Anyone have any recommendations for their favorite one gallon home brew extract kits? I’ve found several I want to try before I move on to all grain kits or perhaps a purchase a five gallon set up. I’m cramped on space for a while, so I’ll be brewing one gallon kits for a while.

These include:

Brewer’s Best Belgian Tripel
Brewer’s Best Hop Rotator Amarillo
Brewer’s Best Orange Gose
Brooklyn Grapefruit Honey Ale
Brooklyn Jalapeño Saison
Northern Brewer White House Honey
Northern Brewer Bourbon Stout
Northern Brewer Caribou Slobber I
Northern Brewer Sierra Madre Pale Ale

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Posted by The Spleen

Member since Dec 2010

38865 posts

Posted on 10/10/18 at 10:56 am to Tornado Alley

quote:
Northern Brewer Sierra Madre Pale Ale

I've made the 5 gallon version of this, and we couldn't differentiate it from Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at all. If you like it, it's not a bad one to try.

Haven't brewed any of the others. NB's stuff is pretty good overall, but their prices can be a little ridiculous.

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Posted by Tornado Alley

Member since Mar 2012

26530 posts

Posted on 10/10/18 at 11:01 am to The Spleen

One gallon brewing is pretty cost-inefficient as it is, which is why I’m trying to get my feet wet with extract kits before moving to all grain pretty quickly.

Out of my first brew, I’ll get probably 8-10 beers. My next extract kit will cost $17-$20 and probably yield 8-10 beers also.

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Posted by blizzle

Dallas, TX

Member since Jan 2009

927 posts

Posted on 10/10/18 at 8:05 pm to Tornado Alley

I’d suggest the Caribou Slobber but I also like brown malty beers. IIRC, this one is similar to a newcastle.

Do you have a brew shop near you? I’ve been able to get my one gallon batch cost to about $11 by buying the hops, yeast, and extracts and/or grains outside of a kit. Bought a second gallon size fermenter so I can still do small batches but get a little better efficiency out of cost and yield.

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Posted by Tornado Alley

Member since Mar 2012

26530 posts

Posted on 10/11/18 at 10:47 am to blizzle

Unfortunately, I don’t live near a homebrew store.

Maybe I should do what you do and purchase a second carboy and my own grains to increase yield and cost efficiency.

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Posted by BitBuster

Lafayette

Member since Dec 2017

1439 posts

Posted on 10/11/18 at 12:43 pm to Tornado Alley

Pick one you'd want to drink.

The Sierra Madre Pale Ale may be the easiest drinking of the bunch, but Caribou Slobber should be the easiest to not screw up. Brown Ales are easy.

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Posted by BottomlandBrew

Member since Aug 2010

27099 posts

Posted on 10/11/18 at 1:20 pm to Tornado Alley

quote:
cost efficiency

You need to throw this concept out the window when it comes to homebrewing, especially at the one gallon scale. You can see some cost gains when you're buying whole sacks of grain and pounds of hops.

For 1 gallon kits, skip the extract. Go all-grain. You can do it all on your stovetop with your existing kitchen pots. Most extract kits will come with specialty grains anyways, so you're already steeping. It's not any more work to hold things at mash temperatures for a bit.

Happy brewing