Thoughts on Northern Brewer kits?

.50 cal handguns are for making big noises and putting big holes in targets. They've got nothing to do with "shooting". Oi.... people.

maybe I've got the wrong type of gun. I know nothing about them. He said it's the biggest gun that a civilian can own legally. It's got a big tripod for it, and he has to lay it down to shoot it. He still couldn't hold the thing steady though.

hcarter-
I just ordered the winter warmer, and I'll be brewing it up next week. First kit from NB, so I'll be interested to see how well it goes.

p.s.- I grew up in the Columbus area. Is Barley's restaurant still downtown(ish)?

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

That will change. When you find beers you can't do because it can't be done right in extract, you'll want to switch. If not for the type of beers, just for the simple fact that the beers you make are 100% customizable once you get into all-grain.

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None of my Real Life{tm} friends do all-grain except me. One tried it once. They're all happy with the results of extract, and don't want the extra effort of all-grain, and aren't interested in the styles that pretty much require all-grain. It's really about why you're homebrewing.

Personally, as soon as I decided I was going to homebrew, I knew I'd be doing all-grain. Yes, I did extract first, then PM, but the goal was always all-grain. Partially because I want the control, and partially because I knew then many of my favorite beers can't be done with extract.

LordHedgie said:

None of my Real Life{tm} friends do all-grain except me. One tried it once. They're all happy with the results of extract, and don't want the extra effort of all-grain, and aren't interested in the styles that pretty much require all-grain. It's really about why you're homebrewing.

Personally, as soon as I decided I was going to homebrew, I knew I'd be doing all-grain. Yes, I did extract first, then PM, but the goal was always all-grain. Partially because I want the control, and partially because I knew then many of my favorite beers can't be done with extract.

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Exactly my point. I never really drank the styles that require all-grain before I started homebrewing, but just the fact that I could brew them made me want to try them. I'm glad I did. I'm assuming there's a lot more extract brewers out there than all-grain. As you said, it's a little more work and dedication to the hobby, but it's worth it.

BoiseJim said:

hcarter-
I just ordered the winter warmer, and I'll be brewing it up next week. First kit from NB, so I'll be interested to see how well it goes.

p.s.- I grew up in the Columbus area. Is Barley's restaurant still downtown(ish)?

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Yeah, but I won't go there anymore, because the lady that owns one of the LHBS's here in town, her husband is the brewmaster there, and I just plain don't like her. I really want that winter warmer, let me know how it goes for ya.

hcarter said:

Yeah, but I won't go there anymore, because the lady that owns one of the LHBS's here in town, her husband is the brewmaster there, and I just plain don't like her. I really want that winter warmer, let me know how it goes for ya.

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Did you have a bad experience at The Winemaker's Shop?

Nina has always been very knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful every time I've been there.

I've done several NB kits and have just branched out into my own recipes. I've had good results with their Nut Brown Ale, IPA (although it is of the English style, so not as hoppy) and Scottish Wee Heavy. I currently have a NB RIS just about ready to bottle and the hydro samples have tasted great. Looking forward to this one. The only problem I had was with one batch of IPA, but I think that it had more to do with a bad pack of Notty or higher fermentation temps in the summer.

I'm an extract brewer with a toddler at home and some space constraints. No plan to go all-grain in the foreseeable future.

NB's service has been quick and efficient.

I currently brew nothing but NB kits. I have always had a great time with their service, and the shipping. The kits have all turned out except for one 10 gallon batch of honey wheat that I added 6 pounds of cherries to in an effort to make some cherry wheat. I should have just added extract because the acidity, and mouthfeel of it sucked. But that was my fault not NBs. I also plan on making the winter warmer and a Nukey brown ale soon.

Northern Brewer is awesome. Their Bitter is sitting in the fermenter right now, bubbling away.

My buddy and I are brewing their American Amber on Friday - and I just bought ingredients from them to build my Christmas Ale.

best part - they will soon be my LHBS!

I've made 3 kits of theirs.

I really like the simplicity of it all.

They stand behind their product as well. That means a lot to me. I can trust them to do right for me. I'm not saying others can't or won't because I haven't tried any of the other ones. I wanted to, but in head to head price comparisons I chose them 1st and been with them ever since.

I've made batches from recipes my LHBS (Southern Brewing Supply) and every single one of theirs was a homerun out of the park too. They're very friendly and knowledgable. I like to support local, but even NB with their shipping can deliver a 5 gallon batch that I can't make cheaper. I make it cheaper because when I order from them I order more than one kit to cut the shipping.

The descriptions of their beers from the catalog and web pages have been dead on accurate too.

Like some of the other poster have already stated...I want to go to AG, but I want to be able to perfect extract and tweak it to my tastes before I make the jump. I've already got some kegs that will become keggles, and if I see anything else I'll peacemeal it to make it fit my budget and timeline for the hyperdrive to AG. Until then, I'm having fun and making beer (and told by others too) that tastes great.

I've wanted to do this for almost 20 years and never knew anyone that did this and I didn't want to jump in and waste time or money. Then a friend of mine announces one day that he's been doing this for over a year...and I was like...whoa...can I be your brew buddy? It's been an awesome ride since. We usually get together and brew, but work has been slicing into my private time lately.

Enjoy the journey, not the destination.:cross:

I just got 2 kits from NB, everything looked good, and the yeast packages had a date stamp on them from 3 weeks ago.

I have brewed 4 of their kits. All were great. I love their catalog too.

