Mr Beer - Read all about it and ask questions

I mixed up my first ever batch of brew (Mr. Beer) on 01/01/2009. I think I may have done something extremely wrong. I mixed up a gallon of water with the booster and brought to a boil. I then added the West Coast Pale Ale plus a can of Alexanders Pale Extract Kicker and some Czech Saaz hops in a cheesecloth sack. the cheesecloth was sanitized as well as the string to tie it with in the "one step sanitizer. I did not place a sanitized marble in with the hops in order to get the hop sack to sink to the bottom. It is floating on top. Therein lies my problem. NOTHING ELSE IS FLOATING on top except for the cheesecloth hop sack. I see no yeast activity at all on top and this is Janurary 5th. Is my yeast bad? How would I know? I have some Nottingham beer yeast from an old one gallon kit from Barnes & Noble but would it still be good enough to add to this mixture? Should I add it to this mixture? There is a ring around the keg about 1/8 inch above the liquid level and it appears that there was some type of activity in the keg as there is some condensate up around the lid area. Have I ruined the contents? Should I leave it alone? PLEASE HELP WITH YOUR COMMENTS as I feel like I did 35 years ago when my first child was being born!!

WaynesWorld said:

I mixed up my first ever batch of brew (Mr. Beer) on 01/01/2009. I think I may have done something extremely wrong. I mixed up a gallon of water with the booster and brought to a boil. I then added the West Coast Pale Ale plus a can of Alexanders Pale Extract Kicker and some Czech Saaz hops in a cheesecloth sack. the cheesecloth was sanitized as well as the string to tie it with in the "one step sanitizer. I did not place a sanitized marble in with the hops in order to get the hop sack to sink to the bottom. It is floating on top. Therein lies my problem. NOTHING ELSE IS FLOATING on top except for the cheesecloth hop sack. I see no yeast activity at all on top and this is Janurary 5th. Is my yeast bad? How would I know? I have some Nottingham beer yeast from an old one gallon kit from Barnes & Noble but would it still be good enough to add to this mixture? Should I add it to this mixture? There is a ring around the keg about 1/8 inch above the liquid level and it appears that there was some type of activity in the keg as there is some condensate up around the lid area. Have I ruined the contents? Should I leave it alone? PLEASE HELP WITH YOUR COMMENTS as I feel like I did 35 years ago when my first child was being born!!

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Take a reading to see if you missed the fermentation. If you used Notty, you may have missed it. Notty can be real aggressive.

what temperature did you pitch your yeast at? also, what temp are you fermenting at?

also, look with a flashlight on the side of the keg and see if you spot any bubbles, it may take a good minute or two and the bubbles are very small(atleast this was the case for my WCPA mix) but that should indicate whether it is fermenting.

Wow... you people are fast.... Ok, here we go... Impatient, I have a Mr. Beer fermentor which does not come with a means of measuring specific gravity. Newbies, remember? I therefore do not know what the "reading" is/was. Any other suggestions?
dogfishandi: the yeast was pitched when the temp was about 64 degrees F. I realize now that may have been too cool. But the Fermentor (Mr. Beer keg) was warmed via ambient temperature to 70 degrees F in about 3 hours. Also, I see no bubbling in the keg at all which is why I am so concerned.

you waited 3 hours after putting the wort in the fermentor to pitch ta he yeast? im not positive, but i thought you were supposed to cool the wort as fast as you can, thats why mr beer tells you to put water in the keg first, then pour the wort in, then ass more water, thats gettin your temperature down real fast, then you pitch your yeast. however, i myself am a newbie, some other guys on here can better help you.

now, for a question of my own, for my next batch, i wanna make a fairly strong IPA, and i wanna use malt extract other than mr. beer products, possibly dry malt extract, hops, and some good ale yeast. seeing how i just brewed an all malt porter with mr. beer products and it is foaming up a good deal, and fermentation is definately happening a lot more vigorously than the WCPA, brewing a beer with other products, exspecially yeast, i fear a blow off or worse a blow up. Has anyone had any expierience with this using MR. beer?

dogfishandi; the yeast was pitched exactly at the time Mr. Beer called for it which was dumping the warm wort into the cold water, then adding to the 8qt mark. stir vigorously, add the yeast, etc. etc. the temp at the time of all this happening was approx 64-66 degrees. ambient temp in the room was 70 degrees which is why the keg raised to 70 degrees after 3 hours. The Nottingham yeast came with the Alexander UME kicker and was not used. The yeast that WAS used came with the West Coast Pale Ale. My question for any experienced individuals out there is as follows: since there is NO yeast activity visible after 5 days, should I pitch the Nottingham now or hang tight and look for visible signs of fermentation. I am unable to take a specific gravity test as Mr. Beer is a "beginners" form of brewing and does not offer a means of taking SG measurements like other kits do. Are there any EXPERIENCED brewers on this forum who may be able to help with this situation? thank you.
-Wayne

sorry, misunderstood you

WaynesWorld said:

Wow... you people are fast.... Ok, here we go... Impatient, I have a Mr. Beer fermentor which does not come with a means of measuring specific gravity. Newbies, remember? I therefore do not know what the "reading" is/was. Any other suggestions?

