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

Probably one of the better kits we've brewed. We added a second batch of dry hops 7 days in and this was nice and cloudy. Delicious taste - our favorite so far.

Brewkit is great. I like their kits a lot. I did receive the delivery yesterday but found out the priming sugar bag was ripped. Sugar was all over the inside of the box as well as a lot of ants. Amazon refunded the cost and let me keep it. Some packaging and shipping issues must be addressed. It was pretty nasty. The kit itself is great. They don’t skimp.

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.

I'm an experienced home brewer and have done lots of all-grain brewing, so the "advanced" nature of this kit didn't phase me. I'm also a big fan of New England IPAs and have been trying for years to create one that does the NEIPA style justice. I have yet to succeed. This kit was a step back from all grain to just see if a commercial kit that was relatively easier than all grain could yield good results. Brew day went smoothly. All the ingredients were there, and the instructions were clear. I left it in the primary fermenter for a week, transferred to the secondary fermenter. I then kegged and force carbonated rather than bottling and using the priming sugar. The end result was more like a regular IPA, but not too bitter, which was fine by me. The beer had a slight haze for the first couple of weeks but then fully cleared unlike a NEIPA. The hop aroma also wore off quickly. After a month or so in the keg, it was more like a typical pale ale. Not bad, but not a NEIPA. So, overall, I give this 4 stars.

These Belgian homebrew recipes are delicious and awsome

Husband loves Brewer's Best kits. Please don't stop selling them.

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.

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.

I chose this kit because I love Trappist beers. I've had doppels and quads, but never tried a Tripel. I'm especially impressed by how complete this kit is. It even includes bottle caps. No having to buy priming sugar or malt extract separately. Even though this is my first home brew in more than a decade, and I made a lot of mistakes, this is the best beer I've ever had. It's got the same kind of kick and complexity of a quad, but it's lighter and fruitier. The smell of it the first day of fermenting was heavenly. I cannot recommend this kit enough.

Really enjoyed this kit. Some details I liked: -Ingredients seemed fresh (still brewing, so not 100% sure yet) -Instructions are very clear, including to treat everything first, and what additional equipment you'll need -comes with a few things I wouldn't think would be included, mainly a cloth bag for steeping and bottle caps Highly recommend for a beginner.

First “not pre-mix” beer a made and I can tell you its very good! I can put a sticker on it and sell it like a good microbrewery! I have followed step by step very carefully and the result it perfect! Highly recommend for advanced beginner and advanced home brewer.

Not bad. 3 times I've ordered this kit, it has been expired by about a year. So maybe old stock. Got 1 kit that was fresh it brewed up easily like most brewers best products and everything I needed was in the box. After 3 weeks it was bottling day, I threw in the whole extract bottle it came with as it didn't smell very strong. 2 weeks in the bottle beer is good bit no coconut so I figured maybe let it age more. 4 weeks in the bottle beer is still good but no coconut. So I think if I buy this kit again I'll buy some extra toasted coconut flakes and "dry hop" them after fermentation is completed so there's a fuller coconut flavour. Won't fault the product Brewer's Best makes some of the best kits on the market especially when feeling lazy and not wanting to fo a full grain bill. Great for beginner brewers, all ingredients are included to brew some great beer that always takes off in the fermenter instead of that dreaded "am I doing this right" feeling. At the end of the day if they threw in a stronger coconut extract or coconut chips I'd give this kit 5 stars.

Not for the beginner, I am on the day over right now and I have never seen such a active fermentation!