Did you start with a Mr.Beer kit?

[Golddiggie]

No Mr. Beer kit here. Started with a fermenter kit (5 gallon batch sizes) from the LHBS, along with two of their recipe kits in November of 2010. Within another week, I also had three batches of mead going (was late for Thanksgiving due to a foamcano [cleanup] when degassing/aerating the must)...

I did try some of what someone made from those kits... Wasn't impressed one bit. It was actually rather bad compared with either my brews, or the other home brewer we brewed with that night. With that experience, I decided that I'd not touch any kits from Mr. Beer... Ever... Been holding to that too.

I like being creative when cooking [food] which is part of why I switched to my own recipes with batch #3, and all grain with batch #5 (one partial mash at #4).

 

[Dan]

I started with steeped grain/extract kits. (this has a Mr Beer ending)

One day I asked my wife if she wanted to help me brew and she agreed. She loved the sweet earthy aroma of the steeping grains but wasn't to crazy about the initial smell of LME boiling, (she said it smelled like beer and she's not fond of beer) but the first hop hop addition got her attention, she enjoyed the bright floral aroma.

I was a new brewer and didn't know dumping an ounce or two of hops into a vigorous boil could cause a nearly disastorous boilover. I turned down the heat and stirred and it worked. She then decided it was best to stir the boil nearly continuously so that's what she did for the most part on an hour. The beer ended up turning out pretty darn good. I told her that and she decided it was because of her stirring.

After 4 or 5 more steeped grain extract kits I got into all grain brewing but my wife lost interest soon after her first brewing experience and didn't know I went from bottles of extract to pounds of grain. (we don't always communicate well)


About 6 months later around Christmas time she saw som Mr Beer refills at the World Market so she bought them for me. All she could see was some neat looking labels of extract (keyed in on the word extract) She didn't know any better but I love her for it. A year later those can's are still stashed away somewhere in the garage.

 

[stevehardt]

I do the Mr Beer thing now. Cheap to buy, easy to use, takes up very little space, and I learned a lot.

Trick is to be patient...follow the instructions and you'll get swill. Give it enough time and you'll get decent beer.

Probably gonna upgrade shortly, but for now I'm having fun with the Mr Beer, learning a lot, and getting beer that's better than BMC.

 

[SkippyWilliams]

I got a kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop. It is a 1 gallon IPA and is about ready to be bottled. I can't wait to try it. It is my first attempt at a homebrew, but definitely will not be my last. Everyday I am reading and looking at what I am going to brew next. Any suggestions for a 1 gallon brew are appreciated. I will eventually move up to 5 gallons.

 

[jgerard]

I started with one. Then I got another and split coopers recipes between the two. Then I got a third from a buddy, then started splitting all grain batches in half. Just got a 5 gal bucket 6.5 gal carboy and keg setup! =)