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That's true, especially the gift part. Every November & December we sell tons of kits that end up in the hands of people who have no real interest in brewing. It's a shot in the dark gift idea, especially for folks who are hard to buy for. Most of the other 10 1/2 months of the year, the vast...

A few comments on the above: 1) Definitely a possibility. It's amazed me over the past 30 plus years the number of customers that have come in and bought more or less the same ingredients and yet ended up with noticeably different results. Procedure is important! 2) Possible but probably...

As the saying goes, "To each, their own!" Seems like a lot of work for a twelve pack, but obviously it's not too tedious for you and having variety is definitely nice. Have fun! Scott Birdwell DeFalco's Home Wine & Beer Supplies Houston TX

Thomas, There is certainly nothing wrong with a "comfort zone" when it comes to homebrewing. However, I think you will find the "Ale Pail" set to be pretty much the same, except bigger and easier to clean and maintain than the Mr. Beer. The real difference comes from the ingredients and...

That 60 gram amount sounds about right for 8 liters. FWIW that's about 1/3 cup of table sugar. Simply bring about a half of a cup of water to a boil, then pour in the sugar. Stir thoroughly to dissolve. An alternative is to add the sugar and water to a microwave safe dish (e.g. Pyrex...

Those PET bottles will hold a LOT of pressure before they blow. I would say there is not a high probability that they will explode. A hydrometer reading is essential in the future, IMHO. You could just put the bottles in a plastic bucket & take them upstairs. That will contain anything, just...

You can speed the carbonation up by moving the beer into a little warmer temperatures (say upstairs at 70ish), but I'm inclined to agree that it will carbonate eventually at the lower temperature & possibly taste a little better. If you're in a bit of a hurry (& most beginning homebrewers are)...

Justibone, Your experience with the LHBS is unfortunate, without doubt. Over the years in both my shop and through the trade association, I've tried to encourage folks to patronize their local folks first. But, then you get this kind of incident, and you have to cringe. FWIW, I don't doubt...

SGNellett, If you're doing the first batch with the WCPA & booster, that figure is pretty good for one liter bottles. If you start making fuller-bodied beers in the future (i.e. replacing booster with more HME or UME), you'll probably want to cut that back a bit (~2 tsp per liter bottle). The...

Gosh, gtlaw. I guess that you haven't heard. . . we've severely reduced our use of firearms & pointy weapons to force our customers into buying unnecessary equipment. These days we're pretty much just reduced to begging & pleading. Not as effective, but at least the police don't show up as...

I don't want to "bag on the Mr. Beer." I am simply pointing out that ANY homebrew shop can give you more options and access to a greater variety of ingredients than just using those tiny cans. OTOH if you like the results that you're getting now, I suppose you don't have any incentive to...

Three tins is 3.6 lbs of extract for just over 2 gallons of beer is a pretty full-bodied beer. No wonder you liked the results. That's roughly equivalent to a 3 lb. bag of DME. I guess the trade-off is variety of flavors by blending extract varieties versus economy & versatility of using a 3.3...

Hmmm! Not seen the American Ale kit. All the MB kits I've seen come with the West Coast Pale Ale & Booster. Can't say I've made an exhaustive search, though. I wonder what the profile of the first time MB brewer is. . . If it's anything like our first time brewers (or, for that matter, any...

Replacing booster with more ME makes a beer that you & I would prefer, but, of course, everybody has their own preferences. For a domestic style beer, they could make a can with about 1.5 lbs. of pale ME & .7 lb of brewery grade corn syrup (essentially a syrup version of the booster) & you...

Obviously, you have not seen the number of swollen cans that I have over the years. NEVER trust malt extract to be "pre-sterilized." Remember these extracts are being concentrated and packaged in a vacuum, which allows the syrup to boil at much lower temperatures than 212°F. I've tasted too...

I've used their products before and didn't find them any better or any worse than other brands of HME's. My main objection was I think that 1.2 lbs of malt extract for eight liters is WAY too little! The booster is better than sugar, but the beer, if brewed as instructed, is very thin and...

"Extract twang" comes from old malt extract and boiling or not boiling is not going to change that. Late addition of malt extract does help reduce caramelization, thereby helping maintain pale color & drier, non-caramelized finish. I think a lot of the problems with caramelization of boiled...

Check the ingredient label. It should state whether the malt extract includes "hops" or "hop extract." That should give you some idea of what to do. As to Mr Beer telling you not to boil their HME's, I wouldn't necessarily put any stock in that because over the years I've seen malt extract...

I would still disagree that "Boiling HME is going to change your hop profile" if the hops in the HME are from hop extract. The majority of HME's on the market are from hop extract because it's easy & precise, not because it's better. You simply make unhopped malt extract and add hop extract to...

1) Many HME's are hopped with hop extract. More boiling won't appreciably impact the hop profile. It's already set. If the extract was hopped with flowers or pellets and you boil, you might get a bit more bitterness and less aroma, in theory. Hell, I've never gotten any hop aroma to speak of...