Customer Reviews

Mr. Beer Premium Edition Home Microbrewery System

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I received the Mr. Beer kit for Xmas, and it's a good system overall. It serves as a very good introduction to home brewing, but it does have some downsides as well.

Good bits:
-The system is about as easy as it could be.
-The instructions are clear and simple.
-The fermenting tank is small (2 gallons), meaning that you don't have to wait around for a long time to taste the final product. With your more normal 5 gallon kits, you have to bottle a LOT of beer, and wait a bit longer for fermentation.
-There's dozens of mixes available on their homepage, and they offer a lot of quality products at reasonable prices. Join their club to avoid the expensive shipping charges.

Not so good bits:
-The fermenter is almost too simple. A proper airlock design would make it more foolproof as to tell when fermenting is complete, as well as avoiding contamination of the beer.
-The included mixes, while of good quality, produce a rather poor beer by comparison to what it is possible to make with the kit. Their website has a lot better product than what they include in the kit, and this gives some people bad impressions of the kit itself. The fault is not with the kit, but with the very basic starter beer in the package. The separate mixes they sell in stores are not much better, being all very basic brews. They're not bad, but they're not great either. Mediocre at best.
-Sterilization (which is possibly the most important part of home brewing) is difficult because the fermenter is not dishwasher safe. A higher quality plastic that could stand high temperatures would be a better overall choice for the fermenting keg, since automatic dishwashers are a great way to sterilize your equipment easily.

My suggestions on how to use this kit correctly:
-Go to their website and pick up some of the more advanced receipes instead of using the mixes as given initially. If you've used those included mixes, don't be disappointed overall, it's that the mixes are very basic. Using the better receipes and the better ingredients, you can make quite incredible brews.
-Keep the fermenter in an enclosed dark space during the fermenting process. I recommend a large cooler. This avoids contamination of the product as well as keeping it at a steady temparature.
-Be very, very careful to sterilize completely. The OneStep cleanser they include is very good, but you do have to use it properly. Read the instructions and be sure that everything gets cleaned extremely well.
-No matter what the instructions say, bottle conditioning takes longer than a week. Really. Wait 2 weeks, preferably 4, before you crack the first bottle. The beer only gets better the longer you let it mature in the bottles.
-Go easy on the sugar. Too much sugar in the bottles and they will explode, or taste like cider.

If you use the kit as intended and with a careful eye for cleanliness, then you can produce some excellent quality brews in a very short time. But follow those instructions precisely. Anything less will result in poor quality brews.

----
After using it for over a year, I have some more things to add:

- DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN THE LID. The lid must allow the gases produced MUST escape. This is especially true with their higher alcohol mixes and stouts. If you overtighten, the end result will be spilled beer and a ruined keg. I brewed a dopplebock using the keg, and overtightened it. Result: The keg overpressurized and almost burst. Some foam came out of the top of the keg, and spilled into my cooler. The residue, once it dried, provided food for.. well.. not so nice creatures. The keg was naturally unusable afterwards. However, this was my own fault, and a new keg only cost me $10 through the Mr. Beer website, so it was not a total loss. And the beer (since it was not contaminated due to the pressure differential, I bottled it anyway) turned out to be absolutely spectacular. So whatever you do, don't tighten it too much. A little hand pressure for tightening is enough.

- Again, go easy on the sugar when bottling! Somebody told me that they had one of the plastic bottles burst on them and the remainder tasted like cider. This is the result of excessive sugar in the bottling process. I highly recommend you get the sugar measure that they sell, if you are bottling in the 12oz, 22oz, or 1 liter sizes. The sugar measure is very easy to use and exact in nature. Takes out the measurements and guesswork.

- Finally, I do not recommend normal bottles with a capper. These are difficult to use and contrary to popular belief, do not produce better beer. The screw top bottles are simplest because they hold the pressure in properly and are trivially simple to use. Alternatively, Mr. Beer sells 16 oz "Grolsch style" bottles on their site, which are the rubber grommeted wired cappers, and they work very well. If you must bottle with glass, get those. Or go find similarly capped bottles of beer and use those bottles (after dishwashing, of course). Glass is much easier to sterilize because it's disahwasher safe. Just take the rubber caps off first.

