boochuckles
Well-Known Member
So when I go to drink it is there any way to fliter it out? Like pour through a coffee fliter or cheese cloth?
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So when I go to drink it is there any way to fliter it out? Like pour through a coffee fliter or cheese cloth?
m3n00b
Well-Known Member
Just don't pour the last 1/2" or so. Also conditioning for a week or more in the fridge will cause most of it to stick to the bottom of the bottle. Don't try to filter it.
A quick question for those of you familiar with the old style Mr. Beer. I have one of the old style with the airlock and wanted to be able to have two batches going at once. I got a small wine cooler fridge and ordered a 2nd Mr. Beer LBK. I now find that in order to fit two of these into the fridge, I would have to have them both without airlocks. like the new one.
My question is; are the threads on the lid of the old style one setup so that I can put a new style lid (sold as spare parts on Mr. Beer site) on it and have it work like the new style LBK?
My question is; are the threads on the lid of the old style one setup so that I can put a new style lid (sold as spare parts on Mr. Beer site) on it and have it work like the new style LBK?
It's not the threads on the lid that matter. There are little notches on the threaded part of the LBK that do it. They sort of act like a check valve. I don't think you can do what you want to do. It'd be better to just buy another LBK if you're going to do that. They're cheap enough.
woozy
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I doubt it. Look and see. Compare your old keg to the new keg. The new keg will have two notches on the top of the thread. If the old keg has them you are good to go. If the old keg doesn't, you are not.
You can do the "low-rent" version of an airlock and put saran wrap attached with a rubber band over the airlock hole...
Thanks cbmikey & woozy, Yeah I know that they are inexpensive, but I really want to get these batches in this weekend. My HOA is going to flush the water lines next week and have sent us a letter saying that there will be particulates and discoloration in the water for a few weeks after that. Mind you, I don't use the tap water to cook (or make beer) with, but I'd rather clean and disinfect while the water is half decent.
Maybe I can figure out a LBK arrangement that will work. Failing that, I might use woozy's suggestion.
EDIT: Well I see what you mean about the two little notches. I redistributed the shelves and found out that I can get both LBK's in there, so I guess I'm good to go for now. I am pleasantly surprised how well they fit in the wine cooler. It turns out that the LBK's can go in either front to back or side to side, so that gave me a few options. Not bad for a free wine cooler.
Maybe I can figure out a LBK arrangement that will work. Failing that, I might use woozy's suggestion.
EDIT: Well I see what you mean about the two little notches. I redistributed the shelves and found out that I can get both LBK's in there, so I guess I'm good to go for now. I am pleasantly surprised how well they fit in the wine cooler. It turns out that the LBK's can go in either front to back or side to side, so that gave me a few options. Not bad for a free wine cooler.
PilotsPheer
Active Member
Has anyone used the Mr. Beer keg to carb the beer in? Just save it in there for a party where it'll go in one night?
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
m3n00b
Well-Known Member
No. It won't withstand the pressure.
The mr beer fermenter has notches in the lid designed to vent the co2 that is produced during fermentation. It would vent co2 you tried to produce for carbonation, also. You could do something like that with a part pig, but not with the LBK.
Daviddover
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I recently built my own counterflow chiller and have done some batches with it. It works great. 200+ degrees in and 70 degrees out in less than 10 min.! Check out brewgeeks website for details.
boochuckles
Well-Known Member
I started my next batch yesterday, and it had pellet hops to be added into it. Everything went fine when I made the wort and added it to LBK. However thinking back I'm not sure how tight I should have made the hop bag. I tied it pretty tight and now am wondering if I should have left it loose. Thinking about it I would think more surface area would allow the hops to dissipate/dissolve/infuse/whatever better? I guess I might have been thinking it was like a tea bag. I have 2 more kits that have hops but I believe they are going to be better beers that I am using the one I think are going to be good not great for trial and error. Back to the point, how tight/loose should the hop bag be?
Tea bag idea is good. If your doing it as per Mr. B directions, you'll let it sit the entire fermentation? Added at flame out? You're just looking to get the aroma out of the hops, so the two week soak should get most of that.
boochuckles
Well-Known Member
I let it sit in the water for a bit while it was "boiling." I kept it there for maybe a minute or so then started to add the HME. I read the instructions closely this time (had a good mistake on the very first batch) and yes I left the tight "tea bag" of hop pellets in the LBK. It wasn't clear as to tight or loose so I just wanted some feedback from those who have done this before. So the ideal way is to keep the bag tight?
Tight is good, all that contact time will get as much hop goodness as you can expect. Pellet hops for the most part, melt into a goo after awhile so you will keep much of that mess out of your lbk, making bottling much easier with less trub. Many throw them in with no bag at all, but then you get into straining, whirlpooling, cold crashing to compensate.
One thing to remember is to make sure there is plenty of free space in the bag. The hop pellets will expand greatly as they soak up the water.
