy, so the darker the bottles the better.

Item 7: Stick-on Thermometer: Erm... probably don’t need to explain this one.
Once you’ve stocked up on your ingredients and equipment, it’s time to get brewing. Here’s a step by step guide to creating your very own home-brewing heaven...

Step 1: Scrub, scrub, scrub: Squeaky clean isn’t nearly good enough when it come to home-brewing. Your equipment needs to be impeccable, and then you need to go away and clean it again. Bacteria and fungi will ruin your beer and all your efforts will have been wasted if you don’t sterilize you’re equipment before you begin.

Step 2: Make the Wort: Fill your brewpot with 7 to 10 litres of water (depending on how much beer you reckon you can get through) and remember to leave space at the top for the mixture to foam. Bring the water to the boil and add your ingredients (apart from the yeast) to the pot, thinking about the way they’ll affect the flavour of your final product. The intervals between which you add the hops affect the taste - the earlier you add them the more bitterness they’ll give the mixture, whereas the later you add them the stronger the flavour will be. You can either follow the instructions on your brewing kit or go freestyle - trial and error will be the route to finding your perfect bitter. You should continue to stir the mixture on a medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, taking care not to let it boil over.

Step 3: Cooling: After stirring for approximately 20 minutes, you need to cool the wort down as quickly as possible. One way to do this is to fill a bin or a bathtub with cold water and ice, and put the whole brewpot into the water. Don’t stir the mixture too vigorously while it’s cooling - if you aerate it too much it can affect the taste.