Craft A Brew 5 Gallon Hard Cider Brewing Kit for Beginners Review (2026)

What comes in the box

This kit centers on a 6.5 gallon fermentation bucket with a built-in spigot and lid, sized larger than the 5 gallon target batch to leave headroom for active fermentation foam. Alongside the bucket, it includes a 3-piece airlock, transfer tubing, a spring-tip bottle filler, a bottle capper, and 50 bottle caps, covering both the fermenting and bottling stages of the process in one package. On the ingredient side, it ships with a cider yeast packet and a sanitizer packet, along with detailed instructions covering sweet, dry, spiced and fruit-forward cider variations rather than a single fixed recipe.

Batch size and bottle yield

The kit is built around a 5 gallon batch, which Craft A Brew states yields approximately 50 bottles of finished hard cider once the batch is fully fermented and bottled. That bottle count is a meaningful jump from the roughly one dozen bottles a 1 gallon batch produces, which lowers the amount of juice, yeast and bottling effort needed per finished bottle even though the total time and equipment commitment for a single batch is larger. Fifty bottles is also enough to comfortably share cider with friends or stock a small supply for a few months rather than drinking through a batch in a week or two.

What you still need to buy

As with the smaller version of this kit, apple juice itself is not included, and Craft A Brew's instructions call for approximately 5 gallons of preservative-free apple juice to fill the bucket to its target batch size. Sourcing 5 gallons of preservative-free juice usually means buying several large containers from a grocery store after checking labels for added preservatives, or arranging a bulk order from a juice press or orchard, since most gallon jugs of juice sold at standard grocery stores are not preservative-free. Budgeting for this juice purchase separately from the kit price is an important step before starting a batch.

Tools for tracking the process

The kit includes a hydrometer and an adhesive fermometer thermometer, two tools that let a beginner track fermentation progress rather than guessing when a batch is done. The hydrometer measures specific gravity, which shows how much sugar has converted to alcohol over time, while the stick-on fermometer gives a rough read of fermentation temperature directly on the bucket wall without needing to open the lid and risk contamination. Having both included in the kit saves a beginner from having to identify and separately buy these two commonly recommended tools before their first batch, and both remain useful for future batches made with the same bucket.

Who should buy it

This kit suits a beginner who is ready to commit to a full 5 gallon batch and wants the fermentation bucket, bottling tools and tracking instruments bundled together rather than sourced piece by piece. Fifty bottles per batch makes the juice and consumable cost per bottle lower than running several small 1 gallon batches to reach the same total volume. It asks for more upfront space, both for the bucket during fermentation and for storing 50 empty bottles before capping, so anyone short on space or unsure they will finish a full 5 gallon batch on a first attempt may be better served starting with the smaller 1 Gallon kit first and moving up to this size once they know the process works for them.

Frequently asked questions