Any general advice?

I'm new here, I posted my intro thread in the appropriate section, but I have a few questions.

Since I am not only new to the board, but new to brewing, I bought the Mr Beer ultimate kit. I bought the ultimate because it came with the October fest brew, and my friend made it with his kit, and omg it was delicious. So I bought it to brew that recipe and the others that came with it. I figured this kit would get me started and into my new hobby.

The other question is, is their any newbie advice that can be given to me so I don't make any huge mistakes? I am brewing a lager right now, and I followed the directions to the T.

Also, I'm really getting into Hefe Weizens right now, what recipe do yall suggest if I want to make my own?

Also, when making my own recipe, what should I NOT mix into it?

Check out the recipe section to see what goes into the different styles. Rather than 'winging it', maybe start with following extract recipes or buying recipe kits. Try steeping grains in your extract recipes - this will add flavor and increase the quality of your extract brewing. Eventually, maybe consider moving to all-grain brewing. It gives you more control, but it takes more effort and more of an investment in equipment.

Back to recipes, I'd start with following recipes more or less exactly at first. Then try your hand at changing things - different specialty grains, different yeasts, different hops. In terms of what not to add - that's hard to say.

Good luck. And most importantly enjoy your beer.

Follow the directions for the lager kit, but don't get it confused with an actual lager - there's a lot more to true lager than a Mr. Beer kit lets on. Read up at www.howtobrew.com.

Then, don't ever buy another Mr. Beer ingredients kit! Congrats for getting hooked on the hobby with an easy, cheap intro! It's already time to branch out a little. You mentioned hefeweizen, and you're in luck! It's an easy one to brew with ingredients that you can buy a-la-carte at the homebrew store. Look around for recipes online, and ask here if you'd like to scale one down to a 2 gallon batch that will fit in your Mr. Beer fermenter.

One more thing - never become a General. They're mostly political a-holes.

Sorry to hear that you are stuck in Abilene. I was stationed there for 4 years, and they all sucked.

As far as brewing, like stated above, read up on www.howtobrew.com. You might also want to check about getting The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazian.

ArroganceFan said:

Sorry to hear that you are stuck in Abilene. I was stationed there for 4 years, and they all sucked.

As far as brewing, like stated above, read up on www.howtobrew.com. You might also want to check about getting The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazian.

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I'm very happy to be in Abilene!:rockin:

I made a hefe in a Mr. Beer once. Well........I thought back then it was a hefeweizen. Now I realize it was an American Wheat. 3 pounds WDME (wheat dry malt extract), 1/2 oz hallertau hops and a hefeweizen yeast form austinhomebrew.com and you will have a great beer.

Boil 1.5 gallons of water for an hour. Throw the hops in right away and half a pound WDME. When there is 15 minutes left to boil, throw the rest of your WDME in. Cool to under 80 degrees and put 1 gallon of cold tap water in your Mr. Beer. Put what's in your pot in there. Throw in the yeast. Let sit 3 weeks before bottling. Whala

One more thing....let all Mr. Beer's sit 3 weeks in keg and 3 weeks in bottles before judgement (not tasting, just judgement).