[gymrat]

Delo you have the same risk of making bad beer your first batch or two with a 5 gallon kit as you do with a MrBeer kit..the difference being Mr Beer is only a $25 to $35 investment. So there is less at risk. That was why I bought mine a few years ago. All of the beers I made with mine came out pretty good. Not as good as what I am making now. But pretty good. I went to 5 gallon batches because after equipment purchase Mr Beer recipes broke down to $1.00 per bottle, 5 Gallon extract kits, after equipment purchase, broke down to around 60 cents a bottle. My all grain, unless I do something really hoppy or really  strong, breaks down to 44 cents a bottle.

I have started 3 people out in brewing. I started them with Mr Beer kits to insure they would be successful on their first brew. From there I helped them with more advanced processes a little at a time. They are all doing 5 gallon extract kits now

[erockrph]

I'd suppose with proper ferm temps and a decent yeast one could make a passable beer.

In one of the recent Basic Brewing video episodes they do just that. IIRC the biggest change was to use two bags of DME instead of 50/50 DME/"booster".

Actually, if its the episode I saw, they also did a mini-mash. I think they used a packet of US-05 as the yeast.

[djt17]

I too started with Mr Beer; it was $39 on Woot for the full kit with the WCPA mix. I only made a few batches with Mr Beer ingredients, too expensive. But; it led me down a path to DME, partial mashes, then to full on AG. I sold the Mr Beer keg with a bottle capper, & 2 cases of empty bottles for $15. The person I sold it to hasn't used it (3 yrs ago).

[bigchicken]

I also started with Mr. Beer. I don't make them anymore, but I kept the mini fermentor. It makes a nice test vessel or a large yeast starter vessel.

[tonyp]

I started brewing with friends that had all of the equipment but after i moved away my wife bought me a Mr Beer as a xmas present and that got me back into it and where i am today.

[Delo]

Delo you have the same risk of making bad beer your first batch or two with a 5 gallon kit as you do with a MrBeer kit..the difference being Mr Beer is only a $25 to $35 investment. So there is less at risk.

I have started 3 people out in brewing. I started them with Mr Beer kits to insure they would be successful on their first brew. From there I helped them with more advanced processes a little at a time. They are all doing 5 gallon extract kits now

It is a good, cheap way of getting people into brewing, but I would think there is a higher chance of things going wrong with Mr Beer.   Maybe the kits have changed since I first brewed with it or I may not remember too correctly, but I had to use a lot of sugar and it came with a cleaner not a sanitizer.  I guess it’s also because when I look at what I use now as far as equipment and ingredients go, and look at what I used back then its hard to believe good beer can be made from such a simple kit.  I do wish I still had my fermenter, but I melted it in the dishwasher.
BTW its great your helping people get started.  It would have been cool to have someone to help me when I first started. Maybe they would have taught me how to read directions. 

[bonjour]

I too started with a Mr. Beer kit.
My son got it from a department store (Bed Bath and Beyond).  My kit did not say to add sugar, just to add one can (1.121 lbs) of Oktoberfest mix (LME).  I got Charlie's book which said 6-7 pounds of extract for twice the beer.  I added DME to my first brew.

Mr. Beer is sold in stores so someone shopping for a present (There are always more kits available for the holidays), so the shopper can say hey so & so really likes beer, I bet he/she would like to brew beer.

The rest is history.

[Malticulous]

Now they come with a tiny can of hopped extract and a half kilo of booster (that is just brewery grade corn sugar.) The two together make 9 quarts of 1.038 wort. It comes with 2 grams of dry yeast. It's not much different than the five gallon can and kilo kits I started with.

[tomsawyer]

I too started with a Mr. Beer kit.
My son got it from a department store (Bed Bath and Beyond).  My kit did not say to add sugar, just to add one can (1.121 lbs) of Oktoberfest mix (LME).  I got Charlie's book which said 6-7 pounds of extract for twice the beer.  I added DME to my first brew.

Mr. Beer is sold in stores so someone shopping for a present (There are always more kits available for the holidays), so the shopper can say hey so & so really likes beer, I bet he/she would like to brew beer.

The rest is history.

Leave it to you to bump up a Mr Beer kit Fred!

[heavyeng]

Another Mr. Beer guy here! circa 1996-7.

Made some halfway decent swill with it too!

[bo]

I've heard of Mr. Beer brews taking ribbons.

[g-s]

Got one for christmas '96 , wasn't bad , just remember I was drinking flavorless beer back then . my palate has changed a lot since. but it got me brewing. moved on to 10 gal & 40 gal s/s all grain systems and now it is more of an obsession . Homebrewing , like heaven dosn't matter  how you get there just as long as you get there !

[alcaponejunior]

several friends and me started with Mr Beer.  My buddy brewed an excellent first beer with it (canadian lager kit), and his subsequent batches were good too.  Not world class but plenty good enough.  I had trouble with it at first, but I discovered that it was my water that was the culprit.  It did get me into the hobby though, and now I've got multiple buckets and carboys, plus tons of equipment and I'm hooked.  I'm actually going to use the Mr Beer keg for a secondary fermentation of part of a batch of stout I'm going to brew in may (I'm going to try a small amount of vanilla bean).  So while Mr Beer may not be the greatest kit ever, it clearly has some value in that it gets people into the hobby.  If done right, it actually makes pretty decent beers too.