Mr. Beer Premium Edition Home Microbrewery System
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List Price: Our Price: $28.99 You Save: $21.01 (42%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Mr. Beer Premium Edition Home Microbrewery System
Customer Review: GREAT BASIC BREW
Summary: 4 Stars
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?)
Customer Review: Mr. Beer is a fun, easy way to get into brewing your own beer!
Summary: 4 Stars
In addition to the Mr. Beer Premium Gold Edition Home Brew Kit, I also purchased the Mr. Beer Premium Edition Home Microbrewery System. The only difference between the Gold Edition is that the former has two Brew Packs instead of one. This edition is the mid-level offering. In my opinion, it's the most value packed one because in addition to your first Brew Pack, it also comes with 8 1-liter plastic bottles and caps.
As a beginning home brewer, I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on an elaborate home brew kit nor have to read tons of books on how to do it. My goal was to try it, and if I liked the finished product, play with it some more.
Well, after my first two batches of Mr. Beer brew, a lager and a pale ale, I can attest to the simplicity and convenience of this product. The beer making process was somewhat simple. I followed the directions that came with the kit about sanitizing, brewing, bottling, and conditioning almost to the letter. Almost anyone with a high school reading level can make their own beer using a Mr. Beer kit without terribly screwing anything up. The beer that is fermenting in the Mr. Beer keg doesn't make your entire house reek of a micro-brewery. As a matter of fact, the only time you do smell beer is when you're preparing the wort and when bottling. Although I'm not really a fan of the light beers, I was quite happy with my first couple batches of home brew and have subsequently ordered more Mr. Beer refills from Amazon.
If you want fast, effort-less beer, visit BevMo! My own bit of advice to getting optimal flavor in your brew is to be patient. Let the beer brew (ferment) in the keg for two weeks to give it favor and alcohol content. Then after bottling, let it sit for two more weeks to fully carbonate. Finally, let it chill in the refrigerator for 2 weeks before enjoying your home brew. It's the 2-2-2 rule! Bottoms up!
Rather than using glass bottles, which probably look better and feel more like beer in your hands, I prefer to use the plastic bottles. I think plastics are easier to clean, not prone to bursting or breaking like glass, and you can easily tell if your beer is fully carbonated by squeezing the bottle. Since this brew kit only came with 8 1-Liter bottles and I had multiple fermenters, I needed to get more bottles! Rather than paying $14.99 for the Mr. Beer empty bottles on Amazon, I decided to buy the 16 oz. plastic 7-Up bottles instead. One Mr. Beer fermenter will yield 16 of the 16 oz. bottles of beer. As long as you use plastic bottles made to hold carbonated beverages, you can use it to bottle your Mr. Beer home brew. If you want to use the smaller 12 oz. soda bottles, you will require 21 12 oz. bottles for your 2 gallon batch of Mr. Beer.
My only complaint is that Amazon doesn't sell the other ingredients nor accessories sold only on the Mr. Beer website, such as the Unhopped Malt Extract which allows you to add additional flavor, body, alcohol and malt characteristics to your beer. However, you have to pay quite a bit for shipping, and you only get free shipping if your order totals $99. However, with their Brew Club, members get $5 shipping on all club orders over $29.99. Happy green brewing!
Customer Review: Makes an awesome brew
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Customer Review: Good for casual or curious brewers.
Summary: 3 Stars
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!
Customer Review: Brewing isn't rocket science.
Summary: 2 Stars
I really view a Mr. Beer kit as a complete waste of money. Not because I don't think you can make a decent beer with it, not because I'm a brewing traditionalist, and not because I just like to be a senseless naysayer. Quite simply brewing is easy on all levels and can only become as difficult as you choose to make it so I can't agree with all of these reviews that praise this system for its ease of use.
My problem with this kit comes from the fact that it is no better than things you probably already have around the house or could purchase more cheap elsewhere. For upwards of $50 they are providing you with cheap ingredients and a plastic vessel. A decent homebrewing supply website could provide you with the same for $15 and then with the money left over you could purchase a how-to book which will retain its usefullness for years to come. This system has no longevity. If whomever you buy it for ever decides brewing is the hobby for them there isn't a single piece of this kit that could be recycled for future use as opposed to a standard 5+ gallon food grade bucket which you can use for years and can probably be found for free.
The Mr. Beer kits are also just that, a pre-assembled kit, there isn't really any room for creativity, it's the color by numbers of the brewing world. Beer is nearly impossible to ruin (trust me I know, even bad beer is generally drinkable) so randomly mixing the myriad of extract based ingredients, hop variaties, and yeast strains available to you elsewhere may seem like a daunting task but at the end of the day any combination of the 3 is still beer, and beer you can call your own to boot. Homebrew shops are also foaming at the mouth to help people out. If you gave them a price range they could put together something like this for you with minimal effort, and again, it would be simple, recyclable if one chooses to move on and upgrade, and cheaper.
Feel free to get a Mr. Beer kit if this still seems like too much to handle because the kit does do what it's intended to do, as it's intended to do. Unfortunately don't expect something like this to be much more than a novelty gift in the same vein as farting slippers, back scratchers, and soap on a rope. Like all novelty gifts the Mr. Beer loses its appeal quickly.