Another Kit Thread

I am looking to get into Home Brewing, but honestly am overwhelmed with the amount of kit options. The Northern Brewing deluxe starter kit (with the glass upgrade) was highly suggested to me....As I was looking to pull the trigger, I found the living social deal for the Beginners kit from Midwest. At this point, i am over thinking things, so I am here for advice! I have been wanting to do this forever, and is not something I plan on doing once and moving on from....Even more so, I am planning on giving out my own home brew at my wedding later this year.

Any thoughts on the two kits would be helpful!

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/beginner-s-brewing-kit.html

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/deluxe-brewing-starter-kit.html

I just started to. All I did was go to lowes and made all my stuff my self. The fermenting buck is just a 5 gallon food safe bucket. Drill a hole in the lid and get the rubber grommet that you need for your air lock and you cand buy a pot to boil in at Walmart too. Just look around. My wort chiller I made for 30 bucks from lowes 20'

I have my first batch fermenting in the Northern Brewer Deluxe Kit. Basically the only three extra things I bought was a 8 gallon SS bewing pot, a hydrometer and a long spoon. The insructions were easy to follow and I think it came with pretty much everything needed to brew some fine extract batches.

I'd say either one of those kits are a good way to get into the hobby. Not too expensive and has what ya need to make beer. Personally, I'm partial to Midwest, but that's just as an in store customer at both places, either is a great kit. I would upgrade the Midwest kit to one that also includes a glass or PET carboy.

Choose an ingredient kit for a style that you really like as well, but one that's also fairly straight forward. Pale, brown and amber ales are popular and very easy to brew.

Congrats, this is a hobby that will bring you years of enjoyment (and drunkenness )

I also have Northern's deluxe kit, I'm very happy with it, but since its purchase I ordered a second primary fermenter, and a food grad PVC bucket just to stor my sanitizer in. As mentioned above you will also need a brew kettle ( I purchased a 5 gal. ). If you need to brew a couple batches for the wedding I would suggest looking for a free carboy deal from one of those two online retailers. I would not suggest using PVC buckets for primaries simply because you can't monitor fermentation nearly as we'll. I recently fermented two separate batches in glass carboys and was very happy. While they were finishing up I moved forward with a third batch. In my rush to find a 3rd primary fermenter I decided to use the ale pale that I purchased for storing my sanitizer. I was very unhappy with the fermentation process as I became used to monitoring fermentation through the glass carboy, now I was essentially blind, to nervous to open the lid until it was time for a SG reading just prior to moving the beer to the secondary fermenter. In short many on this forum live for the buckets, and many live for the glass carboys, just as many like to rack there beer to a secondary no matter what, where as many promote a secondary only when dry hopping and the like. In the end it's personal preference, but I promote the use of only glass carboys. Go for the deluxe northern kit, and try to get a second carboy included, I'm sure you will need it depending on the size of your wedding. At northern they have a free 25$ gift card deal running now for each 150$ you spend, plus the deluxe kit comes with on extract kit.

If you plan on bottling, consider buying a kit without a wing capper. You'll soon be wishing for a bench capper to make the bottling process faster and more convenient.

I would go with the LivingSocial/Midwest kit. Its a very good deal and if you can get 3 friends and/or HBT members to buy one using your referral link you can get the whole thing for $12 shipped. Check out this thread for more info https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/great-deal-beginners-kit-though-midwest-livingsocial-com-385410/

Thanks for the responses so far! The biggest downside to the MW kit is that it doesn't come with glass carboys, which i much prefer over the plastic (after research), and realistically buying glass carboys separately makes the price difference negligible.

Is it wrong to think that the NB is a better quality starter kit? I would prefer to spend a little more now, to have a better set up to start off with.

Looks like the biggest difference between the two kits is carboy vs bucket for fermenter, and secondary or not. I like the bucket fermenters, and prefer not to use a secondary. This link discusses pros and cons of these and other issues:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/vs-pro-con-analysis-109318/

ncbrewer said:

Looks like the biggest difference between the two kits is carboy vs bucket for fermenter, and secondary or not. I like the bucket fermenters, and prefer not to use a secondary. This link discusses pros and cons of these and other issues:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/vs-pro-con-analysis-109318/

Click to expand...

