Buying Kits Online

I'm still an Extract brewer, where do you guys buy your kits from when you buy online? Who's got the best kits and prices??

I'd give Northern Brewer a shot at least once. They have some interesting proprietary ingredients like Maris Otter Malt Syrup that makes it a little bit more interesting to brew with extract.

Austin Homebrew Supply has a big selection of clone kits to brew from if that's the kind of thing you're interested in. I've never done one of their kits, but like NB they're pretty popular, so they should move a decent amount of volume, which is a big consideration when you're brewing with (particularly liquid) extracts.

Good luck!

NB is good and I've also bought from Midwest Supplies before. Both companies have great customer service. I was in the middle of brew day and didn't understand something from their directions (I was new) and called them up on a Saturday and a live person answered and told me what to do.

That said, I buy almost all of my stuff from my LHBS store now because it's pretty convenient and I get a 10% discount for being a local home brew club member, so with the discount and not paying for shipping, it's ~40% cheaper than buying online.

You can't really go wrong with Northern Brewer, Midwest, or Austin Homebrew. Try each one once and see how much shipping is and how quickly you get it and use the one you like best. I know that some people actually fill a cart on each one and order the cheapest each time.

Never bought from Northern. Bought a few from Midwest. Bought my most recent, and will continue to buy from Austin. Midwest and Northern charge something like $13 to ship,where as Austin is half of that. They also give you the option of buying their recipes as extract, partial (mini), or all grain.

For the extract kits, I tried all the above except Midwest. I found Morebeer to be the cheapest (including free shipping for orders over 59 bucks) with their "10 beers under 50 cents a pint" or whatever they were called. When I was doing extract batches exclusively, my last few orders were with them. I'd get 3 extract kits for like 75-80 bucks shipped. Couldn't beat that deal for modest gravity batches.

Do remember they don't include grain steeping bags, so order muslin bags at 75 cents apiece to steep your grains in. They also don't include yeast in their normal extract kits, but did include dry yeast with all the bargain kits I mentioned above. Depending on where you live, don't be in a hurry to brew though. I'd order well in advance, because it would take like 2 weeks to get my order. Can't complain on shipping times when shipping's free, so I just learned to order ahead.

I bought my kits from Northern Brewer and was extremely pleased with them. I would use one of the more popular online shops as you should be assured of getting fresher kits.

I now buy ingredients and concoct my own recipes, often based on published recipes. I like Northern Brewers website since they give the recipes. I often shop around online and place things in the "cart" and compare. Often I have get ingredients from several places to complete a recipe.

I have made about 14 kits from Northern Brewer and most of them were excellent. The 3 that didn't turn out great were also 3 of my first 4 batches - american wheat (bland), peace coffee stout porter (too much coffee, even for coffee beer lovers), irish dry stout (bland). I tend to get my orders in 2-3 business days, and I like that they travel through the north so they tend towards staying cooler. Their Black IPA and Houblonmonstre are my favorite two kits.

I've had 3 from Austin Homebrew Supply, from a single order in the winter, 2 of which were basically drainpours (which I fault the recipe - raspberry tart, braggot) and one which turned out good (Yeti clone). I also like the ability to switch to dry from liquid malt extract, but I probably won't be ordering from them again.

Have only tried Midwest so far and their kits include everything from a decent choice of yeasts (dry/premium dry,liquid wyeast or whitelabs) to specialty grains pre-crushed or not. Unlike Mr Beer, they don't include a packet of sanitizer though! No complaints so far.

However, they had been upgrading their systems recently and I've read of delays in their deliveries. Don't know if that's completed yet.

I generally brew brewer's best kits and can get them locally. Www.homebrewit.com offers free shipping on brewer's best kits most of the time and their prices are good.

I've ordered the Pliny The Elder clone from www.morebeer.com, and it turned out fantastic. My next kit will probably be from www.boomchugalug.com. I really like their website.

I guess I should wait and see how my kits turn out from Austin. I made a Belgian wit with ingredients purchased at my LHBS. Turned out pretty good. This is a good thread though. I like recipe kits because they give you the exact amount you need. I've done a few recipes that I found online but since I don't have a food scale and the recipes have called for less than what I can buy I've been kind of winging it. And then I have leftover grains. Not that that is a bad thing.

I ended up buying in semi-bulk from Midwest Supply, for my Belgian Wit. Got the 50lb bag of light DME, and other bulk ingredients. Happy so far.

Have to chime in for Midwest....

Good kits, great customer service, and easy to understand directions

I've bought a bunch of stuff over the years from Northern Brewer and never had a bad experience.

I've only bought from Austin Homebrew so I can't make any comparisons. I've been very happy with them.

The kits are very well organized, instructions are clear and straightforward, quick shipping at reasonable rates. I just bottled my fourth kit from them. My first kit was the Summer Saison and it was a great beer, the only other one I have ready to drink is a Noel Stout and it is also great.

Their prices on kits seem in line with what I've seen elsewhere, they are higher on other things but the $4.99 shipping for orders over $100 makes up for that. They've also got a deal to meet anyone's price to your door.

I started to put an order together from one of the other big suppliers, when i got to checkout, cheapest shipping was $70 on a $150 order. My LHBS choices here are very limited.

Since you're in Texas,I'd try AHS. It should get to you faster & they have a ton of kits. But Northern Brewer & midwest are great,since they give you grain sacks & yeast options.

I've ordered 5 extract kits from Midwest. No major complaints, but on the first kit the hops didn't match the recipe list. I called on a Saturday morning and got a recording to leave my name/number for a call back. I did so and explained the situation and never heard back from anyone. It wasn't a deal breaker but was a little disconcerting as it was my first batch in over a decade and I wasn't sure what the effects would be.

I'm trying AG for my next batch and will be trying a kit from Northern Brewer. I'm also going to look into my nearest LHBS after I give the NB kit a go.

KPaul said:

I've ordered 5 extract kits from Midwest. No major complaints, but on the first kit the hops didn't match the recipe list. I called on a Saturday morning and got a recording to leave my name/number for a call back. I did so and explained the situation and never heard back from anyone. It wasn't a deal breaker but was a little disconcerting as it was my first batch in over a decade and I wasn't sure what the effects would be.

I'm trying AG for my next batch and will be trying a kit from Northern Brewer. I'm also going to look into my nearest LHBS after I give the NB kit a go.

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They will sometimes substitute based on availability... what did you get and what should you have gotten?

scottab said:

They will sometimes substitute based on availability... what did you get and what should you have gotten?

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I don't remember now. It was 5 batches ago and I didn't take notes. I was brewing their Hop Head Double IPA extract kit.