The Mr. Beer Hate?

[Here-to-Learn]

I've used Mr. Beer to get started in home brewing. The simplicity did appeal to me but I recognized that probably came with a tradeoff for quality. I've made some good and not so good beers. Used some of their higher-end refill kits with better results. I think there is a lot of knowledge here that will help me improve (I've even bought the Coopers 34L kit now as well). It would be helpful to see what a summary of the top 5 or 10 things to improve the Mr Beer and Coopers beer. Maybe list from simplest to implement to more difficult order....just a thought. I've seen using different yeast etc. brew temperature etc. to name a few. I know I would definitely try them out. Appreciate all the good feedback

 

[Tidwellc]

Around ten years ago my girlfriend at the time bought me a Mr. Beer for Christmas because I had been talking about interest in homebrewing. Was real excited, got started with the first batch and the fermenter broke... I just remember it being super poor quality. Anyway, I woke up the very next day, drove to my LHBS and got set up with a decent 5 gal kit, an extract recipe with speciality grains and some instruction from the staff, went home and brewed my first batch of homebrew.

It left me with a bad taste in my mouth for Mr. Beer kits, but I guess it inspired me to go ahead and spend the $ on an actual extract setup and got me absolutely hooked from there. So.. f*** you Mr. Beer, but also thank you Mr. Beer.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Mr. Beer was my first brewing experience back in '98 with a pale ale kit I brewed with my dad. We ended up with six or so 2 liter bottles of beer that we laid down in the crawl space to age. Less than two weeks later I snuck one out and took it to a party, ended up drinking most of it myself. It packed a buzz but it had an off flavor and gave me an incredible hangover. Needless to say I was hooked! Mr. Beer is legend.

 

[Redpappy]

I started off with MR. Beer.... I might have stuck with Mr. Beer for more than 1 brew, but I wanted to be more involved instead of heat up some water and drop the can of goodies into it. So after the first batch i purchased a started kit from Northern Brewer.

 

[Kent88]

Mr Beer is fine for some people. To compare it to all-grain brewing, there are several ways to do a mash, you can do the "traditional" method with a MLT, sparge, etc; you can do a BIAB; you can buy an automated system; etc, etc. You can even do mini-mash / partial-extract.

This is just another way to do extract brewing. I started off with Mr. Beer. It was fine. It made a beer that tasted ok to my pallet and gave me confidence to try and make beer using other methods. I can certainly understand people who feel good sticking with MrB for more than a couple of batches.

 

[Mike_kever_kombi]

My brother bought me a mr beer and a few kits for my birthday in 99. I burned through those and bought a few more kits from Wally World (I think). After about 10 lackluster batches I discovered a janky lhbs (to call it that is a stretch). Selection was scarce, but knowledge was plentiful (and free).

I blame mr beer and the proprietor of that shop for sending me down that rabbit hole.

I loved that mr beer kit. Still have it, in original box.

 

[Transamguy77]

I received a Mr Beer kit for Christmas 10 years ago from a neighbor, he also bought me a 3 pack of refills so after burning through those kits I went and bought some lightly used equipment on Craig’s list to do 5 gallon batches and it was all over from there.

As far as “hate” I have none, if it wasn’t for Mr Beer myself and a fair amount of us on the forum wouldn’t be here.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Well hell I brew AG now too, but 22 years on I'm still working through the 900 or so mr. beer pale ale kits I picked up for a song at Zayre's after christmas sale in 1998.

 

[bracconiere]

As far as “hate” I have none, if it wasn’t for Mr Beer myself and a fair amount of us on the forum wouldn’t be here.

lol, me included....when i realized all i had to do is buy apple juice. i was hooked on making my own...

 

[fatslob]

I loved my mr beer kit. Wish I still had the little 2 gallon fermenter keg that thing was cool. Only problem I have is they dont explain the dangers of using starsan.

 

[bracconiere]

dont explain the dangers of using starsan.

i'm curious myself, can you elaborate?

 

[bracconiere]

99% brewing illusion

damn, 2016...but still, is that like a turbo sugar wash? aged on saw dust?

 

[Buick Beer Gardens]

I have two Mr. Beer extract kits in the chute for brewing. I will let you know how they turn out.

 

[Soulshine2]

looking back at my first brew in a Mr Beer ...its a lot of things. Cheap ingredients ,maybe not so fresh, yeast maybe not so perfect for the brew or again , not fresh. Water - I didnt consider water chemistry then and it didnt taste right , most likely due to chlorine. Stale hops pellets. I didnt have any kind of chiller, directions said to add cold tap water to cool the hot wort...so theres that, unpasteurized chlorinated tap water...a perfect setup for bad beer.
Disregard to pH ,temperatures or gravity...

