A brief encounter with Mr. Beer

So a client of my Dad's brews beer. Has been at it for a year. His wife appeared at my Dad's office to offer some homebrew. He told her that I also brewed and showed some of my labels. He brought it home and I see the Mr. Beer caps on top. I was excited to try this as I've always wondered how they turned out. The beers were Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Stout and Blue Lightnin'. She said the Stout came in at 9% ABV, but further research showed that it should come in around 7% ABV. I'm pretty sure a hydrometer isn't included in the kit.

We poured the beers and noticed immediately a very "yeasty" smell. Almost so much that I didn't want to drink it. Then the chunks appeared. We found out that they added fresh fruit to the bottles. Not all of the chunks were from fruit. Some of them just looked like ingredients that had not been mixed well. *see video below

This stuff was undrinkable. If my first homebrew had turned out like this, that would have been it for me. This guy's been doing it for a year. It was so over carbonated that one of them just about exploded when we opened it, and the little that I did drink was like drinking a Sprite.













I told my Dad to tell the guy to come sit in on a brew day with me. I would like him to at least work up to extracts. I brew AG so I offered to let him use my equipment and he can just order an extract kit and I'll walk him through it. He's paying the same prices at Mr. Beer for 2 gallon batches.

Hopefully this guy will accept and we can get him on track to making some good (read drinkable) beer.





I found this video on youtube where Andy Dick drinks some Mr. Beer and asks what the "crustaceans" are in the glass[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10EXfz-0Kwg"]Video[/ame]

Oh, man, that is just GROSS! I can't believe someone was proud enough of it to give you any. I have noticed that some newer brewers like to "doctor" their beer up with fruit, chocolate, spices, etc because they like to experiment. I'm more of a beer purist, though, so never did that.

My best friend loves her Mr. Beer, and she's shared a lot of it with me. I never had any that were bad, but there were some I thought were medicre at best. The important thing is that she likes it, and the beer she makes with it. She made a nice one last summer- I think it was a vienna lager (but not lagered) and it actually tasted pretty good. She made a cider mix last fall, and it was really good. Until the bottles blew up and made a big mess on top of her fridge. She said she won't make that again.

She made another one called cowboy beer or something, and it was alright. The point is (and I do have one!) if they are happy with their beer, there is no way to gently convince them that a "real" beer kit is the way to go. My friend usually prefers her Mr. Beer beer to mine, unless I make a lighter beer. She loves my cream ale, and my maibock. She enjoyed one of my IPAs- very fruity hops in that one. Otherwise, she sticks with her Mr. Beer stuff and always shares!

to quote another HBT member.....

Dude said:

If I ever see Mr. Beer in a dark alley, I'm gonna kick his ass.

Click to expand...

Sea Monkees! They're Sea Monkees!

I never criticise Mr Beer simply because I never made a bad one. I did 3 before going route most of us are taking. Two of those brews were quite good, the third was OK.

The problem with that gross beer is not Mr. beer, but the brewer. In your position I can see that you feel the need to "convert" him, but I reckon that before he will come to get good advice from you, he would benefit from tasting one of your beers. Hide one under his pillow or something! The whole brewing thing is much better experienced if it is something you follow, rather than being led to IMO.

It is now up to you to show him the way!

talleymonster said:

Here's a good YouTube homebrewing video:

Click to expand...

And of course you mean "good".

Laughing_Gnome said:

I never criticise Mr Beer simply because I never made a bad one. I did 3 before going route most of us are taking. Two of those brews were quite good, the third was OK.

The problem with that gross beer is not Mr. beer, but the brewer. In your position I can see that you feel the need to "convert" him, but I reckon that before he will come to get good advice from you, he would benefit from tasting one of your beers. Hide one under his pillow or something! The whole brewing thing is much better experienced if it is something you follow, rather than being led to IMO.

Click to expand...

Yes, I forgot to mention that I'm sending him a beer from every batch I've done to help with the conversion.

chefchris said:

Yes, I forgot to mention that I'm sending him a beer from every batch I've done to help with the conversion.

Click to expand...

Good man!!! That's the way to do it!!

The road to Damascus awaits him!

I love how the guy in the video says that it was his last bottle and it's only been in the bottle for less than a week. Wow.

PseudoChef said:

I love how the guy in the video says that it was his last bottle and it's only been in the bottle for less than a week. Wow.