One thing to remember is to make sure there is plenty of free space in the bag. The hop pellets will expand greatly as they soak up the water.
Need some advise. I brewed the Who's your Hefe with the liquid yeast on sunday. Followed the instructions as written by pitching yeast after filling the keg up to proper amount. Also activited yeast about 6 hours prior to pitching. I was a bit worried that it was a bit warm so stuck keg in cooler to drop temp with frozen water bottles. Got down to 60 in cooler overnight and there is no activity. Pulled out and warmed to 70ish since monday and still nothing. There is no krausen visible, no bubbles, and only a bit of sediment on bottom. Should i pitch the MB yeast from under the cap? Or just leave and hope...
m3n00b
Well-Known Member
Did you check gravity? Could be fermenting or even done. If you don't have a hydrometer, taste it. If its sweet wort then its not fermenting.
How warm is too warm? 80? 110?
If it was 80, that's a little on the warm side, but it won't kill the yeast. Cooling it to 60 would slow the yeast way down, but too cold won't kill the yeast unless you get down to freezing (which can burst cell walls). Not all batches show a lot of activity. If there's some sediment building up on the bottom, that's a sign of fermentation (unless you pitched so hot that you killed the yeast and there is so little sediment that it's just what was in the yeast packet).
m3n00b
Well-Known Member
Which yeast strain was it?
m3n00b
Well-Known Member
Did it say wyeast on it and have a number?
boochuckles
Well-Known Member
These Mr. Beer instructions say "suggested lager time" 1 month. Well the batch is not even fermenting at a lager temperature. Does that mean it should ferment or bottle condition for a month. Or does that mean it should sit in the fridge for a month? Why can't they just say these things! Worse then my wife sometimes....
m3n00b
Well-Known Member
It means it should sit in the bottle and condition at room temp for a month. Another week or two in the fridge and it should be at its peak. MrB fails at terminology.
boochuckles
Well-Known Member
I thought so. The one I have now has been sitting 2 1/2 weeks and it's OK. It's doesn't have the flavor I thought it was going to. I'll let some sit longer but it's still not going to turn it into something I'd prefer. I have an IPA in the fermenter right now so I hope that's going to be where it's at for me.
m3n00b
Well-Known Member
If you have a local homebrew store try getting a 2 gallon extract/hops and specialty grain kit. It'll take a while to brew but will taste a lot better and have a lot more flavor than mrb's hme kits. It'll also be a lot cheaper. You won't go back to hme after brewing your own.
boochuckles
Well-Known Member
I have 2 more kits from Mr Beer to brew. I have been reading Palmer's How to Brew a little bit today. I am going to try to use his method to make those next 2 batches. the one in the fermenter ATM is an IPA and so are the next 2. The one conditioning is a brown ale, which I do like a certain kinds of. Not really this one, way too much malt for my Hopp Head. Live and Learn
Hey Brewers, Gotta question. I have a Mr. Beer Aztec Cervesa to brew. I'm gonna add 1/2 lb. X-tra Lt. Dme,and 2/3 oz. Tetnnangs. I would like to have a subtle lime flavor w/o fooling with fresh limes and the zests.My question is,instead of all my liquids being water in the brewpot,could i substitute like 1 cup of flat 7-Up or lime soda.Is there anything that would screw up the brew contained in the soda? I have several weeks til i brew this,so I thought I'd see what you all thought. TIA Randolf
m3n00b
Well-Known Member
I say leave it out and add the lime when you drink it.
You could try it, but it's not likely to do what you want. If you add it at bottling time, it will add sugar and you'll have over carbonated beer or bottle bombs. If you add it earlier, you're not likely to get any flavor.
I blended up 3 peaches and added them to a MrB kit once. A faint essence of peach got into the beer. You need quite a bit of fruit to make a difference, 1-2 lbs per gallon of beer at least. That won't do much.
boochuckles
Well-Known Member
Tomorrow should be bottling (racking?) day for an IPA I have going, 14 days total ferment around 70-75 F the entire time. I took a hydrometer reading yesterday and it was 1.020. The OG was 1.070. Idk if I should let if go more or start bottle condition? I plan to take one more reading tomorrow before starting but idk what I should do if it goes down. Since it is in a LBK it's hard to see if there is any bubbling.
Another question I have is should I even bother to move it to another fermenter at this point? I picked up "The complete joy of homebrewing" and that says I should have already moved it to reduce the trub. It was pretty hazy in the sample tube yesterday, but idk is bottle conditioning is going to help clear this up.
3rd Question. I have a lager going in another fermentor. The yeast is all on the bottom and after 5 days there is no kraeusen which I think should be normal for a lager yeast. The OG was 1.068 and the reading yesterday was 1.066. I have been trying to keep the mini fridge the LBK is in between 50-55. I'm thinking this is going to have take longer to ferment but idk how long is longer? Is a SG drop of .002 normal for only 5 days?
