Best beer kits.

[mikek]

Going to be getting started soon with home brewing. Have done simple Mr Beer kits in past and not overly impressed. Wondering if I could get some opinions from experienced folks out there as to which of the big online sites has the best kits....Grape and Granery, Midwest, Northern, Monster brew etc... Not necessarily the specific kit but who in general sells the best kits...

Individual recommendations are a bonus...

Thanks...

 

[evrose]

I've always had good luck with Midwest and Northern Brewer. MoreBeer and Austin Homebrew also are highly thought of around here.

 

[kh54s10]

I've always had good luck with Midwest and Northern Brewer. MoreBeer and Austin Homebrew also are highly thought of around here.

I agree these are the biggies and have fresh kits. I have use NB and everything was fresh and good. I like NB since you can look up the ingredients and instructions online. I use their recipes as a guide to make my own. I make slight adjustments to alter a recipe to my taste.

 

[mikek]

what about boomchugalug? They have a Founders KBS and Breakfast Stout Clone... Not sure if their kits are any good but if I could even approximate KBS I would be happy camper...

 

[woozy]

I don't see any reason that you wouldn't be ready to move away for "add water and yeast" kits and get into Extract with grains. Thus you aren't really stuck to ordering kits but can find Extract Recipes on-line, order the ingredients, and brew.

Of course that isn't nescessarily easier. You have to take it on faith what recipes look good and which don't, and ordering ingredients individually might be harder than buying them packaged as a kit.

But I want to make sure you are aware of the options. More beer has good kits. Like kh54s10 said, some kits allow you to look up the ingredients and you can get a good sense of what the beers are like from there.

 

[BxBrewer]

Morebeer hands down. Check out there 10 beers for under 50 cents a beer.

 

[mikek]

Yeah it really sounds like short of all grain and partial mash, I am ready to start exploring the HomeBrew world... I do think for me to start into it though I want the kit to come with all I need especially because I am going to try some of the clones out there. Once I am really set on the process, I do see my self finding recipes and buying ingredients to complete them and even tailor them more to my liking...

Thanks for the advice and keep it coming if anyone has any more info to throw my way.

 

[oldf150]

Austin Homebrew has become my go-to, even though I live less than 30 min from 2 local stores. Fresh ingredients, huge selection, reliable results, free shipping on recipe kits. Best of all, if you call or email with a question or problem, they take the time to talk you through it. As far as the specific recipes, my go to for every day beer is the Budget Kolsch, and I have also had great results with the Dusseldoef Altbier and Nut Brown Ale. Now that i have some experience, i plan on ordering a porter and a scottish ale next.

 

[WizardBill]

Austin Homebrew has become my go-to, even though I live less than 30 min from 2 local stores. Fresh ingredients, huge selection, reliable results, free shipping on recipe kits. Best of all, if you call or email with a question or problem, they take the time to talk you through it. As far as the specific recipes, my go to for every day beer is the Budget Kolsch, and I have also had great results with the Dusseldoef Altbier and Nut Brown Ale. Now that i have some experience, i plan on ordering a porter and a scottish ale next.

I lived in Austin when I started homebrewing, back in 2000. It was great having AHS right there. They are fantastic. However, now I have moved back to south eastern IL. There is one store for supplies, but it is in Terre Haute, IN. About an hour ten drive. So, I still order from AHS. And, oldf150 is correct. I have called AND emailed. Both got excellent results.

I have brewed porters, ales, and stouts. Their supplies are grand. Now I am looking to go AG. I have brewed about fifteen extract brews and had great results with all of them. Does anyone have a good step-by-step for the AG process? I searched the forums and cannot get a clear understanding of what is going to happen.

My thoughts are these:

1. I get grain.
2. I heat grain.
3. I soak grain in hot water.
4. I rinse grain (collecting the water).
5. I use collected water as my extract.
6. Proceed as normal.

Is this correct? Is there a "for Dummies" for the AG process? I just got the Papazian book at a used bookstore.

BTW, I just found the thing I needed, explaining Partial Mash. However, is Partial Mash an AG? If it is, why is it called "Partial"?

I found it here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/

 

[butterpants]

My experience is with Norther Brewer and Brewers Best kits.

The NB kits seem to have fresher ingredients and MUCH.... like an order of magnitude better instructions. The down side is they don't do many clones if you want to try an extract version of your favorite commercial brew.

Just ordered my first kit from Austin last week. The Reverend from Avery clone kit. We'll see how close you can get without going all grain

 

[dantodd]

1. I get grain.
2. I heat grain.
3. I soak grain in hot water.
4. I rinse grain (collecting the water).
5. I use collected water as my extract.
6. Proceed as normal.

Is this correct? Is there a "for Dummies" for the AG process? I just got the Papazian book at a used bookstore.

BTW, I just found the thing I needed, explaining Partial Mash. However, is Partial Mash an AG? If it is, why is it called "Partial"?

I found it here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/

Well, partial mash is when you get some of your wort from crushed grain and some of the wort from store-bought LME or DME.

Your description is fairly decent in broad strokes but I have never heated my grains.

Crush grain
Mash grain (soak in water)
Sparge (remove the, now sweet, water from the mash tun and rinse out other sugars with more water)
Continue as normal.

Now this is an incredibly simplified model of the full process. My personal favorite book right now for general brewing information is "How to Brew" by John Palmer. It has a very detailed description of the All grain process.

 

[woozy]

Partial mash: you use enough grains and water to make half a batch of beer. You add enough extract to make the other half a batch of beer. You top off to a full batch of beer.

It's called partial mash because you mash a partial batch of beer.