Why choose a beer kit

Hi all, just why those amongst us choose a beer kit, is it convenience, lack of space or do you prefer the taste of certain kits.

Have only started brewing this year myself and havent used one, truthfully I probably wont as i love to look at all the different ingredients then buy them according to what they are most suited for and what beer I want to brew.

So over to you guys for replys

ta !

Dont know about anyone else but for under £25 and about 1 hour of my time in total i can have 40 pints of something that in my opinion rivals anything you can buy.
So all of the things you mention really,maybe if i ever get a spare 6 hours i will try all grain but until my familys older cant see it happening.
I have tried beers brewed from scratch and they are much better than 1can kits but the new premium kits out there arent far behind imo.
Cheers

Lack of free time mainly!

I've done a couple of extract brews which do taste better than the other kits but they are already quite time consuming.

I do want to get into All Grain some day - I've got a few clone recipe books which look interesting, and I like the idea of being able to tweak them to my taste, but just not enough hours in the day at the moment!

pure space issue in my case. Wish I had some more space for a nice shiny set and make a proper AG brew..

Let's come at this one from a different angle?

How much does the average all grain set up (decent one with good quality kit) cost?

How long, from choosing/buying ingredients through prep, mashing, boiling etc. does it take to get to fermentable wort?

How much space does this kit take up, and where does it live?

Give me those answers and I'll put my wife on the forum to give you 101 reasons why not for each answer!!! :wink:

I only buy 'quality' kits, I've not had a fail yet, there are plenty to choose from, I don't have to worry about extraction rates, cold breaks etc.

I have education, sports coaching and elderly parent commitments - time is my biggest hurdle to be honest!

One day, I have promised myself to do it, but I suspect it will be when I stop work!!!

For me it is a lack of expertise. Having all the space needed/ willing to buy everything needed/and have all the patience in the world one thing I do not possess is the skill to make everything from scratch. I think the kit beer is a good point to start the adventure. Just bottled my first kit and waiting for another to ferment out. If it wasn't for a kit I would probably need a good few months to even attempt to brew something (more likely I would just forget about it alltogether). I am a slow starter personally but once I get going.... Since last week I have sourced and wired up the STC1000 controller and stripped my old fridge to build a diy cooler (working on the acctual cooling cabinet atm) so future is looking bright, and all thanks to the little Coopers can that I saw accidentally while looking for something else..While I ponder going a step further with thiss hobby why not try several ready made kits? Ordered some hops so my nex (3rd) batch will be spiced up a little, and hopefully my cabinet will be finished by then making everything easier, as for now I am struggling a bit trying to keep everything under control (temperature wise), but it isn't stopping me from trying anyway.

I would echo the responses to date:

If you brew 2 can kits or do effectively the same with a one can kit plus DME and hops, it makes a good beer in a fairly short period of time. It's better than the beer I bought before going back to homebrew for sure.

1 can kits perhaps less so - but double them up and they are fine too IME.

If I had another 5 hours to play with on the weekend I would go out walking, do more swimming, or maybe even read for a change.

If I took up All Grain, I would pursue it obsessively to the detriment of much else.

There is no room for more beer kit and little acceptance amongst the DW, DD1 and DD2 community that I need more space, time or energy devoted to beer. They don't like the smells much either.

For me it's not a £ cost issue at all. Costing out an obsession misses the point. It's the extent to which my behaviour becomes unacceptable that is the real cost.

For me it's space. I've looked at all grain many times and I would love a raspberry pi controlled setup but just don't have the space for all of the kit. The space I could have used is now taken up by a hot tub. Baring in mind I can have 40 pints brewed, kegged and ready to drink in 10 to 14 days so I'd rather be in the hot tub drinking than keep thinking of all grain.

I am new to all this , I saw a thread on the football forum I am on, got interested got some ideas from there and thought I would give it a go.. well I am nothing if not an obsessive , so I bought a starter kit from wilko, then a coopers micro kit then some better FVs and two wine kits. since when I have had a fantastic ( I think ) batch of woodfordes wherry . Some cider that won't clear.. but two nice wines a chardonnay and an elderflower. I think its because a total novice can make something better or as good as you get in most pubs without too much technical skill. if you can clean equipment , read and count you can get a result, of some sort which keeps you interested. I am interested in trying the more difficult stuff but have only just begun with enhancers and spraymalts, so the really difficult stuff will have to wait as I have spent too much, drunk too much and taken up too much room already. I have read words like sparging and hopping and mashing .. seriously I have no idea .. :

cheshirehomebrew said:

Hi all, just why those amongst us choose a beer kit, is it convenience, lack of space or do you prefer the taste of certain kits.

Have only started brewing this year myself and havent used one, truthfully:hat: I probably wont as i love to look at all the different ingredients then buy them according to what they are most suited for and what beer I want to brew.

So over to you guys for replys

ta !

Click to expand...

Think you may have started the dreaded kits v all grain debate here Cheshirehomebrew.
Maybe you meant that though :hat:

I can see why people just use kits and why they go extract or all grain, I don't understand why BIAB seems so popular as the only bit of kit you don't need is a mash tun but you do need temperature control which generally costs more. Cost should not be a factor to not go all grain as you can make the equipment very cheaply and a batch that will be better than a £25 kit will cost less than £10 for the ingredients.
My 1st all grain by the way (simple 4kg marris otter 500g crystal malt and 100g fuggles hops) is the best beer I have ever tasted including my 2nd (which was still good).