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Taste it. Is it sweet? If it is sweet let it go for a couple of days and then taste it again to see if the sweetness is gone. At that point, pitch some more if you want. You could pitch more now if you don't mind the gas

WaynesWorld said:

dogfishandi; the yeast was pitched exactly at the time Mr. Beer called for it which was dumping the warm wort into the cold water, then adding to the 8qt mark. stir vigorously, add the yeast, etc. etc. the temp at the time of all this happening was approx 64-66 degrees. ambient temp in the room was 70 degrees which is why the keg raised to 70 degrees after 3 hours. The Nottingham yeast came with the Alexander UME kicker and was not used. The yeast that WAS used came with the West Coast Pale Ale. My question for any experienced individuals out there is as follows: since there is NO yeast activity visible after 5 days, should I pitch the Nottingham now or hang tight and look for visible signs of fermentation. I am unable to take a specific gravity test as Mr. Beer is a "beginners" form of brewing and does not offer a means of taking SG measurements like other kits do. Are there any EXPERIENCED brewers on this forum who may be able to help with this situation? thank you.
-Wayne

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Pitch the Nottingham, it won't hurt the brew.

So I just started fermenting my first batch. I had planned to keep the keg in my garage, but because of the funky winter we've had (70 degrees Monday, 40 degrees by Thursday, 70 degrees by Friday, etc.) I decided to keep it inside. My kitchen seems like a pretty viable place for it as there are nooks out of "direct sunlight." However, I don't know if this means all kinds of light (overhead lights, etc.)

So should I put the keg in a cupboard or something? Or will it do okay out in the open as long as the sun doesn't reach it. Thanks guys!

put a towel or sumthin over it, that will ensure no light enters the fermentor.

Rite-Aid has the Mr. Root Beer kits for $6.29 plus tax.

But...there is no keg of any type, only four large (22 oz., I'm assuming) amber PET bottles, a bag of ingredients, and some instructions.

Would the PET bottles alone be worth the 7 bucks?

I, personally, don't see the need for a 22 oz. bottle of beer, but if they could come in handy for other applications, I might just pick up a few.

Pogo

the mr beer bottle are about 30 0z., i think, they are good for starting some yeast, but they really arent that much better than a pop bottle, except there brown

obfusk8or said:

but because of the funky winter we've had (70 degrees Monday, 40 degrees by Thursday, 70 degrees by Friday, etc.)

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I hear ya. I'm from Atlanta also.

70 in the middle of winter! next day 40! I hate it.

i am about to suffer an iminent blowoff on my mr beer. it happens when i pitch nottingham.

last time the krausen/goo/gunk spewed slowly out the two aitlocks. it made a mess but didnt blow the top. i cleaned around the top and sanitized the outside without taking off the top because i didnt want to contaminate. everything woprked fine then but its about to happen again with my dark ale.

should i open the keg and scoop out some kreusen with a sterilized spoon and risk contamination or just put it in a container and let it blow?
thanks
\

i dry hopped this batch so it looks like more kresuen is gonna form what with all the hop protein.

Try fashioning a blow off tube if you can. I'm not familiar with the airlocks on Mr. Beer, but I assume if the Mr. Beer container has a grommet or bung with a hole in it, you could put in a blow off tube.

My Mr Beer ain't got no airlock!

Orfy said:

My Mr Beer ain't got no airlock!

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Actually the original one did...it came with a hole in the top and a typical s type...someone on here has one...

But yeah, you're right about the modern ones.

I'd just take the lid off GASP HORROR......or at least leave it loose.


If you take the lid off just make sure you are in a realitivly clean area then make surre the lids sanitised before you put it back on.

Orfy said:

I'd just take the lid off GASP HORROR......or at least leave it loose.


If you take the lid off just make sure you are in a realitivly clean area then make surre the lids sanitised before you put it back on.

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Yeah...I would just let it oooze out over the top and slide down the barrel like curves of the fermenter ...especially if you set it in a plastic dishpan or tub.

