Got a Mr Beer for Christmas and now questions.. First post BTW

I haven't actually brewed a batch yet, but I'm planning on it this weekend. I have always wanted to take a shot at home brewing, so this is great. I'm not looking for a high quality beer from this thing, it's the process I want to see if I enjoy. So a couple questions:
1) Is there a better method to bottle than just dumping 3/4 tsp of sugar in the bottle? Seems to be some contamination concerns to me...
2) If I wander out to the local HB shop, what can I grab to make an easy/beginner style second batch out of a Mr Beer keg? If I grab a recipie for a full 5 gallon go can I just half it? If I dont and just dump it all am I going to end up with a high gravity beer or just some nasty sludge?

Thanks in advance!

first off, welcome to the forums!

mixing the priming sugar in the WHOLE batch and not each bottle is way easier and you'll get a more even carbonation in every bottle.
look at recipes on this forum or in books, then halve it to fit your MrBeer.

there's a whole sticky on MrBeer in this forum, i'd recommend reading that and anything else you can find about this wonderful hobby.

So the Mr Beer thread is 103 pages and most of the links don't lead to anything good.. hence why I asked.

going to second mixing the priming sugar in with the whole batch to make it more even. also, i don't know how much a mr beer kit does, quantity wise but brooklyn brewshop does 1 gallon all grain kits that are super easy to do.

Heya Draken,
Welcome to the forum this is a great place to be for any questions. I (as many of us have) started with the Mr Beer kits then moved up from there. I have tired both of the methods for carbing and they seem to work about the same either way. You don't have to worry about contamination at that point because the alcohol content of the brew will kill most bacteria.
For your next brew. You can either purchase the refills which are not bad. Or look for one gallon extract recipes and make your own. If you go extract you will need to pick up the hops and everything. If you decide its for you then you can start upgrading your equipment to start making the 5 gallon batches.
Hope this helps and have fun
BBS

Draken said:

...1) Is there a better method to bottle than just dumping 3/4 tsp of sugar in the bottle? Seems to be some contamination concerns to me...

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That actually works fine.
If you have a second keg you can transfer the beer off the trub and batch prime instead.

I'll guarantee you can brew up anything you want in the keg. I've done all grain and mead in mine.

I started with Mr Beer. It is a good starter to see if you like brewing your own beer. I recommend getting the Grolsch style swing-top bottles for bottling. It is a lot easier. You will need about 16 bottles for a Mr Beer batch. A bottling wand and their "upgraded" locking spigot are a must to make it easier. As far as priming, I think they have a starter pack of accessories that are less than 10 bucks and have a priming sugar measure, a hops scale, liquid crystal thermometer for the fermenter and a measuring spoon and funnel. If you use the priming sugar measurer thing its pretty consistent and easy to do.

BUCKEYE1303 said:

I started with Mr Beer. It is a good starter to see if you like brewing your own beer. I recommend getting the Grolsch style swing-top bottles for bottling. It is a lot easier. You will need about 16 bottles for a Mr Beer batch. A bottling wand and their "upgraded" locking spigot are a must to make it easier. As far as priming, I think they have a starter pack of accessories that are less than 10 bucks and have a priming sugar measure, a hops scale, liquid crystal thermometer for the fermenter and a measuring spoon and funnel. If you use the priming sugar measurer thing its pretty consistent and easy to do.

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Are there stores that sell these additions or do we have to purchase online?

You get the sugar primer when you register your product via their website. Usually ships in four to six weeks.

NadoHawk said:

Are there stores that sell these additions or do we have to purchase online?

You get the sugar primer when you register your product via their website. Usually ships in four to six weeks.

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Bed Bath and Beyond sells them. The MR Beer website. As well as Amazon has them. You can use different types of sugar(white, brown) from you house or DME. Also maple syrup works, just look up how much to use for carbing.

NadoHawk said:

Are there stores that sell these additions or do we have to purchase online?

You get the sugar primer when you register your product via their website. Usually ships in four to six weeks.

Click to expand...

I just used regular sugar my wife bought for cooking for the priming. Be careful though, some seemed a little over carbonated. I never knew their accessories came from any place other than the mrbeer.com website. But the upgraded locking spigot and bottling wand will definately make your life easier with Mr Beer. (as will the priming sugar measure thing)