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Is this really as good of a deal as it seems?

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Cylvre

Cylvre

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 25, 2010
8
0
0
Minnesota, USA
So I'm a big fan of the 'Woot!' group of shopping sites which feature a new 24-hour deal each day from midnight to midnight (or until sold out, except for Wine.Woot which switches just 3-4 times per week) and I check them almost religiously each night. Tonight when I went to see what the new deals were I saw on Sellout.Woot that they have a 2 gallon 'Premium' Mr. Beer kit for $20 each (you can buy up to three) with $5 flat-rate shipping regardless of how many you buy. The site lists the following as included:

In the box:

* ( 1 ) Brew Keg with Lid and Tap Assembly
* ( 1 ) Standard Brew Pack
* ( 8 ) Reusable Plastic 1-Liter Bottles with Caps
* ( 8 ) Labels with Mr. Beer Logo
* ( 1 ) Brewing with Mr. Beer Brewer’s Guide
* ( 1 ) Easy to Follow 4 Step Brewing Instructions


Now I just recently finished my first excursion into mead making (a wild river grape and wildflower honey pyment made with grapes and honey from my grandfathers farm which I made primarily to bottle as a wedding gift) and had a wonderful success so I'm excited to expand my brewing capabilities. I'm still really new to this and have no experience at all with the Mr. Beer kits or how well they might work for mead/wine brewing so I thought I'd make my first thread (I've been lurking for at least a month, absorbing information,) and ask the experts.

So, I guess, boiled all down my question is twofold; most importantly A) would that Mr. Beer Kit work well, or even decently, for mead/wine brewing and if so B) is it actually a good deal at that price?

If the answers are yes I'll be very tempted to snatch a few up, for myself and for potential Christmas gifts. Thanks in advance everyone, I'm looking forward to hearing what you all have to say! ;D
 
I'm not into beer (yet) but looking around my own LHBS's, I think $25 for a 2-gallon tapped keg probably not a bad deal, and with the rest of the stuff, sounds pretty good. A new 5-gal carboy is $25 CDN here, and a "wine kit" with the basics was $50 6 years ago when I got mine... I guess it sort of depends on what's in their "standard brew pack".

Does sound like a great gift idea though!!
 
Well apparently a lot of other people were more sure than me about it being a good deal because they sold out 1229 units in less than 12 hours. Ah well, live and learn.
 
Size matters!

Cylvre said:
So, I guess, boiled all down my question is twofold; most importantly A) would that Mr. Beer Kit work well, or even decently, for mead/wine brewing and if so B) is it actually a good deal at that price?

If the answers are yes I'll be very tempted to snatch a few up, for myself and for potential Christmas gifts. Thanks in advance everyone, I'm looking forward to hearing what you all have to say! ;D
Click to expand...

I purchased one of these from woot a couple of years ago. Yes, it is a good price, it's kind of fun, and you actually learn a lot (Brewing 101).

That being said, you'll soon outgrow it and will be wanting for more (Brewing 201). The refills are generally expensive, except for some or the 3-packs which can be had for about $30 from other retailers. But there's not a whole lot of variety in those packs. The two-gallon batches (less than a full case of beer) will seem quite small and the one-quart bottles are a bit on the large size.

If your looking for a no-hassle, all-in-one product, I'd recommed this brewery kit from Coopers. Often around many holidays, there is free shipping, which is a hugh savings. It comes with bottles and a complete kit to make six gallons of beer. Their 6-gallon refill, complete kits range from $28 to $40 (they just had a price increase), with one select kit typically available for half price. The 750 ml beer bottles are an improvement over the quart bottles.

I'm hoping to graduate to whole grain brewing when I have more time and space, but for now the 6-gallon brewer servers my needs better. Mr. Beer is now just taking up space on a shelf. I did just recently made a barley wine style braggot from semi-scratch (LME and my choice of hops), Brewing 301.

I know that $100 may be too expensive for a typical gift. In that case go with the Mr. Beer. But if you want a gift for yourself from Santa, go with the 6-gallon brewery. You'll be glad that you did.
 
I think the primary benefit of Mr Beer is for those that are curious about brewing, but not sure if they really want to jump in. For a small investment, they can try and find out if they like the process before spending more money. For the record, I skipped that step and went all in the first time. No regrets!

Paul
 
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