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It looks like the full lineup of the new refill kits is now up on the Mr. Beer site. There's 3 distinct levels of kits (maybe 3.5?):

"Standard": $15.95-17.95
3.7 % ABV, single 1.87 lb can of HME; 10 varieties, ranging from light "lagers" to Irish Stout

"Craft": $21.95
5.5% ABV, single 2.86 lb can of HME; 4 varieties, focusing on full-bodied ales

"Deluxe": $19.44-25.44
Any of the above kits, with a pouch of (style appropriate) UME that adds 1% ABV to the base kit

Standard refills are available now, as they have been for some time; everything else comes online Sept 4th. I assume we'll see individual ingredients (HME/UME) for sale at some point soon after that. I imagine we'll continue to see some sort of seasonal releases as well, that focus on more than just higher ABV, since the normal range now spans from 3.7 up to 6.5% ABV already.

On the plus side: All refills are now all-malt, booster seems to be a thing of the past. These kits will probably, on the whole, make better beers than the old kits. There's more variety of off-the-shelf higher ABV beers now; ~6%+ ABV kits are no longer limited to single-run "Seasonal" specials.

On the downside: Prices have gone up. Most of the Premium & Deluxe kits aren't that far off the price you could brew a 5 gal extract batch for. Then again, Mr. Beer has never been the value proposition (Aside from initial startup cost).

New Brew,
I think you've hit the nail on the head (on all points)!

Scott Birdwell
DeFalco's Home Wine & Beer Supplies
Houston TX
 
New Brew's post raises excellent points. Mr Beer will never be as cost effective as five gallon in the long run- nor five gallon as cost effective as ten and so forth. The smaller the batch the higher the cost per serving.

That said, the small batch size has its advantages for those of us with Beer ADHD and cost differences can be minimized by using half of a Muntons Gold kit or, better yet, moving away from kits all together.

You can make beer as inexpensively with the Mr Beer fermenter as with a 5 or 10 gallon kit. In fact, you can do things like all grain brewing with a smaller starting cost since you don't need to work with the larger volumes, so you can easily do so on a stove top.
 
I am digging the new lineup, but I am wondering if they are going to put out the recipes like they used to have. They seem to have all of your general beers, but I loved the recipes because it gave you a lot more selection as well as ideas for how to spice up a brew with mixed malts and ingrediants from around the house. When i started, they had 140 different recipe styles. Im hoping they come back with some using the new ingrediants.
 
I have a questuion about using the 5 gallon kits in the mtr beer kegs.

How do you make them work in the mr beer kegs? Do you use half by weight or even try to do 2/5ths (2 gal vs 5gal)? What do you do with remianing kit?

I have 3 mr beer kegs, I guess I could spread it out between them but how?

Btw very new to brew. Just finishing off drinking my first batch
 
I am digging the new lineup, but I am wondering if they are going to put out the recipes like they used to have. They seem to have all of your general beers, but I loved the recipes because it gave you a lot more selection as well as ideas for how to spice up a brew with mixed malts and ingrediants from around the house. When i started, they had 140 different recipe styles. Im hoping they come back with some using the new ingrediants.

They're releasing new recipes, but it takes time to come up with them, brew them and test them.
 
I have a questuion about using the 5 gallon kits in the mtr beer kegs.

How do you make them work in the mr beer kegs? Do you use half by weight or even try to do 2/5ths (2 gal vs 5gal)? What do you do with remianing kit?

I have 3 mr beer kegs, I guess I could spread it out between them but how?

Btw very new to brew. Just finishing off drinking my first batch


Many people just split a recipe in half. If you overfill the fermenter, you can get approximately 2.5 gallons in it with no problem
 
bpgreen said:
Many people just split a recipe in half. If you overfill the fermenter, you can get approximately 2.5 gallons in it with no problem

I assume its half by weight?

What do you do with the other half? Will it keep in a lock n lock or something?
 
I assume its half by weight?

Well, half is half, so it shouldn't really matter whether you split by weight or volume. I usually weigh because I think I can do things more accurately that way. One caution is that if you're getting kits with grains, you'll want to make sure each grain is separate. If they combine the grains first, you won't be able to get the proportions the same when you split.

What do you do with the other half? Will it keep in a lock n lock or something?

I don't know what a lock n lock is. I assume it's some sort of locking plastic container?

A lot of it depends on what you have.

If you have LME, you'll want to store that in a plastic or glass container (not metal). Cover tightly. If you're not going to use it within a few weeks, store it in the fridge. If you're in an area with high humidity, you may want to pour a thin layer of vodka on top to retard mold formation. The mold isn't harmful, but the idea of mold forming on the surface isn't really attractive.

