Ethical dilemma: Re: Mr Beer

So I have a huge ethical dilemma on my hands. My roommate wants me to recommend a Mr. Beer kit for him to get his dad for Father's Day. As a serious brewer, can I even ethically recommend one of these things? He says his mom would have a fit if his dad were to boil hops in their house (my roommate has a fit on my brew days because the hops "smell so bad"). Do all Mr. Beer kits use sugar in lieu of malt extract?

I'd tell him just that...as a brewer I can not recommend a Mr. Beer kit...the product is subpar and the experience is not as enjoyable as the marketing people would like you to believe...you'd be better off buying him a 6'er/case of something he likes...

i used mr. beer. ... it doesnt really make any odor.... and you only boil a packet of stuff..
but the beer tastes terrible.....
they have u put it in soda bottles.....

and then directly the kitchen sink is where mine went.. NASTY.

I made about ten Mr. Beer brews before upgrading. Except for priming the first couple of batches with sugar, never used sugar in the ingredients. They are all liquid malt and when hops are used they tell you to dry hop. After a while, I was boiling the hops along with the LME and made some pretty tasty beer. But with a little patience it comes out fine without boiling.

Take a look here:
http://www.mrbeer.com/recipesall.php?menu=sub4&mactive=3&subactive=1

Trashing Mr. Beer seems to be a favorite pass time of some here. Rather then do that you may want to recommend one of the kits from the link above and give him some brew tips like not drinking green beer and finding a container to use as a secondary.

I had good luck using this as a secondary:

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-Gallon-Polyca...14517443QQihZ004QQcategoryZ3202QQcmdZViewItem

You can make bad beer in a 5 gallon carboy just as easy as with a Mr. Beer. It’s all about learning how to use the tools you have.

The quote above "they have u put it in soda bottles....." is pretty silly. You would only do that out of ignorance. Tell him to pick up some Grolsch bottles or buy a capper, so that he know better.

He needs the kit that comes with 1 glass carboy, an Airstopper, A Bottling setup and at the VERY least a Coopers Kit. *Grin* Another dilemma averted!

Reading more into it, it must just be the "Booster" that is made out of corn sugar. I use sugar to prime for carbonation in all my beers, so that's no sweat to me--I'm too impatient with the longer carbonation times for DME, and haven't seen any ill effects from sugar.

I tend to shy from making the recommendation just because if his dad is serious about getting into brewing its a better idea to buy equipment that has more use down the road. I also hate to think of someone being turned off of brewing if Mr. Beer gives you sub-par results... But I agree, if you go into Mr. Beer knowing how to do it right, I suppose you can do okay. In fact, I'm tempted to buy a completely off the wall kit and brew it just to see what it is like.
I have co-worker who does no-boil or minimum boil brewing with her fiance , but then again, I've never actually tasted her beer, so I don't know how it turns out. I assume its okay because they still do it.

I'm not gonna say anything about Mr. Beer kits...I have no experience with them.

However, if the aroma of boiling hops is objectionable to someone, that person should not brew beer. Period.

This is the same price as one of the upper level mr beer kits and it'll make much better beer. If the misses has a trouble with hop smell tell her to take a hike! Or he can brew outside. I have used both mrbeer and beermachine and both make regrettably bad beer.

http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=15910

do hops really give off that much of a smell? my apartment always smells like malts...i hardly notice the hops, even when they're boiling.

DeathBrewer said:

do hops really give off that much of a smell? my apartment always smells like malts...i hardly notice the hops, even when they're boiling.

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Given your recent brew history, that's no surprise - mostly malty brews with relatively little hops. Brew an IPA or APA and your opinion on the aroma of the boil will change considerably.

From the Mr. Beer website:

"Booster™ consists of all natural malto-dextrins and is used in one form or another by most commercial breweries. Give your beer an alcohol "boost" without the dry, cidery, alcohol taste associated with the use of sugar."

And as for the Mr. Beer gift idea, it's not a bad one. My kids got me a Mr. Beer for Christmas. That's how I got started. He is either going to like brewing or not. If it sparks an interest he'll want to upgrade. If not, he won't have $100 worth of stuff that will never get used.

Don't go for the Kit with bottles includes. The basic one can be found for less then $40. Add something like this:

http://www.mrbeer.com/view.php?id=m...late=recipes&menu=sub4&mactive=3&subactive=-1

The ingredients that come with it don't make great beer, but it's a starting point. The IPA above is pretty good for the amount of work and money you put into it.

The kit from MoreBeer mentioned by someone above is $100 before this:
"As with System #1, you will also need: 1) a 5 gallon Brewing Kettle BE300, 2) two cases of 22oz Recappable Bottles B320, and 3) an Ingredient Kit for each batch you make. "

You'll be lucky to get out of there for less then $200!

I can testify that Mr. Beer makes terrible beer. Do not waste money on this kit!!! Every beer I made using the kit was cidery. The difference between Mr. Beer and even extract beer is night and day.

See, I think the key here (and I know this is an UNsolicited opinion) is to make whatever recommendation will get your dad (is it your dad? I forget now...) hooked on brewing. So, if Mr. Beer is easy and the way to go, let's pick the one that is most likely to make a passable project, and then make him excited about the whole project.

If its the smell of hops and "mess" of boiling that he would be concerned about that get him one of the no-boil kits that are out there. They all come with a fermenting/bottling bucket, bottle filler, etc. If he likes it he can slowly add on to it, like getting a carboy for a secondary.

If so many people have bought a MrBeer kit and stopped using it surely a loan of one could be made. A kinda HBT rental system?

Yuri_Rage said:

Given your recent brew history, that's no surprise - mostly malty brews with relatively little hops. Brew an IPA or APA and your opinion on the aroma of the boil will change considerably.

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My Blood Ale is at 42 IBU...just brewed that the other day. you're probably right, tho. Not too huge on the hops myself

EDIT: so why doesn't he brew a less hoppy hefe or something and he won't have to worry about the "unpleasant" aroma?

I am one of the people that got started brewing through Mr. Beer. It is a very good way to get introduced to the obsession without a large investment in both money and time. You can make a batch of beer in about 30 minutes on a stove with the Mr. Beer kits. Not all of the kits yield great drinking beers, but all have been very drinkable. Plant the seed and see if he wants it to grow. If he likes brewing then he may want to jump up to a 5 gallon setup, but if he does not then he has not invested a lot of time and energy into making the beer, and the financial investment is a lot lower.

I've got a crazy idea...

The gift should be an invite to a brew day with you (preferably a simple extract recipe). If he enjoys it and mentions that he wants to give it a shot, give him a $75-$100 gift certificate to the HBS as a follow-on gift.

Problem solved? Maybe?

My first two beers were with Mr. Beer that I received as a gift 10 years ago. A friend gave me the advice that if I were going to use it, supplement the Pale Ale kit with crystal 20 and toss the yeast that comes with it. I think I used Nottingham dry yeast and the beers that resulted were passable, at least decent enough that it got me interested in buying equipment and making bigger batches without kits.

Okay, so I'll recommend the $40 Mr. Beer kit and a bottle capper and bottles. I've tried to convince my roommate on the more standard equipment but he is convinced on the whole "not boiling malt & hops" part. Bottom line: its not my dad, so I can only try to give helpful advice.

well, hopefully he'll enjoy the experience and want to continue with some better equipment and ingredients