Mr. Beer Fail

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flyby

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So, I've brewed two batches of Mr. Beer. Neither were good, or something that I would enjoy sitting down 'enjoying my creation'.

So, should I:

A) Give up. Because if I can't make drinkable brews in something as easy as Mr. Beer, then I just suck at this hobby.

or,

B) Upgrade to a real kit. Like Northern Brewers.

(There is a bit of sarcasm in this question.)
 
I have never done a Mr. Beer kit, but I am assuming it is the same as every other kit out there (Brewers Best, etc). What is wrong with the taste? Before we can attempt to help you out, we need to know what is wrong with it and why it is undrinkable. Secondly, what is your process? How are you making these "undrinkable" beers?
 
flyby said:
So, I've brewed two batches of Mr. Beer. Neither were good, or something that I would enjoy sitting down 'enjoying my creation'.

So, should I:

A) Give up. Because if I can't make drinkable brews in something as easy as Mr. Beer, then I just suck at this hobby.

or,

B) Upgrade to a real kit. Like Northern Brewers.

(There is a bit of sarcasm in this question.)

Or C. Find an easy extract recipe scale it back to 2 gallons and use good quality yeast. Then use the mr beer as a fermenter and see how it goes.
 
I started with Mr Beer and made some really good beers. I would review my process and sanitation. Re-read the instructions to make sure you are not missing a step and don't give up so easily. Perhaps you can identify someone close by that can observe your process (Mr Beer is not a long brewing process) and give you some guidance.

Sheldon
 
I too started with a Mr. Beer I got as an anniversary from my girlfriend. I made some decent beer with it, but the issue I ran into was it all kinda tasted the same. I also had an occasional funky beer come out of it.

Personally, I'd say give the Mr. Beer kit another go. Snag one of the 3 paks and work thru em. Mr. Beer will kinda help get the foundation down. Then if you still enjoy brewing (you probably will) drop the coin for a "real" kit.
 
I started with Mr. Beer and was able to get some decent beers out of it. If you have a homebrew store near by maybe pick up some better yeast. That made a big difference in some of the kits I used.
 
Throw out the Booster & substitute 1# of light DME, throw out the MB Yeast and use a pack of US-05. Buy some Star-San to sanitize your stuff with, faster & easier. Follow the instructions as normal. Let it ferment 2 full weeks, use a cooler to keep the keg in and swap out ice packs daily to keep your temp around 64-68.
Either batch prime by transferring the beer to another container or bottle prime BUT weight your sugar, don't go by teaspoons. Use this priming calculator Let it carb for 2 weeks at room temperature. Then let it age in the fridge for 2 weeks. Hardest thing is the wait. Using a bigger 5 gallon extract kit is no different than Mr. Beer.


Mr. Beer WestCoast Pale Ale
7430-first-beer.jpg
 
The beer I made was 'drinkable' but not something I really expected. It had a watered-down taste, and was a bit sweet like I added sugar to it (on top on sugar for conditioning). I don't know, I re-did everything step for step, and was very meticulous on sanitizing, we'll se how the next one turns out. I was thinking about getting some better quality ingredients from a local store.. But I'm tempted to just spend the 200 bucks for some better equipment/brewing items.
 
flyby said:
The beer I made was 'drinkable' but not something I really expected. It had a watered-down taste, and was a bit sweet like I added sugar to it (on top on sugar for conditioning). I don't know, I re-did everything step for step, and was very meticulous on sanitizing, we'll se how the next one turns out. I was thinking about getting some better quality ingredients from a local store.. But I'm tempted to just spend the 200 bucks for some better equipment/brewing items.

Go with option c and get a small thing of star San. See if you like the process and the results. Be patient and let the yeast do their jobs. Save the money and test your process and patience first.
 
Don't use their standard kits with the booster. It is garbage. Either get an upgraded version or sub out the booster for LME at your LHBS.
My friend gave me a few Mr Beer brews he made (been doing it for years), though he doctors them up and adds more booster, and it tastes watery and crappy to me. Drinkable, but not worth the expense or time.
 
I sometimes use a 5 gallon paint strainer for stove top mini-biab all grain and ferment in my mr beer fermentors. Works well.
 