Well I bottled my first batch of homebrew today out of my Mr. Beer. It was the west coast pale ale kit that came with the MB. I substituted 1 lb. of DME in place of the booster pack and used Nottingham dry yeast instead of the yeast with the kit. It set in the MB for 3 weeks. FG was 1.010. Racked it to a bottling bucket and primed with 2.5 ounce of corn sugar in a 1/2 cup of water (boiled).

The bottling experience was not bad (Many thanks to Revvy for his excellent post of techniques). You should do a search and read that if you haven't yet. Anyway I got 19 12 ounce glass bottles and one 20 ounce PET bottle. I did one in PET so I can check for carbonation. I think I left some beer behind in the fermentor when using my auto siphon. The auto siphon is one for a 5 gallon fermentor and I was being careful not to get it in the trub. Also my hose was too long and I had to work hard to get the end below the surface of the beer in the bottling bucket. I didn't make a dip tube for the bottling bucket either, but I will next time. Left a little beer there also.

My one real problem area was with the bottling wand. I could never get it to quit dripping from the bottom valve. I ended up throwing my sanitizer bucket under the wand to catch the drips, and having a empty bottle in my free hand to catch all I could. The best I could get the bottling wand was a slow drip,drip,drip. At times is was almost flowing (slower than when filling, but flowing). Does anyone have any advice for that issue?

Over all the process went well and wasn't a big deal.

Cheers,

Orfy said:

My Mr Beer ain't got no airlock!

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Mine doesn't either, but I am wondering if I could drill a hole in the lid and use a grommet from a 5 gallon fermentor and stick a blow off tube there? Or would that combined with the slotted lid of the MB be too large of a area for CO2 to pass later when the major fermentation has stopped and the yeasties are cleaning up? May after any blow off risk is passed, I could plug the hole with a solid stopper. Thoughts?

I've wasted a good two quarts of beer by trying to rest the bottling wand in a spare bottle while capping--dumb. I finally figured out that connecting the wand to the bottling spigot with a short length of tubing and taking the bottle to the spigot works better for me.

But ditto on the dripping problem. It's not severe. But it makes a mess and wastes beer.
I'm wondering if a spring loaded wand is better or if that design has problems of its own.

Well, just an update in case it might help other noobs...

I finally bottled my first Mr Beer batch today... sat in the primary for one day short of 4 weeks. It wasn't until mid week this week that all the bubbles on the surface cleared. Smells and tastes good! It's a WPA and I can't detect any hops, but no doubt it if it carbs it will be decent beer.

I used the 1/3 cup dextrose in 3/4 water mix(boiled) and racked to my Pail Ale bottle bucket. Then I used the bottle filler thing with the spring loaded release. That thing is nice!

Now I'm going to fill it and it's garage sale finds brother with a couple of batches of Apfelwien! I'm thinking one with regular sugar and one with brown sugar.

I am wondering if I would split the yeast pack or use one for each batch...

Thoughts?

KerryD said:

Well, just an update in case it might help other noobs...

I finally bottled my first Mr Beer batch today... sat in the primary for one day short of 4 weeks. It wasn't until mid week this week that all the bubbles on the surface cleared. Smells and tastes good! It's a WPA and I can't detect any hops, but no doubt it if it carbs it will be decent beer.

I used the 1/3 cup dextrose in 3/4 water mix(boiled) and racked to my Pail Ale bottle bucket. Then I used the bottle filler thing with the spring loaded release. That thing is nice!

Now I'm going to fill it and it's garage sale finds brother with a couple of batches of Apfelwien! I'm thinking one with regular sugar and one with brown sugar.

I am wondering if I would split the yeast pack or use one for each batch...

Thoughts?

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If i was doing and using dry yeast I would just use one pack for each. Dry yeast is inexpensive.

Cheers,

Just bottled my first batch of pale ale from my Mr. Beer that my dad got me for X-Mass. I have really been stoked about being able to brew my own. I have already started to gather my AG supplies hopefully will be brewing in a few weeks.

P.S. This forum is awesome. I love the insight from everyone.

I didn't want to start a new thread but I saw the Mr. Beer kits on sale for $14.95 at Bed Bath and Beyond today.

I almost picked one up just for the little plastic keg.

Cheers!
Mark

BrewInATL said:

I didn't want to start a new thread but I saw the Mr. Beer kits on sale for $14.95 at Bed Bath and Beyond today.

I almost picked one up just for the little plastic keg.

