Best Starter Kits

Hey everyone, I've been reading up on home brewing for quite some time and I'm ready to take the plunge. I'm planning on buying a starter kit in about a week, but I want to get the most for my money. I was wondering if anyone here could throw their two cents in about what places offer the best kits for the best prices. Right now I'm looking at the Intermediate kit from Midwest with the 2 better bottles, and the gold starter kit from Brewmasters Warehouse. They seem pretty similar as far as what they come with, but the one from Midwest seems to be the much better bang for my buck. Does anyone know of any other places that are offering comparable starter kits? Here are the links to the ones I'm looking at right now. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I'm also looking at adding on a couple extra things for making a batch of wine as well, since I haven't seen any combo starter kits anywhere.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-intermediate-kit-with-two-5-gallon-better-bottle-carboys.html -$109.95

http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/product/0101897/gold-starter-kit -$144.99

The first one for 109 is a good deal for you. The pales will cure blow off, then secondary into the better bottles. Buy pots to do a ten gallon batch (you will thank me later). You also can do wine with those plastic buckets (I wouldn't).

Later get two glass 6 gallon primaries, you can still do ten gallon batches and when you have enough beer, time to make a batch of wine (6 gal glass carboy). Plastic pales let oxygen in, while product is in for longer periods of time. I bought two lately, but only to build pipeline faster. Beer never stays in for more than a week. Do not stack one plastic bucket in the other, it will scratch it then you have a harboring place for bacteria.

Good luck on the new hobby, it is addictive (you never have enough stuff).

welcome to your new addiction. personally i woud go for the midwest starter kit. its been the best deal ive found. i just got the master brewers kit with an extra keg. shipped quick and everything is spotless. i think you might get better results with glass carboys thain better bottles personally.

Shark,

Check this kit out. the best thing about it is never needing to siphon. Taking hydrometer samples is a breeze. My spigots have also never leaked. It has made my brewing experience great.

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/BREWERY-WITH-BROWN-ALE-P2198C73.aspx

NRS

Depending where you live you maybe able to look on craigslist, or ebay and get a good deal on some used stuff.. I picked up my "starter kit" that way a most a year ago, I got all the nessicary equipment plus, extra ferm bucket, extra bottling bucket, bottles cappers, caps grain bag, tubing. When I went to buy my first extract kit at my lhbs, the guy behind the counter "checked my stuff" for me ( I was expecting the hard sell) and he told me "Id brew with it"

This would be my choice just for the shipping plus for $10 more u can get a glass carboy. http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/starter-kits/better-basic-starter-kit.html

Both kits are good. Just remember when you are spending the money for a brew kettle, bigger is better. I bought a 15 gallon on recommendations from friends and people online. My friend has a 10 gallon pot and for his all grain setup, and he is always pushing his batch size to the max and running the risk of boiling over. So go bigger.

You should decide if you want to secondary or not. If not(which a lot of people don't) those 5 gallon carboys probably won't be too useful. You might better buy a smaller kit and add things you need like another primary.

I went with this one a couple months ago.. http://www.williamsbrewing.com/COMPLETE-BREWERY-WITHOUT-A-KIT-P2355C257.aspx having the chiller and brew pot included has been nice and I'm glad I went with the kit. Their customer service/support is also outstanding. I called a couple times with questions about my first brew and talked to the the owner himself.

thebeers54 said:

I went with this one a couple months ago.. http://www.williamsbrewing.com/COMPLETE-BREWERY-WITHOUT-A-KIT-P2355C257.aspx having the chiller and brew pot included has been nice and I'm glad I went with the kit. Their customer service/support is also outstanding. I called a couple times with questions about my first brew and talked to the the owner himself.

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This looks like a pretty good setup if you dont already have a pot and a wort chiller would be great to have.

The midwest kit seems like a good starter kit as well as a bottling bucket is very useful if you plan to bottle.

Might want to see what shipping will be on some of these kits as well... the price could jump a good bit if they dont have standard shipping prices or free over X amount....

Either way, you will do fine with most any of these setups.... welcome to the club... you will enjoy it. I recommend Austin Homebrew recipe kits if you are looking for some brewing kits to get started with....always fresh ingredients and great instructions.

I would suggest getting the groupon for midwest supplies - http://www.groupon.com/deals/midwest-hydro-stl-1?utm_medium=afl&utm_campaign=4485850&utm_source=rvs

And i bought my carboy's on amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002VFXW5W/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

But I'm cheap...

You might want to have a head full of advice from HBT and go to a LHBS (there must be one in/near Sacramento, right?) and look around, chat with the employees, and tinker with the equipment they have there. You might get a good feel for what gear you need by seeing it in person and seeing how everything works, etc.

I have 2 primaries and a single carboy. I like this setup a bit better because it gives me more options. Most beers you won't ever need to secondary, but having one allows you to free up another primary and also will at some point become useful when brewing something long term or some wine or something.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. That equipment package from Williams Brewing looks like a really good deal since it comes with the wort chiller and an 8 gallon brew pot. I might just have to go for that one. Their shipping seems pretty good too. The only thing I don't like is there is no carboy for secondary, but I could pick one up easy enough. Too bad they don't have a wine package without the wine kit too or else I might have to get both. Yea, I haven't even spent anything and I can already see myself getting carried away... lol

Well, I did it. I ordered the kit from Williams Brewing and it arrived next day. Not bad for $6.50 shipping. I guess it helps too that I only live about 70 miles from San Leandro... lol The only thing I didn't like was it didn't come with a bottle filler, but that was easily fixed by going to my local home brew outlet. Now I've got a nice milk stout going in primary and the yeast is going to town on it and it looks and smells great. Thanks again for the help everyone.

Sharkman20 said:

Well, I did it. I ordered the kit from Williams Brewing and it arrived next day. Not bad for $6.50 shipping. I guess it helps too that I only live about 70 miles from San Leandro... lol The only thing I didn't like was it didn't come with a bottle filler, but that was easily fixed by going to my local home brew outlet. Now I've got a nice milk stout going in primary and the yeast is going to town on it and it looks and smells great. Thanks again for the help everyone.

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How about a follow up? How did this kit work out? I am looking for my starter kit now.

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

This is the kit I purchased. I brewed my first batch this past Saturday and had zero issues. I did add a few items to the kit when I purchased it that have, so far, made things MUCH easier.
-bottle washer
-bottle tree
-vinator
-bottle filler (spring lock)
-star san
-12" stir paddle
-fermcap S (to prevent boil overs)
-8 gallon aluminum kettle (to do full boils I would say this is the minimum size you would need)
-homemade 25' of 1/2" copper IC (a must IMO)
-ghetto swamp cooler

You don't neccesarily NEED all of the other items I listed. But they will make your brewing a bit easier and more enjoyable. You can certainly brew a 5 gallon batch of beer with the kit I listed, and I would definitely recommend it!!