Beer. Simply Beer. Starter Kit

I put the lid on the bucket..It would not come off, I had to break it off!

I bought this kit as a starter, having never brewed before. It definitely has all of the basics and got me on my way. I ready some comments about the lid not sealing. I wrapped the outer part of the lid with shrink wrap. Worked perfectly. I'm highly impressed how my first batch ever turned out. I'll probably order the beer ingredient kit again.

Great value and has everything needed to get you started

Great product, arrived in a couple of days.

I had pretty high hopes for this brewing kit. All of the parts were in there. The instructions were not very intuitive but no worries, I kind of strayed from the instructions anyways. My biggest regret with purchasing this kit is that the lid seal is substandard at best. It does not seal properly. Air leaked out, and subsequently in, and oxidized my beer. What was a pretty pale wort turned into an amber because of oxidization. Good grain bucket I suppose...

Like all the equipment, don't like that the lid cracked the first time I opened it.

It includes everything you need and more for a great price but the only thing is the lid is not air tight. Please work on it!

Great kit and very cheap

Good value to start your brewing experience.

I gave this as a gift for a friend many miles away. All i can say is it arrived on time and was packed well. The person that got it was impressed and is looking forward to using the kit.

I'm thinking of getting one for myself.

I thoroughly enjoyed my purchase experience when I ordered the kit. The staff was very patient and knowledgeable. I was looking for a way to get some 90 Shilling for a Christmas gift and your offerings gave me a way to do it. I am a rookie beer maker, and am looking forward to trying it out. The person I got the 90 Shilling for is going to help prepare it, and he has not been able to coordinate with me yet. We might get started this weekend! So I can't give a true review, but I'm excited to get started!--Jim Wicks

Haven't actually been able to taste the final product yet but the making of it was fairly easy

The kit should include a tool to help prying the lid off.

It was a complete kit, and having a pale ale is a great beer to start.

The only thing the kit needs is the tool to open the lid. I had to use channel locks to pry it open!

Written Instructions are lacking

Very easy to use the recipe that came with it has made a great tasting ale definitely will be buying more beer recipes

Affordable and practical. Great product.

Pretty nice starter kit. You will eventually upgrade stuff, but this is a nice kit to get you all the way through your first batch. Get some sanitizer to go with it...

I would say all the materials were great. But I think a thermometer should be included and there should be a more expressed requirement that a 5 gallon pot and bottles must be purchased separately.

This was a fathers day gift for my husband. Our nephews carried the boxes out to him and he said " wow looks important" lol He LOVED the gift. The boys cant wait to help and enjoy the end results! I'm sure we will be buying more kits in the future.

Got the kit for a friend, he loves it. I read it was the best value you can buy..
P. Wilcox

Well, just bottled my first batch this morning. Got 58 ea. 12 oz. bottles. Drank about 6 oz. from the bottling bucket just to see how it tasted. Pleased with the taste and it has a little ‘kick’, I think, if not just wishful thinking. I used the canned Munton’s malt extract which make the process less complicated. I will let the bottles set for 2 weeks before chilling and enjoying.

My neighbor is 83 years of age. When I told him I was making wine he shared that he wanted to make beer but never had the chance to do so. I bought this beer simply beer kit for him and helped him make and bottle his first five gallons of beer. I have to share these pics of the old man and his brew. He is now making his second .batch of beer and living the dream

This kit is great. The price is amazing and the equipment works great. I’ve used the fermenter 5 times and the bottling equipment much more than that (smaller batches from other fermenters). The pale ale it comes with is great too and I’ve made it a few times now with slight hop variations. I will add that I bought an autosiphon (so worth it) but use everything else that came in the kit. Great kit to start off your brewing adventure!

It gets an extra star because of what it comes with but overall it's just an average fermenter. The pale ale that came with it wasn't too good I believe the extract was just old, but overall cheap kit if you want to brew a few batches. The lid will wear out and not give you a good seal but this is ok because of the co2 blanket

Nice kit for beginners. The lid for the fermenting bucket was really tight, I broke it taking it off but Midwest sent a new lid no charge and were great to deal with. I would get a bucket lid opener, brew pot and bottles and your good to go with this kit. The pale ale that came with this was a very good kit.

Awesome starter kit. Comes with everything you need to ferment. My first batch is fermenting right now. Super excited to try it and the many batches that will follow

Great value and customer service unlike anything else

Berry good price, and even better tasting beer than more expensive ones. Very easy directions. I added 1 1/2 cups of coffee grounds to the steep and came out as good as a local breweries coffee stout. I have seine bought more and plan to keep buying and adding things to it

Everything you need to find out if you have the skill to brew your own beer and not break the bank. The instructions are good but you have to jump on the Net to find out out to use some of the equipment like how to use the racking cane to transfer your brew, and how to use the spring loaded bottle filler, and how to cap your beer bottles. Also, if you use your wife's best stainless steel stew pot to cook your "wort" you better do a good job of cleaning it up. Just saying.

I bought this as a gift for my boyfriend, a first time homebrewer. He was VERY excited to get the kit, and has said the directions were easy to follow. We look forward to adding to this set with Midwest Supplies!

This kit is great to start with. I wish they would throw in a thermometer, as temperature is pretty important throughout the process. I had one from when I used to brew smaller batches. But make sure you get one if you buy this kit. I love the kit. And the pale ale recipe it came with turned out VERY nicely. I would buy this again. The price was great, and the product is great. Thanks guys.

Great basic brewing kit. I also purchased an extra spout, drilled lid, and air lock to create 2 siphon-less fermentors. I just keg right from the fermentors. I purchased a second kit for the fermentors and the pale ale kit, which was much cheaper than buying 2 fermentors. I highly recommend this kit to anyone.

