Mr Beer - Read all about it and ask questions

hey i got a 2 liter growler (twist off top) is this ok to bottle in, or is the twist off top not sufficient for carbonation? thanks

hahahah if you want to wait a week or so I am experimenting with that now I bottled friday and will let you know next Friday or so if it works.

So I tasted my mr beer today. It was the west coast pale ale. Followed the directions to a T, but added a half cup of honey to bump up the ABV and maybe give it some taste. I even went so far as to use table sugar for priming like they suggest. Left in the primary for two weeks, bottled, and cracked one after a week. It was decent, drinkable, not sweet. The carbonation was present, but not lasting so I'm going to let the other guys sit a little longer. They were a bit cloudy but not terrible.

All in all, im glad it worked out well. Hoping my next batch will be the same!

Tried the first beer the other day. It was the cowboy Lager. And i used those dextrose tabs instead of normal table sugar.

I thought it was amazing. A few family members tried it and seemed to like it to.

Although used 9 tabs instead of 11, so the carbonation was a bit low. Not much foam either but i want to leave them in the bottling process for 20 days and it's only been about 10.

I put a couple more in the fridge though, i liked them that much.

Out of curiosity, what are people doing with their Mr. Beer after they upgrade to a full home brew kit? I was thinking since it has a smaller size and comes with plastic bottles it might ideal to make soda in.

personally, i've been brewing 5gallon batches since september, and have done nothing with my mrbeer kit. i plan on doing small all grain batches with it. some people just like to use it for experimental brews, or styles they are not sure they will like.

You could save thid for trying to make lager brews because it will easily fit in the refrigerator. When I have made soda I have just used a bucket. Once the plastic becomes exposed to rootbeer it is not easy to get the smell off of the plastic so I have a special bucket just for soda making that beer will never go in.

somecallmetex said:

Out of curiosity, what are people doing with their Mr. Beer after they upgrade to a full home brew kit? I was thinking since it has a smaller size and comes with plastic bottles it might ideal to make soda in.

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I use mine for the occasional small expermental batch; right now it has a Brown Ale fermenting (I used up a some left over DME). This also is the first time using Chocolate malt.

makes a nice half batch fermenter. make a 5 gallon, split it in two and try different add-ins.

Has anyone ever primed with the booster? I've got loads of boosters laying around because I use DME instead. Looking for something to do with them.

The Mr Beer manual says that Booster is not recommended for priming because it isn't entirely fermentable, so it tends to under-carbonate.

Rev was saying that it will leave a nice mouth feel and lasting head if you could determine the correct amount to use. You'd have to figure out how much dextrose is in there and then measure accordingly.

djt17 said:

I use mine for the occasional small expermental batch; right now it has a Brown Ale fermenting (I used up a some left over DME). This also is the first time using Chocolate malt.

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I use mine for trying new batches as well... however I now added a hole & grommet for a normal air lock as I had a vigorously fermenting batch that literally blew the top off mine a while back

I sold my old Mr. Beer kegs at a garage sale last fall. The guy who bought them planned on using them as coin jars LOL

I was kinda thinking lemonade and sangria dispensers for my next party.

I'm about to mix 2 cans of High Country, 1lb light dme, 1lb carahell, bitter with simcoe and finish with hallertau. This is going to be delicious.

Mr. Beer Russian Imperial Stout modification. Critiques welcome...

Russian Imperial Stout Original Recipe

My Modified Recipe:

RECIPE INCLUDES:

* 1 Can St. Patrick's Irish Stout
* 1 Can Creamy Brown UME
* 1 Packet of Mr. Beer Dry Brewing Yeast
* 1 Packet Willamette Pellet Hops
* 1 Packet Palisade Pellet Hops
* 2 Muslin Hop Sacks
* 1 Packet One-Step™ Sanitizing Cleanser

YOU PR0VIDE:

* 1 Cup Brown Sugar
* 2lb Dark liquid UME
* 1/2lb 120L Crystal Malt (in grain bag)
* Danstar Nottingham Ale Yeast
* 0.25lbs of ground coffee, steeped in 12oz of cold water (in sanitized container) for 24 hours.

4-cups of water in a pot, place the crystal malt in the water and bring it to 150 degrees and leave it in there for 30min at that temp, remove the bag (letting it drip but not squeezing). Bringing it to a boil and tossing in the mr. beer yeast to kill it (makes for good yeast food, bunch of cannibals), then removing from heat, toss in hops and coffee and stirring in the brown sugar. Then I'll stir in all the extracts, pour it into the fermenter (that will have 4-quarts of water), and then top it off with water till the 8.5 mark, and stir stir stir, take a gravity reading, then pitch the yeast, wait 5, stir, then seal and ferment.

