We don't make the cheapest kits.  We didn't design them that way. 
Our kits don't make cheap beer, they make great beer!

Here's the story behind our Recipe Kits: 

For year, people asked us what we use when brewing our own beer, because they know that we have access to every ingredient imaginable.  It didn't take long for us to figure out what our customers really wanted: great recipe kits made with the best ingredients!

We've spent more than ten years working on our recipes.  When we get each one right, we create nice labels & instructions, and then figure out how much it costs.  We never change anything because of cost - that's not the point with our recipe kits.

The next question we get is, "What should I add to this kit to make it better?"  Well, there are plenty of things you can add (and some may work nicely) but the kits already contain everything we used when we brewed the beer.  If we though it needed something, it's already in there!

We're always working on experimental batches for new recipe kits.  And that can lead to some really "interesting" results!  That's another advantage for you - we brew hundreds of batches to come up with great recipes, so you don't have to.  Certainly there are many home brewers who enjoy working with their own recipes, and we encourage this, as long as they like the beer they're making. 

Keep reading if you want to learn specific things we do with our recipe kits.  Then, if you think we know what we're talking about, order a kit for your favorite style.  You'll find out why we have so many customers who love our recipe kits. (read unsolicited customer testimonials)

1. Our Brewmasters have years of home brewing experience.
Everyone here has at least 12 years of brewing experience (even the webpage guy.)  All of our recipes are developed and test brewed numerous times for fine-tuning.  Nobody else puts this much effort into supplying you with a GREAT recipe.  Our goal is for our customers to consistently brew the finest beer possible.  We work on a recipe until it's just right, using the best ingredients for the job.  These are exactly the same recipe kits we use when we brew beer for ourselves, our friends, and family.

2. Our recipes include LIVE LIQUID YEAST.
Live yeast cultures are far superior to dried yeast.  Live yeast makes better beer!  All of our recipes include ready-to-use yeast packages with over 100-billion yeast cells per culture.  No advanced preparation is required.

Commercial breweries, Microbreweries and most award-winning home brewers use live yeast cultures.  Cheaper kits include dried yeast, because it's cheap.  But we're not willing to degrade the quality just to make the kits a few dollars cheaper.  

A "price trick" you'll see elsewhere is to say, "We leave it up to you to choose the yeast."  That makes their kits look cheaper... until you add in the yeast!  But we think a "beer kit" or "beer recipe" shouldn be complete.  We stake our reputation on our recipes just the way they are.  We're not leaving an escape clause where we can use the excuse, "oh, but you picked the wrong yeast!"  

3. We use High-Quality ingredients which are appropriate to the beer style.
This is especially true in our choice of malt extract for each recipe kit.  (Malt extract is the most expensive component in most recipe kit.  Malt Extract is what feeds the yeast, contributes body, flavor, color, aroma, and produces alcohol & CO2 through fermentation.  Sounds important, right?)

Malt extracts aren't created equal!  Many recipe kits always use the cheapest malt extract in every one of their recipe kits.  Often, these are British-made.  British malt extract is only good for making British-style beers, it shouldn't be used for everything!  For instance, check out this photo:

These are three different brands, mixed to the same strength, with nothing else added.  Now can you imagine how disappointing a recipe kit would be for a "Blond Ale" if it was made with British malt extract?  To make an authentic beer recipe, the malt extract should match the style of beer.

Our recipes make beer that conforms to accepted beer style guidelines.
Here's the important thing:  You can't just throw some ingredients together and call it a "brown ale," or whatever.  (Can't you?  Unfortunately, we see it all the time!)  The beer has to meet certain flavor, color, body, aroma, and alcohol strength characteristics to carry the name of a certain style.

Our recipes contain enough malt extract to make a proper strength beer.
Malt extract is the most expensive part of a beer recipe kit, but we don't skimp or cut corners.  We've seen plenty of other recipe kits for supposedly strong beers (like IPA, Barleywine, Bock, Imperial Stout, etc.) that don't contain nearly enough malt extract.  They can get away with it because there are no legal regulations about beer style in recipe kits.

Other's kits for moderately strong beers, like "IPA", often include 6 or 7 pounds of malt extract instead of the 7½ or 8 pounds it deserves.  In fact, you'll see a huge number of recipes that call for 6.6 lb. of malt extract.  Is 6.6 a magic number?  No, but malt extract comes in 3.3 pound cans, and they're just throwing together recipe kits with two cans each.  Maybe they'll include an extra pound of dry malt extract for a strong beer... but now they're choosing malt according to package size instead of what's best for the beer.  Does that sound like the best way to make a recipe?

How do we do it?  We don't use cans - we custom measure & package our malt extract for each recipe.

Our recipes include the right amount of hops, too.
Many recipe kits use two hop additions... one at the beginning of the boil, and another at the end.  Two hop additions are adequate, but making GREAT beer may require more. (But then, some recipes only need one!)

It doesn't cost much to add more hops if the recipe needs it, and the results speak for themselves.  Our extremely popular ULTIMATE PALE ALE recipe kit includes six separate hop additions!

We custom weigh & package the ideal hops for each recipe kit.   The competition's kits often include something like: "1 oz. Fuggle Hops, 1 oz. Nugget Hops."  Why are they all 1 oz. additions?  Because once again, they're just throwing together pre-packaged ingredients.

Our recipe kits include stuff that others would call "extras".
This is part of achieving our goal to make the best recipe kits possible.   Our brewmasters have the experience to know exactly what's needed, and we don’t leave anything out just to make our prices look artificially low.   For instance, our ULTIMATE PORTER recipe includes $15.00 worth of specialty ingredients (over and above the malt extract, grains, hops, and yeast!)  Would it be OK without them?  Actually yes, it would still be a decent porter...  but it wouldn't be ULTIMATE!

We include step-By-Step brewing & bottling instructions.
Still learning?  If you follow our instructions, you'll make great beer!  Our instructions are one of the best thing about our kits.  Our instructions are complete, they tell you what to do, why you're doing it, and what effect it's having on the beer.  Our instructions tell you how to brew and bottle, plus information about fermentation, clarification, and using a secondary fermentor.