DME can be stored in a plastic container, or even a baggie.

Grains should be stored in an airtight container. Crushed grains should be used within a few weeks if possible. If you're crushing them yourself, they'll last months.

Hops should be vacuum sealed if possible (even the handheld ziploc vacuum pump is better than nothing, but something like a seal-a-meal is best) and frozen.
 
Thanks bpgreen. And yes the lock n lock is a plastic container. For right now I plan on using LME's till I work up the courage to mix my own stuff. Ill keep the vodka thing in mind

Thanks again
 
Gotta question.... I am planning to use Mr. Beer's Englishman's Nut Brown for my next brew. I have (2) of the 1.21ish lb cans. One can is rated IIRC @ 23 IBUs. If I add both cans to my brew will it have 46 IBUs?.If so should I add a lb of DME to tone down the hop presence,or will my brew be balanced w/o the additional DME. Thanx in advance...Randolf
 
Gotta question.... I am planning to use Mr. Beer's Englishman's Nut Brown for my next brew. I have (2) of the 1.21ish lb cans. One can is rated IIRC @ 23 IBUs. If I add both cans to my brew will it have 46 IBUs?.If so should I add a lb of DME to tone down the hop presence,or will my brew be balanced w/o the additional DME. Thanx in advance...Randolf

Yes. If one can is 23 IBUs, two cans are 46. If you weeded a pound if DME, you'll still have 46 IBUs, but it won't seem as bitter because of the additional malt.
 
I love the MB English Nut Brown but I only use 1 can (1.21#) and add a pound of Amber DME or LME equiv. to it with a lttle extra hops to balance it out. Save the expense and then you can make 2 batches out of it. my 2 cents worth.
 
Mr Beer has a sale going on (15% off) until Sept 10th...you can also use & stack these coupons until such time the cancel them...

Find coupon codes at retailmenot.com to save even more or PM for codes
 
T8rAleKing said:
Mr Beer has a sale going on (15% off) until Sept 10th...you can also use & stack these coupons until such time the cancel them...

ACT31208RGHK
&
20% off Coupon Code = REG41208RGHK

Use both if you can...I got the Craft styles for $11 and older OVL for $4

Don't go too nuts with the stacking... they do review larger orders and cancel anything they don't like (and there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to what they decide is too much, but apparently stacking is a no-no)
All I know is when I stacked up 70% off, on a thousand-plus order... that order was denied

TL;DR- If it looks too good to be true, it is.
 
Don't go too nuts with the stacking... they do review larger orders and cancel anything they don't like (and there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to what they decide is too much, but apparently stacking is a no-no)
All I know is when I stacked up 70% off, on a thousand-plus order... that order was denied

TL;DR- If it looks too good to be true, it is.

I think they may also review orders and remove coupons that were shared on forums.
 
So if I use one 1.21 lb of Mr. Beer Englishman's and I add 1 lb of brown DME,how much hops must I use to balance the recipe,and not have it be too bitter?
 
So if I use one 1.21 lb of Mr. Beer Englishman's and I add 1 lb of brown DME,how much hops must I use to balance the recipe,and not have it be too bitter?

I hate to give a non-answer answer, but it depends.

Different people have different tastes. I use qbrew to estimate IBUs, OG, FG, etc and then use the chart below as a general guideline for BU:GU ratios. I know where I like my brews to end up. But I may well have different tastes than you.

There are a number of places that have qbrew available for download, but I think Screwy Brewer is the most diligent in keeping the Mr Beer ingredients up to date. http://www.thescrewybrewer.com/2010/09/qbrew-homebrewers-recipe-calculator.html

hopsgraph.jpg
 
This may have been covered in other posts, but here goes...

I just bought a Mr. Beer Premium Edition Kit. The kit has the fermenting keg, 8 bottles and the ingredients for your first basic batch, along with a beginner brewing guide.

Is there anything else I should go out and buy before I start the process for the first time? I have seen posts about hydrometers and some other various stuff, but am not sure what I really need.

If anyone has any other adivice for my first batch?
 
I highly suggest the hydrometer and also pitching the yeast from the kit into your boil and using better yeast like US-05 for fermenting. Also, if your kit come with booster, instead of using that you should use a pound of light DME (dry malt extract). I always used the booster and the DME to get an ABV closer to 5%. If you can manage to keep your ambient temps in the low 60s during fermentation you will get decent if not good beer. I use a small cooler that I swap out frozen bottles of water in to keep the temps low. Welcome to the forum and Hobsession!
 
OClairBrew - Thanks for the advice and ideas... I will definately grab a hydrometer, just need to find one, as I have not determined exactly where close by here is the nearest home brewing supply store.

