anyone tried the Northern Brewer pro series kits

My question is are they worth the money?

They give you the ingredient list so you can see what goes in the kit. Price it out separately at several stores and see if it's a good deal.

For comparisons sake, I did the AG Surly Bender from Northern Brewer and it turned out great, so I used that recipe on Brewbuilder from Brewmasters Warehouse.

Northern Brewer(no yeast): $26.99
Brewmaster's Warehouse(no yeast): $29.11, but using the 10% off code for the Brewing Network, you get $26.19

My LHBS is a little pricey, so it would all come down to shipping for me. The Pro Series kits are supposed to be using the exact ingredients, so Brewmaster's Warehouse doesn't carry the base malt for the beer, so I just subsituted for it.

I would say it is a wash either way, but if you want to support NB, then go for it.

I have not done any of the pro series kits but I brewed 3 of their kits and I didnt care for any of them. I started brewing kits from midwest and then I tried the 3 from Northern and I liked all of the kits from Midwest and did not care for the Northerns. I know alot of people like Northern it just has not been my experience.

I did the Surly Bitter Brewer as my first PM and it turned out a beer that captured the description in the ad copy perfectly. Having never had the real thing, I can't say if it was spot on or not, but it made one hell of a beer, and the keg did not last long enough.

I made the Surly Bitter Brewer and really liked how it came out. Never really priced it to see if you save money by sourcing ingredients from various places but I'm guessing you may be able to save a little, but not a huge amount (unless you just happen to have a lot of the stuff in bulk on hand of course).

But the quality of the kit was good and the beer was really nice. I've never had any beer from Surly so can't tell how it compars to the real deal, but the kit was tasty.

I've priced one kit out... I think it was $29... When I broke it down and built 4-exact copies of the same kit the price per kit was somewhere around $14. I cannot remember, but basically the big costs are yeast and individual hop packets. If someone bulk grains their base malts that can drop the cost significantly too... It's too bad we can get pale-malt for less than $0.40/lbs anymore. Gone are the days of $5 to $10 brews.

I did the Hope and King Scottish Ale and just bottled it today and even flat the taste is awsome!

Dougie63 said:

I did the Hope and King Scottish Ale and just bottled it today and even flat the taste is awsome!

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I did the Dawson's Multi Grain Red and it's the best I've brewed so far.

NB's kits are a great way to experiment with some base recipes. I've probably made a dozen or so of their kits in the last two years and while some are just meh other's have proven to be real winners. The only reason I didn't like some of the kits were simply because I didn't like the style of beer.

for example, I really didn't like the Cream Ale kit -- but I've got friends that line up for that beer when I make it because they're huge fans of that style.

The Dead Ringer IPA is a 100% knock off of Bell's two-hearted ale. side-by-side you can barely notice a difference. It's one of my favorite kits.

I've done the Surly Furious and loved it!


Since I order from NB about once a month or so I always grab a kit or two. If you're combining it with other items for shipping you can't beat the price of their kits anywhere else.

The lakefront fixed gear kit is awesome

+1 on the Lakefront Fixed Gear

Surly Bender PM turned out really good and did not last long at all. Made it as a request from a friend. Never had Surly before, but would brew again!

Thanks for all of the replies. I just pulled the trigger and got the Dry dock ss minnow and urca vanilla porter. Have one empty fermenter and one about to open up. We will see how it goes. I priced out all of the ingredients separately on NB and it came out a few dollars more.!

The Lakefront IBA is insanely good--just tapped that keg last night. I mostly do my own recipes but I've had very, very good luck with NB kits.

+1 on NB Surly Furious.

Friend happened to have a Furious earlier in the day and commented that it was an exact match! We have a winner. I will say this though,,,,it was my most expensive beer ever and while I will do this one again, i need to probably do this all grain and re-use the yeast to get the cost down. Granted I still saved half at $9 a 4 pack?

Killer

I haven't done a pro series kit but I have NB's Big Honkin' Stout in the primary right now. What I know so far is the OG sample tasted good and the fermentation using two packs of US05 has been huge. I got high hopes.

The Surly Cynic Ale is amazing. I aged it on tellicherry peppercorns (my addition) and the batch didn't last long at all. I think we drank it in like 2 weeks.

I've made the Dry Dock SS Minnow, and it was fantastic. I decided to change the amount of sugar used at bottling so that it carbed to style, and it turned out beautifully. I highly recommend the kit.

osagedr said:

The Lakefront IBA is insanely good--just tapped that keg last night. I mostly do my own recipes but I've had very, very good luck with NB kits.

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+1
I made the AG version and fermented with pacman. On tap right now. It's an awesome black IPA, it's 3 months old right now and couldn't taste any better.

At least in the case of the Surly kits, they are going to be pretty much spot-on. Don't ask me how I know...

MNDan said:

At least in the case of the Surly kits, they are going to be pretty much spot-on. Don't ask me how I know...

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I'm not sure why that's even an issue. NB has always stated that their Pro Series kits are collaborations with the actual brewery that makes the beer. You would ONLY expect them to be spot on with maybe the exception of a particular yeast or extravagant methodology.

The regular kits are a whole different matter. But the Pro Series are actually designed based on actual recipes from the actual brewers.

I've been thinking about trying one of the NB AG kits. No I think I'm convinced. What I have been doing is copying the ingredient profile and tweking it to my preferences in my Beersmith program, all of which have been AWESOME!!! The only real cost savings I get is not paying shipping for my LHBS has higher prices than NB. Dunno whether I'll go dawsons red or dead ringer.

Thanks for the info!!
My irish blonde copy.

billdog said:

The only real cost savings I get is not paying shipping for my LHBS has higher prices than NB. Dunno whether I'll go dawsons red or dead ringer.

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I first made the Dead Ringer about two years ago -- that recipe has become such a stable for me that I've always got a keg of it either on tap now or conditioning. It's one of my favorites.