So, what's in a beer?

To make beer you need:

• water
• barley malt
• hops
• yeast

That's it. Well, there's nothing stopping you from putting other things in there as well, but this is what is considered to be the minimal number of ingredients.

What are hops and malt you say? Follow the links to find out.

If you are new to beer brewing you may want to start out by using malt extract instead of barley malt as this simplifies the brewing process somewhat. This is fine at first, and you can make some great beers with it, but after a while you'd want to take the step up to all-grain brewing. Doing so will give you a wider palette of flavours and aromas to play with.

I started out with extract brewing myself and did about 10 brews before taking the step up. I have not regretted that move. Anyway, at least for your first brew you should use malt extract as there are enough new things to keep track of the first time. Trying to do and learn too many new things on the first brew is not neccessarily a good idea. You'll have plenty of time to perfect your brewing skills later.