GrowleyMonster
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2019
- Messages
- 382
- Reaction score
- 277
Noob here, fixing to brew my 4th 5gal batch. I got my start with the Northern Brewer's 5gal Block Party Amber Ale kit and really liked it. I went straight to a corny keg, didn't bottle. Bought a fridge and CO2 tank and reg and stuff, mounted faucet right on the keg so it doesn't get warm outside the fridge. Works great, for me. Then I just winged it with LME, Citra hops, a bit of rye and 2 row light to make a total of 1lb grain, and SafeAle US-05, to make a not too bad batch that tasted a bit too much like an IPA for my taste, though all my friends loved it. Then I made NB's Nut Brown Ale kit and it isn't bad... drinking it now, but I liked the Block Party better. Fixing to brew up another batch of the Block Party.
Our local homebrew shopkeeper doesn't think much of NB because of the InBev connection. Me, I am not as much of a purist and I just want reasonably good beer for a reasonable cost and a reasonable amount of work. I am therefore sorta okay with NB, mostly because the Block Party Amber Ale was so delicious, and I am mostly a fan of just good ol' yellow American beer. I am partial to PBR and the last couple years or so, Dixie, until I started brewing. And now I am fixing to do another batch of the Block Party Amber. I did get tired of the buckets and got NB's plastic "Big Mouth Bubbler" bigmouthed carboy, and it makes life much simpler, so much that I got a second one. Bought a second corny keg so I can have a keg ready to tap before the current one is empty. Mostly I keep things pretty simple. I have only bottled one case, preferring the keg for home, my double wall insulated pressurized growler for mobile quaffing.
Now I am looking at drifting away from the Northern Brewer kit universe, to save a few bucks. Just bought 36lbs of Maillard golden LME and a pound of Cascade hops, some SafeAle US-05, and 5lb of chocolate malt. I am not all that picky, and this will make a very reasonable cost beer with a single fermentation stage and room temperature fermenting.
Would I recommend just buying ingredients and going for it, for a first timer? Probably not. It's not rocket science, but a complete kit is well, a complete kit, including simple instructions. More or less. You can open the box and get right to it without waiting for other components to arrive or be bought in town. There are probably better kits than the NB kit but with ingredients, two 5gal buckets with lids and spigots, capper, brew kettle, and all the other essentials it was I don't remember, I want to say $95. An ingredients-only kit for the Block Party is $34 or something like that, and if you get 5 gallons of beer minus 12oz or so in the goop at the bottom, call it 48 16oz beers total yield, that's 71 cents per pint. 53cents per 12oz bottle. The savings are worth a couple hours of my time. And now once my loose ingredients arrive, I will be making a 5gal batch for less than $20. So remembering that I am still a noob myself, I would tell wannabe newbies to get a kit, whether from NB or another outfit, make a batch and make another batch or two from ingredient kits, then wing it with separately bought ingredients and a recipe.
One thing I will say, is go for a better fermenter than a simple plastic bucket setup. It can be really hard to seal or remove the lid. The big mouth carboy type is really easy to use, especially with a spigot. And a thermometer and hydrometer are worth considering early on, too, at least by the third batch. And a mesh hops basket. NB has options for upgrade to carboy fermenter, and I would recommend it. I don't have a problem with recommending Norther Brewer for a kit. YMMV.
Our local homebrew shopkeeper doesn't think much of NB because of the InBev connection. Me, I am not as much of a purist and I just want reasonably good beer for a reasonable cost and a reasonable amount of work. I am therefore sorta okay with NB, mostly because the Block Party Amber Ale was so delicious, and I am mostly a fan of just good ol' yellow American beer. I am partial to PBR and the last couple years or so, Dixie, until I started brewing. And now I am fixing to do another batch of the Block Party Amber. I did get tired of the buckets and got NB's plastic "Big Mouth Bubbler" bigmouthed carboy, and it makes life much simpler, so much that I got a second one. Bought a second corny keg so I can have a keg ready to tap before the current one is empty. Mostly I keep things pretty simple. I have only bottled one case, preferring the keg for home, my double wall insulated pressurized growler for mobile quaffing.
Now I am looking at drifting away from the Northern Brewer kit universe, to save a few bucks. Just bought 36lbs of Maillard golden LME and a pound of Cascade hops, some SafeAle US-05, and 5lb of chocolate malt. I am not all that picky, and this will make a very reasonable cost beer with a single fermentation stage and room temperature fermenting.
Would I recommend just buying ingredients and going for it, for a first timer? Probably not. It's not rocket science, but a complete kit is well, a complete kit, including simple instructions. More or less. You can open the box and get right to it without waiting for other components to arrive or be bought in town. There are probably better kits than the NB kit but with ingredients, two 5gal buckets with lids and spigots, capper, brew kettle, and all the other essentials it was I don't remember, I want to say $95. An ingredients-only kit for the Block Party is $34 or something like that, and if you get 5 gallons of beer minus 12oz or so in the goop at the bottom, call it 48 16oz beers total yield, that's 71 cents per pint. 53cents per 12oz bottle. The savings are worth a couple hours of my time. And now once my loose ingredients arrive, I will be making a 5gal batch for less than $20. So remembering that I am still a noob myself, I would tell wannabe newbies to get a kit, whether from NB or another outfit, make a batch and make another batch or two from ingredient kits, then wing it with separately bought ingredients and a recipe.
One thing I will say, is go for a better fermenter than a simple plastic bucket setup. It can be really hard to seal or remove the lid. The big mouth carboy type is really easy to use, especially with a spigot. And a thermometer and hydrometer are worth considering early on, too, at least by the third batch. And a mesh hops basket. NB has options for upgrade to carboy fermenter, and I would recommend it. I don't have a problem with recommending Norther Brewer for a kit. YMMV.
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