Learn to brew beer like the pro’s at Brew University

Want to try your hand at home brewing but don’t want to spend the initial cost for the equipment?

Well, time to brew beer on premises at Brew U.

Brew University in Canning Vale has a full Brew-On-Premises (BOP) setup and a huge selection of beer options so you can brew your own without needing to buy the equipment.

Now that’s convenient!

The cost to brew beer of your own ranges from approximately $150 to $250 (at time of writing) for 50L depending on your beer of choice. This provides about 6 cartons of beer (~$25-$40 a carton).

So not only do you learn to brew, it’s quite cost-effective and fair on the pocket.

We decided to give brewing a go and selected the Coconut Kolsch as the beer of choice. With a few of the Beer Is OK local reviewers team attending both the brewing and bottling dates, we all had a great time, learnt how to brew beer and enjoyed sipping on our creating during the bottling process.

Ready to brew your own?

Learning how to brew beer

To brew beer at Brew University, you’ll need to book in a brewing time which can be scheduled at the Brew U website.

When you book, you’ll need to decide between brewing the beer yourself or going through the speed brew process. If this is your first time, we recommend learning to brew beer by their beer experts. For those short on time or regularly visiting, you can opt for the speed brew option.

The craft beer brewing process

To brew beer, the process will take you a couple of hours (which involves a lot of waiting for the kettles to do their thing). Luckily, you’re at a brewery so you can enjoy a few tasting paddles while you wait.

The Brew University team will guide you through the beer brewing process and give you some background on the ingredients and steps involved to make your own. We have an excellent staffer who was super informative, and our team learnt a bunch – especially when we are all very new to understanding the brewing process.

The recipes are created by the head brewers at Brew U and being able to brew the same beer they have on tap allows you to try before you decide.

Don’t have time? Try speed brewing

Speed brewing takes away all the steps of brewing and simply requires you on premises to complete one step, allowing for the ‘cheaper’ purchase of beer.

After visiting and completing the speed brew process (5-10 minutes), you’ll need to stop back in a couple of weeks to bottle or can your beer.

Time to package your beer

After two weeks or so, it’s time to head back to the venue and bottle your freshly made craft beer.

Beer packaging process

The packaging process involves a few steps. We’ll run through the bottling process as that’s the option we selected.

1. First off, you’ll need to get approximately 150 bottles from their pallets and place them onto the cleaning racks.

2. After the bottles have been placed, this machine will squirt hot water with sanitising liquid through the inside of each bottle to ensure they’re not contaminated during the bottling process. You’ll need to spin the bottles to coat the inside of the bottles.

3. From here, you place all the bottles onto the drying rack (or as everyone seems to refer to it, the Christmas tree) ready for bottling the beer.

4. The Brew U team will set up the keg and you can work your way through pouring the beer into each glass, one at a time.

5. While pouring the beer, you need to quickly cap and close the beer to seal in the goodness. This works well with two people working together.

6. As you work through the bottling, start filling up your boxes ready to be transported out to your house. Remember to bring your own boxes.

7. Don’t forget to try your beer. While bottling your beer, give it a try or enjoy a few of their tasting paddles – this makes the packaging process even more enjoyable.

Alternatively, if you’re short on time, Brew University can bottle your beer on your behalf – although this does attract a fee.

Packaging options

After you brew beer at Brew U, you have four options for packaging:

• 330ml Bottles
• 375ml Cans
• 500ml Bottles
• Or bring your own Keg(s)

We recommend grabbing a friend and completing the bottling/canning process as a team. This gives you someone to chat to (and enjoy your beer with) as you’re working through the process of bottling ~140-150 beers.

Final thoughts

Brewing beer at Brew U ticks all the boxes. You get delicious beer, at an attractive price, while knowing you’re the one that brewed it.

We recommend anyone wanting to try their hand at brewing, or looking to save some money on purchasing beer to give Brew On Premises a go!