Excellent reads....I think that for the recipe that I have in mind (for the wedding, I plan on sticking to the kits verbatim for my first few batches before trying to add anything) I will absolutely be using a secondary, so I suppose that would be another benefit of the NB kit...

both kits are awesome. just make sure you get

need
boiling pot
Thermometer
Ale pale (primary fermenter)
5-6g carboy (secondary fermenter)
Bottling bucket
Bottles / caps.
Capping Tool.
Star San (dont use the generic stuff that comes with the kit. Star san is the way to go)
Carboy Bungs
Airlocks (I prefer 3 piece)

Really Should have
Auto Siphon
Hydrometer
Hydrometer test cylinder
Bottle/carboy jet bottle washer

Nice to have (you will probably buy after your first batch)
Wort Chiller
Propane burner
21"-24" stirring paddle
Kitchen Scale (for measuring hops and grains in home recipes).
nylon boiling bags
spring loaded bottle filler.
Extra carboys for secondary fermenting
extra ale pales to make mutiple batches
Bottle Tree for cleaning and drying bottles.

If you plan to move to kegging it's still worth getting the bottling stuff. you will probably want to bottle a little for gifts and what not. Both the MW and NB kits come with essentially the same gear. go with what gets you the best deal with all the equipment you want.

If there is one thing from the third list i'd recommend immediately is a wort chiller if you can afford it. I cant tell you how much it will simplify your brew process. a 50' copper coil one is the way to go. Steel is good too, it will last forever, but conducts heat slower. so that is up to you.

I went with the MW intermediate Kit and expanded on that. hope this helps!

Brewers Best, Brewers Beast Equipment Kit. It has EVERYTHING in it including a 20qt brew pot and all the upgrades like auto-siphon and 5 gallon glass carboy. I sell them at my store for $175, not that Im trying to sell anything to you. Getting everything in the kit seperately costs quite a bit more. And, with the kit, you know you're not missing anything. With this kit and an ingredient kit you're making beer!

If you're starting... and even if you're not... you don't really need a secondary carboy or fermenter. That is unless you plan on adding fruit or something. Secondary fermentation isn't necessary... just a way to further clear your beer if that's what you're interested in. Much easier to just leave it in the primary for longer. Also saves you the money, time and effort in cleaning carboys.

Jeffro74 said:

If you're starting... and even if you're not... you don't really need a secondary carboy or fermenter. That is unless you plan on adding fruit or something. Secondary fermentation isn't necessary... just a way to further clear your beer if that's what you're interested in. Much easier to just leave it in the primary for longer. Also saves you the money, time and effort in cleaning carboys.

Click to expand...

^^^^ Agreed. Also, less handling means less chance of contamination.

Bit the bullet, and went with the Midwest kit, and added an auto siphon to my order. I do plan on adding some things to various brews (specifically for my wedding "goal" beer) but I will not be starting that for atleast the first couple brews, so I can get the process down before I make any additions. Also, with shipping, there was a $120 difference in the kits, when the time comes, ill but my own secondary from my local place. Thanks for the replies!

Just shop around at lowes and stuff you'll save so much money this is what I have for brewing 5 gallons.

All I did with the bucket was drill a hole put a Rubber grommet in the hole that rebelbrewer.com carries for like 50 cents I think and stuck my air lock in it works great.

I know I spent ALOT more money than I wanted to, but that being said, I bought the Master Brewers Plus Kit so I could do both bottling and kegging. I love all the options I have and just purchased a 6.5 gallon glass carboy for a primary fermenter. I can tell you, and still living it to this day, that using a plastic bucket is a do-able thing but you can't see a dang thing inside. Got me wondering what's going on in there! I just started brewing last friday and looking to by another brew kit this friday!! I LOVE IT!! Good luck in your brew adventures and may the HOPS BE WITH YOU ALWAYS!!

My 2 favorite starter kits are the Brewing Starter Kit from MW

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-starter-kit.html

or this one from my LHBS

http://www.love2brew.com/Complete-Beer-Making-Kit-p/bbek002.htm

They both have pretty much all you'll need.

6.5 Gallon primary, 6.5 gallon bottler, 5 Gallon Glass Carboy secondary, airlock, bottle brush, carboy brush, capper, Liquid Crystal Thermometer, Auto-siphon, bottle filler etc. That should cover pretty much anything you want to do.

As far as differences, Love2Brew's has an 8 ounce jar of easy clean to the 4 ounce of MW, they have a mash paddle, and the biggest is that the lab thermometer comes with the kit here and you get print out instructions. MW comes with a DVD and bottle caps. Both cost about 20 bucks to ship.

I would recommend finding a LHBS.