Mr. Beer vs. Coopers vs. The Beer Machine

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:40:44 +0000

If you’re looking into starting to brew your own beer or are thinking of getting someone a brewing related gift, there are several options out there for the beginner brewer. One good option is simply to get a standard beer brewing starer kit. This is how I got into brewing. There are other options out there that make the brewing process a little bit easier but also a little bit less customizable. This table compares three of those options, the Coopers Brewery Kit, The Beer Machine 2000, and the Mr. Beer Select Beer Kit.

	Coopers Brewery Micro Brewery Kit	The Beer Machine 2000	Mr Beer, Brewmaster’s Select Beer Kit
Size of Fermenter	6 gallons (23 liters)	2.6 gallons	2 gallons
Produces	50-12 ounce bottles of beer	28-12 ounce servings	about 25-12 ounce bottles
Ingredients Included?	Yes – Ingredients for one Coopers Lager batch included	Yes – Includes ingredients for one batch	Yes – Ingredients for two batches included
Time from start to finish	Approximately 22 days. 4 to 12 days in the fermenter and then 2 weeks carbonating in the bottles.	7 to 10 days	You will be drinking homemade beer in 14 days. 7 for fermentation and 7 for carbonation
Comes with bottles	Yes – Comes with 30-740 ml PET bottles	Not needed – You can serve directly from the tap.	Yes – Comes with 8-1 liter bottles
Accessories	Hydrometer, Sediment Reducer, Plastic Spoon, Bottling Valve, Airlock, Thermometer, Instruction Booklet and DVD.	CO2 Bulbs, Defoamer Disk	Brewing Thermometer, Sugar Measure, Brewer’s Guide
Additional Promotional Items			1 Baseball Cap, 1 T-Shirt, 2 Pint Glasses,
Price	$99.99	$114.95	$99.95
Additional Features		Custom Pressure Guage, serve directly from the fermenter
Cost for additional recipes	$17 to $20 depending on the recipe	$26 to $33 dollars per recipe	approx $15.00 (varies slightly depending on the specific recipe)

When comparing Mr. Beer, Coopers Microbrewery and The Beer Machine, you have to realize that each has different products that make it slightly difficult to actually compare. The Beer Machine for instance has a feature where you can serve directly from the fermenter which is cool unless you want to make several batches. If you use the fermenter to serve as well, you can’t start another batch until that batch is done. On a larger level, each of these systems is a substitute for actually getting your own brewing setup where you can brew from scratch like this one or this one.

Also, each of these is also available at amazon.com which sometimes has prices that are cheaper than regular homebrew stores. To check prices on amazon, you can follow these links:

- Coopers Microbrewery (additional recipes)

- Mr. Beer Brewmaster Select (Pale Ale Refill Recipe)

- Beer Brewing “From Scratch” Kit (This is a fully functional starter kit that can be used for custom recipes and is what I would recommend for anyone who will want to bring some creativity into the brewing process)

Brewers Roundtable Reference Library » The Beer Machine

Mr. Beer vs. Coopers vs. The Beer Machine