Favorite Extract Kit

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Broncoblue

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I am looking to get two more beers going this weekend and was wondering what are some of the best tasting kits out there. Now my home brew place is like 10 minutes away so Im not going to order anything online (ie AHB). At this place they carry most of the Coppers and Muntons kits and I believe Northern brewers stuff. Some are unhopped. I have tries Coppers: Irish stout, IPA, Mexican Cerveza (sucks), Pilesner, Canadian Blonde, Drought, Lager and Real Ale im kegging tonight. Ive had muntons; Bock beer and Brown beer. What are some or your favorites of these brand and any that you would suggest or any additions.
 
My first brew was the brewers best ipa, it was pretty good. From there I did many of northern brewer's kits, my favorite being the witbier. I just ordered from austin hombrew the brooklyn lager clone, my first lager attempt.
 
brewers best red ale. brewed for the 3rd time a couple of weeks ago.
 
In my opinion, the Coopers and Munton's kits are sub-par. I don't think much of them at all.

If you can find Brewer's Best kits, those are definitely better. (Try to make sure you get a fresh kit, not one that's been on the shelf for a bit, as they have canned extract in them as well as DME. Older canned LME is not good and tastes "twangy").

I know you don't want to order anything online, but in my experience the best kits have come from big homebrew stores that crush the grains when you order the kit, with fresh bulk extract, and vacuum packed and frozen hops. They are 100 times better than any Cooper's or Munton's kit you'll ever find.
 
northern brewers or brewers best, something with specialty grains that you hop yourself. they're much more fun to do and there's lots of styles out there but I'd avoid coopers and muntons pre-hopped can kits
 
I did some kits but like everyone is saying you need to get some grains and hops. My suggestion...get one kit...then instead of a kit for the second find an extract recipe that looks good on this website or Tastybrew.com or many other homebrew websites....Actually maybe try something like edwort's haus pale ale
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/bee-cave-brewery-haus-pale-ale-31793/

and just pick the ingredients out and make it without a kit...once you do that you will be on your way to want to create your own recipe.

Just my .02
 
I have done about 10 Brewers Best and Northern Brewer and loved them. But my favorite is the LHBS recipes and being able to customze it. My porter and stout were very good and will be getting mroe kits from them as custom ingredients.
 
I am all about Northern Brewery extract kits. Most of the ones I have tried have been really good. The one flop I think was my fault. They have good stouts and porters. My favorite is the Bourban Barrel Porter...awesome. the guys I brew with have been dpoing their "hoppier" beers lately and they seem pretty good also.
 
If you like hoppy beers skip all the pale ale and IPA kits and go straight to Northern Brewers 115th dream hopbursted kit. It was a favorite among my friends. All beginning IPA kits seem more like commercial pale ales and no where near as hoppy as a store bought IPA. I brewed the Brewers Best IPA and it was very lacking. Of course I didnt dry hop which would have probably made it better. The hopbursted kit will take a while to condition and benefits greatly from a yeast starter and secondary. Ive liked all the big beers from northern brewer, Hoblonmonstre tripel, and advantageous weizenbock.
 
and just pick the ingredients out and make it without a kit...once you do that you will be on your way to want to create your own recipe

If you are willing to go out of your box, do this. Make your own kit. If there is a favorite commercial brew you want to try, I'm sure someone here can help you find it. Or pick up a copy of BYO's 250 Classic Clone Recipes. There are some great brew recipes in there. Or check out the recipe section on this site. If the one you choose is an all-grain recipe or partial mash, someone here can convert it to extract for you. Your LHBS should be able to hook you up with the freshest of ingredients for these.
 
i used to make the brewer's best english pale ale kit. i made that kit once then i made the recipe a few more times because i really liked it back then. i want to make that again and see how it comes out now a days
 
The very first kit I did seems to be the best so far, the Northern Brewer Caribou Slobber. It's an American Brown Ale with a very hoppy profile. There is 3 1-oz hop additions. Good stuff.
 
In my opinion, the Coopers and Munton's kits are sub-par. I don't think much of them at all.

If you can find Brewer's Best kits, those are definitely better. (Try to make sure you get a fresh kit, not one that's been on the shelf for a bit, as they have canned extract in them as well as DME. Older canned LME is not good and tastes "twangy").

I know you don't want to order anything online, but in my experience the best kits have come from big homebrew stores that crush the grains when you order the kit, with fresh bulk extract, and vacuum packed and frozen hops. They are 100 times better than any Cooper's or Munton's kit you'll ever find.

I'll take my Coopers English Bitter with EKG hop addition over any beer right now.
 
Norther Brewer has an extract Irish Red that is their number one selling, has specialty grains, is cheap, and the recipe is actually from here. The thread on brewing it is extensive and should offer up tips if you get worried.
 
i'm going to back up everybody who has said Northern Brewers Bourbon Barrel Porter. I brewed the kit for new years and it was incredible: i also added about 3/4 lb of honey to it at knockout and dry hopped in the keg. All of the kits I've gotten from Northern Brewer have been good, especially the ones with specialty grains.
 
Northern Brewers Cream Ale has been the favorite among my friends and family. I really enjoy it too. It seems to go VERY quickly. I also like NB Irish Stout.

Cheers
 
My favorite extract was the Norther Brewer American Wheat w/ 3lbs Wildflower Honey added @5 min. It was ready fast - 2 weeks primary, bottled w/ cooper's carb drops, very tasty after only 1 week in bottle.
 
