What's the general feeling on the ingredient kits that are out there (like Brewers Best). Bob said (in a different thread) that he's used them but doesn't anymore. What do you use? Would you recommend the kits? Why, or why not?

Thanks for your time.

BTW. I'm a noob and I've just finished doing the Oktoberfest kit from Brewers Best. Hope it turns out. Brewed on Labor day... bottled just over two weeks ago. You probably won't beleive me, but I havn't had the time to try one yet!

Will

good to hear you have your first batch under your belt!!!

The reasons I don't do kits anymore are these.....

1) I like the ability to "tweak" recipes to my own taste. I can do this by using either dry or liquid malt extract with steeping specialty grains.
2) In the same vein as #1, there are a lot of recipes here, and on other boards that are available to you, where again, you can do some tweaking.

That being said, I really like what using kits for my first few batches did for my brewing techniques. It was a good fool proof way to teach me all that was involved, how to boil, take readings, etc.

What worked for me, or another may or may not work for you....

One thing you have going for you is a kick-ass LHBS that will hand hold you if you want to get into brewing with specialty grains, or even going all-grain eventually.

Bob

kits are the easy and safest way to get started. when you get a few under your belt, you then know what equiptment you need to make things a little easier, what things you can do to help things along, and get a feel for what to expect on brew day. almost all LHBS have a good choice of kits and they have usually been tested, so most of them are pretty good, so you can get a chance to try different styles and see what you like. thats how most of us got started. i just tapped a keg of octoberfest and it was mighty tasty.
gary

I did kits for almost 3 years and made many award winning beers. Since going all grain, I have more "control" but have not done nearly as well in competitions.

The thing is: If you make beer that tastes good to you, you've made a great beer! Judging at competitions is very subjective (trust me, I'm a BJCP Recognized beer judge) and the real reason we make beer is to enjoy it, so I say: Brew on, kit or no kit.

Due to the fact I like in a townhouse and have little money to spend on beer making stuff oh and no home brew supply store with in 100 miles I order LMEs and unhopped LMEs. I've got some tailoring to it. I really use different LMEs to and ULMEs with other ingredients to get what I want. So far I've only used a hard cider kit. Other than that I kinda make up my own with only useing LMEs and additional ingredents like spices, adding hops, and fruit. When I get more space I'll be able to get bigger supplies and hopefully move on to partial and then whole grain.

I've been brewing for the last 5-6 years, and have used kits on every batch. I have yet to feel that I have what it takes to start out tweaking a recipe, as I brew a batch maybe every 1-2 months. I have had no complaints, other than my own. If I don't feel a brew is good enough no one else gets it.

So, I'll still be using kits until my time & confidence level rises.

Kits are great because they come with everything you will need for that batch.
Kits are usually more expensive. I did 3 batches from kits then plunged into all grain. I ordered a 50# sack of 2-row, a couple pounds of hops some other stuff & went for it.
Since then i have gotten my costs down to about 15 cents per beer buying base malts from the breweries & everything else wholesale.
But you could do the same thing with extracts but it might be a pain getting a 100# barrel of extract & pouring the amount you need for a batch.
As long as you make beer you like though thats the main thing!

Thanks to all who responded. I'll prolly stick with kits for now. In the future...who knows?

I'm ready to start brewing my 2nd batch ever! The Oktoberfest worked out well. It seems to have a slight bitter aftertaste that I think shouldn't be there. Hopefully that will mellow out in the coming weeks. Anyway... wish me luck! So far it's been fun!

Will

ps Jeepguy: Nice web-site!

Check it out all!
http://www.flatfenderbrewing.com

I have made all of my batches from kits because I am new to the craft, but I feel that even kits can be the base for "tweaking" I mean the kit provides a stable foundation of a beer that has been proven to work, and then you can add things to adopt to your personal taste. For example I have a kit waiting for brewing for a Porter from NB, but I am thinking of adding some cherries to give it a twist in the secondary.

Furthermore I would like to say that a mini-mash is a good way to make the transition between extract and all grain, so that you're not stuck with a sack of malt that you have no experience with.

Rurikid

I have some true brew kits on my site. We brewed up an amber & it was alot simpler than more normal all grain from scratch.
A very good way to grasp brewing.
I opened one of the pale ale kits i have for sale.
It had alot more than i expected in a kit.
It had the dme, lme, some specialty grain, a grain bag, yeast, hops, priming sugar, & bottle caps.
I had always gotten all lme kits that came with hops & priming sugar & that was it.
Good luck on that second batch.

i brew 2 or 3 times a month all grain, but i still like to find a kit that sounds good and give it a try. it's a good way to find out how the different styles taste before going out and brewing something you aren't sure of. some of my favorites are the ones that i've made trying to copy a kit version.
gary