8 Cool Kits for Making Your Own Alcohol

Put your DIY skills to good use.

8 Cool Kits for Making Your Own Alcohol

Put your DIY skills to good use.

Do you have an independent DIY streak and also enjoy adult beverages? Do you hate going to the store or local adult drinking establishment and paying overinflated prices for your booze? Perhaps it’s time to try making your own beer—or wine, gin, whiskey, or seltzer—at home? How cool would it be to make a bottle of artisanal gin or a keg of beer and gift it to a friend or family member? “Oh wow,” they’d titter, “Where did you get this amazing brew? I want more!”

Then you’d get to bask in the glory of your awesomeness and add it to your list of newly acquired skills—not your resume—and everyone would want to start buying your specialty brews. Hey, it’s OK to dream. But if you really want to brew up some fun, check out the following eight cool kits for making your own alcohol. You won’t be disappointed.

The Homemade Gin Kit

The Homemade Gin Kit

Five ingredients, four steps, one mouth that will be telling everyone at the party, “Yeah, I made this.” In just 36 hours, The Homemade Gin Kit will turn your average vodka—please don’t skimp on the good quality vodka—into an enticing, aromatic gin perfect for sharing with a friend. In fact, in addition to the necessary funnel, mesh strainer, juniper berries and botanical blend, this gin kit includes two 375mililiter glass bottles, so you can share your award-winning gin with a bestie. Assuming you want to share your brilliance. Watch out, your spirit might end up in high demand. 

Get Brewsy: Wine, Cider & Mead Kit

Get Brewsy Wine, Cider & Mead Kit

Do you like wine, cider, or mead? Then chances are, you probably work part-time at a Renaissance faire. But all kidding aside (sort of), Brewsy has provided the ultimate kit to create your own sweet and fruit alcoholic bevvie. It takes just 15 minutes to finish the process, and only one week to process—so hopefully you can wait that long. All you need is a one gallon container and your favorite juice. Included in this fermentation set are a winemaking guide, wine clarifier, three airlocks and three Brewsy bags, access to their boozy app and online community groups, and even unlimited customer support via text. 

Craft-A-Brew: Hard Seltzer Brewing Kit

Craft-A-Brew Hard Seltzer Brewing Kit

What’s gluten-free, color-free, full of flavor, and most important, alcoholic? This epic hard seltzer brewing kit by Craft-A-Brew. With this kit, brewing it is almost as easy as drinking it. But if you’re drinking and brewing, that might make things a little confusing. All it takes is four ingredients, four steps, and voilà! Refreshing and delicious hard seltzer. Craft-A-Brew’s Hard Seltzer Kit includes the ingredients to make 1 gallon of grapefruit hard seltzer (with your own equipment) as well eight 16 ounce bottles with twist-on caps. The company has stated that the bottles are not for your emotions, so please follow their directions.

Do Your Whiskey: Whiskey-Making Kit

Do Your Whiskey Whiskey-Making Kit

Whatever you make, Do Your Whiskey—they also make gin and vodka kits—will make sure that you do it right. They’ve thought of everything, so all you need to contribute is your imagination. This kit is perfect for beginners, experts, and everyone in between. It includes two glass bottles with wooden corks and labels, stainless steel whiskey cubes, three types of whiskey chips, and six aromatic botanicals (orange peel, chai, cinnamon, cocoa beans, bird’s eye chili, and coffee beans). Once you’re all set up, Do Your Whiskey is going to let you do your thing. So, do it right and read the instructions.

Mr. Beer: Craft Brew Golden Ale Kit

Mr. Beer Craft Brew Golden Ale Kit

Want to impress your beer buddies but have no clue how to? Mr. Beer has created this efficient home brewing system specifically with newbies in mind. In just 30 minutes, you can perform some amazing kitchen magic by following their easy to use step-by-step guide. This home brew set comes with all the ingredients to create the golden ale of your dreams, including a compact and lightweight, UV-resistant fermentor (with locking spigot, so your liquid magic won’t escape without your knowledge), Mr. Beer’s Hopped Malt Extract, and 11 reusable shatterproof bottles that are specially designed for carbonating beer. No cauldron big pots required. All you need to provide is water—which you hopefully have.

Brooklyn Brew Shop: Everyday IPA Beer Making Kit

Brooklyn Brew Shop Everyday IPA Beer Making Kit

If you like that strong, zwangy, IPA taste and like the idea of watching your brew ferment on your kitchen counter, this kit is for you. Brooklyn Brew Shop has created a mini brewery in a box, which comes complete with a 3.8 liter glass fermentor, glass spirit-filled thermometer, screw-cap stopper, vinyl tubing, racking cane and tip, chambered airlock, Brooklyn Brew Shop Cleanser, and of course, the all-grain ingredient mix. So if you don’t mind your home smelling like yeasty fruit for a few days, then go forth and brew on. It’ll clear up quicker if you open some windows.

Northern Brewer: Irish Red Ale Craft Beer Making Kit

Northern Brewer Irish Red Ale Craft Beer Making Kit

Are you a DIYer? Do you like to drink beer? Then this Irish Red Ale beer kit is for you. Northern Brewer has perfected the art of the DIY brew experience. Along with their simple-to-use instruction packet, you’ll get to pick one of four recipes—besides Irish Red Ale, Northern Brewer offers American Wheat, Kama Citra Pale Ale, and Caribou Slobber Brown Ale…that sounds appetizing—a bottle capper with caps, personalizable beer labels, a siphonless little big mouth bubbler, and a free home brewing 101 course. This is for the more patient DIYer—to create this beverage, it takes four weeks. But if you’re a DIYer, then you know all about patience and enjoying the experience, right?

BeerDroid Automated Beer Making System

BeerDroid Automated Beer Making System

If you can’t make up your mind—because you appreciate all the beers—then this techno-toy is waiting for you. The first of its kind, BeerDroid is your fully automatic, temperature-controlled personal brewer. This little R2D2-like contraption brews 2.6 gallons of boozy goodness and includes 100 percent natural ingredients—no added chemicals or questionable additives—called Brew-prints. You know, like blueprints but for beer, allowing you to experiment and try out anything from lagers to stouts.

The BrewDroid can be controlled via app and has patented end-of-fermentation (EOF) technology that tells you when your booze is complete and ready to keg, drink, or store. Store? Yeah. Sure.

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