I haven't used this specific kit, but hard cider is so ridiculously easy to make that anything with an airlock will do.

You need:
*5 gallons apple juice (any type or brand is fine, just make sure it doesn't have potassium sorbate as that will kill the yeast)
*Yeast (available at any brewing supply store)
*2 cups brewers' sugar

Mix it all together in any container with an airlock and let it sit for a couple weeks. Voila. If you want it to be carbonated, use 1 1/2 cups of sugar for the primary fermentation, and then add the last 1/2 cup before bottling.

Check out Mr Beer Fans if you want to make decent beer with this kit ,

http://www.mrbeerfans.com/ubbthreads/

here it is guys, $19.95 + $5 shipping. + few minutes in the kitchen for 2 gallons of beer.
I count that as a good deal. The experience alone, even if you smash it to pieces immediately after bottling is worth that.

I've spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on home brewing and love it. I'm almost to the point of upgrading to all-grain. It's a fun hobby and I get beer out of it. This is a very good deal. I'm in for 3.

shaver wrote:I've spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on home brewing and love it. I'm almost to the point of upgrading to all-grain. It's a fun hobby and I get beer out of it. This is a very good deal. I'm in for 3.

I've also spent hundreds on home brewing. Been doing it for over three years now, and look forward to all-grain sometime soon.

I wont be buying one of these though, as I already own 2, and use them for cider and mead. I will admit, they're good for getting started.

I got one years ago and did all the stuff that's involved with it. There's not a great deal to do, but it's a lot of fun really. Granted it's not as refined or complex as actual homebrewing, it's still fun to actually put it all together and create something that's ultimately fairly good.

I didn't get the whole super homebrewing bug like others do when they start something like this. I would if I didn't live in a tiny apartment and places to store the stuff without making every inch of my place smell like Saturday at the frat house.

That reminds me - this will smell like beer while you're fermenting. You have to put it somewhere cool and fairly dry, but it will smell like beer. I remember I put the bottles in a big armoire to finish fermenting and the thing still smells like beer.

I Wooted this exact kit back on 4/6/2009...one of my first woots. I ended up buying a crapton of refills and more supplies from their website, and I made assorted 6-packs for my friends/family for Christmas that year with 6 different batches of beer in recycled glass bottles. Very fun, easy, and really pretty cool. I haven't made any in a while, but it might be time...

Anyone who would brew beer in plastic doesn't deserve to drink beer.

skywarrior3 wrote:Not a huge fan of beer. I wonder if you can use this to make mead (honey-wine)?

If you'll take a webcomic as an answer, apparently yes you can: http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/110610.html (thats the beginning of the small span of strips following the concept, you can see at the end that it appears to be a Mr Beer that is used)

Anyone else having trouble using the discount code for refills? It yells at me and says "Coupon Code: "WBD33" is not valid." when I try.

If you can't find a home brew shop, check out wine making shops and local micro brews. Many times these businesses have a section of beer making supplies. Also, to make Mr. Beer better, use any of the kits that use two cans of extract instead of the powder malt that comes with this kit, or replace the malt packet that comes with this kit with a light malt powder from a home brew business.

remuso wrote:Please don't waste your time or money.

If you are at all interested in Homebrewing you should spend the 150 - 200 dollars on an actual system. You will be much more satisfied with the end product.

that's like telling someone buying their first car, "please don't waste your money or time. If you are at all interested in driving a car, you should spend $50,000+ on a mercedes or lexus, you'll be much more satisfied with the experience"

All the snobs need to stop haitingI've used this 3 times over the last year, and am very happy with it. the basic kit makes a beer that's about 1 or 2 steps up from a MGD/Coors/Bud beer. I bought it because $30 was the right price to find out if I wanted to home brew, and at $100+, I never would have figured that out. I'm now considering spending $200+ on a "REAL" setup.

To the people saying this won't make a good beer, I brewed up a batch of this a couple of years ago: http://www.mrbeer.com/product-exec/product_id/218/nm/Fast_Break_Bock_Archived

..and loved it. My friends and family loved it!

