Has anyone tried this homebrew?? And if so, what are your thoughts?? Is it worth buying? Thanks for the help! Goose Island Sweet Porter Brewery Edition Extract Kit Our brewmasters partnered with Goose Island Research and Development brewer Tim Faith to craft a homebrewing recipe that perfectly captures the complex flavors and character of the Goose Island original. The result of that collaboration is an unbelievably memorable brew that evokes the creamy essence of the eggnog cocktail that inspired it, along with notes of milk chocolate, nutmeg and a big, toasty malt backbone. It also conveys the complex flavors of barrel aging that have become a Goose Island trademark…without the barrel aging. Brew plenty, because this is one beer that tends to acquire a following, and you’ll want to savor it as long as you can.
I've not tried it, but, apparently, it's $68 from Northern Brewer ($76 with the $8 shipping to TX). You could certainly do better at your LHBS. How much experience do you have homebrewing?
I've brewed 4 different beers already. This will be the first one I've done in about a year. I was just tempted to do this kit and was looking for some feedback.
Northern brewer used to be affordable, but like every other InBev aquisition the price has gone up. That's surprising since inbev has hella buying power.
Id think about it if it was a BCBS kit but otherwise its pretty steep for a sweet porter especially since GI isnt known for porters much less sweet ones.
To be fair to InBev (like they really need it), NB and MW prices went up when the two merged, prior to the InBev acquisition. Maybe the trend has continued. I stopped shopping there and wouldn't know. I mostly stopped using them at because I found the NBxMW new marketing strategy distasteful -- all that silly rebranding and repackaged products -- Malliard Malts, EdelMetal Kettles, Darkstar burners, etc -- rubbed me the wrong way. Were the higher prices just going to their marketing department, who figured I would appreciate slick repackaging of their grains so much it was worth an extra 40% to know I was using genuine Malliard Malts? To the OP, I have no idea if that is a good recipe or not. If the price feels right to you and the description is appealing, give it a try. What I can tell you is that just about every kit on the market, from just about any vendor, can be recreated a la carte, sometimes with a little bit of research required, and typically for a lower price than the convenient, packaged kit. (That convenience is best described as someone else doing the R&D and sourcing the ingredient. You get to decide if it is worth the cost). I don't know for sure about the freshness of packaged kits, but I always imagined that they could sit around the shelves longer and be a little less fresh. Hopefully the different components of the kits are stored appropriately (e.g. hops cold); fortunately yeast is no longer typically packaged with kits (remember the 1980s?). This concern for freshness hasn't kept me from sometimes buying kits if the sale price was right, and I have not had cause to complain, so maybe it is no biggie. This perspective is mostly based on all-grain kits. It could be that extract kits are a different animal completely. I haven't purchased an extract kit since 2005 (it was Midwest's Brass Ale clone; my version was not great but that probably had more to do with me than the kit).
Mergers and acquisitions of that size are always pitched as providing economies of scale but any gains accrue to the remaining shareholders while customers are stuck with a reduced number of options and the resulting "take it or leave it" attitude.
I realize this is an old thread but thought I would share anyway - Kit is on sale for $38.97. Thinking about trying it! - https://www.northernbrewer.com/prod...er-all-grain-recipe-kit?variant=7732576518188
Do those kits come with a manufacturing date? I'd be suspicious unless it's assembled when you order it.
