I had almost forgotten about my last Christmas gift review, because it took about a month for my fiancé and I to prepare it. Technically this was a gift for him from me, but I assisted him and am reaping the benefits by getting to drink the beer!
This particular gift was something I knew he’d love. As a guy, he of course enjoys a good beer. A bunch of our friends brew their own beer, and he mentioned a few times how he’d like to try it, but was afraid of how involved it might be.
So, I set out to find him a reasonably priced and first timer friendly kit. I wound up getting him the Mr. Beer Deluxe Kit, which included two batches, and everything you would need to brew them.
Cleaning the equipment and actually making the mixture to pour in the jug was pretty easy. We decided to go with their American Lager first. It took us only about an hour to prepare and put the soon to be beer in it’s jug. The hardest part came next; waiting.
In terms of waiting, the kit recommends 2 weeks. A few friends suggested a lot longer, more like 4. So despite being anxious, we took their advice.
Once those two weeks were up, we had to bottle the brew and add sugar, then wait another 2 weeks. We did, and then per the recommendation of the kit’s fine print, we refrigerated it for a week as well.
When we finally got to crack one open, it had more if a cider rather than beer taste. However, the great thing about brewing your own beer is that the flavor is ever changing. So the next time we had some, it definitely tasted more like beer, and was pretty good for our first attempt!
It was definitely a lot easier than we both thought. Granted, this kit was pretty straight forward; open, mix, pour, repeat. Mr. Beer does sell everything separately, so you can defintely be as involved as you’d like. There are also tons of other sites that offer kits, that seem pretty promising.
We have one more mix from this particular kit, and after we make that, I think we’re going to branch out and try some different brands. The Brooklyn Brew Shop has some interesting flavors available, so I think that might be our next adventure.
If you’ve ever even had a thought about brewing your own beer, go for it! You just need about an hour or two to prepare it, and then have enough patience to wait for it to ferment and be drinkable. The Mr. Beer site offers a few different kit options, depending on how involved and how many brews you want to make.
Foodosaurus Rex 