Why brewing kits?

[MisterGreen]

Please don't take this the wrong way, I don't want to come across sounding like a ass or anything (I probably will anyway) but I was just wondering why so many folks are using kits? I always thought of home brewing as a combination of art and science, a way to show some creativity and make something no one else has. And with all the great stuff available now a person could make a batch a day and never brew the same thing twice (unless they wanted to). I'll look at a recipe and ask myself what would happen if...
I know I'm the only one on my block with this in his glass and if it turns out to be a flop, it's my flop. But really, if you just follow some guidelines you can create all kinds of wonderful stuff. Some of the most fun I've had brewing was making what I call bastard beers where I just empty out the brew box, see what I have and start dumping. It's all cool, I know people make cakes with cake mixes or they wouldn't make cakes at all. I just like to make stuff you can't buy.

Well for starters, art and science may not be every person's strong points. That being said, I've never met anyone whose first attempt at homebrewing was a "bastard beer". Kits are a great way to get your feet wet. Anyone can follow instructions. One thing I like about kits is that you can read reviews from others who did that kit to find out if it's a good one or not. As you gain experience you can start to tweak those kits to your liking.

 

[smalliewader]

When brewing a new style, I usually find a kit. Like above, usually something with good reviews on it. If i really liked the beer, I then take that recipe and start tweaking it to get it exactly where I want it. Once I get it right, it goes in my regular rotation.

For my first pepper beer, I used a BB Cream Ale kit as the base. Turned out fantastic and I have a baseline recipe to work with now for future batches...with tweaking of course. I input the kit recipe into BrewR so I can alter later.