What about Mr.Beer or Coopers

Hey all,

Of course I am new to the brew it at home way of thinking. I have gotten some pretty good feedback so far about equipment and pricing. However with fuel and food prices going through the roof at the moment I was wondering if it would be more economical and possibly "safer" for the newbie to start with one of these home brewing kits.

I've watched a few youtube videos showing these kits in action and they seem o.k. but I have no experience so I really don't know about the QUALITY of beer I will get.

Let us newbies know how to get started in a cheap yet FLAVORFUL way.

Thanx

Well there's plenty of info on the MR beer thread about making the best beer possible with the little brown keg, here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=46360

I brewed a 2.5 gallon all grain batch of beer and fermented in a mr beer 2 days ago it cost me $9.40 for the grain, I used harvested yeast from a previous batch of beer, and only an ounce and a quarter of hops which I had in my freezer. If I had bought the hops and yeast it would have cost me another 5 or 6 bucks...

So around 15 bucks for a case of really fresh beer...better than with any of the ingredient kits...

(Info on doing allgrain with a mr beer is at the end of the mr beer thread)

If you use the search feature you will find plenty of info on cooper's kits, as well as cost effective brewing...

I am not a fan of either kits. If it was me, I would start with a kit that has DME as a base and grains to steep. It allows you to learn more about the grains that are used in different styles and the hops. Some of the kits out there are similiar to condensed soup. You can add water to a can of campbells and call it homemade. You can make better soup, using canned broth or dy broth and adding your own specialty ingedients. Same thing here. I started with Brewers best. It had dry and LME. You can view the brewers best recipes on LD Carlson's website.

If I was you, I would go to Great Fermentations in Indianapolis and talk to Anita. She can help you get a beer that will be good for a noob to brew. They are great. In fact, they usually have some special events during the summer where you could go to one and there will be a lot of homebrewers there. You then have a lot of people to ask questions to.

http://www.greatfermentations.com/

Started with Mr. Beer, but moved to bigger/better things on my third batch. Now, I've got my Mr. Beer keg sittin in a cabinet, empty. May use it for smaller batches of specialty beers. I would normally so just go out and spend around the same on a bucket and an airlock, but not everybody needs those 5 gallon batches. I'm all for it, and best of luck on what ever you go for.

What ever you do though, after you're first Mr. Beer batch, buy regular hopped malt extract at your local home brew shop for much cheaper.

I'm not a fan of Mr. Beer, other than when it hooks new brewer's on the hobby...but they quickly move on. why spend the money twice? just start with a basic 5 gallon kit that uses a bucket. ignore secondary for now, and just give it a longer primary before bottling.

Coopers kits...well I'm not big on extract brewing anymore, but that's my own opinion. Coopers i'm not a fan of for 3 reasons:
1. pre-hopped: so I lose some control over the recipe
2. crappy yeast: I usually toss what comes with it into my 'emergency reserve' and use a different brand of an appropriate strain
3. they want you to use corn sugar: this thins out the beer, and makes you go "hmmm, I thought homebrew was supposed to be better".


get a kit that uses actual hops, pellets are easiest to work with IMO. often these kits have steeping grains which lend more flavor and aroma to the beer. and skip 'alcohol boosters' if they're an option with the kit.

Hoosierbrewer said:

I am not a fan of either kits. If it was me, I would start with a kit that has DME as a base and grains to steep. It allows you to learn more about the grains that are used in different styles and the hops. Some of the kits out there are similiar to condensed soup. You can add water to a can of campbells and call it homemade. You can make better soup, using canned broth or dy broth and adding your own specialty ingedients. Same thing here. I started with Brewers best. It had dry and LME. You can view the brewers best recipes on LD Carlson's website.

Click to expand...

+1 on this advice. Well said Hoosierbrewer.

Find a local or online homebrew shop that sells kits made from fresh hops, grains and extract.

If that sounds like too much work, look for no-boil wort-in-a-bag kits from The BrewHouse, FestaBrew, or Baron's (in that order). They make MUCH better beer than those canned beer kits if you want to go simple.

I have not done the Mr Beer kit, but I suggest maybe looking into some extract recipes. I just completed an extract recipe and it was very simple and straight forward. I also think starting with extract recipes would help you learn a bit more than doing the Mr Beer kit. I 'm sure you will move on past the Mr Beer kit almost right away. I say pick up a 5 gallon extract kit.

Regardless though, Mr Beer has worked very well for many people. It produces good beer for not much money. I say give it a try if you don't want to follow one of the extract kits/recipes.

Good luck man, and welcome to the hobby.

Coopers all the way for me, Coopers brewery is in my neighboring state and a favourite local beer of mine The coopers stout and australian pale ale cans are pretty good. They're available at supermarkets here cheaper than what DME/LME costs.
I agree it's not ideal, if you're going to use extract it's better not to buy kits at all and do partials etc.
But the kits are a good way to start when you don't have large stockpots or room to brew. And you learn about fermentation, yeasts, cleaning and hops. When you get that all down pat, swapping the coopers can for DME/LME and adding some grains to the boil is not a big deal. Learning as you go and adding what you can and feel like customising teaches you more than buying a premium premade kit that comes with everything, just add water. If you start with the prehopped cans like coopers, you still can add different DMEs, sugars, hops and yeast.
I've made dissapointing beers with coopers cans when I was a n00b, I'm just thankful it was a $10 can and not a $40 kit/grain brew. Once you learn more about beer, you can make them drinkable with malts, hops, better yeast. Getting to that stage is a learning process that's all part of home brewing so I think the kits have their place, only the instructions and yeast suck.