Brew Your Own Beer Starter Kit with Jimmy's Cream Ale Ale - 2-Gallons

Woodcock’s 2 Gallon Jimmy’s Cream Ale Starter Kit

Everything you need to brew your first batch of beer, in one box.

This kit pairs our Jimmy’s Cream Ale ingredient kit with all the equipment you’ll need to brew, ferment and bottle a light, crisp, easy drinking ale at home. Two gallons makes almost a case of beer — enough to share, enough to be proud of, small enough to brew in a standard kitchen without taking over your life.

Jimmy’s Cream Ale is named for my oldest brother Jimmy, who died in 2019 from ALS. He was smart, unpretentious and had a wicked sense of humor — the kind of person who could make anyone laugh and who never really stopped being a kid at heart. When I got good enough at brewing I started making a light, easy drinking beer especially for when he came to visit. We called it the Jimmy Beer. When I started Woodcock’s Beer Kits in 2020 there was never any question what to name our Cream Ale.

This is the beer Jimmy would have wanted — uncomplicated, refreshing and best enjoyed cold with people you love. A great first brew for exactly that reason.

Cream Ale is light, crisp and clean — similar in character to a quality American lager but brewed at home with real ingredients. No specialty grains needed, which makes it one of the most straightforward kits we make. Just boil, hop, cool, ferment and bottle.

What’s in the box:

Ingredients: Dry malt extract blend, rice syrup solids, hops, yeast, carbonation drops and bottle caps.

Equipment: 3-gallon fermenting bucket with lid and airlock, auto-siphon, tubing and bottle filler, floating thermometer, heavy-duty bottle capper.

Step-by-step brewing instructions.

You’ll also need: An 8-quart or larger pot, about 22 clean 12-ounce bottles — rinsed empties from your favorite craft brewery work perfectly — and 3 gallons of drinking water. That’s it.

No temperature control needed

Our kits use a specially selected ale yeast that ferments cleanly across a remarkably wide temperature range — all the way up to 94°F — with no special equipment or monitoring required. Pitch the whole packet and let it work. Brew it in your kitchen in July or January and it performs the same way.

Why 2 gallons?

It’s the Goldilocks batch size. One gallon is too small to be worth the effort. Five gallons requires a large pot, a large fermenter and produces more beer than most beginners want to manage. Two gallons brews in a standard stockpot, ferments in a bucket that fits on a shelf and produces almost a case of finished beer. Enough to actually enjoy.

The Dry Malt Difference

Our kits are made exclusively with dry malt extract. It’s more expensive than liquid malt extract but it doesn’t darken or pick up off flavors with age and temperature the way liquid extract does. Fresher ingredients, truer flavors — that’s why we’ve always used it and always will.

Free shipping on all starter kits within the contiguous United States.

My guarantee

If you’re not happy with your kit for any reason, I’ll replace it or refund your order. No complicated process, no runaround. Just reach out and I’ll handle it personally.