One downside to NB is they do not do partial mashes. I moved to PM and love it. One nice thing about Austin Homebrew is you can chose PM and get a better beer with a few dollars off. I have mentioned this to NB but they do not want to support the PM crowd. Wish they would.

mymbtheduke said:

I have brewed 4 of their kits. All were great. I love their catalog too.

One downside to NB is they do not do partial mashes. I moved to PM and love it. One nice thing about Austin Homebrew is you can chose PM and get a better beer with a few dollars off. I have mentioned this to NB but they do not want to support the PM crowd. Wish they would.

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You can pretty easily make almost any AG brew a PM. The cool thing about NB is they list all the ingredients to their kits online, so you can pretty easily make your own PM "kit".

Bought a kit for my son - raspberry wheat something. Not a fan of fruity beers, but the kit was exactly as shown - he primed and bottled by himself (scary) and the beer came out very nice.

I buy all but bulk grain from NB - never had any problems - very nice group of people.

shortyjacobs said:

You can pretty easily make almost any AG brew a PM. The cool thing about NB is they list all the ingredients to their kits online, so you can pretty easily make your own PM "kit".

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I understand how to convert recipes now but a year ago I was a noob. After 4 NB kits, I wanted to try PM. When you are a beginner, it is best to just have proven instructions that you can follow. Too much guessing and calculation checking can lead to bad beer. And bad beer early on and discourage noobs. IMO.

I recently bought 3 extract kits from them, a Belgian Tripel which is feeding some very agressive WLP575 right now, a Belgian Dubbel and the Nukey Brown. All of the kits seem to be very well organized, clearly labelled and neatly packed. I think I actually like the plastic jugs that the extract comes in, you can rinse them with hot wort and make sure you've gotten all of the extract into your kettle before you boil. I also like how they pack the hops in the air tight plastic bags as well.

I've thought about ordering a couple of these just to fill up my kegerator.

One question I've always had, but never asked. Are these kits that start with a larger volume and you end up with 5 gallons, or are they only formulated for 5G pre-boil?

I bought the Dry Irish Stout from NB, finally got it today after a screw up from FedEx. I will be brewing this week and I will let you know how it comes out. It will be my first 5 gallon attempt after moving mostly away from Mr Beer.

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

There was a time when I thought like that too. I would get offended when I heard about people entering another persons brew in a competition and winning. I'm still not to fond of it. If you design the recipe, you should at least get credit for it.

But as far as someone brewing my recipes....go for it. If I think it's good enough to post, then I want to share it with people. I guess if someone WAS to enter it in a competition and win....it means I know what I'm doing.

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I think in 08 one of the Sam Adams Long Shot winners (an employee), brewed a 5 gal. extract batch of something, and just threw in some berries to see what would happen. He then turned around and won with his face on every Long shot pack in the country. Not bad for not formulating your own recipe.

As far as NB is concerned, they blow my local shop out of the water. Not that I don't like driving 30 mins for something 'local', but I've ordered almost everything from them recently, including my kegging system (minus Co2). Can't complain, and with the brewsaver shipping, it's at my house in 2 days. Fantastic. Oh, and I have a British Bitter in the secondary right now, another half a week and it will be kegged. To force carb, or slow carb?...

I too am about to make the leap to AG brewing and wanted an easy to follow recipe to get started. I'm considering a NB kit because of the quality and convenience. The only concern I have is that quite a few people in this thread have mentioned that NB kit packages have been "clearly labeled." Does this mean that NB gives the names of the ingredients and amounts or do they simply say "Hop Addition 1, Hop Addition 2, Malt 1, etc." with their list of instructions. Early in my extract days, I bought an extract kit hoping to get a well detailed plan on how to make a particular style but the kit just had generic labels like those above with no list of ingredients or their amounts. I just don't want to make that mistake again. If I'm not going to formulate the recipe myself, I'd at least like to learn about the beer by knowing what goes in it and why. Any information from NB kit users would be appreciated.

I've bought from them numerous times and their product has always been top notch. Only had one problem with my order a while back and they fixed it no questions asked and expressed it to me. You'll be hard pressed to find anyone better online.

FattyJLE said:

I too am about to make the leap to AG brewing and wanted an easy to follow recipe to get started. I'm considering a NB kit because of the quality and convenience. The only concern I have is that quite a few people in this thread have mentioned that NB kit packages have been "clearly labeled." Does this mean that NB gives the names of the ingredients and amounts or do they simply say "Hop Addition 1, Hop Addition 2, Malt 1, etc." with their list of instructions. Early in my extract days, I bought an extract kit hoping to get a well detailed plan on how to make a particular style but the kit just had generic labels like those above with no list of ingredients or their amounts. I just don't want to make that mistake again. If I'm not going to formulate the recipe myself, I'd at least like to learn about the beer by knowing what goes in it and why. Any information from NB kit users would be appreciated.

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You have no worries when it comes to Northern Brewer. All of their kits have an inventory available before you purchase, much like this one.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/allgrain/AG-BalticPorter.pdf

If you look at the bottom of the page for what ever kit you are going to order you'll see "Additional Information" under that you'll see "Kit Inventory Sheet" with a link to the right. That's your instructions. The AG sheet isn't as detailed as the extract kits but it's more than adequate. It gives exact measurments of each ingrediant and when to add them.

I've brewed 3 NB kits. The Irish Stout and Altbier both turned out really good. I recently bottled the Honey Kolsch and can report on it later.