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We previously looked at the best whiskey glasses, and now we are now checking out the best in home brewing beer kits.
Today we are looking at the best home brew beer starter kits available to the budding home brewer. Home brewing has seen its popularity increase steadily over time and we love it! Nothing quite comes close to brewing your own beers, ales and ciders. The reactions – positive, we hope – from family and friends when you tell them they’re drinking your creation is an amazing experience. While you can get craft beers from local stores, the achievement of brewing something that tastes just as good for a fraction of the price is really special.
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Choosing the best home brew beer starter kit
So sit back and let’s dive into the best home brew beer starter kits you can pick up today. These are a great way to get into the hobby and help you on your way to becoming a master brewer. Most of these offer access to online videos and support where beginner’s guides can be useful.
Brewers Best India Pale Ale Homebrew Beer Ingredient Kit
We enjoy a ‘hoppy’-tasting India pale ale and you certainly get a lot of hops with this kit. Of course you can experiment with adding less or more to suit your particular palate but this beginner’s kit will get you off to a good start. This well-priced kit will get you off to a good start but note that you do need your own equipment as this is primarily an ingredients set.
Inside the box you will find enough ingredients to brew 5 gallons, which, after fermentation, will yield over 50 12 0z bottles. From experience we like to let our IPA rest in a carboy for a few months before drinking to give it that more rounded, carbonated zing.
Mr. Beer 2 Gallon Complete Starter Beer Making Kit Premium Gold Edition
No list of the best home brew starter kits would be complete without an appearance from Mr. Beer. They have a great range and a reputation to match. Mr. Beer’s kits use their patented system and top-quality ingredients to make your initial forays into brewing a success. If there’s one thing that puts off budding brewers, that is coming out with a bad beer after spending so much time producing it. Never skimp on your equipment or ingredients if you want to stack the odds of a tasty beer in your favor.
This kit includes classic American Light and Oktoberfest lager. Other kits in the Mr Beer range are available and encompass Aztec Cerveza, Canadian Blonde, Czech pilsner or Bavarian Wheat.
As a company Mr Beer had built a strong presence in the market over 20 years and was then acquired by the world-renowned Australian brewery, Coopers, which had been in operation 150 years. This merger brought huge advantages for the consumer, not only the access to a range of superior malts but also the benefits of their brewing experience.
The Mr Beer Premium Gold Edition is a complete starter kit that we recommend very highly. It includes a robust, yet light, keg-shaped fermenter that echoes the design cues of the best professional equipment. You also get 11 reusable, shatterproof 25 oz bottles to hold your first special brew. Being shatterproof is essential for carbonated drinks – many a homebrewer has fell foul of the dreaded exploding bottle!
The Mr Beer brewing extract is a unique blend of natural, malted barley and hops and is arguably worth the price of this kit alone. It gives us great confidence to know that the ingredients have such a fantastic pedigree.
So now we arrive at one of the big draws for us: the Mr Beer’s unique Little Brown Keg! This two-gallon fermenter looks great and has benefits including a wide mouth to make brewing and cleaning simple. Its built-in airlock is another time-saving device. So is its locking spigot! The keg is UV-resistant to prevent interference from the sun’s rays. Beneath the spigot lies a collector to stop any fermentation sediment, the trub, getting into your beer.
Finally, we look at the extras and these include the welcome no-rinse-required sanitizer that makes the cleaning process that much more efficient.
With this kit you will be brewing your very own delicious beverages within three to four weeks.
Northern Brewer – 1 Gallon Craft Beer Making Starter Kit (Kama Citra IPA)
The Northern Brewer’s first entry here is a worthy contender for the best home brew beer kit. This is the Kama Citra Indian Pale Ale variety that we love but it’s just one of several varieties that Northern Brewer produce. This set is the popular one-gallon beer-making set which is one of the easiest for home-brewing newbies. There are enough ingredients provided to brew ten bottles of your first craft beer. This IPA session ale has the air of decadence about it. Flavor-wise it lies somewhere between the class American Pale Ale and and West Coast IPA.
