New to home brewing and wanted to get some feedback on people's experience with brew kits....used brewers best porter for my first batch..........still in the bottle...hopefully ready next weekend.......tried brewer's best imperial pale ale today, not sure what to expect from this one. Would be great if they would compare the recipe to a commercial beer........anyway if anyone has used a beer kit and can compare it to a similar tasting commercial beer that would be great....thanks...any input is appreciated
Generally Brewer's Best kits have ingredients of questionable age (hops & yeast at room temperature, unless the LHBS has taken them out, LME of unknown age). It would be best to buy a kit from a reputable seller that has high turnover such as Midwest, Northern Brewer, Morebeer, Austin Homebrew, etc...
Yes, google any of those names and find kits that are quite fresh. Personally, I would only buy from an online seller that shows you their recipe... Be aware what grains need mashing, and which ones don't.
I have done kits from 3 suppliers the kits from Midwest and Northern Brewer are superior to the kits from brewers best. Northern brewer really sticks out with some of there offerings. If you order a kit from northern you will not be disappointed by there selection or quality of product.
Northern Brewer, there all good, depends on the style you'd like to brew. They also list recipes, ingredients and have user reviews. Good luck.
Northern Brewer kits are the best i have ever used. You can't go wrong with true flat rate shipping. BM me if you want any suggestions on specific kits. I've brewed alot of em.
The only kit I ever bought and brewed was the Northern Brewer Black IPA. It was exceptionally good considering it was my first ever beer. I did add an extra oz of hops to the bill though which turned out to be a good decision because it was very malty (which I like to see in a black IPA).
i found sometime the best beer kit is the ones where you come up with your own recipie. a great place to start to do this is a software program called beersmith2 it starts with a 21 day free trial the can purchase full program after. after you come up with a recipie you can find a local brew shop to or there ar a few on line companys that you can give them the recipie and the only charge you for the amount of ingridiants and mail you your kit. this way dont have to worry about how long kit has been sitting around. So go to beersmith.com
I have brewed lots of great kits from Austin Homebrew. Since you mentioned finding kits that are compared to commercial styles... they have a section of dozens of kits that are clones of commercial beers. check it out here
I am doing the Surly Cynic partial mash kit right now. I racked it to the secondary last night and took a sample. I was shocked at how good it was for only being a week old. So I would recommend any of there pro series kits. Also they having Brewing TV on There site which is a great resource because they brew all of there kits and review them.
Northern Brewer, Morebeer, and Austin Homebrew are all places I have used before. I trend to Austin as I am in Texas, but my Northern Brewer email today said their kits are 15% off right now. They have great kits!
I know this thread is old but Jasper's has a great list of super ingredients. Free shipping never hurt either.