If you've ever considered brewing your own beer at home, but you're not sure how to do it, where to start, or what you need, a home beer brewing kit is a perfect way to get started. A brewing kit provides you with everything you need including equipment, ingredients, and easy step-by-step instructions. Within two weeks of starting with your kit, you will be enjoying outstanding beer that you made yourself. Brewing your own beer at home with a beer brewing kit doesn't require any special skills or knowledge, just a desire to make your own beer, and the ability to follow simple instructions.

Once you've mastered brewing beer with kits, you can buy recipes and individual ingredients to make beer from scratch. This will allow you to fine tune beer recipes that you already enjoy, or create your own masterpiece from scratch. Beer brewing kits have the ability to grow along with your brewing capabilities.

There are 3 popular brands of home beer brewing kits available on the market today. We'll give you a brief overview and review of each one, along with some positives and negatives to consider before making a purchase. All 3 of these kits function as advertised and make beer, but you may find that one fits your needs better than the other two. Some of the the kit makers sell different levels of kits at different prices. To make this comparison apples-to-apples, we'll review each manufacturer's beer kit that retails the closest to $100.

Mr Beer Brewing Kit

The best thing about a Mr. Beer brewing kit is the price. They have 3 kits available ranging in cost from $49.95 to $99.95, and their refill ingredients range in price from $13.95 to $21.95. They also give quantity discounts if you buy 4 or 6 refill kits at a time, and all orders over $99 receive free shipping. For comparison purposes we'll review the "Brewmaster's Series" kit, which retails for $99.95. (Plus free shipping.)

Mr.Beer's Brewmaster's kit (pictured above) includes everything you need to brew and bottle 2 batches of premium all-malt beer. Each batch makes 2 gallons of beer (equivalent to just over 21 bottles of beer). The kit contains instructions and a brewer's guide along with:

• 1 Two-Gallon Fermenter
• 2 Premium Brew Packs of Beer Ingredients
• 8 Bottles with Caps and Labels
• 1 Mr. Beer Baseball Cap and T-Shirt
• 2 Mr. Beer Pint Glasses
• 1 "Brew-o-meter" Which is a Stick-on Thermometer
• 1 "Sugar Measure" Which is a self-leveling measuring tube

In addition to being inexpensive, the Mr. Beer system is incredibly easy to use. The downside is that if you use one of the lower cost kits, the beer made from the ingredients supplied is not very good. Mr. Beer's Premium Brew Packs (which come with the Brewmaster's level of kit) do produce pretty good beer. When you go to buy more ingredients, don't buy their low cost packs.

To buy a Mr Beer brewing kit today, click the following link: Mr. Beer

Cooper's DIY Beer Kit

The best thing about Cooper's DIY Beer Brewing Kit, is that its the most like true home brewing. This makes it the right choice if you're interested in eventually moving from kits into traditional brewing techniques. Cooper's only has 1 style of brewing kit, which retails for $115.99.

Like true home brewing, Coopers allows you to make beer in 6 gallon batches, rather than 2 gallons, like the other brands. Coopers DIY Beer Kit comes with an instructional booklet and DVD, along with the following components:

• 1 30 Liter Fermenter with Lid and O-ring
• 1 Hydrometer and Measuring Flask
• 1 Sediment Reducer
• 1 "Little Bottler" tube and Bottling Valve
• 1 Tap
• 1 Airlock and Airlock Grommet
• 1 Thermometer
• 30 740ml Bottles and Caps
• 1 Coopers Lager Beer Kit Package

The Cooper's kit, in additional to being scalable into traditional home brewing, has the best tasting beer. Coopers is a 5-star rated microbrewery in Australia. They produce great beer in their brewery, and the quality shows through in their ingredient packs. Even though the kit produces great beer, it still has the simple brewing process you look for in a beer brewing kit. Of the 3 beer kits we profiled, Coopers is, in our opinion, the best one.

To buy a Coopers Microbrewery, click the following link: Cooper's

*Cooper's is currently offering gift cards. If you want to give somebody a home brewing kit, but aren't sure exactly what they would want, a gift card is the way to go. You can buy a Cooper's gift card here: Cooper's Gift Cards

The Beer Machine

The best thing about The Beer Machine is its simplicity of use. The Beer Machine is a one step fermenter, conditioning vessel, and dispenser. Making beer with The Beer Machine is about as easy as making coffee. However, this is a case where you reap what you sow. The beer it makes is, in our opinion, sub-par. We reviewed The Beer Machine 2000 model, which retails for $114.95. There is also a Brewery 2006 model for $134.95.

Each Beer Machine 2000 beer kit includes:

• Custom pressure gauge to indicate brew quality, carbonation level, and dispensing pressure.
• Carbonation unit and pressure relief system for maintaining optimal brewing conditions.
• One Brewers Select premium beer mix, which makes 28 beers.
• Yeast, CO2 bulbs and de-foamer disk
• Brewing Guide

If you're looking for the easiest way to brew beer, this is it. If you're looking to make quality beer, the Beer Machine is probably not your best option.

To buy The Beer Machine, click the following link: The Beer Machine