Hoosier Noob...

[dahound75k]

Just got a Mr Beer Premium Kit for twenty bucks on woot.com. I haven't brewed the enclosed kit yet, but wanted to know any helpful tips to make a great batch.
I also wanted to know the most economical way to brew in this fermenter. Is it better/less expensive to brew by finding my own ingredients or to order from "the man"(Mr Beer homepage)? I am completely green when it comes to brewing, so any help would be greatly appreciated
Jason

 

[njbabs]

Never used it myself, but you might find some help here:
http://www.mrbeerfans.com/ubbthreads/

Generally:
Don't add any included sugar as part of the fermentation (I think it's called the 'booster' if you have a standard recipe kit). The caveat is if you really like light beer. Pure sugar will give you a higher ABV in a thinner/lighter tasting beer.

I recommend you instead find some liquid malt extract or dry malt extract from a local homebrew shot or an online store and use this instead (there are calculators online to determine how much of each you'd need to use to get the same amount of sugar your missing from the sugar).

And you can totally make your own recipes or use some from here. Again check out the Mr. Beer forum or search for beer software (online, free, whatever). Even just look at the ingredient list for a Mr. Beer kit, and search for the stuff on your own. You'll need to scale most you find here down, as the 2 gallon Mr. Beer is smaller than the average 5 gal batch most brew. That said, I often do 2, 3, 4.2, .5 gallon batches.

 

[BobG]

Howdy,

Welcome to the forum.
Brewer's Art is a great place for info and supplies.
I'm the President of Mad Anthony Serious Homebrewers Club. http://www.mashfortwayne.com/info.html
Feel free to contact me or anyone in the club if you have questions or need anything.

Cheers,
Bob