Inexpensive, it is beer and ok for what it is.
I looked around on the innuhnets, and found Mr. Beer ingredients being much more expensive than better products I can buy at my local homebrew store or online.
For example, I'd pay $13.95 for 3 pounds of DME ($13.95/3 =
$4.65 a pound) at my LHBS. With my 10% homebrew club membership discount, it comes out at
$4.19 a pound.
At Mr.Beer's store a (relatively small) bag of similar DME containing only 7.5 oz runs $3.95.
That comes down to $3.95/7.5*16 =
$8.43 a pound, double from my LHBS price. Then shipping needs to be added as well.
Similar observations for LME:
https://www.mdhb.com/index.php?cPath=21_27_39_129_26000133
And no, I don't have any love for (potentially old and stale) pre-hopped extracts with an old unrefrigerated pack of some unknown yeast under the lid.
John Palmer was not the first or only one to suggest tossing that pack of yeast and replace it with some real and fresh beer yeast of customer's choice.
Sure, Mr. Beer can be an entryway into homebrewing with their catchy advertising of beginners kits. But it pretty much stops there.
They're merely selling the
illusion of brewing any of those beers they offer. Although the end results may yield drinkable beers, they're not very good or even close to their styles, by any measure.
The
illusion is brewing an
American Lager, a
Grand Bohemian Czech Pilsner, or
Aztec Mexican Cerveza, driven by the beer's style and name, but without using the special fermentables, a Lager yeast, fermented under low and controlled temps, and some sort of low temp lagering/conditioning process, they're nothing like them. They're drinkable ales at best.
Brewing their
Diablo IPA from the can without using fresh hops is merely an
illusion of an IPA. It won't even qualify as a Pale Ale.