So I haven't had any of my beers made with specialty grains and hops, but I think they will be great. I was disappointed with the MrBeer results, and wondered if I did something wrong, but I knew I didn't... but they didn't taste that great... I had a taste of an amber ale I made, while bottling, and I had some of the Belgian pale ale for a gravity reading, and they both tasted excellent, even though they weren't ready yet. So I think HME probably sucks, and maybe MrBeer just have sucky recipes. The only people who liked them were my brother's girlfriend and a guy's wife who tried it. They both thought they were great, and one guy said he liked that it didn't have a bitter taste! Ha!
I have 5 batches right now at different stages, from a new batch in the bucket to some bottles ready next week - a porter, an amber ale, Belgian pale ale, a belgian blond and a dunkelweizen. I am going to have a nice flow going pretty soon, and keep it up, with a nice variety of beers constantly brewing. The samples I had were SO much better than any MrBeer I brewed, so I am pretty optimisitc and excited. I'm glad I didn't let those kits discourage me from trying to make better beer. Thanks to this forum or I might have given up...