Mr.Beer

[CarlisleBrew]

I am using a Mr. Beer kit with Canadian Draft extract. I will start conditioning this weekend and hope to drink next weekend. I have order some more complex flavors. Hope to star those soon. Has anyone had any luck with this kit. It was fun to use and not terribly complicated. Great instructions. I hope it turns out!

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Search the forum ([ame=http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22mr+beer%22+site%3Awww.homebrewtalk.com]click here[/ame]).

Most of us don't have much experience with Mr. Beer, and those that do have moved away from it quickly. However, it's a cheap and simple way to get involved in this great hobby, so I won't bash it too harshly.

 

[Cheesefood]

Carlisle - welcome to homebrewing. Sounds like you're interested in making your own great beer, so whenever you're ready to upgrade your brewery we'll be happy to help and offer some pointers.

 

[c.n.budz]

They sell Mr. Beer kits at the CVS down the street from me, I laughed when i saw them there, some lady looked at me like i was crazy

 

[snapdragon]

I used my mr. beers ( I have two ) for about four batches. They are really not that bad. The mixes are not bad either. If your going to just use extract there is nothing wrong with using mr. beer, but as anyone will tell you your going to move on as this brewing bug really bites you in the butt. I went from one mr. beer to two mr. beers, the to 3 glass carboys in 7 months! So if your gonna just do extract for 2.5 gal. batches at a time then they work great, but when you wanna step it up a bit there are kits that are much better for not that much more $$$.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[Monk]

I still use my mr. beer fermenter fairly regularly for low gravity brews, but I don't use their kits anymore. If you do like the kits, I have two tips from my experience:

I definitely recommend using all malt, I never had good luck with the "booster". Just add another can of UME.

Also, give it enough time to ferment. Leave it for a good 2 weeks, I say. It's easy to accidentally bottle too soon.

When you feel like experimenting, I would recommend buying your own unhopped malt extract and boiling some hops in it yourself...it's much cheaper and not hard at all.

Good luck and have fun!

Monk

 

[Fingers]

It was fun to use and not terribly complicated. Great instructions. I hope it turns out!

Glad to hear you enjoyed the process. The Mr Beer kit is quite easy to use but really all it is is a prehopped kit and a fancy fermenter. If you enjoy doing the Mr Beer kits you'll be ready to step up to doing 5 gallon batches soon enough.

There are several steps to brewing beer and you can break them up and learn them one at a time if you want. The Mr Beer will teach you the fermentation side of things. Once you have that down you can buy unhopped extract and steeping grains and start modifying your own malt. Then you ferment that. You can then go to partial mashes where you use part grain and part malt, and then finally all grain.

Don't let the scoffers bother you. We all had to start somewhere and I KNOW my beginnings were far more crude than a Mr Beer kit. Just have fun and make beer. Welcome aboard.

 

[DUCCCC]

...It was fun to use and not terribly complicated. Great instructions. I hope it turns out!

That right there is the important part!

Enjoy the hobby, and welcome aboard.

Matt

 

[Liquidsandwich]

This coment might get me some S&!t but oh well, I'll give it a whirl. I found some Mr. beer ingredience from my roomates kit he got 2 years ago for christmas, think the extract is any good still? or should I just pitch it? I know it's Mr. beer but as others have said it's a great way to learn and try brewing out. So can I use the stuff for something?

 

[Monk]

Nothing to lose.

 

[grasshopper1917]

The stuff in the can is likely still good - you may have to buy a new package of yeats though. That should only cost you a couple bux - give it a try - worse case scenario if the beer doesnt taste good you can give it to the in-laws as a gift

 

[Liquidsandwich]

Lol Nice!!

 

[trainfever]

This coment might get me some S&!t but oh well, I'll give it a whirl. I found some Mr. beer ingredience from my roomates kit he got 2 years ago for christmas, think the extract is any good still? or should I just pitch it? I know it's Mr. beer but as others have said it's a great way to learn and try brewing out. So can I use the stuff for something?

Give it a try, what can it hurt. I say this because last night I just brewed a Mr Beer kit that my brother in law gave me. It was given to him as a Christmas gift years ago and he never used it. The date on the extract was from 2002. I bought a new packet of yeast though. The kits back then didnt give you the "Booster" packet like they do today. I was supposed to add table sugar but I used corn sugar instead. It smells good and is fermenting nicely. So for 5 bucks, the cost of the yeast and the corn sugar, I could have a case of beer or at the least, another learning experienced and lesson learned. I'm hoping for the beer also.

One other thing, since it was my brother in laws kit, I plan on giving him a six pack of the beer and let him be the guinea pig.

 

[CarlisleBrew]

I tried the first bottles last night. Pretty good batch. 12 days to ferment, but after 12 days of carbonating it is still a little sweet. Another week should do it. Someone said I would move from Mr. Beer quickly, but I am going to try some of the more complex recipes first. I ordered hoppy and malt only. So those that don't like Mr. Beer, don't be haters....

 

[Steiner]

Hey CB. Totally do what you're comfortable with. I started out with a Mr. Beer kit, took my time with it, and recently brewed a batch with some leftover extracts. It's a good learning experience, but you can make way better beer with a standard 5-gal homebrewing kit. Definitely experiment and do what you want. It's all about the experience. Enjoy!

 

[camiller]

I started with Mr. Beer as well. And I still have two of the fermentors, but not the huge 2.5 gallon one, I have the small 1.25 gallon ones. If I ever get time to experiment with my brewing I thought I'd use them to split a batch to try different dry hopping/flavoring/etc.

Don't feel constrained to using only the MR. Beer branded extract kits. There are any number of other extract brands out there.

Welcome to brewing

 

[macs]

I tried the first bottles last night. Pretty good batch. 12 days to ferment, but after 12 days of carbonating it is still a little sweet. Another week should do it. Someone said I would move from Mr. Beer quickly, but I am going to try some of the more complex recipes first. I ordered hoppy and malt only. So those that don't like Mr. Beer, don't be haters....

Welcome to a great hobby. I also started with Mr Beer. I made about 6 beer kits and 3 Cider kits and then decided to get deeper into the homebrewing hobby. If you like the taste of the Mr Beer kits, you will love the taste of the more advanced 5 gallon kits that are available from the Homebrew stores! :rockin:

 

[CarlisleBrew]

Canadien Draft is pretty good for first go at it. Still got a 12 pack left. My buddies gave it a whirl and actually drank more than one. I will start my Strawberry blonde this weekend unless OSU defeats my Maize and Blue, then I'll just drink the rest of the draft! Thanks for all the great words. I'll let you all know when I am ready to upgrade. Oh, yeh, I saw some brew trading groups. Is this common? Safe, etc. How do I locate one?