This is my second time buying the Coopers beer kit from Amazon. As expected, I received a dented can. This is the price you pay in exchange for a 25% discount. This time round, the sachet of yeast was missing as well, which was what also happened to some other Amazon product reviewers. Thankfully the yeast and the instructions sheet wasn’t missing when I received my very first beer kit. Why did I buy a second time from Amazon, you might ask, if I knew I was going to get a dented can and possibly missing yeast? Mainly because it is cheaper, even if only so by a small margin.
Amazon sells this premium selection beer kit for US$24.95 less 25%, which is about S$26. The local supplier ibrew has it for $32. The $6 savings would be spent on the other necessary ingredients, such as brewing sugar, hops or even yeast. In my case, where i intend to do the Hoegarden wheat beer using ibrew’s recipe, a different yeast than what Coopers supplies with their kit is recommended (so i didn’t mind that the yeast was missing from my shipment). The $6 savings probably buys me the yeast and more.
While the beer kit is cheaper from Amazon (if you don’t mind the dented can and assuming the yeast is not missing), the brewing sugar is not. ibrew has them cheaper (Coopers calls them brew enhancer, which is confusing). Logically speaking, something that is shipped from down under to Singapore via the US – literally around the world, would be more expensive than having them shipped directly to Singapore. Other items such as hops and yeast are also decently priced at ibrew, so it is a good place for a beginner homebrewer to get supplies.
A caveat regarding Amazon’s 25% discount – you only get it for one beer kit item per order. If you have 2 beer kits in your cart, at checkout, the discount will only apply to one of the two items. So that makes it harder to hit the US$125 required to get the free AmazonGlobal shipping. If you don’t happen to have anything else you need to get from Amazon, I’d suggest you just get all your supplies from ibrew.
I might find a way to have the beer kits shipped from Australia (they cost as low as A$12.70), but until then, this is the way to sort out my supplies.
Update: Amazon no longer offers the coupon discount, so ibrew is your best bet now.
Update: The free AmazonGlobal shipping is also gone. Well, they definitely lost money shipping of a 1.7kg can of beer kit for free!
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