Any or all of that .

 

[Jayjay1976]

Oh, the band-aid flavor. Using chlorinated tap water, what were we thinking? Why didn't the kits come with some campden tablets or at least instructions to use bottled water? Or maybe include a little packet pf mineral salts and instructions to buy some distilled water?

 

[Soulshine2]

Oh, the band-aid flavor. Using chlorinated tap water, what were we thinking? Why didn't the kits come with some campden tablets or at least instructions to use bottled water? Or maybe include a little packet of mineral salts and instructions to buy some distilled water?

Exactly. if they would make these "starter kits" with a little more thought ,they could very well open up the hobby to more people . I think these little brown barrel kits are what puts people off from going beyond.
I'm still at the opinion that these kits do not make beer as the first time brewer wanting to scratch their itch would think it should. The same applies to opening up a can of campbells condensed soup that sat on the shelf and adding water and heating it up. Thats pretty much what you're doing with an extract kit. Did you make soup? yes, but could you have made better soup had you learned why and what scratch ingredients to use and in what amounts, most definitely.

 

[fatslob]

i'm curious myself, can you elaborate?

Starsan contains calcium blockers and sulfuric acid.
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/sulfuric-acid/default.html

 

[Jayjay1976]

Starsan contains calcium blockers and sulfuric acid.
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/sulfuric-acid/default.html

Ugh. Sulfuric acid is perfectly safe to consume at low concentrations. Properly diluted, StarSan has a pH just under 3.0 and is no more acidic or dangerous to drink than lemonade. It is used all the time in the food industry to modify pH which is precisely its use in StarSan.

Stop spreading your uninformed paranoid nonsense. Also, learn how to use an airlock before you end up drinking rubbing alcohol.

 

[kh54s10]

Starsan contains calcium blockers and sulfuric acid.
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/sulfuric-acid/default.html

Properly mixed Starsan contains so little of those that it is totally insignificant. One ounce in 5 gallons. Then you soak the item to be sanitized and let the Starsan drain off. What is left is probably something around a couple of milliliters. There were probably more dangerous chemicals on the last piece of produce that you ate.

 

[bracconiere]

Ugh. Sulfuric acid is perfectly safe to consume at low concentrations.

+1, it's the ph of 0 that will get you....i've heard of sulfate salts being used as food additives.....lye is dangerous too, but makes a great pretzel, and bagel......

edit: lol, as fate would have it, the next thread i checked out was about water chemistry, and made mention of someone's sulfate addition being low/high, i forget easily.....

 

[Tidwellc]

Only problem I have is they dont explain the dangers of using starsan.

The what now?

edit: nevermind, my browser didn't load the last few replies..

 

[Jayjay1976]

Wait a minute, I smell troll. Dammit he got me all wound up and errything.

 

[fatslob]

In the 80s craft beer started taking off. It scared the anheuser busch folks. They devized a plan to have brewers add a deadly chemical to their beer. In this way they could literally kill off the competition. Dont believe me? Look up when starsan was invented.

 

[grampamark]

 

[IslandLizard]

Starsan contains calcium blockers and sulfuric acid.

From their MSDS, it contains Phosphoric acid, not sulfuric acid. Big difference.
Which are the calcium blockers?

 

[Jayjay1976]

From their MSDS, it contains Phosphoric acid, not sulfuric acid. Big difference.
Which are the calcium blockers?

calcium blocker = a dense, solid calcified bone dome isolating @fatslob 's brain from reality by blocking any information from entering.

 

[fatslob]

They call it starsan cus if you drink it you end up in heaven

 

[IslandLizard]

Can we leave the Starsan alone and get back on topic: The Mr. Beer Hate
AFAIK, Starsan was never included in Mr. Beer kits.

@fatslob
You had already derailed your own thread on "White Spots," which apparently disappeared while you were boiling.
Then Starsan and Sulphuric acid became your diversion and beating stick.

We've heard enough of it.
We (still) live in a free country, you may use any sanitation product you see fit. And please inform yourself, properly.

 

[Buick Beer Gardens]

Brewed a Mr. Beer this evening. Not much to it. Kind of uninspiring really.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Nothing wrong with Mr. Beer.
Frozen Toaster waffles are still waffles, right?
Maybe they aren’t as good as scratch-made fresh waffle iron waffles, but they’ll do in a pinch if that’s all you have the time or resources for.
I’d rather see a newbie start out with a Mr Beer than sit on the sidelines and critique another brewer’s product without any hands-on experience of the process.