Community features

The credit crunch is affecting everyone in one way or another. But many people are turning to home brewing so they don't miss out on the luxury of having a tipple.

It's easy to get started. After you've bought equipment needed to produce the brew - plastic fermenting tubs and syphons - it becomes a relatively cheap hobby. Brewing kits cost around 7 pounds, but produce 40 pints.

Quality beer

Graham Reynolds owns the Jolly Brewer home brew shop in Kidsgrove, and says sales have more than doubled. He claims DIY is the way to go because it's easy to achieve good results straight away.

"The quality now is on par with any beer you can buy in any pub, and at a fraction of the price. Forget three pounds for a pint down the local, you can pour yourself your own favourite brew at home for less than 30p."

It's the same with wine - Instead of paying five-pounds or so for a bottle of vino, you can make your own for a mere 50p, plus there are kits available for brewing Cider, Ginger Beer and Mead.

Home Brewing History

Home brewing is becoming a worldwide massive industry particularly in America, where there are even radio stations dedicated to the art of producing your own drinks at home.

Alcohol has been brewed domestically throughout its 7000 year history beginning in Mesopotamia, Egypt and China. Knowledge of brewing beer and wine was passed on from the Egyptians to the Greeks and finally to the Romans.

The hobby started to take off in the '70s in this country. Many of the early pioneers were home winemakers owing to the greater availability of information and ingredients.

These included C.J.J. Berry, who founded wine brewing circles right across England. He was the founder of Amateur Winemaker magazine and wrote the top selling book First Steps in Winemaking.