I reviewed Pinter home beer making kit with keg to see if it's worth the price

Brewing beer at home can be daunting to new starters or a lengthy process even for those more used to creating their own lagers on tap. I’ve experienced the diligent process of measuring, checking and keeping warm 40 pints as they gradually reach optimum level for bottling as my husband is a keen Christmas beer brewer.

Now Pinter kit has come along to simplify home brews so I put the all-in-one brewing product to the test. Pinter includes a mini keg that can fit on a shelf in the fridge and has award-winning IPAs, lagers and ales among the ingredients to use with it.

Pinter speeds up making beer or ale as it only needs between seven and 11 days to create a keg of beer containing 10 pints, so it’s also on a smaller scale to traditional home brewing.

The Pinter kit costs £99 on Amazon here for just the equipment without the beer ingredients. The Pinter set of equipment is also £99 at John Lewis here.

A wide range of beer types to make can then be bought from the Pinter website including BrewDog Punk IPAs, classic stout, Yeastie Boys Session IPA, a hefeweizen and ciders. There’s starter kits too. Here’s a review of what it’s like to use Pinter and if it’s worth the price.

How easy is Pinter to use?

Starting off with Pinter involves a fair bit of cleaning first, but there are specific steps to follow that are made clear on the Pinter app. My husband was involved in this too as he’s the expert and I wanted to know how different this was to his normal efforts.

Unlike some traditional forms of brewing beer, Pinter involves using cold water rather than hot. The whole keg needs to go in the fridge too, so you’ll need to clear out a large space to fit it in and maybe juggle around the shelves like we did.

Pinter comes with a docking station and keg and was easy to use. Part-way through, you need to move the contents from the brewing stage to the conditioning process and that was the only point that things got a bit messy as some solution came out, which it is supposed to but maybe a little more than we expected.

The one we made was the Stars and Stripes American Pale Ale, which was light and fizzy so we hadn’t done too badly for a first attempt.

The whole process was simple, although I’m sure we would get better and improve the flavour with each batch and the more experienced we got. There’s also a good range of beers to make from Pinter, which keeps it interesting.

Is Pinter brewing kit value for money?

In terms of value for money, the initial outlay for Pinter at £99 plus ingredients is going to be the biggest investment. But each order of beers will be cheaper from then on, as you’ll have the equipment and just need to order more ingredients.

Packs of beer ingredients cost between £16.99 and £24.99 each, which all make 10 pints.

In the longer term, it would make it cheaper to create this beer at home than buying it. For a kit including 10 beer ingredient packs, making 100 pints, it roughly worked out as around £3 a pint for the first 100 pints. That would then drop down to between £1.50 and £1.75 a pint when just reordering packs of ingredients.

There is a higher initial start-up cost than buying a regular beer kit and bottles separately, which are usually around £80 for 40 pints worth, so around £2 a pint. Reusing the bottles for future batches tends to lower that price to between £1 and £1.25 a pint but that takes a month to six weeks to brew.

The benefit of Pinter is that it is far easier to brew beer with it, it’s quicker and there’s less monitoring involved.

Verdict on Pinter home brewing kit

Pinter is a good bit of kit and is easy to follow. It simplifies the process of brewing beer, lager or ale so it’s ideal for beginners or those that want something that’s a bit less hassle.

It takes away the process of checking the brew’s temperature regularly and the size of it, making 10 pints, is perfect as something special to bring out at a party or family gathering.

Pinter makes home brewing beer a lot quicker too as from start to finish, it was within two weeks. It’s fun, less faff and a nice bit of brewing equipment involved. The convenience gets a major thumbs up from us and the price the kit is set at feels about right. It even would look like a good addition to a mancave.

There are introductory offers on the Pinter website or the keg kit is £99 on both Amazon or from John Lewis. There is also a Pinter store on Amazon.