OKAY!!!!! I'm hooked........First batch "Pretty Damn Good"

First off, let me say that I am a believer now.

The "BETTER" half got me one of these "MR. Beer" kits for x-mas because she had seen me looking at them from time to time when we ran across them in a store. Anyway, I never dropped the lever to purchase one because I had never brewed beer before and I really didn't think that it would turn out all that well. I have always wanted to try my hand at it but didn't want to spend the money for all the fancy hardware to get it going, not to mention the supplies needed to get started. Also, not knowing exactly what was needed clouded my "Want" in getting my feet wet.

Anyway, too make a long story short, you can imagine the look on my face when I unwrapped this brown keg looking contraption. Well, I brewed my first batch (1st week in January) with help from the "Beginners Beer Brewing Forum". My first brew was the High Country Canadian Draft. And I must admit, It was actually quite good. Far better than I thought it would turn out based on some of the "FLAK" the Mr. Beer has had to contend with. I give it a thumbs up and all the "NA-SAYERS" out there have got to be doing something wrong.

Now I have purchased another Mr. Beer Keg and will be getting my "Pipeline" going. It is a very easy process with minimal room taken up and it meets my needs. It hides away in a cabnet and the clean-up is minimal. I like the idea of all the additional recipes it has to offer. I'm sure that within the next year or two, I'll be moving onto a bigger and better set up and diving into some of the more complex brewing methods.

ANY YES, THE HARDEST PART WAS THE WAIT.

Basic High Country Conadian Draft kit
Fermented 12 Days at 66 degrees
Bottled and Conditioned three weeks at 66 degrees (Drinking away now)

Started the West Coast Pale Ale right after I bottled the High Country Conadian Draft.
Fermented three weeks at 66 degrees
Bottled and conditioning couple of days ago at 66 degrees (6 Feb 2011) can't wait to try it.

And I haven't started my next two batches yet.
Horses Ass Ale
Cowboy Golden Lager

I'VE GOT THE BUG..... Thanks for all the informative advice.

I too started with a Mr. Beer X-mas present. I thought I would try all of the different variations. After two batches, I went to a 5 gallon extract batch. One year later I have brewed about 14 all-grain batches, built my own mash tun, chiller, kegerator, and have 6 pounds of hops in the freezer. Welcome to the addiction.

In the end, Mr. Beer will get expensive for small batches. There are tons of ways to build your own equipment cheaply. But have fun learning the process while you come up with good explanations to give SWMBO for all of this equipment taking over the house.

Same way I started. Mr. Beer is great! It's easy, it produces good beer and it definitely helps you through the learning process. But the above poster is right, it does start to get expensive for the batch size. After awhile you'll realize you can make a 5 gallon batch for almost the same amount of money as the Mr. Beer batch.

Try the 1776 ale recipe for Mr. Beer. Two years later it is still one of the most popular beers I've brewed for friends and family.

Treasure your First Time.....you'll always remember the first one.....