NB Sale AG Kits [email protected] each

[drhusker18]

Folks,

There is a nice shipment coming today for me to brew a AG Requiem Raspberry with my GF this weekend, so I will have a good Saturday. Normally, since switching to AG, I make my own recipes or off the database here. However, I am running out of aroma/flavor hops in my fridge and saw a deal come across my email from NB for this morning. 3 kits @ $19.99. Compared to MRSP they are a deal, but I am pretty sure it is still cheaper to make from scratch (a la carte) versus the kits. A tactic I might use it to find the kits with the most hops to try to maximize my purchase. Try to hit the dead ringer, karma citra, and a toss-up between Grapefruit/Chinook/Saison for a good stash of summer brew.

Provided a grain bill is around $10-14 for all (base and specialty), add in hops, and it is likely close to $15-19. Different styles will bring different specifics, but overall just wondering if I should go this route.

Also wondering if these are getting close to expiration...? They would all be brewed by mid-may likely.

Thoughts?


•Dead Ringer All-Grain
•Grapefruit Pulpin All-Grain
•Kama Citra All-Grain
•Chinook IPA All-Grain
•Kolsch All-Grain Kit
•Caribou Slobber All-Grain
•Saison All-Grain Kit

 

[IslandLizard]

Most of those kits include 4-6 oz of hops, so unless you buy them by the pound, it's unlikely you can tally them at $1 or less an oz. I think the cheapest hops still runs $1.95 an oz at my LHBS, most are higher.

Their IPA malt bill is typically Rahr 2-row or Pale and a pound of Crystal mix. At $20 they're a decent deal, and should make OK beer, judging from the recipes and feedback, but may be lackluster to many homebrewers.

To make them really sing, add in some extra hops (they're IPAs!), change the hopping schedule and timing around to reflect modern day IPA brewing standards using late additions and a hop stand/whirlpool, and ignore anything in their instructions that even hints to using a secondary.

Unless you buy hops by the pound and grain in bulk/group buys, you'd be hard pushed to buy the ingredients at $20. Now you can't remove or replace any Crystal malts as the grain is mixed together, so there's that. But you could replace any amount with plain 2-row/Pale/Maris Otter/Golden Promise and what not to change the composition. Then use the grain you saved out in another recipe.

I expect most of those "kits" to be pretty fresh, I doubt they sit around long. Upon receipt, stick the hops in the freezer to keep them better.

You can order 1 or 2 different packs/sleeves of liquid yeast and make a starter. Either overbuild the starter to make more later, or reuse part of the yeast cake for the other kits. I don't think US-05/WLP001/WY1056 is the best yeast choice for any of those kits. There's so much more out there.