So I brewed up a second batch of it and brought some bottles to a local microbrewery. They loved it! These are guys that make their living brewing some of the best beer in the state, and they were astounded that this came out of a malt extract.

So yeah, you can make a great beer with this. When buying refills, just go to the recipes section. Those are the best of the best.

Also, use honey or maple syrup instead of sugar or the fructose they include in the lower end kits, your taste buds will thank you. The instructions will give you substitution guidelines.

Important to note (haven't seen it mentioned yet) but, DO NOT USE TAP WATER... my first batch was bad... and I used 2 kits...

Can you make real beer with this?

clanmccarthy wrote:I bought this last year on Woot and it's actually pretty cool. It takes a long time to make your own wort from grain and while that tastes best this works really well. The downfall is in the price of the refills, but the seasonal all malt refills are not much more expensive and taste great.

Someimes, you can get good deals on the malt extracts, especially out-of-season ones. I picked up a winter set last year at Bed Bath and Beyond in the early spring for like $15 (50% off on clearance), plus a 20% coupon, for a net cost of $12. Not bad for 3 batches of beer! The trick is to look at places that sell stuff like this for the holidays and buy them after the holidays are over.

rupprupp29 wrote:Don't mean to be "that guy," but if you're interested in homebrewing, I would recommend getting a full set. They can be had for about 2-3 times this cost (a marginal increase considering how many more options are available to you in the future.)

I haven't personally used Mr. Beer, but I figure if you get it and like it, you're going to end up wanting a full set anyways. And if you're interested enough to get a Mr. Beer and you DON'T like it, you'll leave yourself wondering what a real set would be like.

Ultimately, to each his own, and this would make a good belated stocking stuffer, but as someone who recently started homebrewing, I would recommend getting a full set.

No matter what you do, remember to CLEAN!

What is this full set you reference?

I like it. I even bought a second one and most of the accessories. It is very easy, so if you are the kind of person willing to put out more effort than just buying good beer, but not the kind of person to jump into a full-fledged hobby, then this is good for you. I'd say 9 out of 10 of my brews were good. The beer is so fresh! It makes a good conversation starter at parties.
If you search you can find waterproof inkjet paper to make nice labels. Clear tape is the best way to keep them on if they'll get wet in a cooler, and if you fold down a corner of the tape, the label comes off easily so you can clean the bottles and re-use.

is this kosher?

ThatPoshGirl wrote:Anyone who would brew beer in plastic doesn't deserve to drink beer.

Not true. The 5- or 6-gallon food-grade plastic fermenter buckets are in common use.

Ease up on the snobbery. This kit provides the introductory KNOW-HOW, and knowing is half the battle!

nodnarb22 wrote:What is this full set you reference?

At the very least, two fermenting vessels (food-grade plastic bucket, glass carboy, both, or a combination), a 3+ gallon pot, hydrometer, siphon, and siphoning tube.

Optional equipment would include a turkey baster, strainers, and bottle capper. And cases of bottles (kegging is a more advanced concept, and beginners who haven't brewed their first few batches yet should wait until they get more experience before jumping into kegging).

It's a tad complex to get into here, but brewing beer is essentially just following a recipe for anything. The difference between beer brewing and cooking a meal for yourself is that sanitation is MUCH more critical, as is patience!

Any decent homebrew supply shop, whether brick-and-mortar or on-line, sells decent starter kits, as well as beer recipe kits. The big difference is deciding whether to spend $150 - 200 on that vs the $20 here to get your feet wet on the concepts and practice.

I doubt any aspiring homebrewer is going to stick with the Mr. Beer kit for very long, since its capacity is only 2 gallons. But if it comes with easy instructions and is a self-contained system that isn't too complex, as long as it teaches the beginner the concepts of steeping grain, pitching yeast, and patience in fermenting, that's all that anyone needs to get started.

There are 3 types of people,
ones who buy brownies from the store premade,
ones who buy boxed brownies and add thier own water and eggs,
ones who make them from scratch.
This kit is like making brownies from a box.

I've been using this kit for 2 years (bought one from amazon after missing woot deal).
It's perfect for someone who wants to try their hand at making beer, doesn't have a ton of time, but still likes to learn about the process.

