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I also started with Mr Beer, over 1 yr ago. I made my 2nd All Grain 4 gal batch last week. Mr Beer makes ok beer if you add steeping grains; or better yet, use DME & add whatever hops & yeast you like.

That is my plan at the moment, although like I said, I'd like to eventually get into all grain brewing. I think the possibilities would be endless if I could really tweak the recipe myself.
 
Hey guys

And I thought I was the only guy dumb enough to try a Mr. Beer! I've never brewed before, and they had them on sale at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $15 a piece. Figured worst case scenario, it'd cost me $15 to make my first mistake in brewing. I've got 8 1L bottles of pale ale carbonating at the moment, and so excited for my first batch! I spent a while yesterday chatting up the guy at the local home brew store about what my next step in brewing would be. I'd eventually like to be able to make my own all grain mash, but for the time being, I'm cool with the extract. I live in an apartment, so cooking the mash over a flame is out of the question :)

Anyway, I'm new here so I'm excited to learn about home brewing and hopefully pickup some tips for better beer.

Thanks!

I wouldn't say trying Mr. Beer is dumb. For $15 you get to test out home brewing and have the confidence to fork over the money for your first real kit. That said, paying for 4 additional recipe kits may have been a dumb move for me since I upgraded after making my second one. At least the Mr. Beer has given me something to drink while letting my real home brew age. (I also bought two sets of bottles, but that doesn't bother me since I'll end up using them for soda eventually.)
 
I have a left over Mr. Beer Oktoberfest kit laying around from my Mr Beer days. Just wondering what everyone thinks of just throwing the prehopped malt, booster pack and yeast into my next batch and seeing what happens? I'm the adventurous type, so I figure why not? I was planning on doing the standard IPA extract kit from morebeer.com.
 
I have a left over Mr. Beer Oktoberfest kit laying around from my Mr Beer days. Just wondering what everyone thinks of just throwing the prehopped malt, booster pack and yeast into my next batch and seeing what happens? I'm the adventurous type, so I figure why not? I was planning on doing the standard IPA extract kit from morebeer.com.

Why not, if you are the adventurous type. You got to try new things, even if the sound a little crazy.
 
I figure the extra malt and yeast will basically give me a double IPA. We'll see what happens. :) I like to experiment.
 
Ok right now in my fermenter I have a recipe that I am trying to bring together. It consists of 2 cans of the Pale Ale, 1 can of golden wheat, centinnial hops that were boiled for 10 minutes and then colombus hops added to the wort just before the cold water and then a the mr. beer draft liquid yeast, all that has been in the fermenter for 2 weeks. I am hoping that it comes out kind of citrusy and so far from tasting it it does have a citrusy flavor to it. My question is would I be safe in popping the lid off long enough to add some lemon peel to kick that flavor up just a little more? I was thinking of that or bottling about half the batch with lemon peel in the bottle, and using the bottles as a sort of secondary, just to see how it comes out. Just looking for a little guidance on this. Thanks
 
At this point I wouldn't add lemon peel. You run the risk of infection, as citrus peel carries wild yeast. Pasteurizing the lemon peel would help, but I would add lemon extract at bottling instead.

You could also dry hop with Cascade for a citrusy flavor.
 
Soak the lemon peel in vodka for a day or two. The vodka will become a lemon essence and the peels are safe to put in at this point too.
 
hey, i just got a five gallon setup! (still brewing in the mr beer as well) i was getting ready for my first 5 gallon boil tomorrow (british IPA), i realised i forgot to order muslim hop bags, can i just dump the pellet hops as is at the according times, leave them in and filter at bottling? or B buy pantihoes for makeshift hop bag? thanks
 
hey, i just got a five gallon setup! (still brewing in the mr beer as well) i was getting ready for my first 5 gallon boil tomorrow (british IPA), i realised i forgot to order muslim hop bags, can i just dump the pellet hops as is at the according times, leave them in and filter at bottling? or B buy pantihoes for makeshift hop bag? thanks

Yes, you can just toss the pellet hops in without a bag.
 
thanks tex, i used the cheesecloth, but two of the packets bust open, so i got some pellet floaties anyways, but the airlock on the primary started bubbling a little this morning, so i guess so far so good, in a few days ill bottle blueberry bock and ocktoberfest cream ale, my favorite mr beer recipies so far are german dopplebock and ottos oktoberfest, hows that oatmeal stout? i might have to order that one
 
I now have bottles available to make my last Mr. Beer (an IPA). I was told earlier that using Mr. Beer for soda will cause the flavor to seep into the plastic. Is this for all sodas, or just Root Beer?
 
