I have been brewing with the Mr. Beer keg for a couple months and I am very satisfied so far. Amazon.com is definitely the best place to get the refills because of the free super saver shipping and the 4 for 3 option could be good too. I read the other reviews before I made my purchase of the variety pack so I expected to get the Blonde Ale, Golden Lager, and the Linebacker dopplebock, which is exactly what I got! I received my beer mixes three days after ordering and the box and beer mixes are in great condition. They look new to me, and the cans of malt extract say use by 2012.
My first batch of Mr. Beer was the west coast pale ale which came with the brewing keg, and I used tap water filtered with a brita filter. This resulted in some off flavors, an "antiseptic" like flavor which went away after about 2 weeks of cold conditioning, and so I would recommend using store bought filtered water because it doesn't have the chlorine which will make your beer have off flavors.
I also recommend being creative and using some herbs like coriander and you can add honey which I am pretty excited about. I have bottled a batch of bewitched red ale with a can of pale malt extract, a cup of honey and a teaspoon of coriander, which could potentially bring the alcohol content to 7.2% and I think the coriander will add a nice spiciness. It might be a bit sweet, and in retrospect I think I should have added some more hops. I would definitely use the Mr. Beer extracts as a starting point, but I wouldn't stop with just the hopped malt extract and booster because it results in a pretty weak beer in my opinion.
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