Customer Reviews

Gold Complete Beer Equipment Kit (K6) with 6 Gallon Glass Carboy

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Great product(s).

Everything came as listed and they all have a quality feel to them. No cheap plastic parts, all top-notch.

Almost done with my first batch - I ordered an Oktoberfest ingredient kit additionally.

Once you buy this kit you will STILL NEED:

-ingredients to make the beer itself (ingredient packs are convenient and fairly inexpensive)
-a large wooden spoon to stir your wort
-at LEAST a 5 gallon pot w/lid
-bottles to bottle your beer
-bottle caps to cap your beer

I created a blog documenting my first batch...this may help other beginners.
[...]

Happy brewing homies.

I just brewed my first 5 gallons of beer with this kit. It has everything you need besides a pot to boil the wort. The pressure activated bottling attachment makes the bottling process a breeze and all the bottles end up having a really consistent fill. I would recommend "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing" to go along with it instead of using the directions this kit comes with. The book breaks the brewing process down into easy to follow steps for the beginner and contains a lot of useful information ranging from the history of home brewing to advanced brewing techniques.

This is a fanatic kit that offers everything you need to make beer besides the ingredients and the bottle caps.

The lit offers high quality equipment for a starter kit or a beer veteran looking for an upgrade. You could easily brew two beers at once, 1 in the carboy and the other in the plastic bucket. The siphon in invaluable in the bottling of the beer and drastically reduces the sediment during bottling.

Other tips for people just starting out:
- I do not like the cleaner agent that comes with the kit. I think 1 cup Clorox per gallon water and then rinsing in tap water works better and does not leave an odd taste.
- If you live in a warm climate and use the carboy, you should google how to make an airlock run off before brewing (this is something that happens with carboys and has nothing to do with the kit)

I decided to get into homebrewing after expecting to pay hundreds for equipment. The local homebrew store had decent kits, but this was almost half the price of those! I ended up getting a kit for myself and a kit for the father-in-law.

The kit came in a nice box that was perfect for wrapping as a gift. It had everything listed and everything seems high quality, it even came with a small homebrew beginners book that should be enough to get you to make the first batch, however I would eventually recommend buying 'The Complete Joy of Homebrewing' as most homebrewers consider it the bible of brewing. I have just bottled my first batch of beer and everything worked great, now I have to stare at it for 2-3 more weeks as it conditions. To the reviewer who said the carboy is only 5 gallons, I have 5 gallon plastic carboys for my fishtank and this is noticably larger, however I have not been able to accurately measure it.

People wishing to get into this hobby should know a few things:
1) You will need to buy a stockpot to boil the wort(unfermented beer). Do not get aluminum as it can impart bad flavors as it reacts to the acidic wort. Do not skimp on this, expect to pay at least $50 for a decent one off amazon. The thicker gage steel, the better.
2) You may need some miscellaneous items like bottlecaps(not included), a grain bag, stirring spoon, ammonia to remove old bottle labels, etc.
3) The kit comes with some bags of special sanitizer, however most people use bleach or other readily available chemicals. Just don't mix chemicals and rinse well.
4) Start saving bottles early! The bottles cannot be screw top and should be brown, not green or clear(light ruins beer). Sam Adams bottles worked best for me, bought a couple 12 packs of their holiday collection. I've heard things about the wing capper breaking thin glass beer bottles, but had no problems. Also, I have been told that old champagne bottles can be capped as well.
5) If you dont like doing dishes, this is not a hobby for you. Scrubbing 50 bottles, the carboy, the bucket, hoses and siphons takes time and patience.
6) If you like to save $$$ and experiment, this IS the hobby for you. Most recipes work out to under .50 for a bottle of beer.

This is a great deal. You get all the equipment you need to brew beer aside from the ingredients and brew pot. The quality of the equipment is great and really make the whole brewing process from fermenting to bottling a breez.

I received this as a gift from my wife for Christmas. We are prime users on Amazon, so she was thrilled to get this on Prime as it was the only homebrew equipment kit Amazon had with Prime.

That was where the thrill ended.

I was so excited to open the box as this was my first kit. I'm very excited to start brewing my own beer.

Order of fails:

First, the glass carboy is missing in action (no word from customer service at MonsterBrew yet). Second, the hydrometer was broken with glass everywhere, but it was in its own box/case. Third, the siphon kit had shards of glass in it (who knows from where - the hydrometer was in a separate case). Fourth, the bucket was covered in a fine layer of dust/dirt/filth (doesn't matter since I'd have to clean and disinfect, but it showed the overall lack of care going into a "gold" quality kit). Lastly, the inside of the bucket was scratched all over as though a small animal with sharp claws was inside trying to get out. The plastic shavings from the scratches were the last straw and a complete fail on MonsterBrew.

I'm thoroughly disappointed and would not recommend MonsterBrew to anyone considering this kit or other purchases from MonsterBrew. I will be returning this poor excuse for a starter kit while expecting a full refund.

my wonderful wife bought me this kit for xmas. i now have expanded to 3 carboys and am currently fermenting batch number 9...it is called a pipleine in the brewing world. i had no idea how fun this would be. now to review the kit:
it is an excellent start and has everything you need to ferment your brew.
the book is great--a bit dated, but great. read it twice.
the glass carboy is the best--use it for your primary.
the bottling bucket is standard. i use mine for storing my supplies, sanitizing bottles, and bottling (of course).

all you really need now is a brew kettle/pot (3 to 5 gallons), bottles, caps, an extract kit...and lots of paitience.

Purchased this for my Christmas present. Wondered why the box was pretty light when received. Upon opening there was no glass carboy in the box. Only some broken glass in the bottom. My guess is the factory realized they broke the carboy and removed the big chunks of glass but forgot to replace with a new carboy. I've returned the entire order but of course now the price is higher and doesn't have free shipping with Amazon Prime. Makes me sad. :(

I bought this kit as a first time homebrewer after reading all of the positive reviews. I have now used it to brew three batches and absolutely love it. It has pretty much everything you need except a great big pot to boil the wort. The quality of the products is very good. I have nothing bad to say at all about this kit. Buy it and start brewing asap. It's a great hobby!

Great kit overall; just a couple notes to clarify and point out some of its few shortcomings.

The racking cane included is just that...a cane. Most people will want an auto siphon (including me), if that's you, plan on buying one separate with its attending plastic hoses.

The kit lists a 7.8 gal fermentation bucket but really it's a 6-ish gal bottling bucket. Though it's possible to use it as a fermenter and then use the carboy for secondary it's not advisable. A glass carboy for secondary is usually recommended to be 5 gal to reduce head space. The bucket works great as a bottling bucket though and as long as the spigot doesn't leak you'd probably have success using it as a fermenter too.

The carboy has some gnarly rough protrusions on the bottom...like small sand grain type knots that you won't notice until you slide it a few inches (or feet) across your counter tops and scratch the bejesus out of them. Don't worry I got it fixed and am assigning an old towel the duty of being duct taped to the carboy.

Aside from these small things it's a great beginner kit for a great price. Already got my second batch in the fermenter!