Thought I'd update this post...so no more Mr. Beer. However, that's only because I have much better equipment now. My wife decided that she wanted to make some wine so we bought the minimum equipment for it. Made 24 bottles of a Peach Chardonnay and it turned out really good. That was what we gave all of our family for X-mas and the rest is already gone.
So right now we have four 5 gallon fermenters, four 5 gallon glass carboys, and a 3 gallon glass carboy. I've made a Peach Chardonnay wine which is all gone, just bottled a Blueberry Shiraz (I don't like it right now, but the wife loves fruity wines). There is a blackberry Merlot clearing right now and will be ready to bottle in a week, also there's another 5 gallons of an Orange Blossom Muscadine that will be ready in a few more weeks. I haven't used my Mr. Beer kit since I got this equipment and I hadn't made anymore beer until recently, due to the nasty taste of the hard apple cider. However, I made a wheat beer recently and it was ready to drink last thursday. It's not amazing, but it's better than anything you can buy at the store IMO, especially when you put an orange slice in it. I've got about 40 bottles of that left and a lot of wine about to come out. Plans for the future are to put a Strawberry White Zinfendal in and then figure out what kind of beer I'm going to make next.
I have to say this is one of the most addictive hobbies I've ever had. I'm actually looking into equipment to do a complete mash, but that will be a little more expensive and I will need a lot more space for it. Thankfully I've just got to clean out the shed. I'll let you know how it goes, but this is for sure something that I will be doing for years to come...OH I also have 3 gallons of an Ancient Orange Mead fermenting in the laundry room...never had mead before, but I think it will be good.