Side by Side Comparison of: Brewer's Best vs True Brew

Made some ale last week. Kit is complete except for bottles, caps and beer ingredients.Have to ding it 1/2 star. You will need a 100ml graduated cylinder to use the hydrometer properly. This was not included, so I could not take initial readings when making ale. Otherwise, kit contains high quality equipment and good instructions.

Great kit that has just about everything you need to start brewing. Personally made my first batch of cider with this kit (it is aging in the carboy still, but sample tastes are promising).It is of course missing: bottles, bottle caps, beer ingredientsI would also pick up some spare airlocks, as the one included broke very easily on me. It would also be prudent to get a beer thief or some other way to get beer out of the carboy/bucket for gravity readings. Last but not least you need something to sterilize with. I use Starsan that I mix with water in a spray bottle. Bleach will do, but Starsan can be sprayed on everything and just left to dry (so easy!)They do include a bottle capper, and I tested it on a spare bottle and it works great. The hydrometer included in the kit works and is easy to use. I have not used the bottling bucket yet, but the rest of the stuff works great (auto-siphon easy to use).

Quality product, careful packing/shipping, well satisfied. Definitely recommend!

This kit is awesome, great for newcomers, Just bottled my first batch of beer with it , everything worked great, very happy with it. The shipping awesome and everything is great quality.

Been brewing like a crazy man, just about everything that you need to start brewing.

Everything is as pictured. Actually more epuipment than you need for your first brew, but you will make use of all of it. Very, very good product.

This is VERY good beer!! It was my second time brewing, so I knew what to expect, but still made a few mistakes (the brew took longer than 60 mins because the wort chiller and malts took down my temperature, so I spent roughly 30 mins just getting back to boiling - which was my fault).Anyway, I did 4 days primary and 5 days secondary. I reached fg on racking to secondary date, so I racked to age a little in secondary. Bottles were ready to drink after only a week. The taste is seriously competition worthy, and I've had a lot of different beers in my life, though my tastes do favor milder, lighter beers with low IBUs - which that is what this beer is.

Great kit! very balanced taste. I made this for christmas time and share it with family and friends. Not a single person did not like it. I attribute to the balanced taste. Besides that it was my first brewing kit and I did not messed up. Just follow the instructions!

Just cracked open the first few bottles this week and am very happy with the results! It was my first time brewing, so I wasn't even expecting anything drinkable, but this beer tastes great. It's much darker and richer than pictured, almost an amber color, and there seems to be a hint of almost banana under the wheat and spice--it's really tasty. I don't imagine it's even close to 4%, as I don't even feel buzzed after three of them, but I'm still very happy with the taste and carbonation, and the ease of use! I'll definitely be trying other True Brew kits in the future.

Got this kit for around $24 when they were clearing inventory. It came out great! It's the second True Brew kit I have made--Amber was the first. The Amber ale was good but I liked the Octoberfest better. True Brew seems to make great kits. The directions are easy to follow. They offer a few extra tips that aren't necessary but will improve the overall results. I'm very happy with this product.I had ideal temps and finished fermentation in 1 week using only the items provided in the kit. Bottle conditioned for another 2 weeks. Great beer that I'd proudly offer to my guests.

Bought this as a gift for my husband and he absolutely loved this kit! He said it was the best beer he has ever made, and he literally mentions how great it tastes every time he cracks one open! Two issues, though: first, the can of malt syrup arrived badly dented, and we were a little worried about it, but it looked and smelled fine when opened. And second, the instructions were a little sparse and left him with a few questions even though he has made his own a number of times before.

I've been drinking my Oktoberfest bier for about a week now, and it is great! Great flavor, great color (about a 12 on the lovibond scale), great everything. I'm completely happy with how this beer turned out. I bought this for my first attempt at brewing, so for beginners I HIGHLY recommend this. I am probably going to try my picking my own ingredients for my next batch, but if it doesn't turn out I will definitely buy this again!(1st review)So far so good! My beer is bottled and now I have to wait a month for it to be ready to drink. Instructions were really easy to use, all of the ingredients were there and neatly packaged/labeled so it was a breeze when I was boiling the wort and whatnot. My house smelled amazing for about a day after brewing and starting the primary fermentation process. I will comment once the beer is done! I can't wait!