4 weeks in the fermenter, 6 months in the bottles.

And my only question is I need to get a replacement for the palisade hops (bag was ripped open when i got it) and my homebrewing store doesn't carry that exact hop. What would be a good replacement?

Also, what would be a good way to incorporate chocolate malt?

Antifreze said:

Also, what would be a good way to incorporate chocolate malt?

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Put your water in your pot and throw in a few oz of chocolate malt. Bring the water up to 170 and remove the grain bag, continue as usual.

RyanK2 said:

Put your water in your pot and throw in a few oz of chocolate malt. Bring the water up to 170 and remove the grain bag, continue as usual.

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so, would I do this, then after removing that grain bag, lower the temp to 150 and toss in the crystal malt?

Oh I didnt see the crystal, mix the chocolate and the crystal in the grain bag and bring the temp to 170 and remove. Works well.

RyanK2 said:

Rev was saying that it will leave a nice mouth feel and lasting head if you could determine the correct amount to use. You'd have to figure out how much dextrose is in there and then measure accordingly.

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Could be. I don't notice a big difference, personally. If you want to give it a try, Booster is about 80% fermentable. It is basically like DME, without any flavor.

Here's the breakdown... check the "product information."

mrbeerrep said:

Could be. I don't notice a big difference, personally. If you want to give it a try, Booster is about 80% fermentable. It is basically like DME, without any flavor.

Here's the breakdown... check the "product information."

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I will give it a try on my next batch. I'll just increase my priming amount by 20% to make up for the non fermentables in the booster.

I have a few Mr. Beer questions.

Can I quickly make a no-boil Mr. Beer ale that is a decent session beer? If so, how quickly? I realize that that is a very "it depends" type of question.

I noticed that in the recipes on their website that uses hops that are in effect throwing the hops in at knockout. So is the bittering done purely by using hopped extract?

What I'm thinking of doing is possibly using Mr. Beer to make a quick session beer and using my regular extract w/ specialty grain to make more involved beers. Is anyone doing this or is it a step back to buy a Mr. Beer kit?

I dont care what anyone says. I've made damn fine beer by experimenting with the Mr Beer products. To answer your question, if you follow the directions for a batch it takes only about 20 minutes to brew a batch. I would suggest at least using 2 cans of the HME per batch + 1lb of DME instead of booster.

Thanks for the answer & advice.

Bassman said:

I have a few Mr. Beer questions.

Can I quickly make a no-boil Mr. Beer ale that is a decent session beer? If so, how quickly? I realize that that is a very "it depends" type of question.

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I agree w/ RyanK2. About 20 min for the simplest refills. You can always steep grain and/or do quick 5-20 minute boils to adjust malt/hop characteristics too.

Bassman said:

I noticed that in the recipes on their website that uses hops that are in effect throwing the hops in at knockout. So is the bittering done purely by using hopped extract?

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Yup. For the most part, they're hopped fairly lightly. If you want to bump it up a bit, you can do quick hop boils without mucking anything up too bad. At that volume, it doesn't take a whole lot of hops to increase the IBU, even with just a 10 minute boil.

Bassman said:

What I'm thinking of doing is possibly using Mr. Beer to make a quick session beer and using my regular extract w/ specialty grain to make more involved beers. Is anyone doing this or is it a step back to buy a Mr. Beer kit?

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I bet you can guess my answer, so I'll just let you make up your own mind.

Cool an honest to goodness Mr Beer rep here? That's neat, you should become a supporting vendor and do HBT specials sometime

Since Mr. Beer is one stage fermentation do I need to bottle after two weeks, or can I go a few weeks longer in the fermentor and be just as good? (I want to make more this weekend, but my bottles are just starting their two week cold conditiong before I drink them.

I've gone 4 weeks with no ill effects. In fact, it made for a much cleaner tasting brew. You can go several weeks longer. No worries.

I am thinking about buying this kit. theres 163 pages to read threw and right now not enough time to read it all. So a few question's
1.how long does it take to make a simple brew? This will be my 1st time.
2.best place to get these kits and best price? and if i find one used do you think thats a good idea? thanks for listening and helping out

1. It takes less than 30 minutes to make (basically the time to let your sanitizing solution to soak and to boil 4 cups of water ). They say you can drink it in as little as two weeks, but the beer will taste much better if you let it sit in the bottle for 3-4 weeks (or longer if you have the patience).
2. I don't know the best place to buy a kit, I got mine on a one dale sale at woot.com. As far as buying a used one goes, if it looks like it's in good condition you are probably fine.

