New brewer desperate for info

[McCrackN]

Okay, so I got a Mr. Beer kit as a late Christmas present and am very excited to start crafting and customizing my own beers. I just got done brewing my first batch and I have several issues to address:

1) The price of the HME on their website is pretty much the same cost (or more) than buying beer at the grocery store

2) The Czech Pilsner I brewed came out way too sweet and I'm very disappointed... I didn't realize until I was almost done making the wort that I was out of sugar... Had to use pure cane sugar which was a big mistake

So I went back on the Mr. Beer website and was looking for solutions to my problems and I would like to use the pellet hops instead of the HME, the booster instead of sugar and just the brewers yeast that they have on the site to get my next brew to turn out right but I was wondering:

1) Are the pellet hops meant to be a substitute for the HME or are they just to add flavor

and

2) What are my options at this point. I would like to use the Mr. Beer kit but I would like for it to be cost effective. Is there a better route than HME?

Any experienced brewers out there who can help me get into my new hobby?

 

[Bensiff]

I don't think you will find too many extract brewers on this site that used hopped extract. Much better to use light DME/LME and then control the hopping separately.

2 - I don't know why they are calling for sugar in a Czech pilsner recipe, but if they are, table sugar is fine. If it was too sweet it wasn't because of the sugar as sugar ferments out completely, it was another issue, likely the HME quality or a yeast issue.

1 - (confused with your numbering system) I am not familiar with HME as I have never used it so I don't know the how much it is hopped or how it is hopped so I can't tell you what the pellet hops in the recipe are for.

2 - Yes, use DME and buy the hops separately. If you really like brewing, down the road you can brew all grain which, after the upfront cost, saves a lot of money as the malt extracts are very expensive.