Northern Brewer
Craft Brewery in a Box
Beer Making Starter Kit Review
Everything you need to make 5-gallons of your very own craft beer is included in this “brewery in a box”.
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Whether you are interested in buying your first home brewing kit, or upgrading your current equipment, this premium beer brewing kit from Northern Brewer might be what you are looking for.
Although this beer kit is considered a starter kit, it is far from being a basic and no-frills setup. It includes quite a few pieces of advanced brewing equipment that is usually not seen with most other kits on the market.
Northern Brewer Premium Craft Brewery in a Box Starter Kit Review
Many beer making kits come with the minimum amount of equipment needed to brew a batch of beer.
That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but when it’s time to add or upgrade some of your equipment, you will end up spending more money in the long run when it’s time to buy.
There are two main upgrades to this kit.
First is the MegaPot 8-gallon stainless steel boil kettle. The size of the kettle will still allow you to do partial boils if you are still extract brewing, but will also allow for full boils when moving to all-grain brewing.
Second is the stainless steel immersion wort chiller. Homebrewers know how important it is to get that wort cooled down as quickly as possible so you can pitch the yeast, and at the same time reducing the risk of contamination.
Using a wort chiller instead of a sink full of ice water will reduce the temperature of the wort drastically and in a fraction of the time.
In fact, a wort chiller and/or a larger brew kettle are often the first two pieces of equipment a beginner will add to their brewing toolbox.
What's Included In The Kit
You can start making your own home brew the moment it arrives at your door.
This beer making kit comes with everything listed below:
- Beer ingredient recipe kit
- Big Mouth Bubbler (6.5 gallon plastic fermenter)
- Carrying harness
- Bung and airlock
- Transfer tubing
- 8-gallon MegaPot with ball valve
- Immersion wort chiller with faucet adapter
- Bottling bucket with spigot
- 21″ stainless steel stirring spoon
- Bottle filler and tubing
- Wing bottle capper and crown caps
- Triple scale hydrometer
- Test jar
- Thermometer
- No-rinse oxygen wash cleanser
- Instructions
Beer Recipe Kit
When ordering, you will have your choice between two different recipe kits. However, there are hundreds of other ingredient kits available for just about any beer style you can think of.
The kit includes these two recipe kits?
What's Needed But Not Included
This beer kit comes with all the equipment you need to start brewing as soon as you open the box, but you will need to decide if you want to bottle your beer, or keg it and have your beer on tap.
A few basic kitchen items will also be needed, like scissors, small saucepan, timer, and spoons.
- (48) Beer bottles or kegging system
Pros
- Has everything you need to begin brewing
- Includes a quality brewing kettle
- Comes with a stainless steel wort chiller
- Can be used for extract and all-grain brewing
Cons
- Some assembly is required
- More costly than other starter beer kits
Other Beer Kits To Consider
While this premium kit is worth considering, there are definitely other ones that my be better suited for what you are looking for.
Although you can brew 5-gallon extract recipes or 10-gallon all grain recipes with this setup, a different 5-gallon kit without the wort chiller and brew pot would save you some money. If you are looking for a much smaller batch size of 1 or 2-gallons, there are home brew starter kits for those too.
Some of the small batch beer kits can be bought for under $50.00, and there are 5-gallon brew kits available for under $100.00.
For a look at other available options, have a look at our “best homebrewing beer kits” review page
Final Say
This Premium Craft Brewery in a Box from Northern Brewer is put together for a beginner, but has pieces of equipment that an advanced brewer would use.
Having these “upgrades” already included means you don’t have to search around and buy them piece by piece.
With this kit, you will have the option to do a complete full boils for 100s of extract recipe kits, or your own all-grain recipes.
Happy Brewing!
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This course includes 29 indivdual videos that cover techniques and processes for water chemistry, yeast health, mashing, fermentation, dry-hopping, zero-oxygen packaging, and more!