I now have bottles available to make my last Mr. Beer (an IPA). I was told earlier that using Mr. Beer for soda will cause the flavor to seep into the plastic. Is this for all sodas, or just Root Beer?

Generally, all sodas. But you shouldn't need to use your Mr.Beer fermenter to make any sodas, since they don't need to ferment...
 
has anyone used the Cider brew kit? I am new to the hobby and am pricing out the cider brew kit. Just wondering what your experiences and any advice you could lend.
 
also, I want to bottle it with those glass bottle instead of the plastic ones that comes with the kit. Is that ok to do? If it is, what kind of bottles would I need?
 
I have made some excellent cider from apple juice concentrate, honey, brown sugar, pumpkin spice mix, and some ale yeast.

You can use any beer bottle or any other bottle that used to hold a carbonated drink. I have been using Pelegrino and Perrier bottles lately.
 
I've brewed their Hard cider kit. It wasn't bad, but it was kind of light, like most of the beers that use booster. I also tried one of the recipes, I don't remember which one, but it was a bit better.
 
has anyone used the Cider brew kit? I am new to the hobby and am pricing out the cider brew kit. Just wondering what your experiences and any advice you could lend.

I concur with the above poster, I made one of their cider kits and it seemed
light, not very tasty.

I would look at scaling down Ed Wort's Apfelwein to 2 gallons. Its much nicer!
 
I concur with the above poster, I made one of their cider kits and it seemed
light, not very tasty.

I would look at scaling down Ed Wort's Apfelwein to 2 gallons. Its much nicer!


ok great thanks for the tips everyone.

how does the Apfelwein turn out? I have never brewed before obviously so when I think cider, I think of the major brands. Is the taste along the lines of any brand?

would I be able to buy the cider kit and just brew the apfelwein with the kit?
 
No ,you can't make it from a kit. It's something you make from scratch and use your Mr. Beer equipment to make. Can't be much simpler, apple juice, dextrose and yeast.
If you carb it, it will come out dry like a wine. If you kill the yeast and then add sugar it will be sweeter but will be still (no carbonation). Read all about it here.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/
 
I have made 3 batches of Edwort's Apfelwein( 1 split between two Mr. Beer kegs, and 2 in a 5 gal craboy), it is like a dry white wine with a distinct apple note. It winds up being about 7-8% ABV by his recipe. We have noticed that it gets the women drunk faster than typical Pinot or Chard. Maybe because they drink it faster. The taste seems a lighter than you would expect, not cider like.

I choose to let it ferment and then stay in primamry for 4 weeks, then bottle and I choose to carbonate. We like it sparkling, but definitely a preference thing.

I am not a big cider fan, but i like this alot!
 
Some time ago I got a "Mr Beer kit" secondhand. It consisted of just the fermentor keg and the little booklet. I recently bought the mr beer wheat wizenbeir kit and it's happilly bubbling away. Now I'm thinking about bottles.

I thought about getting the "deluxe bottling kit" mr beer makes. Fancy name for a dozen PET bottles and some labels (so everyone knows what a high quality your beer is). Then I discovered, I can get 16 plastic bottles of 16 oz miller lite for about the same price. I figure I will choke down the miller lite and then reuse the bottles. This will be better because: a) the bottles are smaller and b) the miller bottles have a barrier to prevent gas exchange, which I don't think the señor beer bottles have.

By the way, this thread is huge. If I want tips on improving my mr brew do I really have to scroll through 170 pages?

Also, what is it that makes people say mr beer sucks? Is it the fermenter itself, or just the quality of the malt extracts and yeast, or the booster, or what?
 
