The Brew Times Homebrewing Blog
Mr.Beer has a recipe for success
Inside Tucson Business / News / Tucson, AZ - Chris Flora, Inside Tucson Business Positive change is brewing at Mr.Beer's. After spending more than a decade leasing its Kolb Road location, Mr.Beer Home Brewing on Aug. 21 held an open house to show off its newest products and celebrate the March move-in of its self-owned location at 3366 N. Dodge Blvd. Founded in 1993 and brought to Tucson in 1999 by Mike Bernstein, Mr.Beer underwent further changes in 2012 when it was purchased by Australian brewery, Coopers. Thanks to its new, larger facility, and added staff, Mr.Beer is operating as efficiently as possible and offering additional home brewing options that can be used by experienced or amateur brewers. "It's a simple way to create your own recipe and strength of the recipe," said Sales Manager Shawn Halstead. "Using our kits is also a lot faster than brewing from scratch, because doing that you have a full process of converting starches in the barley, boiling the hops into it, and then cooling it and fermenting it, which in itself takes a week and a half to two weeks, as does carbonating. We've done most of the work for you, so really all you have to do is add it to water." Mr.Beer brewing kits include everything one would need to get started brewing their own beer. What's in a Mr.Beer brewing kit? 8-liter keg fermenter and lid Mr.Beer keg logo label 740-militer PET bottles, caps and labels Spigot, washer and nut Can of hopped malt extract 1 packet of yeast Packet of no-rinse cleanser Bag of carbonation drops "Brewing with Mr.Beer" DVD Coming in 2014 are two new brewing kits – an 8-liter Extra kit, and a 24-liter kit. In addition to beer brewing kits, Mr.Beer also offers hard cider kits and root beer kits, as well as refills for all products. Kit accessories can also be purchased, to include brewing utensils, cleansers, sanitizers, replacement parts, bottling systems and growlers. Vice President of Operations Rick Zich says brewing kits are popular year round, but particularly so around the holiday season. "We get a lot of wives and girlfriends buying around Christmas time. Women between 25 and 45 (years old) is our target market," said Zich. "After Christmas, then it's the 25-40 year-old male that comes back to us and keeps on buying." For more information on Mr.Beer, visit www.mrbeer.com or call 800-852-4263. News article originally posted at: http://www.insidetucsonbusiness.com/news/mr-beer-has-a-recipe-for-success/article_ee92a0f6-34cc-11e4-bf7e-0019bb2963f4.html
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Tucson's Mr. Beer toasts expansion under Australian owners
Tucson.com / Business-Local / Tucson, AZ - David Wichner, Arizona Daily Star A Tucson home-brewing kit maker has been expanding like a head of foam since its acquisition by Australian brewing giant Coopers Brewery in 2012. Coopers DIY LLC, which does business as Mr. Beer, toasted its expanded local headquarters during an invite-only open house Thursday evening at the facility, at 3366 N. Dodge Blvd. The new location gives the company room to grow and add some shipping to a local operation that up to now has consisted of administrative offices, said Rick Zich, president of Mr. Beer. The new headquarters spans about 12,500 square feet, including about 7,500 square feet of office space, compared to just 2,500 square feet at the company's old quarters on North Kolb Road near East Sunrise Drive, Zich said. That bigger space was needed, as the company grew its local staff to 20 workers from 14 before the 2012 acquisition by Coopers, he said. Zich said the acquisition was a boon both to Mr. Beer, which has been selling small beer-making kits to the North American market since its inception in the mid-1990s, and to Coopers, a major global supplier of malt extracts for brewing and food flavoring and the biggest Australian-owned brewery. Mr. Beer was founded in 1993 in Dallas and was moved to Tucson in 1999 when local businessman Michael Bernstein, part owner in Internet and networking providers Simply Bits and Nextrio, bought the company with a partner. "It was just a real beneficial fit for both companies — they got into the North American marketplace, and we got into a worldwide marketplace we were just dabbling in," said Zich, who was chief financial officer of Mr. Beer owner Catalina Products before the sale to Coopers. Since the merger, Mr. Beer has switched to Cooper malt extracts, which are made with Austrialian barley, and expanded its offerings. Sold online at www.mrbeer.com and in stores including Target, Kmart, Total Wine & More, Bevmo and some Walmarts, Mr. Beer kits generally are aimed at novice homebrewers and make 2-gallon batches with kits including small food-grade plastic kegs or bottles. Coopers sells canned extract syrups and powdered extracts typically used to make 5-gallon or larger batches, through homebrew outlets and online (at us.diybeer.com). Mr. Beer's main warehouse is in Wisconsin, partly because of the cooler weather and proximity to Mr. Beer's major markets in the East, Zich said, adding that about 250,000 Mr. Beer kits were shipped last year. But Zich said the company recently finished a warehouse area at the Tucson facility that will allow the company to serve Western retail markets more efficiently with Mr. Beer, Mr. Root Beer and DIY Beer products. While Thursday's event was private, Mr. Beer also is looking at hosting brew-club events and otherwise connecting with the local home-brewing community, Zich said. "We definitely want to be more out in the community here, and maybe offer some tastings as well, but there are some laws you need to abide by," he said. New article originally posted at: http://tucson.com/business/local/tucson-s-mr-beer-toasts-expansion-under-australian-owners/article_383dd3b6-84ad-5dde-831c-06c6946a8b57.html