Click to expand...

Ya, I caught that, too. Damn funny.

Laughing_Gnome said:

I never criticise Mr Beer simply because I never made a bad one. I did 3 before going route most of us are taking. Two of those brews were quite good, the third was OK.

Click to expand...

I agree and went the same route. I later realized that I want bigger batches and more control. I would say that I read a great deal about brewing before made my first Mr Beer. I didn't make the dumb rookie mistakes; bottling early as well as drinking one after a week.

I think inviting the guy over for brewing is a good idea. Don't try to convert him. I think the beer and activity would do the job on its own.

Schlenkerla said:

I think inviting the guy over for brewing is a good idea. Don't try to convert him. I think the beer and activity would do the job on its own.

Click to expand...

I agree. Invite him over to brew something that you already have ready that he can sample so he knows what the end result of the days work is going to be.

Go forth, preach to the heathens and convert the non-believers...

I just started my first batch with Mr. Beer. It was the WCPA. I'm just hoping it turns out drinkable. Already plans to go to a regular setup for extracts at minimum and possibly AG depending on the initial setup cost and how muchc space can free up for it.

Rhys said:

I just started my first batch with Mr. Beer. It was the WCPA. I'm just hoping it turns out drinkable. Already plans to go to a regular setup for extracts at minimum and possibly AG depending on the initial setup cost and how muchc space can free up for it.

Click to expand...

If you sanitized well and wait until its done you'll be ok. There is no need to rush to bottle. The temp is probably the most important thing. Keep the temp at 70 and wait about 2-3 weeks then bottle and wait at least 3 weeks to carbonate, keeping the bottles at 70 as well. Also don't try to get every drop of beer out of the keg. You don't want dirty beer.

I've never seen beer that looks unappetizing to me...even Busch or Bud, at least they have an appropriate color/consistency...but that stuff looks AWFUL.

Mr Beer kits never worked out for me, but that didn't discourage me from going to Austin Homebrew and picking up a "real" kit figuring I would get better results.

Now the Mr Beer is just an 8th fermenter in my arsenal waiting for the next partigyle brew.

i never had a mr beer kit, i had a cousin that had a homebrew shop, the type of homebrew shop that sent out the whole kit contained in your fermenter, 2 cans of hopped malt extract and a big ass bag of corn suger. i scortched the bottom, first off, don't think i did any thing more than just clean the fermenter.

the stuff tasted like cider pretty bad, had burnt chunks of malt in every bottle :rockin: and i would drink this beer when nothing else was available. spent the next 3 years just studying, what ever books i could find at the lib. i read them. learned loads, made 4 more extract batches and moved right into all grain.

never liked the look of the mr beer thing so i never tried it

Well, I started out with a good ole Mr Beer kit, made 10 or so batches. They were 'ok' beers. Certainly drinkable, certainly could have beer better. It looks like your friend really disturbed the bed before bottle filling. It looks like alot of burnt extract and trub. Who knows, maybe he did toss in some fruit! Most of us do not look for the 'easy' or fast way to brew. We like the 'science' side of the brew process so I would imagine your friend being your "assistant" brewer for a day would be all it took to motivate him to the next natural step. Tasting like sprite sounds like he's not measuring the priming surgar out in equal amounts and is just 'eye balling it'. Mr Beer has you add surgar directly to each bottle. (yeah I know) All it takes is one phone call in the middle of you filling your bottles to forget where you left off and double the amount. Whammo sprite!

I heard all these stories about Mr. Beer being terrible and then I found out that, if I added a little DME and a decent yeast, I made a drinkable product. I never understood how people could screw it up so bad, but here I have photographic evidence of just how truly terrible it can be.

No wonder some people laugh when you tell them about your really great homebrew. They were probably served something like this in the past and are now ruined for life!

chefchris, what ever came of your relationship with this brewer fellow? Did you show him the way?

Picobrew said:

chefchris, what ever came of your relationship with this brewer fellow? Did you show him the way?

Click to expand...

I tried several times to get him to come join me for a session, but never came. I did send him some beer. Oh well. Guess he likes it.

After seeing/tasting your brew, he might have been a little embarrassed to come around...

I think just tasting yours would be enough for me to do a little more research. All it takes is a quick internet search to find out where you're going wrong. But I guess not all brewers are like HBT brewers, eager to learn more and more.