It's a 2 hour time investment, 1 hour to brew, 1 hour to bottle. The Mr.Beer website has tons of different refills. It makes 2 gallons (12x22oz bottles).
That's plenty for me I don't drink that often, any more then that and you'll need a separte fridge for storage (and a very understanding wife).

If you read between the lines from most of the comments they admit they've never used this kit and tell you to buy a 5 gallon kit (that's a lot of time and beer) you can always get one of those later if you really like making beer.

Wooted this two years ago and am still brewing beer with mine.

Nice community at their forum:
http://www.mrbeerfans.com/ubbthreads/

I have brewed both beer and hard ciders in the fermentation keg. If you want to try home brewing it is a cheap/easy way to start.

If you have a problem with plumbers/carpenters trying to rescure damsels in distress, I do NOT recommend this barrel. The spigot throws the balance off, and the lid on top keeps the barrel from rolling smoothly. You want a good, perfectly balanced barrel that with roll down the girders with predictable speed and order, and this accomplishes neither.

Littlefish wrote:Not true. The 5- or 6-gallon food-grade plastic fermenter buckets are in common use.

Ease up on the snobbery. This kit provides the introductory KNOW-HOW, and knowing is half the battle!

That's fine, but a two gallon glass jar, with a spigot, is probably less than $5 at some places. Even if you want the convenience of the kit, there is no reason to use the plastic jug. Glass is also a lot easier to sanitize.

I bought one of these last year as a Hanukkah gift for the husband. Best gift I ever gave him. We refer to it as the Easy Bake Oven of beermaking. That first batch turned out yummy, he got interested in the process, and is now experimenting with his own methods and recipes. The kit gave him the confidence to try his hand at making beer and showed him that it could be fun - and that even he could do it. If you've been toying with the idea of trying your hand at beermaking, but weren't sure, this is a great way to experiment.

skywarrior3 wrote:Not a huge fan of beer. I wonder if you can use this to make mead (honey-wine)?

I'm sure it can, but I would not use plastic. I've been making mead for about 15 years now, and always use glass. Good mead takes a very long time to ferment properly, and you should rack it off frequently.

My favorite mead is cyser, which is made with apple cider, instead of water. I make about 10 gallons every year. It's quite hard to keep around. I love it, my friends love it, it's a gift from the gods.

Think of this as a $20 Homebrewing for Dummies tutorial. Mr. Beer is a cheap way of seeing for yourself whether you have enough of an interest in brewing your own beer to pursue the craft/hobby more seriously.

I've been homebrewing for over 20 years. I've gone through a succession of homebrewing equipment over that time period, and can tell you that if you become seriously interested in this hobby, you will wind up quickly replacing any starter equipment with something more closely tailored to how you brew. That's why I shudder when I see brand new brewers walking out of a homebrew store with several hundred dollars worth of shiny new homebrew starter kit that likely will be retired after just a few uses.

Mr. Beer is a cheap way to figure out if this is a hobby for you. Once you learn that, then spend the time and money finding the right equipment for your situation and interest.

I see a lot of negative comments from some folks telling you to go blow 100 - 200 bucks on a "real" kit. Don't listen to them!

$20-$30 isn't a bad investment at all just to see if you might enjoy this amazing hobby. The Mr Beer kits can and do make some pretty decent beer. Just follow the directions.

Many, many home brewers have started with a Mr Beer and wouldn't be brewing now if that inexpensive little kit wasn't around.

I'm holding out for "Mr. Moonshine"

This is a great cheap option to brew your first beer (although you should buy oxygen cleaner too), but there are other ways. This set will get you through your first two or three brews, but you will really want a larger fermentor.
For my first brew I bought a 5 gallon bucket, 3ft of poly hose for siphoning, some nice flip top bottles (Like Grolsh bottles), an air trap, priming sugar, and a can of extract. Minus the bottles the whole setup cost me 15 dollars. I was able to brew a full 5 gallons and switch directly to recipe (extract) brewing.
To be fair, the bottles were expensive, but I could have cheaped out and gotten plastic. Also, I had a homebrew store close to me, so I didn't need to order anything online.