As for swapping out the ingredients, I think I will wait to change things until after I do this first batch; mostly due to the same issue of not knowing a good local supply store to get the correct yeasts etc. I also want to minimize the variables that might go wrong on the first attempt, and I worry that changing ingredients out might complicate things beyond what I am ready for, as a total first time brewer.
 
I think you've made a wise choice. Brew it straight-up first so you have a baseline to work form in the future.

Pay attention to sanitization and temperature control. Ensure that you can keep the yeast within it's defined range and you'll make much better beer than if you don't.

Add 1 week to each step (ferment for 2 weeks, carbonate for 2 weeks - and if you can, let sit another 2 weeks at room temp before chilling).
Curiosity will get the better of you though and you'll likely test one at the 4 week mark. That's good, too. This will also allow you to see what conditioning does for beer and will help you to be patient in the future.

Good luck with your first brew.
 
Hi, I just made my first batch of beer using the Mr. Beer kit and it turned out awesome! I can see this becoming an obsession in the future. For now I have my Mr. Beer kit which will have to do so I have a few questions to make my current experience brewing more enjoyable.

1) Can you brew other types of beer other than the Mr. Beer refill kits? If so what? Link to where I can buy on the web please.

2) If the answer to #1 is yes, can this kit which is for a 5 gallon setup be split to make in a 2 1/2 gallon Mr. Beer? http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/caribou-slobber-extract-kit.html

3) Where can I get plastic 12 oz bottles for bottling my beer? I'd rather plastic so that there is no chance of having exploding glass in my house.

4) Where is the best place to get Mr. Beer refill kits?

5) Does anyone have recipes to make Mr. Beer kits even better? I have seen some reviews of the Mr. Beer Octoberfest's Vienna Lager Refill Brew Pack http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000PE17QM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 with people suggesting anywhere from a tbs to a cup of brown sugar be added to the beer. Would love to see some various recipes to make even better beer.

6) If I decide to move up to a bigger kit, what are your suggestions to a good kit that I will not grow out of.

7) I have a 5 gallon poland spring bottle. Can that be used to brew or do I need a specific carboy?

Thanks and happy brewing!
 
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Hi, I just made my first batch of beer using the Mr. Beer kit and it turned out awesome! I can see this becoming an obsession in the future. For now I have my Mr. Beer kit which will have to do so I have a few questions to make my current experience brewing more enjoyable.

1) Can you brew other types of beer other than the Mr. Beer refill kits? If so what? Link to where I can buy on the web please.
Sure. There are kits all over the place. 5 gallon kits are more common, but you can split them in half and brew them in the Mr Beer fermenter. Or you can make your own recipes.

2) If the answer to #1 is yes, can this kit which is for a 5 gallon setup be split to make in a 2 1/2 gallon Mr. Beer? http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/caribou-slobber-extract-kit.html
Many people do exactly that. In some cases, you need to specify that you want the grains separate, or you need to brew all at once and split the wort between to fermenters.
3) Where can I get plastic 12 oz bottles for bottling my beer? I'd rather plastic so that there is no chance of having exploding glass in my house.
You can reuse soda bottles as long as you keep them out of the light. I used to use root beer bottles because they were amber (but I think they were 16 oz). If you use root beer bottles, make sure you first rinse them in COLD water or you'll never get the smell out.

4) Where is the best place to get Mr. Beer refill kits?
Mr Beer is having a sale right now, so that might be the bes place at the moment. Amazon often has deals on refills. WalMart sometimes carries them (order online and ship to store). There are also a number of places that carry Mr Beer as holiday items for Christmas and Father's day. Sometimes these places sell them at a deep discount after the holiday is over (like around half price). Shopko, Bed Bath and Beyond are two places I can think of that do this. I think CVS may also.
5) Does anyone have recipes to make Mr. Beer kits even better? I have seen some reviews of the Mr. Beer Octoberfest's Vienna Lager Refill Brew Pack http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000PE17QM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 with people suggesting anywhere from a tbs to a cup of brown sugar be added to the beer. Would love to see some various recipes to make even better beer.
I don't like adding things like sugar (white or brown), honey, maple syrup, etc to my beer. I prefer adding malt (UME, LME, DME) because it adds flavor and body, but the simple sugars (aka adjuncts) add alcohol, but little if any flavor. They can also thin the beer and give it cidery notes.
6) If I decide to move up to a bigger kit, what are your suggestions to a good kit that I will not grow out of.
There are many places that sell 5 gallon kits. Groupon often offers deals on 5 gallon kits from Midwest.
7) I have a 5 gallon poland spring bottle. Can that be used to brew or do I need a specific carboy?
I wouldn't advise it. Those bottles are designed to hold water, not beer. I've heard of people using them and having success with one or two batches, but then having the bottle split open and dump all the contents out.
 
