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powerguard18 said:
bottled my first beer today it was a mr beer recipe from a kit that was in my basement for at least a yr
I let it ferment for 2 weeks . it did not foam much but it looked like smelled like beer and tasted like flat beer
I will let it sit for 3-4 weeks in the mr beer 1 liter bottles before i try it

not sure if i want to continue or not with the craft i am kinda 50/50 on the whole thing. had to at least make the effort since my kid gave me the kit but i dont wanna spend any money on equipment since i am not a fan of all the cleaning and sanitation
any thoughts
Click to expand...

I would recommend a brewers best gallon kit... but if you don't have the patience then don't get it... the brewing possibilities are endless!

Sent from my GT-P5210 using Home Brew mobile app
 
skitter said:
Ok, winter in texas is mild but my sons closet if he remembers to close it is 66 ambient, add the swamp cooler and you get 60 degree fermentation. S-04 works fine at this temp, nottingham is too dry for my taste. Trying US-05 now
Click to expand...

S04 ferments more completely than pretty much anything else I've used. I usually get around 80% attenuation with it. Notty is in the mid 70's on my system. Maybe I'm using s04 at to high of a temp.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app
 
Notty was actually not as high a krausen as s05 in my latest batch. S-05 blow out the top of my keg at 62
 
I just used notty in my last batch. I used a carboy hood with a blow off tube thinking it would blow over. Didn't quite make it that far. Better safe than sorry though.
 
Indeed, I pitched way cool on my notty batch, it never got more than an inch of krausen at 62
 
Yup, I use 1/2 packet of dry yeast per half batch and I usually get more krausen then I want if I ferment at 65, I try to stay at 62 as much as possible for both clean tasting beer and not having to worry about blow off.
 
I think most of the highly experienced homebrewers will tell you to pitch 2 packets of dry yeast for 5 gallons as their cell counts are nominal and are likely lower than the stated amount in the real world unless you got the package off of the manufacturing line. For a Mr. Beer batch, you should probably pitch a full packet of dry yeast. A half packet will do the job, but the yeast will be a bit stressed.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app
 
I don't use the mr beer yeast in my normal brews. I use it for smaller trial batches. I feel it's not the same quality.
 
brewski09 said:
I think most of the highly experienced homebrewers will tell you to pitch 2 packets of dry yeast for 5 gallons as their cell counts are nominal and are likely lower than the stated amount in the real world unless you got the package off of the manufacturing line. For a Mr. Beer batch, you should probably pitch a full packet of dry yeast. A half packet will do the job, but the yeast will be a bit stressed.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app
Click to expand...

Whoa hold on, most of the threads on here that talk about wet vs. dry yeast clearly state Dry has a higher cell count, thus the need for no starter vs liquid yeast. The reason they use liquid yeast is the greater customization of the strain vs. what Dry yeast has. Dry yeast is like buying generic, while liquid is like buying custom
 
aaronquade said:
I don't use the mr beer yeast in my normal brews. I use it for smaller trial batches. I feel it's not the same quality.
Click to expand...

It's not, its pretty much a generic mix they use for all their stuff. I would highly recommend keeping US-04 or US-05 on hand and using it in place of the dry packet. Even if you use 1/4 pack of the US-04/05 your getting the same amount of yeast in the Mr Beer kits.
 
skitter said:
Whoa hold on, most of the threads on here that talk about wet vs. dry yeast clearly state Dry has a higher cell count, thus the need for no starter vs liquid yeast. The reason they use liquid yeast is the greater customization of the strain vs. what Dry yeast has. Dry yeast is like buying generic, while liquid is like buying custom
Click to expand...

Totally on the customization thing, but cell counts are nominal on both types. How long has that dry yeast been in the store?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app
 
brewski09 said:
Totally on the customization thing, but cell counts are nominal on both types. How long has that dry yeast been in the store?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app
Click to expand...

Considering that dry yeast loses only 4% of it's viability per year if kept refrigerated, that's not really an issue if the brew supply store keeps it in a cooler. I'm not sure about the loss rate for yeast contained in boxed kits sitting on the shelf at room temp.

An 11g packet of dry ale yeast contains about 220 billion cells (according to microscopic counts). If you rehydrate in warm tap water to preserve the cell count (pitching dry into wort can cause cell loss up to 50%), that's enough cells for a 5.25 gallon batch of ale with a gravity up to 1.060. The only time you would need two or more packets is for a higher gravity ale or a lager (which needs twice the cell count vs. a comparable ale).