BTW I am not saying BIAB is bad I just wonder why its so popular no criticism meant.

Not much to add as Hopping_Mad's post #5 sums it up nicely. For the effort required, premium kits do give a good & quick return on investment, and so far I've had no duds (just one that wasn't to my taste). I had planned on starting all grain next year, and that's one of the main reasons for joining this forum to see what I'd be letting myself in for! Space & time are at a premium, so I'll need to be very certain I want to go that route.

I've only just started brewing, but have chosen kits as this seemed a logical way to start for ease and convinience. The last thing I want to do is to run before I can walk doing this.

I've still loads to learn, but I'm picking up so much along the way. My plan is to coninue with the kits maybe for the next 2 years and experiment with additional ingedients, dry hopping, etc. After that, I may consider moving onto all grain.

At present I'm really enjoying using the kits. All results so far have been very good. I've pretty much planned my next 5 kits/recipies in my head!

simon12 said:

I am not saying BIAB is bad I just wonder why its so popular no criticism meant.

Click to expand...

BIAB is a very cheap way into all grain brewing. You only need one vessel (and the Bag), and you can be making all grain beer easily. Temperature control is simple, you just add insulation

OK so the process takes 5 hours, but remember for those 5 hours you are not sat watching it like a hawk. When I'm brewing I mow the yard, wash the truckj, or just generally tidy up.

I think this question has many parallels in daily life, that may give the biggest indicator.

Why don't we all raise chickens for eggs and meat rather then buying it from a store? Time, effort, space, knowledge.

Why don't we all grow our own fruit and veg rather than buy it from the store? Same answer.

I think kits offer the convenience we want with an acceptable level of quality - much the same as a supermarket chicken / eggs / carrots etc do. They probably won't be quite as good as you could have if you grew your own, but for ease and value, they fit the mark.

That's why I buy premium kits rather than going AG - I'd rather enjoy my time drinking a nice beer, than spend all of it making a great one.

FatCol

Lets see if I've got this right - brewing from kits, you're making beer from an already half prepared product, whereas with all grain brewing you're brewing from scratch. Except you're not, somebody's already done the hardest part of the job for you. Now if you grow your own barley and hops, dry the latter, and malt the barley yourself, now that's really brewing from scratch...:lol:

All good points and all answers are specific to your time and needs but let me answer a few things raised.

PMS I spend around £18-£22 for everything I need for a new batch, and invariably when I buy grain I have some left over, which will go towards a different beer next time. - Cost of a kit £9-£25 ?

And no it wasnt my intention to stir up anything, well apart my my wort... am just curious about what methods ingredients and why someone chose they way they do things. Its typical of me to find something new to do and try and learn as much as i can as fast as i can..

Kitchen brewer I hear you I dont have a lot of space hence BIAB on my kitchen stove (with flame on no insulation) but I do have the time needed (for now)

Hopping Mad - hahah only 101 reasons , I borrow my mates big ex army 5 gallon pot for boiling so no storage issues for kit for me, I have two 5 gallon FV's (again borrowed but rarely returned) so all I need is the space on the worktop in the corner of my kitchen.

Roadrunner - expertise is something you build up by trying it, I didnt at the start of the year but have read everything I can on it and chatted to my local micro brewery guys then started to brew after watching Brew TV on you tube, anything you do will still hold its own against commercial beers

Bumbleblue - haha yes sounds like witchcraft when you first read them in a book or online, i did and thought WTF speak english !!

Simon I use BIAB and add LME as well as DME in the wort after I discard the grains, see above where I borrow a big ass pan to use then give it back as i dont want to store it

dgb - am sure the best kits are good I just never did one, I might in future but not for now!

Texaspete I do watch it (not constantly just keep coming back to it) as I dont insulate as mentioned above, but I have a music dvd on usually so it passes the time

fatcol good point well made but I do like to cook or bake from scratch so my chosen brewing method is a carry over from that

666 - would love to grow my own hops but they can be apain in the **** to make sure they dont spoil or rot in damp conditions, plus I wouldnt want to spend all that time growing them to then mess it up when I dry them.

regards

CHB

Out of interest,how long does your brew take to complete cheshirehomebrew ?
Ive heard anyting from 6-9 hours !
That in itself is a big no no for me,but each
to their own,the main thing is brewing one way or another.
Cheers

kits are great when you want to get a brew on but dont have a day to devote to the job.
result wise, with kits you can brew a beer just as good as those you buy, with an AG brew biab/2 or 3 vessel setup, your brewing beers that the commercial boys cant touch, now im happy to accept perhaps hubris is adding to the better taste, but who cares :party: i just luv watching the face of someone supping a pint of homebrew from the tap for the first time, it always starts with a slightly doubtfull look and a small tiny sip, instantly followed by a dramatic eyebrow raising, a smile and deep glug

but you can embelish kits with hop teas and brewing short or long with extra malt extract, you can brew with a kitchen stockpot and malt extract if you want to be slightly more adventurous..

its one of the great things about the pastime, you can pick any point on the scale from kit as is brewing to farming your own hops n barley that suits you..

ive invested ££££s in brewkit and dispensing from kegs, the avarage cost per pint is still less than that in the pub or off the supermarket shelf, and imho many of my beers surpass the commercial offerings by miles, tho i have had my disasters too.

and im still happy to knock a quick kit off in an evening if stocks are running low..