Cheers!
Mark

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Like I've said repeatedly the kegs themselves make great small fermenters, they have a low profile that can fit in any fridge, even with stiff on the shelf....especially if you can find one of the oldschool ones with the original lid for a real airlock...keep an eye out for them on craigslist, freecycle or garage sales in the summer...you may be able to get them free or for a few pennys.

i bottled my wcpa about a week ago and am planning to wait another 2 weeks. halfway through bottle conditioning ive herd you should give each bottle a quick shake to get the yeast moving around and doin its job again. is this correct?

dogfishandi said:

i bottled my wcpa about a week ago and am planning to wait another 2 weeks. halfway through bottle conditioning ive herd you should give each bottle a quick shake to get the yeast moving around and doin its job again. is this correct?

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It shouldn't be necessary, but doesn't really hurt. I'd do more of a swirl or roll the bottle on a flat surface a couple of times. I used to do that but rarely bother anymore unless they don't seem to be carbing like they should.

Whew. Made it all the way through. That's a lotta Mr. Beer knowledge.

Is there much of topic banter in here?
Does it need tidying?

It's not that bad, really.

A little more stuff in the first post might be helpful.... how to best improve the kit... toss the booster, etc... moving to a bottle bucket and priming with corn sugar... why the timelines given are to be ignored...

Really, it's a good read... just looooooooooooooooooong.

If some one wants to post a linked index then I'll put it in the first post.
I've done this in other stickies and it seems to help.

I just read the entire thing and there really is a ton of good knowledge in here for both Mr. Beer and brewing in general. My only gripe is that when I want to go back and look for something in particular, it's impossible to find it in 90 some pages. An index would be very helpful.

I've got one Mr. Beer batch under my belt and bought a brewer's best 5 gallon kit. The Canadian draft from Mr. Beer is bottled and carbing and the brewer's best American amber is still in primary. It'll probably go into secondary tonight. I'm already looking into kegging. Storing all these bottles is a pain.

One question... How much longer should I let my bottles condition if the temp is only 67 degrees? They are in a closet, but I don't want to turn up the thermostat. Should I get a space heater for the closet or is it close enough to 70 that it will be okay?

Three weeks is a good guideline. I wouldn't think 3 degrees is gonna make that much difference. Open one a week and see how it goes.

You're good. ya gotta test one a week anyway to see how they "mature"

Hello all, I am new to Mr. Beer and new to this forum. My name is Mike and I'm from Mesa, AZ.

My first batch is fermenting as we speak, just 4 days in. WCPA that came with the kit. I plan to leave it for a total of 14 days.

My question is regarding bottling. I've read a few times on this forum that people are batching their priming sugar (I bought at my LHBS) by boiling it with water, cooling it, then adding it to the keg before bottling instead of adding it directly to the bottles before bottling. This seems like it would be a heck of a lot easier for me. Are there any problems or safeguards I should watch out for with this method? Do I need to sanitize my pot before boiling the water and adding the sugar, or will the boiling take care of this for me? Any other suggestions as to how much priming sugar and how much water to use? Since I'll be adding more water to the keg, does this dilute the beer in any way?

Thanks for any help in advance. I've learned a lot already just reading these pages.
Mike

vetsurg said:

Hello all, I am new to Mr. Beer and new to this forum. My name is Mike and I'm from Mesa, AZ.

My first batch is fermenting as we speak, just 4 days in. WCPA that came with the kit. I plan to leave it for a total of 14 days.

My question is regarding bottling. I've read a few times on this forum that people are batching their priming sugar (I bought at my LHBS) by boiling it with water, cooling it, then adding it to the keg before bottling instead of adding it directly to the bottles before bottling. This seems like it would be a heck of a lot easier for me. Are there any problems or safeguards I should watch out for with this method? Do I need to sanitize my pot before boiling the water and adding the sugar, or will the boiling take care of this for me? Any other suggestions as to how much priming sugar and how much water to use? Since I'll be adding more water to the keg, does this dilute the beer in any way?

Thanks for any help in advance. I've learned a lot already just reading these pages.
Mike

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Welcome to the obsession!

1. I don't think that I would add the priming sugar to the MB keg. You will most likely stir up a lot of trub, trying to get it mixed with the beer. I racked mine to a bottling bucket. I put the sugar syrup in the bottling bucket first then racked beer from the MB to the bucket. The racking action is enough to mix the sugar with the beer without stirring more. If you don't have a bottling bucket you can add the sugar to each bottle (without boiling in water) or use carb tabs.

2. If you boil you sugar water you will not need to sanitize the pot first. You are right thinking that the boiling takes care of the sanitizing. I used about a cup of water and 2.5 ounces of corn sugar in mine. I think that might have been a little too much sugar, but I forget the MB kit was only 2 gallons. I thought it was 2.5 gallons for some reason.

Good luck.