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Whats a Good starter Kit?
Hey soo i already started a batch or 2...BUT I've been reading on some forums about how BAD the kit i bought is...YES YES its a mr beer...sooo I need help find a better kit! please help! thanks!
check out Midwest Supplies, Austin Homebrew, More Beer, Northern Brewer, etc. They all are good places to get supplies and they have equipment kits with everything you'd need.
I would get something that you can tailor a bit to suit your needs. are you going to be brewing on a stove inside (smaller pot) or are you gonna get a burner for outside(bigger pot). Are you planing on doing extract only brews or are you gonna do some partial mash( definitely worth the trouble for fresher beer flavor). What kind of primary fermenter do you want? glass.... plastic.... Anyway you are gonna spend some good money buying a kit and there are some things that I would have changed when I got my first one. If you have any questions someone here will be happy to answer as best they can or call up the place that you are looking to buy from and get their advice.
By the way happy to have you here lots of helpful people here to answer questions.
ID
I would recommend the William's Home Brewery. I got one a few years back and it has been great. They also have really good kits for beginners.
Thanks guys for all the advice!! and yes i am gunna SPEND some money on this....is it bad to taste the beer while its brewing?
Hey Brett, I got your message but figured I'd post in this thread for the sake of discussion.
Most homebrew kits/recipes are based on 5 gallons so I'd recommend getting at least a 5 gallon pot if you plan on brewing on the stove. If you want to step it up you can get a propane burner, also known as a turkey fryer, and a larger pot so you can do a full boil rather than boiling a concentrated wort and adding water to top off to 5 gallons. Getting a wort chiller is a good idea either way but probably a necessity if you do full boils.
A basic starter kit should come with everything you'll need to get started. If you have a homebrew shop in your area I'd suggest you stop on by and check it out. Sometimes prices are a little higher than the online vendors but you don't have to pay for shipping and its nice place to meet other brewers and ask questions if you have them. However, if you need to shop online there are several really good stores that I'd recommend (some of them even offer cheap flat rate shipping):
Northern Brewer
Austin Homebrew Supply
Midwest Supplies
Brewmasters Warehouse
Picking up a homebrewing book is also a good idea if you don't already have one.
Charlie Papazian's The Complete Joy of Homebrewing
John Palmer's How to Brew
The first edition of How to Brew is also available online for free.
Feel free to ask any other questions you have. We have a good group here.
Hey thanks for all the info!
Another thing...
I'm not real good knowing what everything is and dose! SO..wort chiller..sounds self explained..but what is it..and when do i use it? Mr .beer instructions arent as smart as you guys! HAHA ..I really wanna get everything to make GOOD beer the right way...in time tho! lol but i do think i did somthing good on my first batch...i bottled them in 12oz glass bottle...instead of the 1 liter plastic bottles that can with the kit! 
anyways..thanks again
Brett
A wort chiller is usually a copper coil that goes in the wort when you turn the flame off. Then cool water from a garden hose or sink is run through it. Really helps cool the wort fast.
They look something like this
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_i … cts_id=902
There are other more complicated types as well but as you can see it's just a copper coil with plastic hose on either side. They are very easily made and is a good brewing project. If your making your own beer might as well make some of the equipment as well right?
anyway keep up the good work.
ID
I made over 40 mr beer kits when I was starting out. Nothing wrong with mr beer, it will make great beer from the get go, just smaller batches, about a case. then I moved up to 5 gallon extract. Then to 10 gallon all grain. The fun is when you make your own recipes, and you can do that very eaisly with mr beer. Hell I still use their fermenting barrels for my yeast starters. They fit very nicely on my stir plate.
Yeah i agree...i sampled one last night and it wasnt bad at all!! and when you say you can make your own receipes with mr beer..how do you change it?
and also... when i did pour it in a mug..it didnt have alot of foam..it had some...did i do somthing wrong?