For many varieties of ales and some lagers, there's a dry yeast that will fit the bill. The selection seem to keep growing each year. Between US-05, S-04, Nottingham, BRY-97, Belle Saison, and all of the other varieties of dry yeast available, you can ferment well a whole lot of different beers. The key, just like with liquid yeast, is to pitch the right amount into cool wort and control the fermentation temp to keep it in the optimal range for the strain being used.

I'll still use dry yeast on ales that don't really need a particular style-specific yeast (like Belgian Abbey Ale or ESB) even though I've got jars of harvested yeast, a stir plate, a big flask and quart jars of canned starter wort on hand.
 
Alright, So I bottled on friday. Followed the priming directions for the bottles with table sugar. Didn't have enough dextrose to do all bottles, in hindsight I should have done half and half and labeled them to see what the difference was.

It has only been a few days but I can see that the bottles are firmer, I can still squeeze the bottles a little bit if I apply some force, but the bottles spring right back. There is no way these things are done but they are already pretty firm.
Is that normal?

On a side note, does anyone know where to buy quality recipe kits that will fit in the LBK that are not as expensive as the Mr. Beer Kits... Or are at least worth paying that price? I have heard some good things about coopers, and using midwest kits but cutting them in half.
 
Well tried my first bottle of home brew yesterday. Been reading and it seemed common to try one at 2 weeks after carbonation then 3 then 4 and so on to see if you notice any difference in carbonation and overall taste.

Well the carbonation was a little lacking but very satified with the taste. The beer was the American Classic Light standard refill from Mr Beer but with the advice from Skitter added a 1 pound pack of DME light and 6 oz. of Carapils. A little darker than a domestic beer and much fuller taste. I could see bubbles in the beer but no head when poured into a glass. Just a tad on the flat side but over all taste I'm happy with.

Now this came from the last bottle which ended up being a plastic 16 oz. water bottle. Didn't have enough to fill the 750 ml plastic bottom that came in the kit. It appeared to carbonate to the point the bottom swelled out a bit. I used the carbonation drops from Mr. Beer and used about 1-1/2 for the 16 oz. bottle so maybe that had some affect on the amount of carbonization. Will try another at 3 weeks to see if it improves much. This will be one of the 750 ml bottles.

So far so good.

Any comments are appreciated.
 
Blake_Smash said:
Alright, So I bottled on friday. Followed the priming directions for the bottles with table sugar. Didn't have enough dextrose to do all bottles, in hindsight I should have done half and half and labeled them to see what the difference was.

It has only been a few days but I can see that the bottles are firmer, I can still squeeze the bottles a little bit if I apply some force, but the bottles spring right back. There is no way these things are done but they are already pretty firm.
Is that normal?

On a side note, does anyone know where to buy quality recipe kits that will fit in the LBK that are not as expensive as the Mr. Beer Kits... Or are at least worth paying that price? I have heard some good things about coopers, and using midwest kits but cutting them in half.
Click to expand...

Bottles will be firm, keep them bottled up for 3 weeks and then open. It's plastic so unlikely you get bottle bombs.

I made my own kits with help from my LHBS, you can also check out the recipes section and look for extract recipes.
 
Bigarcherynut said:
Well tried my first bottle of home brew yesterday. Been reading and it seemed common to try one at 2 weeks after carbonation then 3 then 4 and so on to see if you notice any difference in carbonation and overall taste.

Well the carbonation was a little lacking but very satified with the taste. The beer was the American Classic Light standard refill from Mr Beer but with the advice from Skitter added a 1 pound pack of DME light and 6 oz. of Carapils. A little darker than a domestic beer and much fuller taste. I could see bubbles in the beer but no head when poured into a glass. Just a tad on the flat side but over all taste I'm happy with.

Now this came from the last bottle which ended up being a plastic 16 oz. water bottle. Didn't have enough to fill the 750 ml plastic bottom that came in the kit. It appeared to carbonate to the point the bottom swelled out a bit. I used the carbonation drops from Mr. Beer and used about 1-1/2 for the 16 oz. bottle so maybe that had some affect on the amount of carbonization. Will try another at 3 weeks to see if it improves much. This will be one of the 750 ml bottles.