Well, after six weeks of patience, my first batch turned out quite good. There was actually more head, but it took me a while to find the camera:



Followed by a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for comparison:



Thank you all for the advice.

Someone gave me two cans of Mr. Beer Black Tower porter. I was going to make a 5 gal batch with this and add some coffee malt, but looking at their website, their 2 gallon recipe uses two cans. Has anybody used this product? Can you get 5 gallons out of it without it being too weak? How much coffee malt should I use for 5 gallons to get a subtle coffee flavor? (Or for 2 gals if not enough recipe for 5 gals?)

Thanks.

somecallmetex said:

Since Mr. Beer is one stage fermentation do I need to bottle after two weeks, or can I go a few weeks longer in the fermentor and be just as good? (I want to make more this weekend, but my bottles are just starting their two week cold conditiong before I drink them.

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I wouldn't go for more than about 4 weeks in the fermenter, as a general rule. Best policy is to have enough bottles to run your bottling schedule independent of your drinking schedule. Lots of beers will get better with a bit of time in the bottle, so it makes sense to have plenty of empties on hand.

bryson87 said:

I am thinking about buying this kit. theres 163 pages to read threw and right now not enough time to read it all. So a few question's
1.how long does it take to make a simple brew? This will be my 1st time.
2.best place to get these kits and best price? and if i find one used do you think thats a good idea? thanks for listening and helping out

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1. Bare minimum, you'll be drinking beer in 2 weeks. It'll be way better if you exert a bit of patience though: 2 weeks in the fermenter + at least 2 weeks in the bottle = 4 - 6 weeks total.

2. Shop around. If you find one used, ask for the expiration date on the bottom of the can of beer mix. If it has expired, I'd pass.

431brew said:

Someone gave me two cans of Mr. Beer Black Tower porter. I was going to make a 5 gal batch with this and add some coffee malt, but looking at their website, their 2 gallon recipe uses two cans. Has anybody used this product? Can you get 5 gallons out of it without it being too weak? How much coffee malt should I use for 5 gallons to get a subtle coffee flavor? (Or for 2 gals if not enough recipe for 5 gals?)

Thanks.

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It'll be pretty dang weak. Do yourself a favor, and grab yourself 2 - 4 lbs of amber/dark LME or DME (plus an once or two of hops) to make up the difference. That or go get another couple of cans of BTP from Mr.Beer and do a double batch.

I put together a german dopplebach. The directions that came with it does not mention 1/4 cup molasses so I didnt add it. On the mrbeer sight it says add it. Its been 24 hours since I pitched the yeast can I still add the molasses or is it to late.

Yes you can.

Hi everyone,

I am looking for a strong/very hoppy IPA refill/recipe to use with my Mr. Beer kit. I actually bought this kit for my boyfriend about a year ago but I'm the one who uses it more! He likes to drink the beer, but doesn't like to do any of the work I enjoy it though. Anyways, we have only tried the refill that came with the kit-West Coast Pale Ale..we knew it wouldn't be that great but wanted to use it for our 1st batch in case we messed up. I ordered the recipe "Prairie Pale" which I think I will start today, but it says it's light and only slightly hoppy. His favorite beer is Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA, and also Moylan's Hopsickle Imperial Ale...so very strong and hoppy. Any ideas?? Looks like most of the recipes on mrbeer.com are sold out though

OR--is it possible to kinda make your own thing with the Mr. Beer kit? i.e. buy their hops/extracts etc. and put together your own creation? Although I would have no idea what I'm doing..but maybe someone else has tried this?

blinktmb said:

Hi everyone,

I am looking for a strong/very hoppy IPA refill/recipe to use with my Mr. Beer kit. I actually bought this kit for my boyfriend about a year ago but I'm the one who uses it more! He likes to drink the beer, but doesn't like to do any of the work I enjoy it though. Anyways, we have only tried the refill that came with the kit-West Coast Pale Ale..we knew it wouldn't be that great but wanted to use it for our 1st batch in case we messed up. I ordered the recipe "Prairie Pale" which I think I will start today, but it says it's light and only slightly hoppy. His favorite beer is Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA, and also Moylan's Hopsickle Imperial Ale...so very strong and hoppy. Any ideas?? Looks like most of the recipes on mrbeer.com are sold out though

OR--is it possible to kinda make your own thing with the Mr. Beer kit? i.e. buy their hops/extracts etc. and put together your own creation? Although I would have no idea what I'm doing..but maybe someone else has tried this?

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You should be able to make you own, though I don't have enough experience to offer advice with that.