Thanks for any feedback to come.
Another question I have is should I even bother to move it to another fermenter at this point? I picked up "The complete joy of homebrewing" and that says I should have already moved it to reduce the trub. It was pretty hazy in the sample tube yesterday, but idk is bottle conditioning is going to help clear this up.
3rd Question. I have a lager going in another fermentor. The yeast is all on the bottom and after 5 days there is no kraeusen which I think should be normal for a lager yeast. The OG was 1.068 and the reading yesterday was 1.066. I have been trying to keep the mini fridge the LBK is in between 50-55. I'm thinking this is going to have take longer to ferment but idk how long is longer? Is a SG drop of .002 normal for only 5 days?
Thanks for any feedback to come.
If your OG was 1.070, it's likely to drop a little more. That's a pretty big beer and may take longer for the year to finish it up. What kind of year did you use and what kind?
Whether it's in a carboy or LBK, lack of bubbling is not a good indication of whether fermentation is done. If fermentation has allowed, you won't see bubbles. The gravity readings are your best indication.
boochuckles
Well-Known Member
Um do you mean yeast? If so, idk, the yeast that came with the Mr Beer kit. I didn't start it or wait for the wort to cool on this batch. This was the last batch i started before I picked up a book and tried to figure out wait i really should be doing. So if it does need to ferment more, should I move it to a secondary fermentor? I have a 3rd LBK empty. I'll take a SG and let you know that in a little bit. I just work up and went right to my phone to check the thread. I was pretty excited to bottle and brew today if everything is good...
boochuckles
Well-Known Member
SG is exactly the same, 1.020 I'm going to bottle it.
So I tried the Northwest Pale Ale kit at 1 week in the bottle. Tasted very yeasty, tried again at 2 weeks now, still tastes off, and now I'm going to leave it for another week in the bottle, and see if it tames out a bit.
What "flavor" is produced by fermenting at too high a temp? I'm wondering if the off flavor is due to the house being at 72-74 during the fermenting time with the thermometer on the LBK getting as high as 80 some times.
I may have to do the swamp cooler concept to try to get the temperature down during the first 4-5 days, after that it hovers at 73-74.
Trying to get this figured out, my next batch is from the home brew shop and is extracts + hops, so I don't want to mess it up...
What "flavor" is produced by fermenting at too high a temp? I'm wondering if the off flavor is due to the house being at 72-74 during the fermenting time with the thermometer on the LBK getting as high as 80 some times.
I may have to do the swamp cooler concept to try to get the temperature down during the first 4-5 days, after that it hovers at 73-74.
Trying to get this figured out, my next batch is from the home brew shop and is extracts + hops, so I don't want to mess it up...
The yeasty flavor is probably caused by yeast in the beer. When I bottle, I usually let my beers sit at room temperature for a month or more, then refrigerate for at least two weeks. When you drink the beer, pour it in a glass all in one pour, stopping before any of the trub (the while layer on the bottom) starts to come out. If you give the beer enough time, the trub will be more compact and you may be able to pour all the beer without getting any trub.
If you use unhealthy yeast, it may aotulyze, which can produce a yeasty flavor, but I think it's more likely that you drank the beer before all the yeast settled out, especially since you said you tried it after a week (then two weeks)in the bottle.
72-74 is a little on the high side, but not too bad, depending on the yeast. The yeast in the Mr Beer kits is pretty forgiving, but for a pale ale, I'd rather ferment around 65 so the malt and hops shine through. 80 is too high for most yeasts (although certain styles are fermented that high). Higher temperatures can cause a number of off flavors. Esters can give beer a fruity flavor. Fusel alcohol will give a "hot alcohol" flavor. You can also get a solvent like flavor from high temperatures. Some of these flavors will condition out over time, or at least fade. When I say they'll fade or condition out over time, I mean over several months.
Toobs360
Member
First timer to the site here. And this is only my second batch of Homebrew....I'm making a blonde ale, during transfer to secondary carboy I noticed I was a little lower (4 gallons instead of the recommended 5) in my primary then I expected. Without thinking it through 
, I added about 2 cups of tap water without boiling before I stopped myself and had the ever lovely "WHAT HAVE I DONE!" moment.
Pretty much my question is: Did I just ruin my beer by adding 2 cups of water straight from the tap WITHOUT boiling it? It's been about 14 hours since I did it and I'm seeing little to no fermentation bubbles/processes going on.
Thank you in advance for your help!
, I added about 2 cups of tap water without boiling before I stopped myself and had the ever lovely "WHAT HAVE I DONE!" moment.Pretty much my question is: Did I just ruin my beer by adding 2 cups of water straight from the tap WITHOUT boiling it? It's been about 14 hours since I did it and I'm seeing little to no fermentation bubbles/processes going on.
Thank you in advance for your help!
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