How we pick products
Every guide on this site links to Amazon, and those links earn us a commission. This page explains how the picks are chosen, where the prices come from, and what we do not do.
We do not test equipment
No kegerator on this site has been in our kitchen. We do not run side-by-side trials, we do not have a lab, and we do not have review units. Anywhere a guide reads as though we tested something, that is a mistake and we want to hear about it.
What the picks are actually based on: published manufacturer specifications, capacity and voltage arithmetic, pressure ratings, fitting and valve standards, whether a named manufacturer exists to sell you a replacement part in three years, and what the product’s own documentation says it will and will not do. Where a listing is too thin to judge, we say the listing is too thin to judge rather than filling the gap.
We carry no star ratings and no review counts. Amazon’s customer reviews belong to Amazon, and a number lifted out of that context tells you less than one honest sentence about a product’s limitations.
Where the prices come from
Prices are pulled from Amazon’s Creators API and refreshed every night. Each one is shown with the date and time it was last checked, next to the price itself.
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date and time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
If we do not have a current figure for something, the page says “Check price” instead of showing a number. We would rather send you to Amazon to look than print a price that has gone stale. For the same reason there is no price history and no price-drop alerting anywhere on this site.
What the links earn
Links to Amazon are affiliate links, marked “(paid link)” where they appear. If you buy through one, we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Commission rates vary by category and some categories pay nothing at all, so what we link is not decided by what pays.
Some links go somewhere other than Amazon. Liquid brewing yeast, for instance, is refrigerated stock that Amazon does not carry, so those links point at the manufacturer’s own strain page and at the shops that stock it. Those earn us nothing. They are there because a recipe that names an ingredient you cannot source is not much of a recipe.
Picks are editorial. Nobody pays to appear on this site, and no manufacturer has been given a say in what these guides recommend.
Telling us we got it wrong
Specifications change, products are discontinued, and listings get edited under us. If something here is out of date or simply wrong, tell us and we will fix it or pull it.