While many of us have at least some basic cooking skills, you’ll find that most people don’t even know how alcohol is made. From beer to spirits, making your own drinks is definitely possible, it’ll just take some patience, the right equipment, and a recipe that is simple enough for beginners to follow.
Over the course of today’s review guide, we’re going to look at the Beginning Homebrew All Grain Kit from AIH, which is a comprehensive set that is made for grain brewers. While grain brewing is a more complicated process than extract brewing, you’ll have much more control over the end product.
Before we get to our review, we’ll be covering two things that you need to account for when you’re looking for the best homebrewing kit out there.
Build Quality
You’ll find that grain brewing kits come included with a wide range of items that you’ll need to brew your beer, and you’ll want to be sure that they all feature decent build quality. Better construction means that the kit is going to last you longer, which will save you money on replacements in the long run.
Remember that you’re going to need every part of the brewing kit to function so that you can make your beer, so if one thing ends up breaking, you’ll lose the ability to brew until you replace it. Low-quality goods are usually more of a risk when you invest in cheaper brewing kits made by companies with a questionable reputation.
Customer Service
Another thing to account for when you’re looking for the right brewing kit is the quality of the customer service provided by the manufacturer.
When it comes to products like brewing kits that come included with a wide range of items, you’ll find that errors are a little more likely, and speedy corrections are a necessity in these cases.
The best manufacturers will deliver any missing parts of your kit express and will also answer any questions you have about the product that you purchased. The last thing you’ll want is to be stuck with a brewing kit that came included with the wrong kind of beer or without one of the needed pots.
The Product
The Beginning Homebrew All Grain Kit Upgrade #6 is made by AIH, one of the more popular makers of home brewing kits, and they are also responsible for the Brewer’s Best brand.
This kit, as you would assume from the name, is made for those looking to start grain brewing, which is quite a bit more involved than extract brewing.
- Comes with a 6.5-gallon primary fermenter and a bottling bucket of the same size
- Features an 8-gallon boil kettle with threaded ports and kettle plugs
- 5-gallon pot for sparge water
- Also includes no-rinse cleaner
- Comes included with a free recipe kit as well as free yeast
- Two mash tun options: 5-gallon or 10-gallon
Results
As you would expect from a brewing kit in this price range, this set comes included with everything you need to get started as a grain brewer. While this set may be relatively pricey, you’ll find that it isn’t that much more expensive than many of the other comprehensive sets on the market.
In this kit, you’ll get a range of pots and kettles that you’ll need to brew with your own grain, including a 6.5-gallon fermenter and a 6.5-gallon bottling bucket with a spigot. You’ll also get a 5-gallon Igloo mash cooler tun as well as an 8-gallon boil kettle, all of which feature excellent build quality.
You’ll also get a five-gallon pot for your sparge water, and a ⅜ wort chiller that’s made out of copper. Bottling is made simple with the inclusion of a bottling wand as well as hoses, and the twin lever capper is simpler to use than other types. Ease of use is something that permeates the design of this beer brewing kit.
Another benefit to choosing this kit is that you can pick from one of seven different options when it comes to the kind of beer you want to make. From APA to stout, there is a wide selection on offer, and better yet, the recipe kit comes included for free, along with some Fermentis Safale US-05 dry yeast.
What Others Say
We’ve also gone through many customer testimonials for this brewing kit so that we can give you a better idea of what you’re getting when you make your purchase.
Most of the buyers of this kit were impressed by how it comes with everything that you need to start brewing, ensuring that you won’t have to shop around for all of the different components. Customers also mentioned how much money they saved buying everything in a kit instead of individually.
A few buyers criticized the 5-gallon mash tun for being too small and recommended upgrading to the 10-gallon variant for $36 extra. Buyers mentioned that the convenience of a larger tun outweighed the downsides of having to pay more for it. Some buyers also would have preferred a larger sparge water pot.
Buying Advice
If you want to save money on a grain brewing setup, the $400 price point of this model is quite reasonable. In fact, the usual retail price for this set is around $460, so you’ll end up saving around 13% right off the bat.
Conclusion
Don’t let the apparent complexity of all grain brewing scare you off, as you’ll have much more control over how your brew ends up, and this kit is more than worth the price. We hope that this review has provided you with all of the details you were looking for.
Our Rating: 10/8
