Northern Brewer – Brew. Share. Enjoy. HomeBrewing Starter Set, Equipment and Recipe for 5 Gallon Batches (Hank’s Hefeweizen)

Great beer, great value
Judging by most of the reviews, I seem to be one of the only people that purchased this with the Hank’s Hefeweizen kit instead of the Block Party Amber. The short version is that it turned out great.Before purchasing this kit, I also looked into buying all the equipment individually, but this is way more economical. This kit, which includes a recipe kit and all the equipment you need, is $100. Buying just the recipe kit by itself is about $40. The cheapest equivalent food grade bucket and bottling bucket around $25 each, so just with those items, you’re at just about the price of the entire kit. Then factor in that a 5 gallon kettle is at least $30, a bottle capper is $20, an auto siphon another $20, and the little things like a bottle brush and a large spoon and such, and there’s no way you’ll ever come out ahead by trying to buy everything individually.Initially I was looking at getting their deluxe kit, but there’s really no point. The main difference is that the deluxe kit comes with a couple of 5 gallon glass carboys, while this kit comes with food grade plastic buckets. The plastic buckets are perfectly fine, and you’ll never know the difference when you’re drinking your beer. Also, oddly enough, the deluxe kit does not come with the 5 gallon kettle that this kit comes with.The only thing you’ll need to buy that isn’t included in the kit are bottles. However you can reuse any non twist off bottles you have around the house. This kit yielded 43 bottles worth of beer for me.Brewing instructions were simple and easy to follow. They also have a good video on YouTube that walks you through the process. I let it ferment for 2 weeks, then bottled it. I tried one 10 days after bottling, and it had plenty of carbonation. The beer I can most closely compare this to would be a Leffe Blonde.Overall an excellent buy, and I’m currently working on my second brew.

Love it!
Homebrewing has been a dream of mine since I was in high school. I like the idea of stovetop chemistry and love cooking, but beer always seemed like it would be a complex, over-the-top project. Having listened to the Rooster Teeth Podcast, where they complained about the stink of the fermenting beer (later discovered to be an infected batch), I waited and waited until we bought a house. Now I know there was no reason to wait.I started brewing at the beginning of November 2016 after reading several books on the subject and doing my due diligence. I got this kit, a 20 oz bottle of Star San, collected bottles from my friends, and got to work.Six months later, I’ve stopped using the primary vat in favor of a 6 gallon carboy, begun to modify kit recipes, use a hydrometer, and have a few more advanced touches (oatmeal, oaking, custom herb additions etc), and love homebrewing. I’ve made, to date:Block Ale (came with kit): Was Ok, little watery/weakStout: Killer good, changed my friend’s attitude on homebrewingVanilla Spiced Porter: Was excellent, didn’t last a month after bottlingScottish Stout: Poor lad died when the bottling bucket tipped over, almost causing a divorceGerman Black Ale: Awesome. Slightly moldy. Seemed to help?Scottish Light Ale: Gross. Keeping it for science.Bourbon Cask Ale: Got moldy, infused with (a lot of) bourbon. Suddenly became delicious.Traditional Irish Stout we called “Boston Tea”: Finished on St. Paddie’s day…less than a third of batch left the subsequent Sunday afternoonHeavy Porter: Just finished, is crisp, black, and almost chocolatey.The only additions I’ve made to my overall kit were the hydrometer, the two glass carboys, and a metal funnel. I’ve done all of the above with just the Northern Brewer kit, and some pre-assembled beer kits from my Local Homebrew store.Worthy purchase indeed.

This is a great kit to get you started with home brewing. However, there are a few things that irk me about it. For starters, the lids on the buckets are air-tight(as they should be) but they do not provide a tool to open said lid and it’s a huge pain in pry it off without damaging the bucket. Secondly, the instructions are indeed beginner friendly but I feel it should be a little more in-depth during the preparation for fermenting process. Especially during the transferring procedure. Thirdly, why give bottle caps but no bottles?The kit is great overall, and I would recommend it. However, as stated above, they could have done a few things a little better.

It’s seems like a great product, aside from the fact that the bucket lid CANNOT be removed without breaking it. It is not removable. Lots of people have the exact same problem and they receive new bucket lids. Northern Brewer has a “new and improved lid” If you live in Canada, they won’t send you a new lid. They tell you to contact Amazon. Amazon will not help you. As someone who bought this product. It’s a good product, good ingredients, they’re doing everything right. But if they won’t send you a new lid, you will only brew one batch of beer (if that). I would advise you buy a different kit. I will be buying a glass carboy from my home brew supply store. It’s disappointing. but you’re better off buying something else.