So far so good.

Any comments are appreciated.
Click to expand...

3 weeks is usually ideal for head retention, 2 weeks the carbonation usually hasn't soaked into the beer all the way. Glad it ended up tasting like what you wanted :)

I did the same thing with the Patriot Lager and noticed the PL kits are on sale at 2 for one prices...
 
This is a follow-up from my post regarding a Mr. Beer recipe I tweaked. It's back on post 5493.

I'm a week and a half into the fermentation stage and all is going well. It's at a constant 53 degrees. I've been reading posts every night learning as much as I can and read some interesting things. I do have some questions and I know I'm just doing Mr. Beer recipes but may move onto bigger things this summer.

Here are some questions:
1. With this being a lager and that I added extra malt and used a lager yeast do you think I'll need to let it ferment longer than the basic 2 weeks for Mr. Beer? I watched my first batch and foam and bubbling was done at two weeks.
2. I've read quite a bit on cold crashing. My first batch cleared up during the carbonation process but keep in mind I like my beer out of the bottle. Is this not proper home brew drinking etiquette. Lol! I would like to bottle with the beer clear and not have yeast in the bottle. Can I cold crash my beer in the LBK? If so do I have to worry about air being drawn into the keg during the process?
3. When I bottle and I will be using glass bottles should I go with the Mr. Beer carb drops or get a bottling bucket and add sugar that way? If so how much sugar? Do I have to measure the final amount of beer then add the correct amount of sugar?

Better stop here. Lol

Thanks much.
 
Bigarcherynut said:
This is a follow-up from my post regarding a Mr. Beer recipe I tweaked. It's back on post 5493.

I'm a week and a half into the fermentation stage and all is going well. It's at a constant 53 degrees. I've been reading posts every night learning as much as I can and read some interesting things. I do have some questions and I know I'm just doing Mr. Beer recipes but may move onto bigger things this summer.

Here are some questions:
1. With this being a lager and that I added extra malt and used a lager yeast do you think I'll need to let it ferment longer than the basic 2 weeks for Mr. Beer? I watched my first batch and foam and bubbling was done at two weeks.
2. I've read quite a bit on cold crashing. My first batch cleared up during the carbonation process but keep in mind I like my beer out of the bottle. Is this not proper home brew drinking etiquette. Lol! I would like to bottle with the beer clear and not have yeast in the bottle. Can I cold crash my beer in the LBK? If so do I have to worry about air being drawn into the keg during the process?
3. When I bottle and I will be using glass bottles should I go with the Mr. Beer carb drops or get a bottling bucket and add sugar that way? If so how much sugar? Do I have to measure the final amount of beer then add the correct amount of sugar?

Better stop here. Lol

Thanks much.
Click to expand...

Good questions. First of all, I raise the temp on my lagers at the end to about 70f very slowly though if you can. This helps clean up fermentation byproducts such as DMS.

1) yes, it will take longer. Also, you boosted the gravity enough to add a day onto the ale fermentation times most likely. What yeast are you using?

2) you can drink homebrew out of bottles. Styles that it works particularly well with are wheat beers, especially German hefs and Belgian wheat beers. The treats are traditionally such as large part of the beer profile they are meant to be consumed and are incredibly healthy for you. I find the wlp410 to be a nice bottle drinking beer yeast. Not sure about the whole air into the keg thing myself, but I suspect it is one way to introduce a potential sour infection from your atmosphere into the beer. Lacto and Brett are common throughout households worldwide. Just speculation here though.

3) I have no experience with the Mr beer carb drops, but if they are just the chippers ones (and I suspect they are) then I've heard negative things. I have used the LD Carlson ones under the Brewers Best brands and like them. They help with head retention too. Just use 3 tabs. Even 4 is to much once the beer is fully conditioned. I've been flipping between the brewers friend and tasty brew p priming calculators and they work fine. Start on the low end of the range for your beer and go from there. If you use a program like BeerSmith, it has its own calculator. Oh, and definitely do it based on the final amount of beer.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app
 
brewski09 said:
Good questions. First of all, I raise the temp on my lagers at the end to about 70f very slowly though if you can. This helps clean up fermentation byproducts such as DMS.

1) yes, it will take longer. Also, you boosted the gravity enough to add a day onto the ale fermentation times most likely. What yeast are you using?

