Northern Brewer Essential Brew Share Enjoy Starter Kit vs Brooklyn Brew Shop 1-Gallon Beer Making Kit

The Northern Brewer kit is the brewing gift: 5-gallon extract brewing, real fermenter and bottling gear, trusted instructions - $80 for the full hobby. The Brooklyn Brew Shop 1-gallon kit is the $48 all-grain foodie pick. Mr. Beer is the 2-gallon it-depends at $70. Skip the Mr. Beer Root Beer kit - it makes soda, not beer.

Northern Brewer Essential Brew Share Enjoy Starter Kit

Buy it

The 5-gallon starter kit - real fermenter, bottling gear, extract recipe, the hobby done right - $80.

• A real 5-gallon batch - 50+ bottles of beer, the scale a brewery works at.
• Proper equipment: fermenting bucket, bottling bucket, auto-siphon, capper, hydrometer - the real toolkit, not a toy fermenter.
• Extract brewing with the most trusted instructions in homebrewing - foolproof first batch.
• The upgrade path is real - the gear carries into all-grain brewing later.

• $80 plus a kettle and bottles - the kit doesn't include the pot or the packaging.
• Extract brewing, not all-grain - you brew from malt syrup, not from grain.
• 5 gallons is a commitment - fermenter space, bottle storage, the works.

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Brooklyn Brew Shop 1-Gallon Beer Making Kit

Buy it

The all-grain 1-gallon kit - real mash, real grain, small batch in a stockpot - $48.

• True all-grain brewing at 1 gallon - you mash actual grain in a kitchen stockpot, like a brewery does.
• The teaching kit - learns the real process (mash, sparge, boil, ferment) without the 5-gallon volume.
• Fits a kitchen - no big fermenter, a 1-gallon jug is all it takes.
• $48 - the cheapest way into real all-grain brewing.

• 1 gallon is ~10 bottles - a tasting batch, not a supply.
• More process per pint - all-grain at 1 gallon is the same steps for less beer.
• The glass jug is a fermenter, not a brewery bucket - less convenient for transfers.

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Side by side

The bottom line

Our overall pick is the Northern Brewer Essential Brew Share Enjoy Starter Kit - The 5-gallon starter kit - real fermenter, bottling gear, extract recipe, the hobby done right - $80. Choose the Brooklyn Brew Shop 1-Gallon Beer Making Kit instead if the foodie brewer - someone who wants to learn real all-grain process in a small kitchen.

Want the full picture, including the other options we compared and the popular one we'd skip? Read the complete The Best Beer Brewing Kits: 4 Compared (and One to Skip).