I enjoy perusing the Wirecutter occasionally, and I noticed they had a best brewing kit. To my dismay, the top choice were from…Northern Brewer and Midwest Supplies. They did not that they were the same company, but I’m a little annoyed that:
The best or second best kit is not from an independent supplier
Mentions Star San, but says an oxygen based cleaner is all that’s needed for beginners
Includes a spoon!
Has laminated pages!- - Includes a kettle!
I kind of feel bad for Austin Homebrew, who got dinged for excessive packaging peanuts, not having a spoon, or caps. With the price of a kettle, both come in at the same price, and Austin HB includes a hydrometer, which I consider a lot more important to making good beer than a spoon. Side note: Many people keep spoons in their kitchen! I haven’t bought anything from Austin HB.
/Rant over
Now that I’ve cracked open a beer and relaxed, I’m kind of surprised more places don’t have 2.5/3 gallon kits. It seems like the perfect size for people getting started-enough beer to share, but if a batch sucks, not a big deal. Enough beer to last if you don’t brew often, but you’re not trying to finish off your bottles so you can brew another beer. I just can’t imagine getting into the hobby if I spent 3 hours making a 12 pack of beer from 1 gallon kit. I was thinking about my ideal beginners kit, found out Love2brew has it.
It includes a spoon (Very important!), and while it doesn’t have a kettle, you do have enough equipment that you could brew & ferment 5 gallon batches if you wanted to. Better yet, with two fermenters you can easily play around with different yeasts, dry hopping regimes, etc. For an upgrade I’d probably switch to SS mini brewbuckets or add some 2.5 gallon kegs. The kettle part I don’t think is a big deal, if you’re going to keep brewing I think spending $200 on a nice kettle is worth it down the road.
Intermediate kits in the 2.5-3 gallon range don’t have a very good fit to make them more widely available. You can brew two or three gallon batches on a five gallon kit. Three gallon cornies are out there but not always easy to find and often cost the same as five gallon kegs. That may trap people into bottling, which many do not like. If you decide you want to move up to five gallons you have to make some additional purchases but moving down from five to three does not require spending more money.
That said, there’s no right kit for everybody and it’s good there are options. As recently as 2009 when I started brewing you bought a five gallon kit and that was your one option. Maybe a couple years after that smaller sizes started to appear as urban homebrewing became more popular.
The keg price issue is a good point, but when it’s pretty easy to find a craigslist minifridge for $20-40. Makes it a lot cheaper than a chest freezer.
