Comments on: Monster Brew Home Brewing Supplies Home Brew Ohio Complete Beer Equipment Kit (K6) with 6 gal Glass Carboy, Multicolor (DP-GFZY-7I2K)

By: err2008

err2008 — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 22:01:41 +0000

Very good kit
My wife got this for me as an early Christmas present, because she got tired of me hinting I wanted this particular beer kit. I immediately got to work on beer making. I just finished my second batch and should be ready in a few weeks. I used the true brew Belgian ale pack and without a doubt it was one of the most delicious beers I ever had! All the parts were there, but the last inches of the siphon hose was smashed. Still worked though, but it made it a little tricky to get the last of the beer out of the primary. With that exception everything else is of high quality and has decent instruction on how to use. You will still need a large 4-5 gallon stainless steel pot to boil your ingredients and bottles. I bought 4 cases of 22 oz brown bottles, so I can have a continuous supply of beer to drink. 1 batch will fill aprox 24 22oz. Wanted to give it 5 stars, but since the hose was smashed and reading a lot of other reviews of broken items. I could only give it 4 stars. This is a very good beginner to intermediate beer kit. Definitely recommend.

By: R. Klein

R. Klein — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 22:01:37 +0000

Best price for (almost) everything needed.
I decided to get into homebrewing after expecting to pay hundreds for equipment. The local homebrew store had decent kits, but this was almost half the price of those! I ended up getting a kit for myself and a kit for the father-in-law.The kit came in a nice box that was perfect for wrapping as a gift. It had everything listed and everything seems high quality, it even came with a small homebrew beginners book that should be enough to get you to make the first batch, however I would eventually recommend buying ‘The Complete Joy of Homebrewing’ as most homebrewers consider it the bible of brewing. I have just bottled my first batch of beer and everything worked great, now I have to stare at it for 2-3 more weeks as it conditions. To the reviewer who said the carboy is only 5 gallons, I have 5 gallon plastic carboys for my fishtank and this is noticably larger, however I have not been able to accurately measure it.People wishing to get into this hobby should know a few things:1) You will need to buy a stockpot to boil the wort(unfermented beer). Do not get aluminum as it can impart bad flavors as it reacts to the acidic wort. Do not skimp on this, expect to pay at least $50 for a decent one off amazon. The thicker gage steel, the better.2) You may need some miscellaneous items like bottlecaps(not included), a grain bag, stirring spoon, ammonia to remove old bottle labels, etc.3) The kit comes with some bags of special sanitizer, however most people use bleach or other readily available chemicals. Just don’t mix chemicals and rinse well.4) Start saving bottles early! The bottles cannot be screw top and should be brown, not green or clear(light ruins beer). Sam Adams bottles worked best for me, bought a couple 12 packs of their holiday collection. I’ve heard things about the wing capper breaking thin glass beer bottles, but had no problems. Also, I have been told that old champagne bottles can be capped as well.5) If you dont like doing dishes, this is not a hobby for you. Scrubbing 50 bottles, the carboy, the bucket, hoses and siphons takes time and patience.6) If you like to save $$$ and experiment, this IS the hobby for you. Most recipes work out to under .50 for a bottle of beer.

By: pillbox59

pillbox59 — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 22:01:33 +0000

Excellent kit
Just finished bottling the first batch of brew we made with this kit and as an absolute beginner I’d like to share some experience that may be helpful. First of all, if you have a local Brew Shop I strongly recommend that you visit them before you get started. You’ll need an ingredient kit anyway so give a local shop some business and you’ll get a lot of help in return. I also recommend starting with an ingredients kit – it has everything you need and good directions, as many other people have said, do not use the method that comes with this kit because every recipe is different so go with the directions in your Brew Kit and if you’re putting together ingredients yourself ask the Brew Shop what the best method is for your particular recipe. The Kit we chose was Brewer’s Best – Red Ale. The shop manager talked us step by step through the process and his instructions were exactly the same as the ones that came with the kit. The whole thing is very easy, the worst part is cleaning and sanitizing, wrapping your head around all of the steps and learning to read a hydrometer but if you just go step by step and have all of your prep work done it is not a difficult process. Saw a guy on YouTube who purchased a wallpaper trough to sanitize in – great idea. Cheap and perfect size. You will need a large pot that is around 5 gallons or larger. I was told aluminum was fine to use which was great because that’s what I have already but I may invest in a stainless steel pot at some point. My racking cane arrived broken so instead of making a big deal about it I ordered an auto syphon for 8 bucks that’s much better anyway. All the rest of the items in the kit arrived intact. I also purchased a carboy lifter (handle) as the thing was pretty heavy with 5 gallons of beer in it and to drop it would be a disaster. We put ours on a small wheelie cart to move it from room to room – much easier. Buy an 8 oz bottle of Star San as a sanitizer. This is a no rinse sanitizer which makes things much easier and yes, you can ignore the foam/bubbles and just fill the bottles right through it. I have been reassured of this over and over even though it’s hard to believe. The B-Bright that came with my kit is a cleaner, not a sanitizer so they should make that clear. Again, my home brew store guy pointed this out. To get back to the kit itself I am convinced that this is the one you want rather than the two plastic bucket version. This way you can see the beer fermenting in the Carboy and it’s much more exciting that way let alone easier to see if everything is going well. The Complete Joy of Home Brewing book is also a must. It reassured me every step of the way and it also helps you along as you get more advanced and shows you how to put together your own ingredients to make exactly the beer you want and it gives you great advice like not to splash your beer from the Fermenter (Carboy) into the bottling bucket but to let in flow into the bottom, gently. I found it really helpful and it’s loaded with theory regarding hops, malt and grains too if you like. This kit was a perfect start and just need a few odds & ends to make it perfect for your needs. Cheers!UPDATE! The Beer has been bottled for 2 weeks and we tested a bottle. It came out amazingly well so now I am even happier with this kit.