Best beer kits

Starting my third brew. Already used Brewer's Best American Cream and Brewer's Best Witbeir is in Secondary.

I like the simplicity of the packaging and find the direction fairly easy to follow. (Had a fewe questions and was able to easily find the answers here on BrewTalk .)

But I'm shopping other kits. (Don't really feel secure shopping individual ingredients just yet). Cooper's and Munton's kits seem so much cheaper than the standard. Are they any good? Or are they poor quality grains?

Worth a shot? Any good experiences with them?

No, Munton's and Cooper's aren't "good" kits. They are "kit and a kilo" type of kits- prehopped extract that is not boiled, and just mixed with sugar in the fermenter. They are cheaper, but they don't have extract, grains, and hops, and don't make a very complex product. Think of Cooper's as "kool-aid" type of kits.

I have two places on line that I bought great kits from. One is Austinhomebrew.com. They have hundreds and hundreds of quality kits with great instructions. The other is northernbrewer.com. They have lots of kits, but better than that- they have an awesome catalogue. If you send for a catalogue, you can really enjoy that. They do have everything on their website as well. They also have good customer support, and provide great instructions. If you lose the instructions, they have them right on their website.

Both places make the kit up when you order- so the grains are freshly crushed and the extract is freshly poured (if liquid) and not that canned extract stuff that is in the Brewer's Best kits. They are very high quality and make great beer!

I've been brewing for some time now. I now do AG, but one of the kits I continue to buy as an extract is Jim Rossi Honey Pale Ale from More Beer. In fact I just ordered it and am going to brew it next week. It uses 3 pounds of honey. Not a hoppy beer, easy to drink, and the ladies seem to like it too.

I would also recomend going to you LHBS. Many vgood kits and you might get a chance to talk to other brewers about what they hae used and what they like.

Kits from midwest are really good too. Although I have moved to PM. There stuff is fresh & of good quality. Their PM cascade pale ale was really good.

The kits from Austin homebrew are good and they do a lot of internet business so they are fresh as well
They have hundreds of recipes and many commercial clones
Lucky for me it's my LHBS also

Yooper said:

Both places make the kit up when you order- so the grains are freshly crushed and the extract is freshly poured (if liquid) and not that canned extract stuff that is in the Brewer's Best kits. They are very high quality and make great beer!

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Awesome!:rockin: Going to check out their selection tonight!

glugglug said:

I now do AG, but one of the kits I continue to buy as an extract is Jim Rossi Honey Pale Ale from More Beer. In fact I just ordered it and am going to brew it next week. It uses 3 pounds of honey. Not a hoppy beer, easy to drink, and the ladies seem to like it too.

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Trying to get wifey into this hobby with me isn't easy... Think I will def give this one a look. Thanks!!!!!

If you want to stick with extract, start formulation recipes, our brewing clones from ingredients, I think it's best to stay away from kits, you do not know the age of the ingredients, or if they were stored properly.

Kits are packed fresh from midwest & Nb,a few other places when you buy their kits. Unlike Brewer's Best & other mass produced kits.

I've used a few northernbrewer.com extract kits and all have turned out really well. Since then I've moved on to AG brewing and I have to say I've learned a TON from just going to the LHBS and talking to the local brewers. I recommend finding a style you would like to brew and then researching that brew online and by talking to the fine folks at your LHBS.

saines21 said:

I have to say I've learned a TON from just going to the LHBS and talking to the local brewers. I recommend finding a style you would like to brew and then researching that brew online and by talking to the fine folks at your LHBS.

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Excellent advice

I've been equally impressed with Austin and Midwest kits. Austins flexibility in making kits partial mash and picking yeast have them as my go to store right now.

SunnyAndCher said:

(Don't really feel secure shopping individual ingredients just yet).

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That the beauty of ingredient kits. You don't shop for the individual ingredients; the shop-keepers do. It's as though you wanted to bake a chocolate cake and you could buy an Exact Kit box which when you opened it, it would contain 3 cups of flour, 1/3 cup butter, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup milk, 3 Tbs cocoa powder, etc.

Of course, as soon as you buy it some All-Gain snob will pipe in that it's not real chocolate cake if you use cocoa powder instead of melting baker's chocolate in a double boiler and ...

Midwest kits are great but with shipping pricey, I really like austines flexabilty along with great kits and reduced shipping, morebeer has great kits and free shipping over 60 bucks.

Brewers best I was not impressed with, turned out ok but the others above are noticably better. This is first hand experiance with all these kits in the last 3 months.

As you gain experiance and add equipment you can experiment with ingredents and reciepes and eventually try all grain

Austine has a kit,AHS Canadian Ale, very similar to Labatt’s Blue, my guess is wifey would like it

I always bought mine from Austin and Midwest. I preferred the Austin ones, probably more for asthetic reasons (I prefer the look of their recipe pages) and have had great results from both. I do find I enjoy buying the ingredients in bulk/separately more and being able to pick from any recipe on the internet or modify substitutions as I decide over the kits now, but for the first year or so kits were my go to. IMO the jump from extract/extract with specialty grains to partial mash isnt too hard and is a fun upgrade that you can do with the same equipment (and a couple bath towels or a comforter or winter coat) and a little more time.

DrunkleJon said:

IMO the jump from extract/extract with specialty grains to partial mash isnt too hard and is a fun upgrade that you can do with the same equipment (and a couple bath towels or a comforter or winter coat) and a little more time.

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Agreed, and the fact you are mashing really opens the door for some personal touches on the beer by picking out an extra lb or two of grains to add.

Im probably going to buy the budget kits ($22) that austin has, and spend a few bucks to add some more grains to the mash and end up with really good brew for $25-$28. Hell, get the budget porter, and just use stuff you have like a lb of oatmeal and some cold brewed coffee.

I may get alot of hate from this but my first brew was using a cooper's kit and the beer that it produced was excellent. yes i will agree that it is overly simple but if you want to get a quick brew on the go with little effort then you cant go wrong. the only thing i dont like abou them is that it says to primary ferment for 1 week. better leving it 2. i bottled and primed after 2 weeks primary then 2 weeks bottle conditioned and it was beautifly clear and easy to drink.

Beergazzi said:

I've been equally impressed with Austin and Midwest kits. Austins flexibility in making kits partial mash and picking yeast have them as my go to store right now.

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That's what keeps me going to AHBS more than NB as well, no PM's at NB from what I have seen. Its either full extract or AG. Although, thus far the favorite beer I have done is NB's Deadringer!!