Other Kit Ratings

[Boatboy24]

I know this has been asked before, but would it be possible to have a ratings section or thread? One place where you could look up a kit and see what folks have thought of it. I'm not sure how it could be organized, and we'd probably need a little moderation to be sure we don't end up with duplicates. But a single place to search for a kit and get reviews would be enormously valuable. Some vendors have reviews, but you just don't see a lot of people leaving them. I know when someone asks about a kit here, there are usually plenty of responses. They just aren't aggregated, or stored in a way that makes them easy to get to again.

Anyone else think this would be useful?

 

[marino]

Yes, except for the possible problem in the fact that we all such different tastes and preferences. I guess we'll do what we always do and tune in more to people whose preferences we think line up ours. Either way, having a place where comments are aggregated would be valuable.

 

[Johnd]

I think it's a great idea Organize/Moderator/Facilitator Jim!!!

 

[salcoco]

WineMaker magazine has a wine competition every year and they list the result for each wine kit. I would think the results would be a indicator or wine kit quality.

 

[dcbrown73]

Yes, except for the possible problem in the fact that we all such different tastes and preferences. I guess we'll do what we always do and tune in more to people whose preferences we think line up ours. Either way, having a place where comments are aggregated would be valuable.

I think it could be more of a consensus type thing. There are several kits that almost everyone agrees are very good.

 

[Boatboy24]

I think it could be more of a consensus type thing. There are several kits that almost everyone agrees are very good.

Kinda the way I see it. That's the way I look at reviews for any product. If I'm interested in something and see that it has 4 out of 5 stars, I go first to the lowest ratings to see if I can garner anything from that. Often, you see complaints about a box damaged in shipping, someone having a problem with assembly, etc. You can get a sense fairly quickly if there are legitimate gripes with the product itself. If I were to see a kit with 3/5 rating, where there are only a handful or reviews and one that's bringing the average down, I'd take a close look at that low rating to see what its about. Are they complaining that their pinot noir was light and fruity? Is it an island mist kit they claim was sweet and they expect that varietal to be made dry? I wouldn't look at either of those as being negative, but more a reflection of the actual product as compared to their expectations - which may have not been realistic in the first place. Anyway, my point is that having a place where these reviews could be aggregated would be useful. Some sites offer reviews on kits, but they don't seem to be used very often. And if I'm buying something from Label Peelers, I probably won't see reviews posted on the Northern Brewer site.

 

[Boatboy24]

WineMaker magazine has a wine competition every year and they list the result for each wine kit. I would think the results would be a indicator or wine kit quality.

It is one data point, but I don't feel it gives a ton of insight. Frankly, their list is so huge that you can find just about any kit on it.

 

[StBlGT]

i like this idea! that would be cool to have a good consensus of the members here; I think it would help out greatly when choosing time comes.

 

[Sweetiepie]

I think this would be a great idea, since I am even new to wine drinking and finding it hard to know even what kind of taste I like. I did buy a kit, hoping this shows me what a wine is suppose to taste like at different stages. My grape wine from my grapes isn't tasting to good but the grapes by themselves are really bitter but great when sweetened for juice and jam so still hoping it just needs to be back sweetened.

Would love it, if it could be mentioned if they are beginner friendly. The one I am doing now, says after you apply the yeast seal it up and put an airlock on it and don't look at it again until day 5-7. Which seems contrary to what I have learned here. Which is to stir/punch down at least once a day and check SG, possibly taste. Would love to know if there is a kit out there that walks you through each step more thoroughly.

 

[richmke]

I suggest using the Kit Winemaking forum with a standard title such as: "Review: [RJS En Primeur Winery Series - Winemaker's Trio]".

People can add their review of the kit. Try to keep questions in the thread to a minimum.

This should make the threads easy to find.

 

[jburtner]

If a thread was dedicated for each review or for each kit - then maybe each thread could then have a poll configured in such a way that it grades the product using a point system or similar. Postings to the thread could then be added detail to read up on for that kit.

Cheers!
-johann