Okay, so this cuts a bunch of corners from traditional beer brewing. That's the appeal! This makes home brewing so easy, that if true home brewers didn't turn their noses up, something would be wrong.

I'm a busy guy with two kids and a self-owned business. There's little time in my life for hobbies. Having a kit like this allows me to brew beer at home with only about 1/2 hour per session committed.

The fun part is that the ingredients are so varied that you can literally mix and match with endless combinations of flavors, bodies, alcohol contents, etc. It's not a true "just add water" system as I've heard suggested. If it were, the fun would be gone. You do have to put together a recipe (many of which are available online to get you started) and go for it.

Beer brewing for the time impaired person with other responsibilities. It's lot's of fun and the beer is darned good too.

So finally getting around to reviewing this thing. A quick rundown: Mr. Beer is basically a stripped down method of home brewing. While "real" home brewing is not brain surgery by any means, Mr Beer takes a lot of the legwork and time out of the equation. There is no boiling or steeping needed, no need to prepare airlocks, no need to rack the beer to a secondary fermenter, etc. Its extremely "dumbed down", for lack of a better term. But don't let that deter you!

The MAIN thing to first timers: Do NOT judge this kit by the initial creation!!!!!! I cannot stress this enough! The kit will come with a can of hopped malt extract, usually the West Coast Pale Ale or the Canadian Draft and a package of "Booster", which is basically corn sugar. These base ingredients, when used properly, will provide a PASSABLE beer. But honestly, it's just a way for you to learn how to do it. A bottle of budweiser will likely taste much better. If you persevere, go to the Mr. Beer website and order some of the other (and better) ingredients. Instead of using the booster, its highly recommended to go with a Unhopped Malt Extract. Used in conjunction with one of the hopped cans, these all malt recipes can make some EXCELLENT beers. MUCH better than what is commonly available on the store shelves. You can even get creative and add some of your own touches, such as coriander, cinnamon, orange peel, etc. Also using finishing hops is a great way to add some good aroma and flavor to the final product. I recently brewed up an Octoberfest that blew my friends away. They thought that I had used my "real" homebrewing rig to make it, so I strung them along for a while and finally told them it came from Mr Beer. A real beer kit is excellent and something Mr Beer users may want to graduate to, but I can tell you that this kit here brews some beer on par and sometimes exceeding what I have done with the real deal, and I have made some killer brews the "real" way.

All said, this is a great product. It does suffer some design flaws, such as the lack of a traditional airlock and limited capacity. Making brews with a high amount of fermentables, such as any fruit ale recipes, can be a pain as the notched vents can become clogged during the initial stage. I had a close call where the plastic keg swelled almost to the point of explosion. The woman would have loved that! Also, there is a certain joy to "real" brewing that is missing with Mr. Beer, such as doing a long boil of the wort with different hop varieties. With this kit, its just boiling the water and then removing the heat to add the premixed malts. Simple, makes a unbelievable beer at times, but some of the "fun" is sacrificed. As with all brewing, SANITATION is key! And good water. This is a great buy and I highly recommend this kit to any beer lover. Easy and can put just about any store bought beer to shame.

My wife purchased the premium edition system for Christmas 09. (I know... pretty cool wife!) After letting the unit sit for a month, I decided to embark on my very first micro brewing journey. After reading the little book that came with it, I felt somewhat convinced that I may have a partial chance at this. Sterilization! Yes, as you have read a hundred freakin times... STERILIZE EVERYTHING! I did the counters, the sink, the utensils', Mr. Beer keg & even myself... (It only hurt for a week... just how serious are you about your beer?) Tried to sterilize the dog, but he ran away... oh well, just one more reason to drink.

The directions on the little pamphlet are by far the best. Condensed and to the point for this basic brew. I added the 4 cups of water to my pot, slowly stirred in the booster and brought it to a boil. After removing it from the heat you add the can of HME (hops & malted extract) which looks like something that should go right into the compost pile. I filled my Mr. Beer keg with about 4 qts of cold water to prevent it from melting onto my countertop as I pour in the boiling liquid. Continue to fill it to the 8.5 qrt mark with water... stir, pitch in the yeast from the little packet under the lid of the ALPO (I mean HME) and let it sit for 5 min. Stir again, cap it and let it sit for about 10 days. It should be out of direct sun and in a spot that has a stable temp. I found the perfect spot, upstairs; kind of in the middle of the house we have some cabinets that had a whole bunch of family photos on top. I found that by moving half of the photos into a drawer, I had Plenty of room for my fermenting keg! It kinda went over like a fart in a divers helmet... well, I mean... there is a slight smell that comes out of the keg....kinda like a brewery... you know what I mean.