Some time ago I got a "Mr Beer kit" secondhand. It consisted of just the fermentor keg and the little booklet. I recently bought the mr beer wheat wizenbeir kit and it's happilly bubbling away. Now I'm thinking about bottles.

I thought about getting the "deluxe bottling kit" mr beer makes. Fancy name for a dozen PET bottles and some labels (so everyone knows what a high quality your beer is). Then I discovered, I can get 16 plastic bottles of 16 oz miller lite for about the same price. I figure I will choke down the miller lite and then reuse the bottles. This will be better because: a) the bottles are smaller and b) the miller bottles have a barrier to prevent gas exchange, which I don't think the señor beer bottles have.

By the way, this thread is huge. If I want tips on improving my mr brew do I really have to scroll through 170 pages?

Also, what is it that makes people say mr beer sucks? Is it the fermenter itself, or just the quality of the malt extracts and yeast, or the booster, or what?
http://www.mrbeerfans.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.MrBeerFAQ
I started with MR Beer 1.5 yrs ago. If you follow the directions on the link I provided, not the Mr Beer directions; you can make good beer. I am now doing All Grain 4 gal batches. For me, I wanted more out of this hobby than just opening a couple cans of extract. I am formulating my own recipes & growing my own hops. But; if it wasn't for Mr Beer, I probably wouldn't have gotten my start in homebreing, (I thought it was too difficult).
 
+1 to mrbeerfans.com

That is also how I started. I did Mr. Beer for a year (about 25 batches) before I decided I wanted to start kegging 5 gallon batches.
 
I started with Mr.Beer, did 15 batches, all turned out great, had plenty of compliments, Mrbeerfans.com is a great site, glad I found that site before I started brewing.
 
Hey guys and gals,

My first post, hopefully I won't get flamed into oblivion for it!

So I recently inherited a Mr Beer "keg" (vessel?) sans any of the actual ingredient kits to start brewing. My question is whether I should go ahead and buy a kit from Mr Beer or go and buy the individual ingredients to follow some other recipe.

I feel like getting a kit from them would be sort of a cop out and I wouldn't learn as much as I would if I did it "from scratch". On the other hand, this is my first attempt and maybe there is something to be said for simplifying things? I'm very excited either way and can't wait to start!

If someone could point me in a good direction I'd very much appreciate it!
-GF
 
Hey guys and gals,

My first post, hopefully I won't get flamed into oblivion for it!

So I recently inherited a Mr Beer "keg" (vessel?) sans any of the actual ingredient kits to start brewing. My question is whether I should go ahead and buy a kit from Mr Beer or go and buy the individual ingredients to follow some other recipe.

I feel like getting a kit from them would be sort of a cop out and I wouldn't learn as much as I would if I did it "from scratch". On the other hand, this is my first attempt and maybe there is something to be said for simplifying things? I'm very excited either way and can't wait to start!

If someone could point me in a good direction I'd very much appreciate it!
-GF

I wouldn't say using a recipe kit is a cop out, particularly your first time when you need to focus on things like sanitation and temp controls. That being said, some of the Mr Beer kit "hacks" at the site mentioned above seem pretty simple. So I'd say, simple recipe or kit the first time.
 
Hey guys and gals,

My first post, hopefully I won't get flamed into oblivion for it!

So I recently inherited a Mr Beer "keg" (vessel?) sans any of the actual ingredient kits to start brewing. My question is whether I should go ahead and buy a kit from Mr Beer or go and buy the individual ingredients to follow some other recipe.

I feel like getting a kit from them would be sort of a cop out and I wouldn't learn as much as I would if I did it "from scratch". On the other hand, this is my first attempt and maybe there is something to be said for simplifying things? I'm very excited either way and can't wait to start!

If someone could point me in a good direction I'd very much appreciate it!
-GF

Hmm, well, I just finished copping out about an hour ago. No problem starting out with one of their kits. They work fine. Swapping out the 1lb of DME for their booster is an improvement or go with an extra can of unhopped extrat, the deluxe kits. I've found the Mr. Beer basic kits to make decent beer. They're not the best, but they're fine. I think I might try their premium line next and see if they are a little better.
 
