Beer kits were created to shorten the time that it takes to begin the beer brewing process to just 15 minutes. Brewing beer from grain takes a long time, around 6-8 hours. To make beer from grain, you need to "mash" your grain (steep it in water at around 62-69°C for an hour) before you rinse it ("sparging") with hot water to rinse all the sugars from the grain. You now have a sweet liquid called Liquor. This needs to be boiled with hops for an hour, then cooled to 20°C. This is now called "wort".

The makers of the beer kits have done all that hard work for you and then concentrated the wort into a thick syrup like liquid called "liquid malt extract" or "LME" for short.

This means all you have to do is open your beer kit, pour it into a fermenting bucket, then add water and sugar (for some kits). Homebrew beer kits makes it very easy to brew beer at home and they come in many flavours, styles and even top brands that you would find in your local pub. Brewing beer at home has never been so easy.

Beer kits come is a variety of forms, for example:
- Single can kits where you add extra sugar*,
- Double can kits that have all the ingredients in the 2 cans,
- Pouch kits where you add extra sugar*
- Boxed beer kits which have all the ingredients boxed up so you only need to add water.
* You can choose to add regular sugar, Brewing Sugar, Beer Enhancer, SprayMalt or LME when a kit calls for extra sugar. More info on sugars on our Sugars Page.

Single can & pouch kits tend to be the cheapest and are excellent value for money. You can use these kits as they are or use them as a base to make your own special creations. If you want the same quality beer as you get in a pub, then go for the larger double can or boxed beer kits as these offer a more intense, richer, fuller bodied pub style beer.