So, after 10 days or so, I got the plastic bottles and caps, sterilized them and added the tablespoon of sugar to each one... yup, plain ol' table sugar. I really thought this was odd, but hey I'm still "green" when it comes to being a master brewer. (Or so I'm told) OK, so I fill each bottle up to the bottom of the neck with my beer, cap it and shake ever so gently. (The bottle, not me. I'm not that excited yet) Now, here's where I blew it, I read somewhere in the bigger booklet something about cold conditioning.... in the fridge.... a month....... DONT do that. The bottles have to sit at room temp for another 10+ days before they go in the icebox.

So, after blindly letting the beer sit in the fridge for 2 weeks, with wide eyes (and a gentle shake) I popped open my first beer. Now, I expected to hear the great whisp of pressurized air shoot past the seal as I opened it (like grandpa as he gets out of the re-cliner), but it was more along the range of a faint little mouse fart. Perplexed, curious and thirsty, I poured the beer into a glass anyway, held it up and partook in this marvel I had created. Just about a second later, my body rejected the nasty sugary swill I tried to pour in. Come to find out......
1. I really need to read the directions better
2. The bottles need to sit at room temp for at least 2 weeks before the fridge so the yeast can dine on the sugar and produce gas. (Just like the directions say)

After taking them out of the fridge and letting them sit for 10 days, they actually pressurized properly.

After all of that... in spite of the biggest hurdle in this process... (Me) the beer actually came out pretty good.
Actually, it came out really good. I am now on my 4th batch and have the process down to 35-45 minutes for the initial brew and about 5-10 bottling. The rest of the time in-between is spent convincing my wife the fermenting keg really looks good up on the cabinet, and looking for my dog.

Pros: VERY easy for first time brewing
Very inexpensive compared to the more serious kits out there.
Great beer that you made yourself!

Cons: Cheap plastic unit. (But hey you didn't buy a Ferrari to learn how to drive...did you?)

I received Mr. Beer as a gift. I love it. Some of my friends and relatives who drink light domestic beers, aren't fans of my creations. Those who like the richer more flavorful beers, love it! It was really almost too easy. I would have been disappointed by this if not for the ability to add flavor enhancers of my own. And for those of us who like the microbrewed beers, this is much cheaper. It's about 50 cents per 12 ounce bottle.

Cheers

This kit is a great way to start homebrewing or to make smaller batches for those of us who do not have the space or thirst for 5 gallons of brew.

The biggest problem with Mr. Beer are the ingredients. Toss the booster in the garbage, it will not help you in your quest to make a great beer. Also, DO NOT USE TABLE SUGAR-EVER!!!!! The booster is just a sugar mix and will add a cidery taste to the final brew. By using all malt extracts you will get a much better flavor and no cidery taste. Those reviewers who have commented on the cider taste- this is the reason why. The cider taste will go away gradually over time, but most guys do not want to wait that long to try their first home brew.

What you need to do is use two cans of the Mr. Beer malt extract or buy a single 3 pound can of malt syrup from a home brew store. You will also need to boil your wort before you start the fermentation process. No need to add any other sugar, just the malt extract, water, hops and yeast.

If the malt extract you are using is not hopped, you will need to buy some hops (only a couple bucks at most home brew shops) and add them yourself. It is pretty easy and gives you a lot of control over the flavor and aroma of your brew.

There are a number of websites and forums that will help you make a great beer from the Mr. Beer kit. Do some searching and you will not regret it.

I made my first batch of beer in three weeks. It wasn't so great (a little flat), but tweaking the recipies is the fun part. I'm moving onto more expansive brewing efforts, but if it weren't for my practice with Mr. Brew, I probably wouldn't have had the motivation to try something a little more difficult.

Mr. Brew is fun. And the beer is good enough to secure bragging rights, even if the first batch or two doesn't come out quite right. It's probably my favorite thing in a long, long time.