Been using for a year now, have done 6 brews. Gives you most of the odds and ends you need which is nice. Price is good considering it comes with a glass carboy. You still need a large brew pot, and a sanitation solution like Star San, so it's more like 175 bucks to get started. Also you need bottles of courseIf you buy a Brewers best or another kit, that will give you all the ingredients and caps you need to get going

Present for my husband. He is very pleased and ready to master his first brew. Would purchase again.

Nice kit. Thermometer was broken on delivery and had to buy a test tube for the hydrometer.Ended up buying in addition to kit was a 10 Gallon Stainless Steel Kettle (for upgrade potential), and outdoor propane burner (cook outside without stinking up house) and a wort chiller to avoid the whole ice bath situation.

Great kit! I bought it after I saw a friend of mine using it for years and still being happy. The only thing I would add to it is a test jar for taking hydrometer readings. Since the hydrometer is included with the kit and the provided book talks so much about measuring the alcohol content I was surprised I actually could not measure it since I do not have the jar.The carboy is glass.

Description and guide in making a 5 gallon beer seem straight forward. If unclear check other videos on making home made beer. This is my 2nd batch but 1st with this ingredients.update:During the cooking process, I used a pot that can 1 gallon. Followed the instruction. At the end, I cool down the pot to room temperature and poured into a 5 gallon container with yeast, then filled it with water to a maximum of 5 gallon level. Mix the mixture and I let it sit in a room with stable temperature. After a week, I added the priming sugar (stir/mix) and pour into (5)1 gallon containers.2nd week, color still a bit muddy even though most of the solids had settle on the bottom5th week, down to my last gallon. Dark but clear (free of floating solids), taste is a bit bitter compare to the 2nd week batch. Seems to be more potent that the previous weeks.

everyhing from start to ( from order to drinking was gret, good flavor, except, using the 740 ml bottles, first glass wes crystal clear the second glass was cloudy.....but I didn't strain my brew before bottleing. Will strain next time & let you know...

I liked this beer kit. It was easy to put together, and the "ale" tasted nice. It was a little thin in body (common beer kit thing), so I would recommend adding some other grains, lactose, or maltodextrine to liven it up a bit, just my two cents. This is a simple light ale, not an actual Oktoberfest, but still fun and tasty. I bought a second kit, and I'll be modifying it with 5# of 2-row malt, and another ounce of hops; fun to play around with stuff.Update 8/16/17: I've used a couple of these kits since my last post. To get rid the "thin" profile, I mashed and added 5# of 2 row malt which made it a very nice ale with lots of body.

My husband bought this for an october beer. Unfortunately something happened and the beer did not turn out. I don't think it was the kits fault but my husband rushing to get it ready for an actual october beer. Overall the kit had everything you need--perfect for home brew enthusiasts!

I've been brewing for over 4 years and bought this kit for something quick and easy since I don't have a whole lot of time anymore. I just bottled today and tasted my hydrometer sample. It's really good! So good I drank all of the uncarbonated sample. Can't wait for this to carb up so I can really enjoy them. Only complaint is the abv is pretty low. Mine came in at 4.4%. Pretty low and I don't think the og was listed so beware of that. Can't complain about it too much cuz it is a really good beer. If you're looking for malty you won't be disappointed.

The beer came out great. The instructions are a bit vague and don't match the directions I found on the True Brew website. I didn't a lot of research and made my own method to brew this and the beer still came out fine! Once you know how to brew the beer you can tweak it how ever you want. This was perfect for someone like me who is just starting out with home brewing.

You get a lot parts in this kit so it seems like a good value. However, I've found that I still need to buy a lot of additional items, either because parts arrived broken or not everything needed was included. For example, the hydrometer has no test jar, and I don't have a lot of confidence in the cleaner that came with it. It's not clear whether it's meant as a cleaner only, or also a sanitizer. I bought sanitizer.This was shipped in the manufacturer's box, which clearly is not appropriate for shipping. The parts are made of flimsy plastic and are very vulnerable to drops or crushing. The box was smashed on one edge and two parts were broken on arrival, the auto siphon and airlock. Rather than return the entire kit, Amazon offered a generous partial refund, which was more than enough to purchase replacements for the broken parts. I'd recommend ordering from Amazon as the seller for that very reason - they'll make it right if there's a problem, which there likely will be.