Well I've got a coopers lager in the fermentor right now and I hope that it tastes good. I was thinking of doing a brewers best ipa for my next brew.
 
Mexican Cerveza (sucks)

Really? That was probably my favorite kit :p
I did it like 4 times over the years. I see my LHBS has the Brewer's Best Imperial Nut Brown Ale now. I have been tempted to give that a shot as doing imperials in my 5G mash tun become tricky.
 
I have done the Innkeeper from Northern Brewer, and loved it. It is better, in my opinion, the greener it is. I also have done the bourbon barrell porter, used makers mark that had cloves, cinnamon sticks, vanilla beans and nutmeg soaking in it for over a month. Fantastic after about 8 months of conditioning. I am getting ready to do anyother batch, and age it for as long as I can stand. Also, I tried a patersbier kit that my friend made, and it was great. I think northern brewer is where he got it. Great summer beer, I might get one to brew for the summer as well.
 
So what is the cost of these kits that everyone orders online. I have done the unhopped kits and added my own hops and specialty grains. Most have come out pretty good.
 
Question for those who don't like coopers or muntons, is this a dislike for quality based on following the cans instructions, or overall dislike?

The instructions I got from local brewers supply has me boiling extracts both canned and unhopped for 30 mins. Just wondering if that would change taste/overall opinion.
 
I just ordered the Irish Red off NB and it was like $34 with shipping and I think I bough some extra hops.
 
Well I love the Coopers Kits. I am just about to do the Australian Pale Ale Beer Kit using yeast I have harvested from a Coopers Pale Ale 750ml. I think it is excellent with the supplied dry kit yeast but learned experts say it is great with harvested yeast from the bottle conditioned Coopers Pale Ale.

Another of my favourites is the Unreal Ale recipe using the Coopers Real Ale kit. One day I will manage to let this one mature as long as they recommend. Unfortunately I can never wait and polish them off within 6 weeks from bottling.

Drinking a Canadian Blonde brew at the moment and it gets better with every day. Will not last until the recommended opening date unfortunately so cannot say what it really should taste like. But it goes down real easy.
 
If you can find them, Black Rock makes the best kits I've ever come across. Your local store should be able to order them. Not sure what they do different but it make a more full tasting beer.... As some kits taste like there missing something.
 
mexican cerveza is horrible indeed . Now on to the good stuff.
How was that Canadian blonde ? I just made some today.

Muntons nut brown ale no boil is good stuff just as it is but add ina wort instead of some of the water , made with a few ounces of chocolate, black and honey and some fuggels and wait a couple months in the bottle and GREAT .
Northern brewers honey brown is okay i guess.
witbier is good after a couple months in the bottle . I used the brewers best kit .
Belgian Triple is good stuff .

I am going to take 1 gallon of my Muntons Canadian style , I used 2.2 pounds of light DME and 1 pound sugar in it , and that gallon I will take after fermentation and dry hop 1/4 ounce fuggles in it for two weeks . I will try to remember to post how it comes out .
 
My Cooper's Mexican Cerveza has been in the bottle 4 weeks now and isn't tasting too bad. I made it up with a 1kg bag of Munton's Beer Kit Enhancer, an extra 200grams of dextrose and the kit yeast. Unless something happen's to improve the flavour a lot before I finish the batch I probably won't make it again.

My standard light color homebrew is the Cooper's Canadian Blonde with the Enhancer/dextrose/kit yeast combo as above. I like it and it has received positive reviews from other's who have drank it (disclaimer - none of my friends or family are craft beer drinkers, large scale commercial beers only). I'll do one batch of this then a batch of something dark (usually stout).

I subbed the Mexican Cerveza for the Canadian Blonde last time around just to try something different. I don't regret it but I won't repeat it.
 
My Cooper's Mexican Cerveza has been in the bottle 4 weeks now and isn't tasting too bad. I made it up with a 1kg bag of Munton's Beer Kit Enhancer, an extra 200grams of dextrose and the kit yeast. Unless something happen's to improve the flavour a lot before I finish the batch I probably won't make it again.

My standard light color homebrew is the Cooper's Canadian Blonde with the Enhancer/dextrose/kit yeast combo as above. I like it and it has received positive reviews from other's who have drank it (disclaimer - none of my friends or family are craft beer drinkers, large scale commercial beers only). I'll do one batch of this then a batch of something dark (usually stout).

I subbed the Mexican Cerveza for the Canadian Blonde last time around just to try something different. I don't regret it but I won't repeat it.

I just brewed the muntons canadian style . After primary ,one week , I tasted it and it has very little flavor at all. So I am going to dry hop it nest week with an ounce hersbrucker . Hope that helps . Probably should have done some for bittering also. How ever I may try and make a quart of tea from the some hersbrucker and boil for an hour and then pour that into the beer before dry hopping it .

the cerveza can be made drinkable with a lot of time and additions .
 
I'm not sure how the Muntons blonde compares to the Coopers blonde (I've only used Coopers so far) but it might very well be that you would find the Coopers blonde (as I prepare it) a little on the bland side as well.

I make this this beer up as a more affordable* alternative to beers like Molson Canadian or Labatt's Blue (plain Jane domestics) which my family prefers. It that role it does pretty good and that's why I don't do anything extra (ie. hops) to it.

* Where I live the "cheap stuff" is around $2.00/bottle. My Coopers Canadian Blonde homebrew works out to somewhere between $0.50 - $0.55 per bottle.
 

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