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Hi, I just made my first batch of beer using the Mr. Beer kit and it turned out awesome! I can see this becoming an obsession in the future. For now I have my Mr. Beer kit which will have to do so I have a few questions to make my current experience brewing more enjoyable.

1) Can you brew other types of beer other than the Mr. Beer refill kits? If so what? Link to where I can buy on the web please.

2) If the answer to #1 is yes, can this kit which is for a 5 gallon setup be split to make in a 2 1/2 gallon Mr. Beer? http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/caribou-slobber-extract-kit.html

3) Where can I get plastic 12 oz bottles for bottling my beer? I'd rather plastic so that there is no chance of having exploding glass in my house.

4) Where is the best place to get Mr. Beer refill kits?

5) Does anyone have recipes to make Mr. Beer kits even better? I have seen some reviews of the Mr. Beer Octoberfest's Vienna Lager Refill Brew Pack http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000PE17QM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 with people suggesting anywhere from a tbs to a cup of brown sugar be added to the beer. Would love to see some various recipes to make even better beer.

6) If I decide to move up to a bigger kit, what are your suggestions to a good kit that I will not grow out of.

7) I have a 5 gallon poland spring bottle. Can that be used to brew or do I need a specific carboy?

Thanks and happy brewing!

http://community.mrbeer.com/forum/index is another forum of Mr Beer brewers & experts or very informed people in the know!!! much like BPGreen...
 
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Hi, I just made my first batch of beer using the Mr. Beer kit and it turned out awesome! I can see this becoming an obsession in the future. For now I have my Mr. Beer kit which will have to do so I have a few questions to make my current experience brewing more enjoyable.

1) Can you brew other types of beer other than the Mr. Beer refill kits? If so what? Link to where I can buy on the web please.

2) If the answer to #1 is yes, can this kit which is for a 5 gallon setup be split to make in a 2 1/2 gallon Mr. Beer? http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/caribou-slobber-extract-kit.html

3) Where can I get plastic 12 oz bottles for bottling my beer? I'd rather plastic so that there is no chance of having exploding glass in my house.

4) Where is the best place to get Mr. Beer refill kits?

5) Does anyone have recipes to make Mr. Beer kits even better? I have seen some reviews of the Mr. Beer Octoberfest's Vienna Lager Refill Brew Pack http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000PE17QM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 with people suggesting anywhere from a tbs to a cup of brown sugar be added to the beer. Would love to see some various recipes to make even better beer.

6) If I decide to move up to a bigger kit, what are your suggestions to a good kit that I will not grow out of.

7) I have a 5 gallon poland spring bottle. Can that be used to brew or do I need a specific carboy?

Thanks and happy brewing!

I don't have all the answers for you, but I suspect if you were to peruse this thread back, you'd find most of these topics have been covered.

Anyway,

1&2: All you're really getting out of the Mr. Beer kit equipment wise, is a 2.5 gallon fermenter. The airlock design on that fermenter is a bit lacking IMO, but it seems to work repeatably for the Mr. Beer specific extract products. You can certainly split a 5 gallon traditional extract kit from NB, (or others) to 2.5 gallons, or whatever ratio you want.
The big differences with traditional kits is that you do a full boil with the extract (and more importantly, the hops) so you will need a large kettle to do this. You also will need to get (at a minumum) a hydrometer & test flute. You could use the Mr. Beer fermenter for those kits, but not sure why you would. If you want to move up to better kits, just get an ale pale style bucket fermenter with real airlock...it's cheap.
Just check out NB's extract beginner equipment kits...They are by no means the only source for these kinds of kits, but they all consist of the same basic bits...fermenter, airlock, racking cane/siphon, sipon tubing, capper, caps, cleaner, sanitizer, brushes and instructions. You may wish to add on to that kit a 5 or 6 gallon glass or better bottle (Plastic) fermenter, an immersion wort chiller, and a supply of glass bottles.
The thing about the Mr. Beer kit is that it's designed to be easy. If you follow the directions, you will get repeatable results. When you are ready to start branching out to get more variety and put personal touches on your beer with specific ingredients and/or process changes, that's when you will want get the other tools/equipment mentioned above. These sorts of kits are usually in the $90 to $130 range.

3&4 I always try to give my Local Homebrew Supply Store the business, and most of them will be able to get these for you if they don't have them on the shelves. Unless they turn out to be hacks, the benefit they have over Internet Suppliers is that you can go in and get personalized advice. Support local beer, I say. That goes for your starter kits as well.