In the set you get a one-gallon fermentation jug complete with cap and airlock, an auto-siphon and all the necessary tubes. You also get the bottle filler, a great bottle capper and a supply of pry-off caps. To keep your equipment sanitized Northern Breweries includes an 8 oz sachet of Easy Clean cleanser.
Brewing for the first time can be a bit daunting. This company knows that and includes instruction with pictures on a printed manual, digital help guides and links to online videos to build your confidence and knowledge.
The only additional accessories you need are the bottles and some general kitchenware such as a cooking pot, stirring utensils and scissors.
Northern Breweries is rightly proud of their ingredients and takes advantage of their amazing location. They are situated in the heart of grain country allowing them to source the best malts available. The hops go through a pelletization process before being flushed with nitrogen to remove any trace of remaining oxygen. Finally, they employ industry-leading standards in yeast handling to produce consistently healthy batches each time. When it comes to ingredients, Northern Breweries’ freshness is among the best.
Northern Brewer Deluxe Homebrew Starter Kit, Equipment and 5 Gallon Recipe (Irish Red)
Northern Breweries make their second appearance in our choice of the best home brewing kits. This is their Deluxe set with extra equipment to make your brewing endeavors that bit better. Other flavors are available, but we’ve opted for the delicious Irish Red which actually got one of our team into the hobby!
What can we say that we haven’t before? Oh, yes: Northern Breweries have more than 20 years’ experience in the field. Their own employees use their product too. You get all the instructions, online guides and videos that will help make your first brew a success. For more experienced hands, this aftersales content will give you additional insight and some tips to further enhance your brewing repertoire.
The Deluxe set is substantial and quite weighty. Included in it are a pair of carboys – these are the large glass vessels you use for two-step fermentation. The primary fermentor is a substantial six-gallon bottle while the secondary fermentor has a five-gallon capacity. The equipment includes: bung, airlock, blow-off hose, auto-siphon, funnel and the ever-useful adhesive thermometers.
It doesn’t stop there; you also get the bottling bucket, spigot, bottle filler and tubing. The list goes on and features an essential – and useful – range of cleaning devices and solutions.
The Irish Red Ale makes for an attractive-looking pint with its rich, coppery hue. Taste-wise, your brew will have a medium-bodied flavor that is sure to get you admiration from your friends. You get enough ingredients to produce 50 twelve-ounce bottles. All you need are the bottles!
BeerDroid Fully Automated Beer Brewing System with American Pale Ale BrewPrint
If you’re looking for something a little less labor-intensive or more high-tech then the BeerDroid could be just your thing! As the world’s first automated home brewer you have in your possession a modern marvel. The BeerDroid is Wi-Fi enabled and with its BrewArt app you receive updates on the status of your fermentation including milestones in production. This is a neat way of bringing home brewing into the 2020s.
The device itself has an LCD screen which we believe is super user friendly. It features access to brew status, allows you to set the temperature and a host of other options. One thing we love is when you’re at work you may get the welcome notification that your brew is ready and waiting for you at home.
The BrewDroid has a production quantity of 2.6 gallons, about half that of some of the larger kits on test here. One of the benefits of the BrewPint system is that you can download different beer profiles, buy the BrewArt ingredients and set the BrewDroid away. It will know exactly how to prepare each one for the best brew. The added benefit of this system for some is that this removes some of the hands-on measuring out of ingredients which is perfect for anyone not wanting to be too involved in the practical side.
BrewDroid has a wide range of home brew ale and beer varieties and the American Pale Ale is up there with our favorites. Oh and did we mention that BrewDroid uses all natural ingredients?
The smart system is pretty clever too. In the event of a power cut the BeerDroid remembers where it was in the brewing process and will carry right back on. If you have a special brew recipe of your own, you can use it too providing you adjust the quantities to ten liters. In summary this is a surprisingly good system that delivers fantastic results.
