Home brewing beer is a great hobby - once you've got the equipment, you can churn out personalised, delicious craft beers for half the price of bottled ales from the supermarket, or a third, even a quarter of pub prices.

Last time I brewed a batch, I had trouble filtering the hops from the mash before I added the yeast. I had to employ an extra pair of hands to hold the filter.

This time*, my helper was busy with homework, so I decided to sacrifice some kitchenware to create a filter holder.

(*Latest batch of beer)

Step 1: What You Need...

This is a really simple project - all you need is a cheap plastic jug and a drill.

Step 2: The Make

Er... drill a load of holes in the bottom of the jug. That's it.

However, you need to be careful, because the bottom of my jug turned out to be quite brittle, possibly due to age. This means I ended up with an untidy, cracked mess of a jug. This is OK for me, but if I was making one for a friend, I might use a smaller bit and take more time drilling.

Once the loose scraps of plastic were cleaned off with a small knife, all I needed to do was put the filter bag inside the jug, and I was ready.

Step 3: Using and Modifying

I used this filter holder twice in the same brew.

It worked well, I held the filter in one hand, and scooped the hop-laden mash from the pan with another jug. But the hops held on to the liquid, and drainage took a while, so before I used it again, I grabbed a pair of shears and cut a gap in the bottom of the handle.

This meant I could hang the filter on the side of the brew barrel, and (carefully) use both hands to pour the wort directly from the pan into the filter, then leave the filter to drain into the barrel while I got on with cleaning and tidying up.

Success!

The perforated jug is now sitting in my brewing cupboard, with the cleaned filter folded inside, ready for next time.