I skipped this step and started with a beginner's kit from my local homebrew supply store.
However, I do know a few great brewers that got their start from one of these.

It won't be good beer, but it should be better than Buttwiper or PBR.

Psh... Everyoneknows the best homemade beer comes from a bending unit.
Also, you need to try adding candy to the mix. Skittlebrau is quite popular in the Springfield area.

from a former Thunderbird drinker....I think this stuff tastes great!

I bought this for a serious beer drinker last year for Christmas. He like it so much he went out and bought more refill kits! So, I think this makes a great gift for someone who needs a little hobby. It's a great price too!

A good friend got me this kit several years ago. I had never brewed beer, and tried this and was very impressed with how it turned out. Since then, I have become an avid home brewer, even creating my own recipes.

As said before, this is great for a beginner, to give them a taste of what brewing at home can be.

This is more or less a toy. If you want to "clone" some of your favorite brews you are not going to find ingredients for this. I was going to get one of these and after some research I decided to step it up a bit. I began with two food grade 6 gallon buckets with air tight lids. One for fermentation and the other with a spout at the bottom for bottling, a 8 gallon stainless steel boiling pot, a thermometer, stir spoon, air lock, hydromater (checking gravity for alcohol content) and the MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ALL Starsan (to keep everything sterilized). You also need a few other things but it can all be had for well under $200. I have upgraded since then and keep getting new equipment.
If you get this you are more or less stuck with making small batches from their kits only and won't have a clue what your full potential could be.

The local home brew shop will be a great place to learn along with a few home brew forums online.

As a two-term president of a major beer brewing club, as well as someone who's trained successful brewmasters, I beg you NOT to purchase this! You will only get frustration, and mediocre beer.
If you wish to brew beer, find a place like Williams Brewing (there are dozens of others) and buy a kit that comes with a bucket (usually 6.7 gallons so you have some extra room when making a 5 gallon batch).
You also need a secondary fermenter so you can transfer your beer off of all of the dormant yeast for a few days to let it clarify.
Go buy The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing book, follow the instructions, and avoid kits like this one at all costs!

The best beer I've ever tasted was beer I made with my Mr. Beer kit. The worst beer I ever tasted was beer I made with my Mr. Beer kit. If you are really, really meticulous with your sanitary and antiseptic procedures and conditions, Mr. Beer will produce awesome beer - but that goes for all beer making, regardless of the equipment you use. I love my Mr. Beer kits - if I didn't already have three of them I'd order one now. Highly recommended.

I started about six years ago with a Mr. Beer kit and loved it. As some other comments have said, if you enjoy using this you will want to move up to 'real' equipment, but hey, if you don't like it you're only out $25.

I am doing 10 gallon all grain batches now and kegging them, but if it weren't for Mr. Beer I might not have started, and I definitely enjoyed it. Just follow the directions exactly and it will taste fine.

One word of advice: If you enjoy it don't hesitate to move on to a better setup, the ingredients for Mr. Beer are really expensive.

"Don't bother with this. While technically you can brew beer with this kit, it offer very little room for improvements. It is better to buy the supplies at a homebrew store like the rest of us."
What you mean "us," White Eyes?
A cautionary tale follows.

I'm a former serious home brewer. Had up to 6 carboys going at a time, made some really great, prize-winning beers (Oh, yeah. There are competitions. Lots of competitions). Stouts, ales, spiced beers, lagers (you'll need a refrigerator), wheat beers, honey beers, oat beers. Brewing first took over a spare bedroom. Then a good part of the garage (weather permitting) a walk in closet, and virtually all of my spare time. Finally it was either my hobby or my marriage. I chose my marriage. Fifteen years later, I still wonder whether that was the proper decision.
Mr. Beer was my gateway to going off the home brew deep end. That said, even the kit mixes will make OK beer. You won't win any prizes, but you will enjoy the taste and the satisfaction of producing real beer in your own home. And there IS a very good chance you will want to get into a genuine home set-up, working up your own formulas, and begin looking down your nose at anyone who would allow table sugar into his recipe. Have fun. Don't let it get out of hand.