Brooklyn Brew Shop BrewDog Punk IPA Complete Home Brewing Pale Ale Beer Kit

The package inside was faulty. One sealed bag was open so could not use

BREWDOG being our local brewery - we have known them since they were basically still doing homebrew themselves in a garage - it seemed a great idea to try and make our very own Punk IPA, the one that started it all. The kit is pricey but does come with everything you need to make a brew apart from a very large saucepan in which to boil up the wort (I used our 9 litre Jam Pan). However, a few words of warning: the grain that comes with the kit is only enough to make a few bottles of finished beer, so if you already make your own beer or wine from homebrew kits you will already have all the equipment needed, making this a very costly few pints (just buy some Ellon-brewed Punk IPA instead, direct from Brewdog!); secondly, the kit and instructions are very American (it is not produced by Brewdog in Ellon but is an import from that Land of the Unfree across the pond) - the accompanying Demi-John, while having an interesting screwtop airlock, is an American gallon in size, so a lot smaller than what we are used to using for making wine in the British Isles; thirdly, in our climate it took far longer to produce a drinkable beer than per the instruction leaflet - luckily I checked the specific gravity before bottling after the seven days as instructed as the fermentation had still a long way to go and once it was ready to bottle it does need a lot more than two weeks to mature for it to taste anything like the real thing (I thought it a bit lacking in body but it may be that I added far too much water, getting muddled with the Yankee instructions and smaller than expected Demi-John - will see at Christmas what the final bottle tastes like as I have kept one back that will be some 4 months matured by then). The kit itself is fairly good quality and had it made 36 or 40 pints I would have no complaint at all but 6 or so pints it is not value for money, certainly not for those of us who already have the equipment. So, in closing, if you are totally new to home brewing or wine making I would say this is an interesting introduction to the whole process but, having bought the kit, I advise getting a malt extract kit (eg Tom Caxton or Coopers Real Ale or Woodforde's Wherry) and experiment making your 40 pints in a 25 litre/5 UK gallon bin before actually attempting the Punk IPA brew. For experienced home brewers this is a very pricey kit and, unless they bring out a 40 pint raw materials kit at the £20 - £30 mark, I suspect you could assemble the necessary ingredients yourselves with a little bit of online searching for the required hops etc and save a lot of money. Sadly my favourite brewery has not convinced me at all with this imitation product. James & Martin - there's an opportunity for Brewdog to do much better along these lines if you really want to encourage craft brewing!