Customer Reviews

Mr. Beer 3-Beer Mix Variety Pack

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4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you are looking for a way to make your own beer, but don't want to spend hours and hours doing it, and don't want to mess it up several times before getting it right, then Mr. Beer is for you. I fail to understand why my buddies are so keen on the old fashioned home brew kits (that include a 5 gallon "carboy", lots of hoses, lots of patience and lots of technical abilities), when this one makes really excellent beer for about 10% of the effort. And who really wants to make 44 botles of beer at once?? One kit make 12 20-oz bottles (or 20 12-oz bottles).

I have made dozens of batches of beer from the hundred or so recipes offered by Mr. Beer, and all of them are excellent. There is the occasional batch that I am just a little too careless with my sanitization steps, and these have a bad "off flavor," but this has happened only twice, and the off flavor seems to diminish with time. It is hard for me to drink other beers now (even excellent ones like Guiness and Sam Adams) because my beer is *so much better*!

Making one batch takes less than an hour of work: Disolve the sugar ("Booster") in 4 cups of tap water; boil it; add the mix, the hops and the other stuff you can add (e.g., some recipes call for fruit or honey or molasses or brown sugar); Stir; Add this to the 8-quart "keg" filled with more tap water; Stir; add the yeast and put it in the basement. That's all for step one, and that takes less than an hour. (The all-important sterlization steps are simple and take almost no time--they are scattered through this process.)

Let it sit in the (cool dark) basement for 1 to 3 weeks. Then you bottle it (and you can re-use plastic Coke bottles) with a touch of table sugar. The bottling takes most of an hour, but this is the fun part! Let it sit for 1 to 20 weeks (generally, the longer the better--1 week is not enough for me). That's it!

Your friends who are experienced beer makers will scoff at this kit, but I say that's their problem, not yours. This is an excellent product. The Mr. Beer web site is also very good. The customer support seems to assume you are actively sampling the product (!), so they are *very* friendly!

A tip: Use *tap water*! As it turns out, the dirtier your tap water is, the better the beer. Have you every tried to drink the water in Bavaria? It is *awful*! But it makes great beer. In the US, where the water is clorinated and florinated, boil it and cool it first to get rid of those things. My water in north-central Illinois is quite hard, and my beer is quite good!

I have never had a bad batch of Mr.Beer. The three pack of mix is a great value, its like getting one free. The only tip I have that I havent seen posted is when bottling, fill every bottle a little bit at a time. Fill each bottle a third until full. This process ensures that each bottle has about the same amount of settiment in the bottom. This in turn ensures a more consistent carbonation across the batch. More settiment=more yeast=more carbonation. You dont want half of your bottles to be rock hard and half to be soft after a few days.

I bought the variety pack and brewed my first batch of Nut Brown ale. It was fairly easy to make except it didnt come with mixing instructions so I had to find them on the internet (I have a different beer maker than a Mr. Beer). Would have been nice to include those.
This mix is far better than the other beer mixes that I have tried. It tends to mix easier than the powdered stuff. Overall the beer was tasty, but it needed time to clear up. The first few drinks of it early on were ok but as the beer sat and cleared up it got a lot better, so give it time (2 weeks atleast). Happy Brewing!

I'm on my second batch...and on the way to becoming a real brewmeister. ;-)

I'll just post some observations on the process as I've experienced it:

* turns out that for me at least...7 days is overly enthusiastic...I'm resigned to brewing for 3 weeks and finishing off in the bottles for 2 weeks...even with the simpler beers.

* DO NOT stir up the dead yeast in the bottom of the keg...this will result in poor tasting beer...even after it settles out.

* be very careful with keeping things sterile...I use a small filter mask during the critical stages

* I clean off the keg spigot with the cleaner provided so I can rest the bottle opening on it and try to prevent air getting into the beer at bottling time...I then hold the closed bottle horizontally and roll it till the sugar dissolves.

* I'd recommend the 2 liter soda bottles...free and less effort than the quart size. I use the green ones.

* I've seen some decent beer and some off tasting beer. These simpler beers with the booster are really a light beer...and they might have a sort of yeasty taste at times...and they are different. Will be trying the more advanced beers and the cider without the booster soon.

* The brewing process is not all HAPPY...HAPPY...there are details to watch and chances you take...and if you catch yourself always watching the keg bubble...you have issues...best to get it going and forget it till bottling time. It's a lot easier to just go buy some beer...but life isn't meant to be easy...is it? ;-) The process is something like gardening...you need to respect it...and enjoy it for what it is. Harvest time is just the bonus.