Great item my husband and his friends loved this kit And I got to enjoy some home made beer

Nice beer kit to start brewing. There are some tools needed to make it easier but for the price it's a nice kit.

This kit is is right for your first time brewer, that want to try it without spending too much money. I have brewed two batches now. You can not go wrong with this set. I would like to thank Midwest Supplies for this opportunity.

I considered a lot of different options when planning for my first brew, but finally settled on this kit to kick things off! As far as bang for your buck, this is above and beyond. Almost everything you need is included here. As they say, you're going to need bottles and caps. One thing that wasn't noted is that there's no good thermometer included here and that's really important on brew day. Go out and buy a good one in addition to this kit. Other than that, I was very happy with this purchase!

My first brew kit didn't disappoint. The instructions that come with the kit were impeccable. The catalogue that accompanies it is quite educational. It's not just to sell you stuff. I just bottled my first batch tonight and I tasted it and it's going to be excellent. The rating I give a 4 out of 5 because I sure would have liked an auto siphon but fortunately I have a brew store close by and got one for $11. Well worth the extra piece. The seal for the bucket lid also isn't that great so the airlock did nothing during the two week fermentation. So I missed out on the fun of watching it bubble away. This is because the CO2 was just leaking out the lid. No big deal though, I wasn't worried about contamination. Lastly, the airlock that comes with this kit is the twin bubble type, not the three-piece, so I went out and got a three-piece and saved the twin bubble for my secondary. I would suggest a three-piece come with the kit rather than the twin bubble since it's better for the primary fermenter in my opinion. Overall a very fun hobby and this kit was conducive for a first time brewer. Cheers!

I bought this to make mead and didn't even read the part where it came with ingredients to make a pale ale. The price and surprise were great. Skal

First time brewer with a taste for fine pale ale. I added bottles, caps, star San and a thermometer to my order, followed the instructions and kept everything very sanitary. Take your time. Buy (2) 2.5 spring drinking water and chill one. Buy a 10lb bag of ice for brewing day and keep the ice bath used to cool the wort to chill it down to 70 for the yeast.
I bottled my new beer and let it carbonate in the box the bottles came in, horizontally and turning every few days during the two weeks. Once chilled it was very satisfying to hear the sound of the cap being pried off and even more satisfying tasting this nice pale ale. I’m hooked! I have a stout fermenting now and ordered a front porch ale kit. Easy to use and very well written instructions.
Enjoy!

This is a solid product, though I should've bought the "pro" as it was on sale. Doesn't come with a kettle which is a must (so it's not quite EVERYTHING" you need. Still a good start though, and cheap!

This is the second "starter kit" that I have purchased, as several items in the original were either lost or destroyed over time. This one had a number of additional pieces, and at Half the Price! In fact, the ONLY thing missing, that I was unaware is no longer included were the bottle caps! Although I intend to "graduate" to all-grain brewing, this one will provide much of what I need for that process, as well as getting a friend introduced to the art of brewing beer. I intend to make him aware of Midwest as a good source, in the event that he wishes to continue after the introduction.

I would recommend this kit for anyone who is just getting into brewing. The instructions are a little sparse but the process is fairly straightforward and you can find any supplemental information that you need online. The box arrived a little beat up but the contents inside were all there and in perfect working condition. I'm currently finishing up my first batch ever so I'm eager to see the results. Overall, would definitely recommend to anyone who is looking for a solid product at a good price.

Drinking my first beer right now. This kit provides a great starting point, price is low, beer is very drinkable. As far as Midwest Supplies goes Great Marketing! I'll be buying another recipe kit an auto siphon, carboy, Star San.....
I'm Hooked
Thanks

Not bad little flat by my first and still very drinkable

I hadn't brewed in 20 years and got first lured back by two cheap corny kegs on ebay. I thought I couldn't go wrong with this starter kit. And I was right and pleasantly surprised with the grains added for my extract. I think the simple pale ale stands up to the microbrewery beers I've drunk lately. Very happy and their regular Irish stout that MS also sent me is outstanding as well. Thanks and cheers!

This was my first 5 gallon beer brew and it was supper easy, turned out great.

I just bottled my first batch of beer ever that I made with this kit. Everything except for the fill wand (I'll talk more about this later) worked great for the Pale Ale this set comes with. I did a primary and secondary fermentation with this kit. Used the bottling bucket as the primary, then racked over to the non-spigot bucket as a secondary. Some will probably argue that the bottling bucket probably shouldn't be used as a fermenter and that's fine, but I thought I'd give it a shot anyway. It did make for racking to the secondary a breeze because I just used the spigot and tubing to get the beer moved, plus it left all the by product below the spigot.

When I went to bottle the fill wand seemed a bit flimsy. I didn't test it beforehand (which is definitely error on my part) to see if the wand would leak. So, when I started to fill my bottles there was constantly beer coming out. It wasn't full flow, but it was enough that switching between bottles meant I lost some beer to the towel I was filling on. Not a big deal though because other than that the process was a breeze.

Recommended Optional Upgrades with initial purchase or after purchase:
-Fermenter's Favorites Auto-siphon
-Spring tip fill wand
-Secondary fermenter, such as the 6.5 Big Mouth Bubbler

This would be a great starter brewing kit short of one problem. The bucket lid that came with the kit leaks and is extremely stiff and hard to remove. This to me is a big problem as the brewer is unable to watch the fermentation progress through the air lock action if the fermenter does not seal properly. I did find the recipe kit that comes with it to be simple and of good quality for the price.