Post-Christmas quandry

[jaydub]

What do you do when a well-meaning family member buys you a Mr. Beer, plus four additional refills?
E-bay?

[bub]

Ask for a gift receipt
BUB

[jaydub]

No such luck. They bought it off the intarwebs. Sadly, I had sent them a morebeer.com link on November when they were asking for hints - evidently they didn't follow it.

[BrewBum]

brew all four batches and make them drink that shit.

Seriously, Ebay makes the most sense to me.

[J.Brew]

No such luck. They bought it off the intarwebs. Sadly, I had sent them a morebeer.com link on November when they were asking for hints - evidently they didn't follow it.

Well you can't blame them for not knowing the difference. They probably thought they scored!

[BDawg]

Why not give it to a buddy that's been on the edge of trying to brew some of his own beer? Just be sure to give him some unhopped extract, some aroma hops, some crystal or other specialty malt, and a pack of US-05 or other decent dry yeast along with it too.

Many of us started with Mr. Beer. You CAN get decent beer out of it if you show him:

1) Ditch the "Booster" and go with all malt extract
2) Steep some specialty grains
3) Add some aroma hops
4) Use some better yeast

If you give it to him, and show him how easy it is, you may have another convert (aka, brewing buddy) on your hands, which is really what this is about.

I know that the real answer is for your friend to buy a 5 gal setup, but for some, the little 2 1/2 gal Mr. Beer is a very non-threatening way to get started brewing with almost no investment.

[jaydub]

Why not give it to a buddy that's been on the edge of trying to brew some of his own beer?

You know what? That's damn brilliant. Hat's off to you, BDawg - way to show some Christmas spirit.

[BeerBiker]

Why not give it to a buddy that's been on the edge of trying to brew some of his own beer? Just be sure to give him some unhopped extract, some aroma hops, some crystal or other specialty malt, and a pack of US-05 or other decent dry yeast along with it too.

Many of us started with Mr. Beer. You CAN get decent beer out of it if you show him:

1) Ditch the "Booster" and go with all malt extract
2) Steep some specialty grains
3) Add some aroma hops
4) Use some better yeast

If you give it to him, and show him how easy it is, you may have another convert (aka, brewing buddy) on your hands, which is really what this is about.

I know that the real answer is for your friend to buy a 5 gal setup, but for some, the little 2 1/2 gal Mr. Beer is a very non-threatening way to get started brewing with almost no investment.

+1 on the regift

Mark