Home Beer Brewing

Question: Quality of home beer brewing kits?

(Posted by: Michael T on 2008-10-27 17:56:04)

I am looking to start brewing beer in my home. Most kits seems to be reasonably priced 50- 100$ which is fine. 2 Questions I have are 1. What quality of beer is made from these kits i.e. Mr Beer etc. Is it better or worse than Natural Light / Coors Light / Bud Light (college beers mostly). ... Hopefully it at least is as good as natural.. and if not what do they taste like. 2. How much money would I save making a batch (in terms of 30 beers, a case).

Posted by: giggitygiggitygoo on 2008-10-27, 18:14:38

If you just drink beer to get messed up then its ok .But if you like to drink good beer then the home brew is Garbage.

Posted by: HUNTIN FO BEER, SON! on 2008-10-27, 17:58:49

Dude u cant go wrong with natty........plus mr. beer's a hassle. it takes like 2-3 weeks til completion.

Posted by: tonuprocker on 2008-10-27, 18:38:52

Mr beer is damn near un-drinkable but if you get a decent kit from a reputable home brew supply, a few good beer brewing books and put some effort into it you can make a decent drinkable cheap beer are you going to save money over a 8 dollar 30 pack of the beast.no probably not.

Posted by: Mike E on 2008-10-27, 18:42:21

You can produce the same taste from your mentioned beers however with time and patience you can achieve a much high quality beer. Depending on what your looking for in a beer taste over quantity or quantity over taste would definatley be a deciding factor. If your looking for another avenue to go down as in making your own craft beer then home brew would be the way to go. Or if your just joing a backyard bar b que where people just want to have a bottle/ can of cold beer in thier hands then mass produced beer would be the way to go. Depending on what side of the world your on. Here in Australia an average case of beer costs anywhere from 30 to 70 so home brewing is an excellent alternative to a shrinking wallet. I know when I lived in the US I could get a case of Sam Adams for 25 dollars and that was fine with me. As for as many bottles as it will make out of a 6 gallon fermenter you can get about 48 bottles of whatever brew you decide to make plus the satisfaction of making it yourself and sharing it with your friends.

Posted by: Andy S on 2008-10-27, 19:35:08

If you invest a bit more (around $150) in some real brewing equipment instead of one of those plastic kits, you can make great beer. Depending on the recipe, you can make something on par with your favorite $10 6-pack. It takes about a month per batch (the standard is 5 gallons, about 2 cases of beer), but it's fun to do and the wait is definitely worth it. The best part is, you can get different recipes and make just about any kind of beer you can imagine. If you calculate the cost of ingredients, it's about the same price (per volume) to brew your own beer as it is to buy some horrible cheap swill like Natty... but you'll get a delicious handcrafted ale instead.

Posted by: Paul G on 2008-10-27, 20:27:14

The beers you mentioned are actually more difficult to make then basic ales... (pale ales like bass) you wouldnt save much.. dont get a mr. beer

Posted by: Stuart S on 2008-10-28, 00:02:58

If you are going to use tinned products as a base for your beer then you may consider using two tins instead of 1 tin and a ton of sugar. There are natural sugars included in the mixtures so you will still get the alcohol content but you will be using ingredients that add to the flavour rather than sugar which doesn't. All sugar really does is add to alcohol content rather than make the beer taste better.

Posted by: Dann G on 2008-10-28, 07:43:23

Go to northernbrewer.com or morebeer.com and do some research on making real beer at home. Mr. Beer is a convenient way to make beer at home, but the results will discourage you from the great hobby of homebrewing. You could also go to beertown.org or byo.com and find a homebrewing shop near you.

Posted by: oikos on 2008-10-28, 12:49:34

If you want quality, stay away from the toy kits such as Mr Beer. I started with a Brewers' Best kit and have never regretted it. As a general rule, you don't brew your own to save money; you do it to get higher-quality beers than you could otherwise afford. If you want something like crud light, buy it ready-made. If you want to move up to medal-winning beer or the equivalent, brew your own.