Brewer's Best Home Brew Beer Ingredient Kit - 5 Gallon (Mexican Cerveza)

I really enjoyed the first 2 batches I made, but before I make it again I'm going to rewrite the instructions. For whatever reason they include extremely relative information in a separate section from the main body of the instructions. Maybe it's just the way more brain works, but the way it's currently written makes me feel like I am forgetting to do some important step.

I try these every so often when the price drops. All of them have worked. I get to try interesting flavors. There is more than enough bottle caps for my needs. Easy to follow recipes. The process of brewing beer and watching the bubbles in the airlock speed up, then start slowing—Fascinating. But I am easily amused.

The instructions in this kit were excellent and include places for you to take notes. This was my first beer to brew and man, it is tasty. I'm intonation 2 days early but it is still very good. Thanks for a great product. Off to order my next one.

Good light beer recipe, easy to make had almost all ingredients except for 2oz of honey. I prefer when these kits have everything you need. Good summer time recipe.

The media could not be loaded. This extract kit brews into a delicious copper colored Saison that is perfectly true to style. I brewed it to exactly 5 gallons, so I ended up bottling about 4 to 4.5 gal. Alcohol level is just right, and the mouthfeel and pepper flavor that the yeast kicks off is as good as any Saison you will find at your local bottle shop. It fermented out in about 7 days, so just around 21 days from brewing to drinking. Can't beat that. Cheers!

Initial delivery was missing the bottle caps and the priming sugar. Made it right, replaced the entire order. I added Saaz hops for additional flavoring and aroma.

I only recently started home brewing and this is the 4th Brewer's Best Kit I've made. Going forward, I will not use Brewer's Best kits. I will either use Northern Brewer kits or buy the ingredients separately and use a recipe. The first kit I used was their Holiday Ale. It didn't turn out great at all. I blamed myself since it was the first time I brewed something, but now that I've had a couple of their kits, I'm not so sure.The second kit I used was their Double IPA. My friends really seemed to like it, but it was not a Double IPA. It was extremely dark and malty, more like a hoppy Amber Lager. Again, it tasted fine, definitely drinkable, but not a Double IPA.The 3rd kit I got was a Russian Imperial Stout. This is when I realized that all of the Brewer's Best directions, at least for their Easy beers, are exactly the same for each beer. The only difference is the ingredients and when to put them in. You may be thinking "so what?" Do a little research about yeast and you'll see that it activates at certain temperatures. For instance, their directions always say to ferment in a "temperature stable area (approx 64-72 degrees). I had this beer in my basement, which is where I fermented my IPA. Since it was winter, the basement was around 65 degrees. The fermentation stopped after about a day, which is very wrong. I brought the beer upstairs where is was about 69, and it started to ferment again.The Dunkel is the 4th kit I've used, which I just brewed two days ago. It has yet to start fermenting. Again, the directions said the same as the last 3, 64-72 degrees. After doing some research and reviewing other Dunkel recipes, you'll see that the yeast used in those activates around 50-52 degrees. I'm going to leave the beer for a little bit, but if I don't see fermentation soon, I'm going to dump it because I don't have the ability right now to ferment at 50 degrees. What a waste!The other problem I have with Brewer's Best is the time frame for making the beer. All of these generic directions have you drinking beer in about 4-5 weeks. It recommends transferring the beer from the primary fermenter to the secondary right about fermentation is complete, about 5-7 days. I've gone to several local breweries and asked the brewers about this. They all think this is a mistake. With the Stout, for instance, the recommended at least 2-4 weeks in the primary, another 2 weeks or so in the secondary, then bottle and let it sit at least a month, and it should get better the longer it sits. I am following their instructions now with the Stout, taking my time. They said, if you want a beer now, go buy one. If you want to make one, don't rush it.The 3rd issue I have is the yeast itself. Its a dry yeast. The generic instructions say 'DO NOT REHYDRATE". Now granted, you can use dry yeast, but all of the recipes I've researched and books that I've read use a liquid yeast or rehydrate the dry yeast. I will be using liquid yeast packets from now on until I learn how to cultivate my own.So look for yourself, you'll see the directions are exactly the same. Its a good start, but do your research and don't get discouraged if your beer isn't turning out right. It might not be you.

Took me 1 week of fermentation and 2 weeks at secondary in a 5g keg. Carbonation using gas as opposed to sugar.... this has got to be one of the best home brews I've made. 8.69% - worth it. It only comes with one pack of yeast - I thought that would be a problem but it turned out to be fine. I didn't bother to make a starter cause I do my starters with the actual beer ingredients for good reasons and didn't have the time. Worked out wonderfully.