My wife, who is awesome, bought me a Man Crate for my birthday.
For $75 plus shipping it came with:
*A one gallon extract Centennial Smash ingredient kit. Ingredients from Briess, Maillard and Hoptimus Rex.
*One pack of Fermentis brand yeast. Safale US05.
*One 1 1/2 gallon wide mouth glass fermentation jar with screw on lid with bung hole. So, a one gallon fermenter.
*Bung.
*Three piece airlock.
*Pump style racking cane. Nice.
*Bottling wand. Also nice to have.
*Two lengths of tubing.
*Wing capper.
*Fizz Drops to carb with. A KISS way to do it.
*8 oz LD Carlson Easy Clean.
*20 bottle caps.
*Directions.
Okay, so no pot. It's a one gallon brew. Lots of folks already have a pot big enough for that. The cost of a nice eight or ten gallon stainless steel pot is enough to turn some people away from trying homebrewing.
Also, a one gallon kit is very kitchen stove friendly. Even in an apartmemt. The size of things, coupled with the cost, has been demonstrated here as a hurdle to homebrewing. Even people who have been doing it for a while are posting for space and cost saving ideas.
A one gallon extract brew also doesn't take all day.
No hydrometer or refractometer, but the pump style racking cane is a nice touch. And it's a one gallon kit. An intro kit.
No thermometer. Again, lots of folks have one. And it's a one gallon starter kit.
No bottles. If you can't muster enough bottles for a one gallon brew, beer is not your hobby.
The directions are basic, but good enough that anyone with half a brain can follow along and get a good result. Nobody sells a kit with all of HBT in print form. This is the kind of stuff you learn as you go once you've decided to commit.
All in all, yeah, maybe you can price these items cheaper, if you know what you're looking for, and maybe you can build a better one gallon kit, since you're already a seasoned homebrewer who knows what they're doing, but for someone with a casual interest and a few bucks to spare on checking out the hobby, this is a solid way to go. Especially since it comes with gear that can be used if you scale up later. The cane, wand, tube, airlock and capper are things you may use for years. A 1 1/2 gallon wide mouth fermenter is also something that will always be handy for expirimemts or just making something maybe you don't want five or more gallons of.
I don't have any affiliation with Man Crates. There's no coupon for me posting this. I've already bottled two brews with the bottling gear, and am brewing the kit it came with now. So far, it's all working well.
For $75 plus shipping it came with:
*A one gallon extract Centennial Smash ingredient kit. Ingredients from Briess, Maillard and Hoptimus Rex.
*One pack of Fermentis brand yeast. Safale US05.
*One 1 1/2 gallon wide mouth glass fermentation jar with screw on lid with bung hole. So, a one gallon fermenter.
*Bung.
*Three piece airlock.
*Pump style racking cane. Nice.
*Bottling wand. Also nice to have.
*Two lengths of tubing.
*Wing capper.
*Fizz Drops to carb with. A KISS way to do it.
*8 oz LD Carlson Easy Clean.
*20 bottle caps.
*Directions.
Okay, so no pot. It's a one gallon brew. Lots of folks already have a pot big enough for that. The cost of a nice eight or ten gallon stainless steel pot is enough to turn some people away from trying homebrewing.
Also, a one gallon kit is very kitchen stove friendly. Even in an apartmemt. The size of things, coupled with the cost, has been demonstrated here as a hurdle to homebrewing. Even people who have been doing it for a while are posting for space and cost saving ideas.
A one gallon extract brew also doesn't take all day.
No hydrometer or refractometer, but the pump style racking cane is a nice touch. And it's a one gallon kit. An intro kit.
No thermometer. Again, lots of folks have one. And it's a one gallon starter kit.
No bottles. If you can't muster enough bottles for a one gallon brew, beer is not your hobby.
The directions are basic, but good enough that anyone with half a brain can follow along and get a good result. Nobody sells a kit with all of HBT in print form. This is the kind of stuff you learn as you go once you've decided to commit.
All in all, yeah, maybe you can price these items cheaper, if you know what you're looking for, and maybe you can build a better one gallon kit, since you're already a seasoned homebrewer who knows what they're doing, but for someone with a casual interest and a few bucks to spare on checking out the hobby, this is a solid way to go. Especially since it comes with gear that can be used if you scale up later. The cane, wand, tube, airlock and capper are things you may use for years. A 1 1/2 gallon wide mouth fermenter is also something that will always be handy for expirimemts or just making something maybe you don't want five or more gallons of.
I don't have any affiliation with Man Crates. There's no coupon for me posting this. I've already bottled two brews with the bottling gear, and am brewing the kit it came with now. So far, it's all working well.
