Making Extract Kits Your Own - Page 2

Iowabeerguy · 04-06-2009, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j8h9

Alright. Here’s my dumb newbie questions. Why buy kits at all? If you know what ingredients are required—why not just purchase the ingredients separately yourself? I noticed some of the kits are expensive (they are pricing a premium into the kit). Couldn’t the same ingredients be purchased separately for less?

I agree with you on this j8h9 - My LHBS stocks the True Brew kits, and after brewing most of them, I have started buying the individual components instead of the kits. I keg most of my beers, so I have enough bottle caps and priming sugar to last me a lifetime, why should I continue to pay for them? Plus my LHBS probably makes more profit by me buying this way rather than the kits, and I can tweak the kits for my taste. Everybody wins (except maybe the fine folks at True Brew, but in every game there has to be a winner and a loser.)

NoisufnoC · 04-06-2009, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j8h9

Alright. Here’s my dumb newbie questions. Why buy kits at all? If you know what ingredients are required—why not just purchase the ingredients separately yourself? I noticed some of the kits are expensive (they are pricing a premium into the kit). Couldn’t the same ingredients be purchased separately for less?

i've asked the same question. some kits are cheaper if you source the ingredients separately, but i have found some kits to be less expensive. it really all depends on what you're making.

McGarnigle · 04-06-2009, 07:34 PM

I actually thought that most kits were cheaper than buying ingredients separately. Maybe not True Brew or Brewer's Best, but for AHS and Northern Brewer and the like.

talenos · 04-06-2009, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j8h9

Alright. Here’s my dumb newbie questions. Why buy kits at all? If you know what ingredients are required—why not just purchase the ingredients separately yourself? I noticed some of the kits are expensive (they are pricing a premium into the kit). Couldn’t the same ingredients be purchased separately for less?

At my LHBS the kits are priced a little higher because they assume they will have someone assemble it for you. Measure the grain and hops, etc. They are cheaper if you assemble them yourselves and they seem to encourage that.

vcm1613 · 04-08-2009, 02:58 AM

It depends on the kit as stated above. The True Brew Red Ale Kit for example cost about $33. It has 2 cans of extract that retail at about $26 total.
1 oz of hops at $3.50
Specialty grain at $1.50
Grain bag at $.25
Yeast at $.50
Bottling sugar $.75
Bottlecaps at $1.00.

So basically its a break-even proposition. For someone first starting out, its a value to have it all ready there in the box. Not to mention you learn about the ingredients and can begin to critique or think about what you'd change about it, add to it, etc etc.
For others that are at a point in their brewing that can create their own, by all means save that dollar and possibly make a better beer.

-J