2) you can drink homebrew out of bottles. Styles that it works particularly well with are wheat beers, especially German hefs and Belgian wheat beers. The treats are traditionally such as large part of the beer profile they are meant to be consumed and are incredibly healthy for you. I find the wlp410 to be a nice bottle drinking beer yeast. Not sure about the whole air into the keg thing myself, but I suspect it is one way to introduce a potential sour infection from your atmosphere into the beer. Lacto and Brett are common throughout households worldwide. Just speculation here though.

3) I have no experience with the Mr beer carb drops, but if they are just the chippers ones (and I suspect they are) then I've heard negative things. I have used the LD Carlson ones under the Brewers Best brands and like them. They help with head retention too. Just use 3 tabs. Even 4 is to much once the beer is fully conditioned. I've been flipping between the brewers friend and tasty brew p priming calculators and they work fine. Start on the low end of the range for your beer and go from there. If you use a program like BeerSmith, it has its own calculator. Oh, and definitely do it based on the final amount of beer.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app
Click to expand...

I did make a note to raise the temp up in the final end of the fermentation process. Thanks for the reminder.

The yeast is WYEAST brand Bohemian Lager yeast.

As far as cold crashing I was thinking of taping a piece of plastic wrap like a bubble over the cap to keep air out. Just a thought.

I'll look into one of the priming web sites. Are they pretty straight forward?

Thanks much for your help.
 
brewski09 said:
Good questions. First of all, I raise the temp on my lagers at the end to about 70f very slowly though if you can. This helps clean up fermentation byproducts such as DMS.

1) yes, it will take longer. Also, you boosted the gravity enough to add a day onto the ale fermentation times most likely. What yeast are you using?

2) you can drink homebrew out of bottles. Styles that it works particularly well with are wheat beers, especially German hefs and Belgian wheat beers. The treats are traditionally such as large part of the beer profile they are meant to be consumed and are incredibly healthy for you. I find the wlp410 to be a nice bottle drinking beer yeast. Not sure about the whole air into the keg thing myself, but I suspect it is one way to introduce a potential sour infection from your atmosphere into the beer. Lacto and Brett are common throughout households worldwide. Just speculation here though.

3) I have no experience with the Mr beer carb drops, but if they are just the chippers ones (and I suspect they are) then I've heard negative things. I have used the LD Carlson ones under the Brewers Best brands and like them. They help with head retention too. Just use 3 tabs. Even 4 is to much once the beer is fully conditioned. I've been flipping between the brewers friend and tasty brew p priming calculators and they work fine. Start on the low end of the range for your beer and go from there. If you use a program like BeerSmith, it has its own calculator. Oh, and definitely do it based on the final amount of beer.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app
Click to expand...

I did make a note to raise the temp up in the final end of the fermentation process. Thanks for the reminder.

The yeast is WYEAST brand Bohemian Lager yeast.

As far as cold crashing I was thinking of taping a piece of plastic wrap like a bubble over the cap to keep air out. Just a thought.

I'll look into one of the priming web sites. Are they pretty straight forward?

Thanks much for your help.

Sorry for the double post. The first seemed locked up. Can't see how to delete.
 
Bigarcherynut said:
I did make a note to raise the temp up in the final end of the fermentation process. Thanks for the reminder.

The yeast is WYEAST brand Bohemian Lager yeast.

As far as cold crashing I was thinking of taping a piece of plastic wrap like a bubble over the cap to keep air out. Just a thought.

I'll look into one of the priming web sites. Are they pretty straight forward?

Thanks much for your help.

Sorry for the double post. The first seemed locked up. Can't see how to delete.
Click to expand...

I've heard good things about that yeast. Should give you a nice finished product. I think the priming websites are pretty straightforward. The plastic wrap may work fine. Wish gravity filtering were easy/common. Everything I've been looking into seems to require a keg to push it through the filter.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app
 
I'm happy with dry yeast, my budget and wallet likes it too... I havnt yet come across a beer I wanted to cold crash, I'm more worried about dropping too much yeast out to not carb
 
brewski09 said:
I've heard good things about that yeast. Should give you a nice finished product. I think the priming websites are pretty straightforward. The plastic wrap may work fine. Wish gravity filtering were easy/common. Everything I've been looking into seems to require a keg to push it through the filter.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app
Click to expand...