7. Obviously thse bottles are food grade, so you're good to go there. What you want in a fermenter is smooth inner walls. I know many of those style bottles are textured and/or ribbed...that would be no good. Lot's of opportunity for wild yeasts/bacteria to take hold. Also, you would need to be very careful to only put chilled wort into it. Plastic bottles can easily distort with hot wort. Lastly, I would think it would be difficult to clean thouroughly with a carboy brush with the handle. If you can't scrub every inch of it, don't use it.

Happy brewing!
 
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Thanks for all your great info! Another question. Is there a Mr. Beer refill that is similar to Sam Adams Boston Lager? If not is there a recipe that I can follow and brew in a mr beer to make a beer like it? Thanks.
 
Thanks for all your great info! Another question. Is there a Mr. Beer refill that is similar to Sam Adams Boston Lager? If not is there a recipe that I can follow and brew in a mr beer to make a beer like it? Thanks.

The Patriot Lager refill looks like it's trying to be that, but from what I've read from people who have tried it, there's not much similarity.

Your best bet would probably be to do an internet search for Sam Adams Boston Lager clone and scale a recipe you find to Mr Beer size.

The difficulty is that most of those recipes are likely to be all grain. If you're not up to all grain, try adding extract to the search terms. You'll still probably need to at least add some steeping grains. Also, not that the real deal is a lager. Lagers tend to take longer and require better temperature control. If you can't do an actual lager, you can use a "clean" yeast like US-05 or Nottingham brewed as close to 60 as possible to brew an ale with lager-like qualities. But to really nail the lager flavor, you need to use a lager yeast and brew at lager temperatures.
 
Yeah, I tried the Patriot Lager BASIC refill and it was nothing like it - but to be fair I was a beta-tester and I think they've worked on it. Given the packaging on it, I'd be willing to bet that if you used that + some of their (or anybody else's) UME/LME to it you might get something similar.
 
Yeah, I tried the Patriot Lager BASIC refill and it was nothing like it - but to be fair I was a beta-tester and I think they've worked on it. Given the packaging on it, I'd be willing to bet that if you used that + some of their (or anybody else's) UME/LME to it you might get something similar.
You can also now buy the "Deluxe" version of the Patriot Lager kit, which comes with an extra ~0.5 lb of UME.

Also note that as sold, it may be called a "lager", but they supply it with yeast (and provide instructions) to brew it as an ale. I actually think that's true of all their "lager" kits, except the occasional season release.
 
FIRST BREW DAY! made a Midwest Autumn Amber Ale. Learned lots, but OG reading from hydro tight down the middle! End result: THIS IS FUN STUFF! lol Can't wait TI test it out in 'bout 6 weeks (which coincides with the start of college basketball season, by the way...life is good!)
 
Hi
I am a new member, and I brewed my beer about 1 week ago. I have some question about this process. I will be so pleased if you could help me.
Or guide me to how do I ask my questions.
Thanks
 
Hi
I am a new member, and I brewed my beer about 1 week ago. I have some question about this process. I will be so pleased if you could help me.
Or guide me to how do I ask my questions.
Thanks

Just post any questions you have here and somebody (probably several people) will respond.
 
Thanks for all your great info! Another question. Is there a Mr. Beer refill that is similar to Sam Adams Boston Lager? If not is there a recipe that I can follow and brew in a mr beer to make a beer like it? Thanks.


http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_452_43_262&products_id=1122

They will split the recipe into two 2.5 gallon batches for you for the grains, and they offer, Partial mash and extract types of this recipe. Whatever you feel comfortable in doing and they are fairly inexpensive either way you go.
 
I just purchased a can of octoberfest but it does not have the booster like the pale ale in the Mr beer kit came with. Do I need a 'booster'? If so what can I use? I want to brew tomorrow.
 
I just purchased a can of octoberfest but it does not have the booster like the pale ale in the Mr beer kit came with. Do I need a 'booster'? If so what can I use? I want to brew tomorrow.

Do you have access to an LHBS nearby or in your area? You could use a pound of DME or a pound plus of LME if you can get some...otherwise, if you are stuck on Booster, see if your LHBS has something similar for less cost than what MB used to sell it for ($3.99 for .81 LB). I would definitely suggest the LME or DME tho. Dark Brown sugar might work in a pinch since that is easy to get at the grocery store and costs a buck or two & it would def. go with the OVL you have.
 
BonzoAPD said:
How much brown sugar would I use? I don't have a LHBS in my area.

I think the important question is does the octoberfest recipe call for booster? If it doesnt, you don't need to add anything to the beer.
 
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