THE H WORD
‘Homebrew’…it’s a word that conjures up all sorts of thoughts and images. Most people I’ve spoken to (outside of geeky beer circles) either don’t know what it means or recall stories of an older relative attempting it once upon a time only to produce a super-strong concoction you could barely call a beer.
But times have moved on. In reality, people from all walks of life are making commercial quality beer at home – many professional brewers from your favourite craft breweries will have mastered their beer making skills at home.
Amazing equipment, kits and ingredients these days now mean anyone can start making great beer, no matter your level of expertise or ambition. Whether you want to dive straight in and set up your own fully equipped home brewery and build your recipes from scratch, or if you want the convenience of a quick and easy recipe kit – there’s plenty of products and brewing education widely available to get you started.
So maybe it’s time to move on from the word ‘Homebrew’ and leave the stigma behind. It doesn’t mean what it used to anymore and it’s apparently difficult to shift outdated negative associations people have with it. Plus, there doesn’t seem to be a clear consensus on whether it’s one word or two…
That’s why, when we rebranded Make Your Own kits, we purposefully left The H Word off all our packaging, marketing...everything.
Make Your Own (MYO) kits are different to more traditional ‘homebrew’ kits too. Originally developed 7 years ago to maximise quality whilst remaining convenient and affordable, MYO beer kits contain a mix of malt extracts, which are cold-filled into pouches (rather than traditional cans) to preserve the malt aromas and flavours. We also introduced dry hops to kits and selected specific yeast strains depending on the beer style being made.
This year, MYO has gone through a big change in terms of design, but the original principles are the same as always. We want to get as many people brewing as possible, and to see how you can make authentic, quality craft beers at home which you’ll want to share with your family and friends – we’ll let you decide whether to call it ‘homebrew’ or not.