Recent content by mlanoue

As far as I know their cans of hopped malt extract are made by Coopers, which is generally regarded pretty solid quality--at least as far as hopped kits goes. I'm only on my 2nd Mr Beer kit, and haven't actually tried the first one yet, but having done a few Coopers kits in the past I figured...

I kind of enjoyed the illusion of brewing last week when I made a Mr. Beer Canadian Blonde, and last night when I made their Oktoberfest kit. Didn't use their yeast. Just split a pack of Nottingham between them. I have modest expectations for how they turn out, but it was so quick and easy that...

I started brewing extract kits back in 1997. Usually extract with stepping grains, but sometimes pre-hopped kits. I wanted to save money so I bought a turkey fryer and tried all-grain with a really primitive BIAB method back around 2006 or something like that. The problem for me was that it...

If you ferment it in the refrigerator like it says on the website you'd have to use a lager yeast, which would just be weird for some of these styles. Plus it would take a lot longer than a week. Unless they have some sort of super secret yeast. I assume this company is just counting on...

Yeah, that's how I was feeling about it, too. It appears to be a really expensive, dumbed-down version of even the most basic Mr. Beer kit.

(Didn't see this mentioned here after a search. I apologize if it's been discussed.) I saw an ad for them on Facebook: http://craftbrew.me/ This seems to be a variation on an old brewing gimmick from years ago when you filled up a heavy plastic bag with water and let it sit for a week or...

6 months is quite awhile, but it should still have enough yeast. I've had stuff sitting for prey close to that without carving problems. Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Midwest Maibock with WLP051 California V yeast. So good. Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Haven't been in this situation before, but I think that May be what you have to do. I think you should put the gallon of water in the new fermenter and gently rack the beer onto that. Proper sanitation and all that. Not going to get into the issue of what kind of water is okay to add...

Back in the day Blue Moon was some of the best stuff out there. I guess it just shows how bad things used to be . . . And how much better they are now. I haven't had a Blue Moon in years. I'm sure I've outgrown it, but it doesn't feel right to knock it, either. Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

I'm mostly just blown away that you've cranked out ten batches since January. Nice job. As you are discovering, beer changes a lot in the weeks and months after packaging. Usually it gets better. But, I've had those times when it gets less tasty. Still, you're beer is pretty young. Give it...

As long as they're food grade plastic they should be fine. What would be the problem with orange buckets, per se. Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Yes. Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

If you use carbonation drops in each bottle you can do this. I've done this lots of times and the beers aren't really noticeably cloudy. However, I do think they still turn out better when I rack them from a primary to the bottling bucket. Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

I think you'd be a lot happier buying a 5 gallon bucket from the hardware store and attaching a blowoff tube to the lid. Trying to split up the ingredients and yeast that much just doesn't seem worth it. I guess it's do-able, of course, but it would be a pain. Sent from my iPad using Home Brew