Monster Brew Home Brewing Supplies JI-JHQY-CYU0 True Brew Oktoberfest Home Brew Beer Ingredient Kit

This partial grain kit produces some of the best Oktoberfest ale I've had. In fairness, I tend to favor darker lagers, amber ales, and stouts. I didn't have any expectations going into this. I figured that this would be like another Mr. Beer kit that I was used to, and while Mr. Beer makes okay at best kits, this was so much more in-depth. My entire house smelled like graham crackers while I was making the wort. While I love Sam Adams's Oktoberfest, it turns out that this would give it a run for its money AND I can make it year round, I don't have to wait until fall. This batch I modified slightly to end up with an ABV of 5.5% by adding more DME. I ended up with a crisp, solid, refreshing ale, and a great start to my fall season! the plus side of this is that it was cheaper than I wanted to spend on a kit as well, so it was a pleasant surprise that it came out so good.

This was my first time with these beer kits and I like them so much more than the Mr. Beer. For one, they make a lot more which makes the price worth it. I got 50 bottles out of it and only couldn't use about half a gallon because of the aroma hops that settled on the bottom. The only confusing thing about the instructions is when to add the aroma hops. For this kit it sounded like adding them to the end. Even though I read the instructions before making it a few times, the aroma hops was still a little weird how it is worded. I think I did it right because the beer tasted pretty good. Being my first kit I feel I made a couple of mistakes, like not allowing enough time for the wort to cool naturally. There didn't seem to be any ill affects, it just took a long time to do as opposed to my second batch where I started it earlier and let it cool over a few hours while I did other things. Since I wasn't spending time cooling the wort the second time, the amount of time to make was less than spending an hour cooling 2.5 gallons of boiling hot liquid. I really like these kits and plan on buying the different flavors.

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.

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.

I've been home brewing for many years and I know my way around a brew kettle. I was looking for a good price on a complete ingredient kit and this is it. This Octoberfest kit has ale yeast and tolerates higher temps while fermenting, my pantry thermometer read 74 degrees F. Everything went well, about 15 days in primary, racked to bottle and sat in pantry for another 2 weeks. First couple of bottles was good but if you can wait another week or two, IT TASTES EVEN BETTER! :) Love this beer. I have buddies who are Spaten Optimater and Turbodog fans...but they loved this beautifully-orange/copper colored ale. Great carbonation, not too hoppy, good crisp finish but with enough malty-ness for a good all around beer. Will order it again! :)

I purchased this kit and brought it in my luggage to our second home in the Bahamas. Carefully made the brew with the help of a neighbor who has brewed beer for years. When it came time to add the yeast at the end of the process, I realized that the yeast was manufactured in 2017 so it was too old to work. As a result, all the other ingredients and all the hard work has gone to waste. By this time the return date for the purchase had passed. Wrote to Amazon customer service and will edit this review if they make any attempt to compensate.

SO I ordered the recipe kit and it was delivered on 4/14/2018. I started my brew day on 4/15. When it came time to add the hops I opened them up and instinctively stuck my nose to the package.... I love the smell of hops.... These smelled old... Then I insthe pected the packaThe hops were dated May of 2016.... Seriously..... Both packages of hops were very old. Other than that everything seemed fine. It's really a shame becasue the kit was very easy to use but not sure another purchase is in my future.