I am on my second batch of making beer with the Mr. Beer system. So far, I have not had very good luck but it may a matter of my inexperience rather than poor product. In any case, my last order from Amazon arrived in a very dirty, dusty condition and it is obvious it had sat in a warehouse somewhere for a long time. I wonder if the yeast and starter is still OK. I'll find out when this batch is done. My suggestion: if you order from Amazon and it arrives in a dirty condidtion, return it with an explanation.

Mr. Beer website offers more than just the starters pack. You can get extra hops or different herbs. This one is good but the bottles are not that great. Mr. Beer does sell glass bottles, caps, and a cap winch. For carbonation this works much better. oh and ferment your beer longer than 7 days like the basic recipe says. I get GREAT results from 20 days of fermentation.

I'm hesitant to give anything but a stellar review to a Mr. Beer product because I believe in their quality, but these standard refills (hopped malt extract + booster) are just OK. They will make beer. The process is easy and it will be as good as or better than most of the stuff in the cooler at your local convenience store. If you're just getting started and looking for a jumping off point, this is as good a place as any and the price is definitely right. But, especially with the recently added availability of Mr. Beer's deluxe refills on Amazon, there are better options. With deluxe refills you still get the can of HME but instead of a pack of booster you get another can of un-hopped malt extract and all malt means better beer. Yes, they cost more, but you get what you pay for. If you're happy with decent beer on the cheap, then these standard refills are for you. If you're looking for something of higher quality then give the deluxe or premium refills (HME X 2) a shot. The choice is yours.

As far as the refills in this variety pack, the Whispering Wheat is a nice thirst quenching Hefeweizen style, cloudy in appearance from the wheat and with good head retention. The Canadian Draft has more a crisp taste and a little more hops backbone than the wheat and it's also a good lawnmower type beer. The Vienna Lager is the darkest of the group with a reddish amber color. It has a nice malty flavor and I like it but if you're a fan of true Oktoberfest beers you may find it lacking.

Another thing to consider with these beers that use adjunct sugars like Mr. Beer's booster is that they need additional conditioning time to reach their peak. You can drink these beers 14 days after brewing, but I'd recommend 10 days in the fermenter, 10 in the bottle and 10 in the fridge at minimum before even trying one. 2 weeks for each of those 3 steps would be ideal. At that point your beer is probably about as good as it's going to get, though it will maintain its freshness far longer than filtered, pasteurized beers.

The results:
3-Beer Mix Variety Pack International Series
- Oktoberfest Vienna Lager - Dark Ale color, good carbonation, good head retention, almost no bitterness full hoppy aroma (my wife's favorite). My favorite in this series.
- High Country Canadian Draft - Clear golden color, good carbonation, good head retention, pleasing bitterness. Another tasty beer and my 2nd favorite.
- Whispering Wheat Weizenbier - Deep golden color, good carbonation, good head retention, caramel finish. Flavorful but the slight sweetness makes my least favorites.
Preferring American style light (Coors, Bud, Miller) beer, the quality from all the Mr. Beer brews I've made are all tastier. Published alcohol content may be less, but the actual "hit" is very smooth. Don't know were some of the reviewers got their "watery" taste and no "head" opinions. More likely, these sub-standard results were due to their using less than ideal sanitazion conditions, using tap chlorinated water, and/or rushing the brewing process.
Got a lot of good tips from various online reviews, which minimized/eliminated mistakes. When one batch of beer is ready for bottling, reserve yourself 3 hours to bottle starting from a fully fermented keg, then re-clean, re-sanitize and have another brew batch inside the keg to start re-fermenting. My greatest advise would be to take your time in all aspects. It will result in a home made beer you can be proud off. Am using 3 fermenting kegs to get brewing into full production. Saving money is one thing, but drinking terrific tasting beer is the all-important consideration. My days of buying retail beer are history thanks to Mr. Beer and Amazon's great service.

UPDATE: Having stocked up on the International Series when Amazon had a sale (less than $27), the Vienna Lager continues to be my favorite but have now grown to appreciate the refreshing taste of Weizenbier which I now rate 2nd together with Canadian Draft. Have done over 15 kits - using 3 kegs - since starting (Dec. 2010) and not a single failed brew. Everything continues to be consistent without any flux in flavor,carbonation or color.

I received a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas from my brother. I have brewed three batches now, and just bottled my fourth last night. I may never buy beer from a store again! the process is simple (even I can follow it) and I've not had anything less than a great tasting beer....have had the West Coast Pale Ale, Vienna wit beer, the Canadian lager; all were super! The only thing I'd really like to do is bottle the 12 oz glass bottles instead of plastic liter bottles; which I will do some day. Great stuff!

Mr Beer makes it easy to make your own product which is better tasting than the major breweries. If you follow the recipe closely, it has shown to be no miss from my experience. With the Amazon sale conditions on these products lately, I've managed to lower my cost to around $0.20 per 12 oz serving for premium beer.