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Rick Zich, Former VP of Operations, Promoted to President of Mr. Beer
TUCSON, Ariz., July 1, 2014 — Mr. Beer, Arizona based home-brewing manufacturer, is pleased to announce the promotion of former VP of Operations, Rick Zich, to President effective July 1, 2014. Mr. Zich has been with the company since 2004. "Mr. Beer has been the leading provider in complete home brewing kits for the past two decades, and I am excited to step into this leadership role as the company continues to grow and adapt to the needs of today's home brewer," said Mr. Zich. "After partnering with Coopers Brewery in 2012, we had a drastic improvement to the quality of our malts and extracts. Over the next year, Mr. Beer will continue to progress with the addition of several staff members, as well as the release of two new brewing kits." These new kits, the 8Lx and the 24L, will be new additions to the Coopers DIY LLC dba. Mr. Beer home brewing line. Adapted from Coopers Brewery's home brewing kits, which have been wildly successful in Australia, these new kits will offer consumers larger kegs, more advanced brewing equipment, and an increased variety of world-class refills and recipes to choose from. The 8Lx will be released in late 3rd Quarter, while the 24L kit will hit shelves early 4th Quarter, just in time for the holidays. Mr. Beer has also appointed several new staff positions to accommodate their brewing kit's growing demand. Since March, the company has added Matthew McCollom as Graphic Designer, Tammie Cornitius as Controller to absorb Rick's previous CFO responsibilities, and Sarah Scott as Marketing Assistant. # # # Coopers DIY LLC Coopers DIY LLC dba. Mr. Beer joined forces with Coopers Brewery in 2012, resulting in the first DIY brewing kits to be backed by a world-renowned brewery. The Mr. Beer home brewing kit was created in 1993, and continues to be the only complete home brewing system to include all the necessary equipment and ingredients needed for successful home brewing. Their malts are produced by three World Master Brewers, are made from 100% natural ingredients, contain no additives or preservatives, are vegan and GMO free. MEDIA CONTACT Sarah Scott Marketing Assistant Coopers DIY LLC dba Mr. Beer (530) 524-2329 sarahs@mrbeer.com
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SudSisters: Mr. Beer provides good introduction to home brewing
The Gazette / SudSisters / Colorado Springs, CO - By Monica Mendoza Summer seems like a great time to serve homemade beer. Time to get out that Mr. Beer home-brewing kit and get started. A lot of home brewers, who now boast their own more sophisticated brewing equipment, started with a Mr. Beer kit, said Rich Mock, one of three founders of the Brew Brothers of Pikes Peak brewing club. Using the kit is a good, inexpensive way to try home brewing to see if you've got the patience and the palate curiosity, he said. "I brewed with a kit in the '80s and it didn't come out that well," he said. "In 2005, a friend bought me some supplies. I had half the kit and he bought me the rest and the book 'The Complete Joy of Homebrewing.'" Home brewing is fun and social, Mock said. It's one reason why his club has grown from three guys to more than 150 members. "There is big interest in craft beer," Mock said. "People want to drink a quality beer. People are more conscious of flavors. With home brewing, you can be much more creative." It's why he started home brewing. When brewing a batch, Mock sets aside four hours. That includes time to sanitize all the equipment. Any kind of microorganism can contaminate the beer and make it sour, he said. According to the American Homebrewers Association, there are 23 styles of beer and 100 sub-styles. These include pale ale, pilsner, sour and spice. A Mr. Beer kit comes with all the ingredients to make two batches of beer - "Grand Bohemian Czech Pilsner" and "Aztec Mexican Cervesa." It assumes you will have a thermometer and boil pot. Mark McGough got a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas. His buddies at work were always talking about making their own beer, but McGough wasn't sure he wanted to go all in with supplies and buying ingredients. And even though he is a chemical engineer, he rather liked the idea that the kit had everything premeasured. "It turned out great," he said. The toughest thing about brewing the beer was waiting for it to ferment, he said. For his first batch, he waited two weeks. Fermenting can be tricky, Mock said. The beer kit comes with a mini beer barrel. But most home brewers use a large plastic bucket. After the beer mixture cools and the yeast is added, it goes into the barrel or bucket and is sealed. But the bucket needs an air lock to allow the CO2 to escape and keep the beer from exploding. And it does explode, Mock said. "We always say, you are not a home brewer until you mop the ceiling," Mock said. For those venturing on their own, without the beer kit, Mock's advice is to hang out with a brew club to watch and learn. Then, he said, keep a beer diary of beer-making steps. "So you can repeat it if it's good and avoid if it's bad," he said. "Everyone has thrown out a batch of beer." Over time, home brewers will start messing around with the recipes, adding spice and special ingredients. "It's all about finding balance," Mock said. "That balance is a sign of a good home brewer." So expect to get messy, Mock said. Expect to brew a sour batch. "But don't sweat it," he said. "Relax. Don't think too much about it. Don't take it too seriously. It's like making soup. Keep track of ingredients. Brew with a buddy." And the last step in beer making, according to the Mr. Beer kit instructions? "Call your friends." News article originally posted at: http://m.gazette.com/article/1520960
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