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View Full Version : Homebrewers-Whats your favorite extract kit?


BeerAdvocate
07-01-2009, 05:34 AM
Im just getting started into my homebrewing adventure and after three weeks in Primary, I will be bottling my first homebrew this weekend.
A Nut Brown Ale from Midwest. Im looking forward to starting my 2nd brew ASAP. What is everyones favorite Extract kit?

SchizoFilly
07-01-2009, 06:42 AM
That depends....what style you lookin' fer? We talking dark, light, wheat, rye, scotch, Belgian, cerveza, stout, hop-bomb......you need to give a little more to go on. I can make several recommendations.....also there is a great resource for HB if you haven't been there check out

homebrewtalk DOT com

sorry for directing attention away from this great forum, but it doesn't have near the depth of beer knowledge as the above, and Team of 11 feel free to delete if you wish.

kaisersozei
07-01-2009, 08:54 AM
Im just getting started into my homebrewing adventure and after three weeks in Primary, I will be bottling my first homebrew this weekend.
A Nut Brown Ale from Midwest. Im looking forward to starting my 2nd brew ASAP. What is everyones favorite Extract kit?

Used to have great luck with Munton & Fison kits, they make some good malt extract. Never bought the hopped variety though, I've always added my own hops. Most of the kits I used early on are probably out of production now--that was so long ago! :hf

I now typically prefer dry extract, though. Fortunately my homebrew shop stocks both dry & liquid in bulk.

BeerAdvocate
07-01-2009, 09:03 AM
That depends....what style you lookin' fer? We talking dark, light, wheat, rye, scotch, Belgian, cerveza, stout, hop-bomb......you need to give a little more to go on. I can make several recommendations.....also there is a great resource for HB if you haven't been there check out

homebrewtalk DOT com

sorry for directing attention away from this great forum, but it doesn't have near the depth of beer knowledge as the above, and Team of 11 feel free to delete if you wish.

Im on Homebrewtalk also. Great forum.
I pretty much like all styles. For right now Im just looking for a good over all kit that isnt too difficult. Im just curious on what some favorite kits are of other homebrewers. Ones that turned out great!

SchizoFilly
07-01-2009, 12:37 PM
Im on Homebrewtalk also. Great forum.
I pretty much like all styles. For right now Im just looking for a good over all kit that isnt too difficult. Im just curious on what some favorite kits are of other homebrewers. Ones that turned out great!

Ok, good to know. The best one I have done so far, and I mean hands down crowd pleasers, a Brewer's Best with steeping grains Pilsner and a Brewer's Best Wheat with apricot extract added in. 5 gal. corneys of both gone in their own respective single nights with less than 5 people on each and plenty of other beers available. People just could not get enough of them.

Also, the AHS knockoff kits are usually spot on if you know of a brew you want to clone, but you may already know that.

BeerAdvocate
07-02-2009, 06:22 AM
I was curious about the AHS kits. They have several I want to try.

SchizoFilly
07-07-2009, 11:36 AM
I can vouch for their Young's Double Chocolate being fantastic. The only one that didn't taste at least very very close to the commercial offering was a Pilsner Urquell, but I've never had one that wasn't skunked, so it too may have been spot on. My next batch will probably be their Ruination clone.

AHS usually does $6 shipping or something like that. Very reasonable. I've also had pretty good luck with Williams. kinda like the cigar world, you keep trying different stuff until you hit on something that is a must have and keep it in the rotation.

kenstogie
07-07-2009, 12:24 PM
Ok, good to know. The best one I have done so far, and I mean hands down crowd pleasers, a Brewer's Best with steeping grains Pilsner and a Brewer's Best Wheat with apricot extract added in. 5 gal. corneys of both gone in their own respective single nights with less than 5 people on each and plenty of other beers available. People just could not get enough of them.

Also, the AHS knockoff kits are usually spot on if you know of a brew you want to clone, but you may already know that.

I've done 2 of the Brewer's Best kits American Micro Style Pale Ale and a Dinkelweizen. Both turned out quite nice but needed you to steep the grains but you shouldn't be afraid of it at all it's easy. "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" as they say.

What is this AHS you speak of?
AND
Are there any online places to purchase my stuff from that can save me some green?
Muchos gracious

SchizoFilly
07-07-2009, 12:38 PM
AHS= Austin Homebrew Supply

http://austinhomebrew.com/

There are several online places. Check out homebrewtalk.com. It's a great forum with tons of info about brewing your own.


P.s. welcome to the looney bin

BeerAdvocate
07-08-2009, 06:01 AM
I've done 2 of the Brewer's Best kits American Micro Style Pale Ale and a Dinkelweizen. Both turned out quite nice but needed you to steep the grains but you shouldn't be afraid of it at all it's easy. "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" as they say.

What is this AHS you speak of?
AND
Are there any online places to purchase my stuff from that can save me some green?
Muchos gracious

I bought all my equipment from midwestsupplies.com and so far all of my recipe kits. A few other good ones are:

www.austinhomebrew.com (AHS)
www.northernbrewer.com
www.morebeer.com

kenstogie
07-08-2009, 11:35 AM
I am a member at Homebrewtalk.com it's got great info just like here.

Yote
07-26-2009, 08:02 PM
I have always stuck with the local places here for homebrewing. Lucky for me AHS is one of them :) Tried quite a few of their kits that are clones of comerical beers and they were rather close. AHS does tend to over hop their kits a tad IMHO. Which for me is not a bad thing as I am a hop head, but it does tend to make their versions a little hoppier then the comercial ones. Other then that, never had an issue with them.