I have long been a fan of microbrews, and finally decided to try my hand at brewing my own beer. I got this Mr Beer kit as a hand-me-down from my cousin. He had gotten it new, and never used it as he already had a large scale brewery at home. So I figured it would be a great setup to get started with. When i brewed my first batch, it tasted extremely cidery. I mean, it tasted like Wyder's Hard Cider, not beer. Then, I went out and bought the 3-pack variety of ingredients, and gave it another try. The next batch tasted exactly the same as the first; like hard apple cider. (That flavor, by the way, is due to a chemical that yeast sometime excrete when the sugar balance of the beer is wrong).

I brewed my 3rd batch, and honestly i never even bothered bottling it. It sat in the fermenter for 3 months, forgotten. Meanwhile, I invested $100 in a much larger 5-gallon setup, complete with primary and secondary fermenter, thermometer, bottle caps, cleaners, a bottle capper, etc. I brewed 2 VERY successful batches with that setup.

2 weeks ago, I decided "hey, i still have another batch of ingredients for the mr beer, i might as well make it." I figured that maybe i just wasn't very good at brewing before, but maybe now i have enough experience to do it right. Nope, came out tasting even more cidery than the first 2 batches. I just don't understand what on earth could be THAT wrong with their ingredients.

If my local homebrew store hadn't sold me the MUCH BETTER kit (which only cost about $60 more than mr beer, by the way), I would have completely given up on homebrewing by now.

Yes, the beer is drinkable. But it is not enjoyable, and it's embarassing to let your friends try it, and ask you "how come your beer always tastes like apples?"

You're better off completely skipping this kit and moving on to the next stage of equipment. It HARDLY teaches you the basics about brewing, and the beer tastes so little like beer, that all it does is make you frustrated.

Are you a beer fanatic? Is St Bernardus, Rochefort, Dark Lord Imperial Stout, Peche Mortel, Westvleteren (if you're lucky!) a common-place in your fridge? Also, are you really eager to try and brew your own beer? Well, if you answered yes to both of the above questions then I would probably skip the Mr. Beer kit and move on to something a little bigger and better. If you're not too picky about your beer, or if you're curious about the very basics about brewing then this kit might suit you well.

With the Mr Beer kit you get everything you need to brew palatable homebrew. The steps to creating beer are simplified with kits like this. All you have to do is dump some extract into a pot with some water, throw some "booster" in, let it cool, throw in some yeast and wait a couple weeks. Before you know it you're drinking some homebrew!

If you're picky (like me) then you will find that no matter how hard you try, you're beer will just not seem quite right. You will probably get some off-flavors in your beer from a number of reasons. Maybe you didn't cool your wort down fast enough, perhaps you pitched (put in) the yeast too early while the wort was still hot. Maybe you got a bacteria infection. It seems that even if you take these issues into consideration when brewing with this type of kit, you still can't brew the beer you have in mind. Well that's because the quality of the extracts that come with these kits aren't very good. I will not get technical but in a nut-shell often-times manufacturers that make these extracts don't make them under the best conditions and they can create some off-flavors in your beer. For a casual drinker it may not be so much of a problem, but like I said earlier, if you're wanting to achieve commercial quality beer at home then this type of kit will not do you justice (not even close).

If you really want to start brewing quality beer then you should check out your local brew supply store. It will take a bit more work, but your labor will certainly pay off! It's much funner to start playing with specialty malts, hops...etc then it is to use one of these "just add water" type of kits. I love brewing beer and I can certainly say that I get much more enjoyment out of brewing via other methods then I do with these types of kits. I am certainly not saying that this is a bad deal. Brewing beer is fun no matter how you do it, but for around $70.00 and a good brew book (The Complete Joy Of Homebrewing is a must have classic!) you will be brewing beers leagues above kits like this... and it's great fun too!

I like the set up (I have two). Even though many suggest not to, I've used the included yeast, with proper results. I would suggest using the booster & any sugar replacement, as sugar gives that "cider" taste till you let it sit.<br /> Even reusing the "soda" bottle bottles, I've had some fine tasting beer.<br /> The kit is easy to use, you can order more stuff online. It's a good kit to start brewing your own beer. Just follow the instructions & use a wooden spoon! I'm glad to see Target is carrying this, as well as a supply pack-good job.<br /> Oh a neat guy gift, for certain.