All items in kit were present. Siphon was broken and unusable and pouch of cleaner was torn and leaking (its powder). I was bummed the original box wasnt wrapped, it was used as the shipping box (we use the box as part of the beer making process) and was a wreck. Aside from broken/unusable items, the kit is great and all works well.

I received this in the mail and the bottling wand and air lock were both cracked. Trying to get Premium fast ship to replace these 2 things is almost impossible.

I found I wanted to purchase more equipment once I started brewing.

The only problem I had with this package was 1- They changed the Liberty Hopes to "Tettnang" which literally didn't have much aroma and flavor and honestly is the cheapest hops you can get.2-The "Muntons Ale Yeas" , have very weak characteristics during fermentation and they die very fast. Also for the good quality malts extract they give you this yeast is waisting it and doesn't give full body fermentation. Other product comes in the box have good quality

This was an ok brew. We added orange slices when drinking it and it really was the perfect addition to the flavor. It is a tasty beer, makes 5 gallons, and took about three weeks to be ready to drink. We left a few bottles to open at a later date to see if the flavor is better over time.

As advertised but had a rough trip apparently. Malt can rim dinged up but can be opened on other end.

I thought it would have everything needed for a first time brewer, but there are still a lot I need to buy for him now since he can't use it without specific things to go with it.

1st I have to say this was my 1st batch of brew ever and it turned out bad. Highly solvent taste. I may have brewed it too high of temperature or pitched the yeast too soon after boil. But a 2nd batch of same brand Belgian Ale has the SAME bad solvent taste too it and I was carefull to watch the temps, very disappointed.

It is a nice beginners brew kit. It is a nice simple recipe to follow and has everything that you want. It tastes okay (not great) but I would likely not try this same recipe again.

As advertised poor packaging broken air lock upon arrival

It's a cool kit, but I thought it was going to come with everything we needed. There is a LONG list of things we still have to buy to be able to brew anything. :( pretty big bummer.

Complete kit????? Need bottles ohhh something else.... the ingredients to make beer !!!! That you have to buy separately..... I wish someone made a complete kit, one stop turnkey to actually make a batch of beer !!!!!

a piece was broken upon arival and there was no offer to replace it.

When I say I hate it - It arrived with 4 items broken. We had planned to brew the day I received the kit. I was disappointed. There was no telephone number to call so I had to send an e-mail. Someone responded within 30 minutes via e-mail even though I asked them to call. They waned pictures and the Amazon order number. I sent it to them within 10 min, and no phone call. They said they would replace the broken items. I asked within 2 days, since I am a prime member..... They did not respond.

The sugar package inside the kit came opened and was all over the box

Yeast was dead

Edit: I may have to try this again. I only bottled half the batch originally, and I fed the remaining half some Belgian candi sugar and let it ferment for a couple of weeks before bottling. After bottling it I let it sit once again for a little longer than I might normally, and the flavor is much improved. The carbonation is WAY better - from nothing in the first half to an impressive head on the second.Original review:One of the pouches of DME had a puncture; I probably should have returned it immediately. I'm not sure if that contributed to the batch failing or not, but this produced the weakest, least flavorful Oktoberfest I've ever experienced.Low OG. High FG. Some of the bottles weakly attempted to carbonate… most failed to carbonate at all. I would definitely not recommend this one to anyone.

Arrived today in a humongous half ripped box. Inside there was just some brown paper around it, no bubbles or peanuts so the package got a beating in transport. I took the kit out and something is spilling out of it. I'm torn between opening it to see what spilled and leaving it as is...it was supposed to be a Christmas gift. Could it be salvaged? Don't know how much has already been spilled... I'd hate to have to open it before the holidays as the kit's thick cardboard box makes it impossible to look unopened once messed with. I'd hate to give an unusable gift. I'm pretty frustrated.

Not good at all. It was carbonated but tasted flat and was pretty watered down. I consider myself a rookie but My friend and I have been brewing a new batch every two weeks between our two setups for about a year and a half. This was the worst beer we've brewed by far. Very low alcohol %. Hopefully it's just the Oktoberfest because I ordered a couple other recipe kits from this company. I'll update this review to let y'all know how the other two recipes turn out. Stay away from this one if you like beer.

do not how this will turn out since it was missing the yeast packet, will try to use bread yeast but not looking good, this was a fathersday gift so I am very disapointed