Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsNot bad but not great
Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2018
This kit isn't too bad for the price if you factor in the time saved having to do research and getting your own stuff. For the most part, everything in the kit is fairly nice with a couple of exceptions.
The glass carboy is very nice and it includes an attachable handle which makes moving/tipping it much easier. The airlocks and bungs all fit well with each other and with the holes in the carboy/fermenter without any problems. The auto siphon is good quality and works without issue.
The main and largest problem is that the plastic fermenter that is included in this kit is the "big mouth bubbler" which by itself is actually pretty nice. The problem is that it comes with their new "universal" lid which instead of screwing onto the fermenter and making a tight seal, it's got soft silicone rings that press fit into the mouth of the fermenter. The problem with this is that even the slightest amount of pressure build up from CO2 causes the lid to pop out of the mouth and break the seal, letting in who knows what into your wine/beer/cider/mead. I can't seem to keep it properly sealed for more than 2 hours without taping or weighing down the lid. For some reason, they've known about this problem for years (check reviews for the lid on northern brewer) and still choose to not make a proper screw down lid or address the problem at all. As much as I love the vessel itself, the lid makes this basically the worst fermentation vessel you can use. You'd be better off with a bucket from home depot.
The rest of the included items range from "okay" to "pretty good" rather than "near useless".
The corker is very basic and requires a good bit of hand/arm strength and leverage, so if you're not someone like that you'll have to get someone to help you or get a lever corker instead.
The wine thief is also fairly basic. It works, but since it's a three piece plastic unit you'll get some drips/loss of holding power through the seams. This isn't a huge problem as long as you're quick with it, but there are nicer ones out there for sure.
Lastly the tubing that comes with the kit is fairly short. When racking wine you want to make sure that the bottom of the tubing reaches the bottom of the new vessel you're transferring to in order to minimize splashing and oxygen exposure. It's possible to do this with the included tubing but your new vessel has to be fairly close to the vessel you're transferring from. I ended up buying a 6 foot length of tubing from my local home brew store so I can actually rack from my kitchen counter to a vessel on the floor, and this is the minimum length I would suggest but 7 feet might of been better.
All in all I don't regret buying this kit, but if someone asked me going forward I'd probably tell them to avoid it purely because of the lid issue and either get another kit or just piece one together themselves.
