Costco - Brewcraft - Home Brewing Starter kit.

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Kauai_Kahuna

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I was just looking around and saw this on Costco's web site. Kind of surprised me, but looks like homebrewing may be becoming more main stream.
Looks like a very basic kit, and it comes with extract ingredients for a 5 gallon batch of Cream Ale.
Anyone see this? I think I would would direct anyone to my LHBS starting out, but not everyone is lucky enough to have one close.

For some reason the link is not showing up correctly, but here it is:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11300955&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|3605|79162&N=4035101&Mo=2&pos=10&No=0&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=79162&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC17-Cat3605&topnav=
 
I bought that same kit a year ago, although then it came with an American Wheat recipe Extract with specialty grains. THe kit is worth the 99 bucks since it comes with a recipe.

I had forgotten about the Recipe and made it last month, I turned it into a Witbier with orange peel and coriander. It really is a delicious brew, even though I've since moved on to All grain.

Overall a pretty good starter.
 
That is a really good deal for someone just starting out, especially if it is a SS stock pot. I spent way more than that on my "starter kit", just about all of which I have upgraded since then of course!
 
Yeah, not showing up for me, either, and unfortunately there's no Costco in our area. A chain like that selling homebrew kits might certainly indicate homebrewing is becoming more widespread, but I doubt it'll ever move beyond those who might be classified as "hobbyist." The culture of convenience is far too deeply ingrained in this country for it to go very far, and as much as I enjoy homebrewing, I could certainly never describe it as "convenient."

This Brewcraft kit shows up: http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11315406&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|3605|79162&N=4035101&Mo=1&pos=10&No=1&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=79162&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC17-Cat3605&topnav=

.....but I can equal or beat that price in other places, and be assured of fresher ingredients.

It's interesting that the picture of the "Brewcraft Starter Brewery" still appears in the category "Home Beer and Wine Making Kits," but seems to have been dropped as an individual item: http://www.costco.com/Common/Category.aspx?cat=3605&eCat=BC|3605&whse=BC&lang=en-US

What's even more interesting is that evidently Brewcraft is a New Zealand outfit with a Portland OR importer: http://www.brewcraft.net/wawcs019617/ln-product-range.html

.....and their product range for Oz and NZ includes gear and ingredients for making "still spirits." Woops. 'Nuff said on HBT, I guess. This may even be over the line.....even though you can google and buy stills from several online vendors.
 
rico567 said:
Yeah, not showing up for me, either, and unfortunately there's no Costco in our area. A chain like that selling homebrew kits might certainly indicate homebrewing is becoming more widespread, but I doubt it'll ever move beyond those who might be classified as "hobbyist." The culture of convenience is far too deeply ingrained in this country for it to go very far, and as much as I enjoy homebrewing, I could certainly never describe it as "convenient."

This Brewcraft kit shows up: http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11315406&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|3605|79162&N=4035101&Mo=1&pos=10&No=1&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=79162&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC17-Cat3605&topnav=

.....but I can equal or beat that price in other places, and be assured of fresher ingredients.

It's interesting that the picture of the "Brewcraft Starter Brewery" still appears in the category "Home Beer and Wine Making Kits," but seems to have been dropped as an individual item: http://www.costco.com/Common/Category.aspx?cat=3605&eCat=BC|3605&whse=BC&lang=en-US

What's even more interesting is that evidently Brewcraft is a New Zealand outfit with a Portland OR importer: new zealand and australia - Brewcraft Ltd

.....and their product range for Oz and NZ includes gear and ingredients for making "still spirits." Woops. 'Nuff said on HBT, I guess. This may even be over the line.....even though you can google and buy stills from several online vendors.
Click to expand...

I'm sure the beer kit can't compare to fresh ingredients, but you can put together a starter kit with a brewpot, buckets, etc. and a recipe kit for $99? When I was starting out, every starter kit I saw was around $60-$90 and didn't include a brewpot or a recipe kit.
 
Yeah, I saw this kit just after I bought my starter kit from my LHBS. Seems like a great deal, but I also don't mind supporting the LHBS.

I did just noticed that Costco now has a "Robust Porter" recipe for those not fortunate enough to have a LHBS

Robust Porter
 
I'm glad that there were no "No Duuhh" answers so far.

Really what surprised me was that a large company like Costco was offering it. I'm sure I will not see it in my local store but you can order it.

It is a step up from a Mr. Beer, (obligatory nothing wrong with that), but with sin tax's going nuts on beer. I do think that homebrewing may become a little more mainstream.

But it is still a great hobby. Prost to all.
 
I bought this kit about 10 days ago online. I added in the robust porter kit too just for kicks. $5 shipping rocks.

With all the different permutations of starter kits out there, the costco one seemed to have a good combo of price + stuff (the pot + cream ale brewkit pushed it over the top imho)

Going to make my first batch with it this weekend. After that I will fill in the gaps in my equipment based on my experience.

it doesn't look like it is for sale online currently though.
 
I was looking at that kit for a while... but I ended up buying a used kit on Craigs List. I got everything in the Costco kit (less the ingredients) plus a 5 gal carboy and 24 12oz bottles for $50.
 

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