Well, first of all, you can use any malt you want to, you don't have to use theirs. You can just go to a home brew supply store (LHBS, Local home brew supply). It will be cheaper, and you can buy it unhopped, and add your own bittering hops. Ie. the first hop addition.
so basically what I did was make about 10 batches using their malt and yeast, they I just started buying my own ingrediants, and using their fermenters, and since your making such small batches you can make variations of the same batch, meaning using the same malt, same hops, but use different yeasts, and split the batch between 2 fermenters. I had 4 fermenters, so you can see how these beers would quickly add up.
I know your at the base of a mountain looking uphill, and it is a long hike, and you will learn alot, and you will get really really good at making beer. Women will love you, Men will want to be you, you'll see it's like being a rock star at a party. The thing that makes mr beer a really great learning tool, is that you will make good drinkable beer the first time. I'm not saying it's going to be freakin fantastic, but it will be better than anything your drinking now, and that gives the the confidence to move on with the hobby. Alot of people will make 2 batches of beer, and give up, you see them all over Craigs list, and Ebay selling their starter kits, because their first beers are not drinkable. Sometimes it was just a matter of waiting for the beer to develop another month in the bottle. if their beer tasted like cider, or was a green apple flavor they just drank it and gave it up, when all it needed was to mature.
i'm a big believer in only buying what you need, and when your ready to purchase a piece of equipment, go larger. for example alot of people will buy a 5 gallon pot for their beginning batches. Do yourself a favor, and buy at least a 7 or 8 gallon. This way you can do a full batch boil.( not having to add water at the end of the brewing process). Alot of people learn that for a full 5 gallon boil you will need at least a 7 gallon pot. I still use my 7 gallon pot for sparge water for my all grain process. Their are people on here that purchased equipment, and used it once, only to find they never needed it.
Read what you can on here, search for your questions in the search bar, i'm sure every question that you will ask has already been asked. If you have any questions, everyone here will be glad to help you.
By the way, never apologize for the way your brewing, or the set up your brewing with. Everyone here was where you are at now not that long ago. There are no pretentious assholes here, we ran them out years ago. Keep brewing man, you'll be putting everyone to shame in no time
Yeah every person on here is GREAT! I feel comfortable asking any questions...and thanks for the response.
Very motavating!! I have been looking at other kits also..but like you said...Im still gunna use my mr beer kit but just switch it up a lil and see what comes out! thats the exciting part! I think this is gunna turn into my new profession haha...as surprized as i was when i tasted that first beer i made..I didnt know if i thought it was good because it was good..OR because I made it...so i had to have someone else taste it...and he said it was a good beer! soo.. can't wait for what the furture of brewing brings!
Thanks again,
Brett
you said it didn't have much foam, how long has it been in the bottle? It usually takes 2 or 3 weeks to fully carbonate after it is bottled. You should notice more bubbles if you wait a while and try one.
ok ill leave the rest for another week....another ? so i have another batch fermating...last batch i waited bout 14 days before i bottled...but since mrbeer dosent have a airlock what signs do you look for to tell its ready to be bottled...bubbles coming to top? or...
I use a Mr. Beer setup (and still use a combination of 1L bottles and glass 12oz bottles... its just convenient). I find the Mr. Beer kits were a great way to start because they were cheap and got me into it. Now they are a good, cheap way to experiment (new yeasts, new hops, new hopping methods, new specialty grains). I am doing full mash recipes in my Mr. Beer kit and having success when I don't do something stupid. Instead of spending money on the wort chiller, I chill my wort in a deep sink full of ice and it works very quickly as long as you stir the wort. I do have to filter the wort as I add it to the Mr. Beer keg so I don't get too much hops sediment and grain sediment.
With all that said, its a great way to keep costs down and brew small batch beers with more variety. I have a friend that does 5gal batches and he just has sooooo much of each particular beer that its hard to drink it all. We are going to start using my setup for test batches and his for larger batches after we fine tune our recipes and techniques. Even so, you could just get an extra keg for and brew a 4 gallon batch with the Mr. Beer setup if you really wanted to have a lot of one particular beer.
Drinking: West Coast Pale Ale - Mr. Beer kit - higher gravity and new yeast experiment
Conditioning: Nut Brown Ale
Brewing: Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA Clone (All Grain Recipe)
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