If you enjoy brewing, don't give up. I'd recommend using StarSan as your sanitizer because it's an excellent product and something like oxiclean free or PWB as your cleanser. Some general advice in order to improve your beers, make sure sanitization is good. You said you are meticulous, so that should be fine. Don't rush fermentation, let the yeast ferment completely and then give them another a week or so to clean things up. Make sure you're fermenting at a correct temperature. The temperature of the beer is what counts, not the ambient room temperature. I've found the beer will be at least a couple of degrees warmer than the ambient temperature and maybe up to 5-10 degrees warmer. Check your water. Does it taste okay, are you removing any chlorines, etc.? Educate yourself on the brewing and fermentation process. This forum is a great resource, there are excellent books like the Complete Joy of Homebrewing and How To Brew (first edition is available free online, howtobrew.com), and check out some podcasts like Basic Brewing Radio/Video and the Brewing Network's The Jamil Show and Brew Strong. Your beers will certainly improve with a little more experience and know how. Hope this helps. :mug:
 
go buy a 5 gallon set up, i started with mr beer and after one batch i knew i wanted something bigger and better.the air locks on mr beers small "keg" are a joke and to me i believe provide no real seal. i always say you gotta spend the money to get the quality...in most cases lol. plus the 2 cases that youll be left with over with compared to the 1 case youll have with mr beer youll be much happier!!
 
I too started with Mr Beer and made some decent beer with it when I added 1# of DME and used better yeast. I would still use the booster for a higher ABV and over-fill to around 2.5 gallons. Let this one sit for a few months and come back to it, it will probably taste better. I did upgrade to 5 gallon, all grain batches after 4 Mr Beer kits simply because I was drinking it faster than I could make it and wanted a more in-depth process which has also resulted in much better beer.
 
I've used the Beer Machine and Mr. Beer. Neither made drinkable beer.

My friend loves her Mr. Beer beer, and that's great for her. But to be honest, I appreciate her sharing with me but the beer just isn't very good.

It's like cooking. If you want to make spaghetti sauce, you can open a can of Hunt's canned spaghetti sauce. It's edible and I did that in college all the time. Or, you can buy canned tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, onions, and garlic and make your own sause.

The Mr. Beer and Cooper's kits are like the Hunt's Spaghetti Sauce. A kit that contains grain, hops, malt extract, and fresh yeast is like making your own spaghetti sauce out of canned ingredients. The difference is quite remarkable.

I've used Cooper's kits, the Beer Machine kits, and the Mr. Beer kits. Unhappy with the results, I started using an ingredient kit from places like Austinhomebrew.com. It was a world of difference and started my foray into brewing better beer.

Many people are satisfied with the Mr. Beer kits, and I don't mean to knock that. But if you are not, then there are much better kits out there that make quality beer similar to commercial quality.
 
I started with Mr. Beer and made some pretty good beers. I actually had a friend over a few weeks ago to help me brew my first non-Mr. Beer batch, and he said (unsolicited) that one of my Mr. Beer batches in particular was awesome.

...of course I had some that were very much not awesome, too. But point being, you can get some good beer out of a Mr. Beer kit. That said, I'm happy I moved on to a non-Mr. Beer setup.
 
I didn't start with Mr. Beer but after i stopped brewing for a long while, I started back up with a few kits. I've made a few good Mr. Beer batches but tweak many of them to my liking. I still use the little keg for 2 plus gallon test batches and have made some great beers.
Last night I tasted my brother double IPA from a recipe our local brew store put together for him. It is spectacular after on 2 weeks in the bottle. It will be even better.

However, the advice given is good. Star away from the booster and add more malt and hops and you can do well. Better yet, find a local brew store and ask them to give you the ingredients for a 2 or 2.5 gallon brew that you like.
Presently, due to the heat this time of year, I have no way to keep my 5 gallon fermenter cool so I have 3 little brown kegs I put in 3 ice chests and use re-freezable ice packs to keep them cool.
I have a Nut Brown and a Stone IPA in 2 now and will do a black IPA this weekend. Easy as pie!
 
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