I would use one of their kits but disregard the instructions. Someone on this thread earlier pointed out mrbeerfans.com which will tell you how to use a mr. Beer kit to brew quality beer.
 
the Mr.Beer Pilothouse Pilsner and Oatmeal Stout are very good, made them both everyone loved them. The guys at Mr.Beerfans.com will definitely show you give you all the help you need, just go there and introduce yourself.
 
Hi all,

I recently bought a Mr. Beer system and I am on my 2nd batch. It is currently being bottle conditioned in a bomb shelter in my closet. The ingredients I used were from one of the Mr. Beer mid-grade kits. It states that I should use regular table sugar, but I used priming sugar from AHS instead. I added the priming sugar per the instructions to each individual bottle, and after a 1 1/2 weeks there is a white sediment on the bottom of the bottles. I know that there is supposed to be sediment from the yeast, but this sediment is almost the exact color as the priming sugar... which is obviously white... and appeared the day after bottling. Is it possible that the priming sugar did not dissolve completely? If so, would it hurt if I inverted the bottles to get the sediment, or sugar, moving around? Will this affect the flavor of the beer at all?
 
Stirring up the sediment in your beer can be helpful in aiding it to complete the second fermentation (carbonation) and help it actually lose the "green beer" taste a little faster. Some people recommend turning your conditioning beer bottles every two days. There's even a German word for it, which I forget at the moment.

So, no, disturbing the yeast is not a bad thing -- unless you are about to drink it. ;)
 
Hi everyone.

I'm quite new to home brewing and I'm really glad I found this site.
My story is typical I guess. I expressed an interest in home brewing and my wife got me Mr. Beer as a birthday gift. Fast forward a year and a half I finally got around to making the kit that came with it.

Thankfully my bro-in-law has been making home brew for a while now and gave me some solid advice very similar to what I've read in this thread.

I fermented for 2 weeks and have let my beer condition for a week now. I used the booster pack for the wort and table sugar for carbonation. I've read that give beer a cider taste which honestly I don't care for.

If I were to make another batch that came with a booster pack would I just replace the booster with an equal amount of corn sugar?

Thanks for the help. I definitely think this will become an obsession.
 
Hi everyone.

I'm quite new to home brewing and I'm really glad I found this site.
My story is typical I guess. I expressed an interest in home brewing and my wife got me Mr. Beer as a birthday gift. Fast forward a year and a half I finally got around to making the kit that came with it.

Thankfully my bro-in-law has been making home brew for a while now and gave me some solid advice very similar to what I've read in this thread.

I fermented for 2 weeks and have let my beer condition for a week now. I used the booster pack for the wort and table sugar for carbonation. I've read that give beer a cider taste which honestly I don't care for.

If I were to make another batch that came with a booster pack would I just replace the booster with an equal amount of corn sugar?

Thanks for the help. I definitely think this will become an obsession.

Replace the booster pack with one pound of light dry malt extract for best results.
 
I am just now picking up the home-brewing hobby as well, and decided to grab a Mr. Beer kit as an introduction to see if I like it, considering how affordable the kits were.

I read a lot of things here but the thread has gotten so long, it's hard to find where I read it!

I think I read somewhere that you should use corn sugar for priming in the bottles, instead of "table sugar" as the Mr. Beer kit suggests. Is there any truth to this, and if so, why?

Also, good to know about the booster kits. I guess I need more malt extract instead.
 
I am just now picking up the home-brewing hobby as well, and decided to grab a Mr. Beer kit as an introduction to see if I like it, considering how affordable the kits were.

I read a lot of things here but the thread has gotten so long, it's hard to find where I read it!

I think I read somewhere that you should use corn sugar for priming in the bottles, instead of "table sugar" as the Mr. Beer kit suggests. Is there any truth to this, and if so, why?

Also, good to know about the booster kits. I guess I need more malt extract instead.

I believe the answer was that table sugar results in a cidery taste being added to the beer where as corn sugar doesn't have that effect. Also, be sure to double the fermentation times that Mr. Beer lists, it will greatly improve the flavor of the beer.
 
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