I did take a look at the websites. Looks pretty straight forward on the amount of sugar. Depending how my first batch of beer carbonate I may try adding the sugar to a bottling bucket instead of the drops.

Still thinking about trying the cold crashing. It will be 2 weeks Sunday in the fermenter and I think it may take a little longer than 2 weeks.

Thanks for your help.
 
skitter said:
I'm happy with dry yeast, my budget and wallet likes it too... I havnt yet come across a beer I wanted to cold crash, I'm more worried about dropping too much yeast out to not carb
Click to expand...

Skitter,

I wondered about the amount of yeast left over too but almost everything I've read said there will still be plenty of yeast for carbonation. I guess I'll learn the hard way if that happens.

I just would like to have a clean botle of beer. Well if it fails that will answer my question the hard way. The whole process is a learning lesson.
 
Bigarcherynut said:
Skitter,

I wondered about the amount of yeast left over too but almost everything I've read said there will still be plenty of yeast for carbonation. I guess I'll learn the hard way if that happens.

I just would like to have a clean botle of beer. Well if it fails that will answer my question the hard way. The whole process is a learning lesson.
Click to expand...

I bottled my MO Smash last night and I realized with All-Grain trying to get the protein trub out is a lot more important than I thought, I lost 2 inches in the keg due to trub, and ended up getting quite a bit of protein break in the bottles just because of how low the spigot is... Time to start whirpool/siphon...
 
JACWagon said:
I bottled my Winter Ale the other day, smelled good. I used brown sugar so we will see how it turns out. Stupid me, I used too much sugar… did I ruin the whole batch?
Click to expand...

More sugar = higher alcohol content, but thinner, more watery beer
 
JACWagon said:
Also, my pilsner tastes good but after two 750ml bottles I didn't even have a buzz… how do I figure the alcohol content?
Click to expand...

You have to use a hydrometer and measure initial and final gravity to determine that. You can make loose guess based on ingredients but its not difinitive
 
skitter said:
More sugar = higher alcohol content, but thinner, more watery beer
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. There are plenty of beers that have sugar and are not thin or watery. In this case I would be concerned with carbonation levels as it sounded like the brown sugar was added at bottling.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app
 
brewski09 said:
Not necessarily. There are plenty of beers that have sugar and are not thin or watery. In this case I would be concerned with carbonation levels as it sounded like the brown sugar was added at bottling.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app
Click to expand...

The belgian beers have sugar to purposly thin them out
 
skitter said:
The belgian beers have sugar to purposly thin them out
Click to expand...


Some , but not all. A lot of imperial IPAs have sugar additives too but still finish with a high residual sugar content. In order for sugar to make a thin beer you really also need a low mash temp and good yeast attenuation too. Thin watery beer is an art form best mastered by BMC IMHO.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Sugar thins out a beer. That imperial IPA example would be thinner in body than the same recipe with an equal OG from an all-malt fermentable bill. Yes, low mash temp also helps make a thin beer, but to say that sugar doesn't necessarily thin out a beer is not true. Take 2 beers of any style with equal OG's, same mash temp, same recipe EXCEPT for one has 10% simple sugar and the other is just malt - the one with sugar will be thinner every time.
 
boydster said:
Sugar thins out a beer. That imperial IPA example would be thinner in body than the same recipe with an equal OG from an all-malt fermentable bill. Yes, low mash temp also helps make a thin beer, but to say that sugar doesn't necessarily thin out a beer is not true. Take 2 beers of any style with equal OG's, same mash temp, same recipe EXCEPT for one has 10% simple sugar and the other is just malt - the one with sugar will be thinner every time.
Click to expand...

That was the point I was trying to make. Belgians and Imperial beers have sugar added specifically so that they won't be as thick due to the huge malt bill
 
Thins out a beer compared to the EXACT same AG beer without it, sure. Makes a beer thin, no. Just because it's lighter bodied than it would be otherwise doesn't mean it would be considered this. A trend I've noticed the last few years is to add sugar and flaked oats. One to thin a beer out and the other to add body.

Boydster - take that beer with sugar in it and I bet at least 8 out of 10 times I can replicate it without the sugars by regulating my mash temp. Make the same exact beer with two different mash temps and you get two completely different beers too.

BTW, what recipes are you putting 10% simple sugars into (this is purely curiosity on my part now). Even heady topper doesn't use that percentage if memory serves me right.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app
 
I don't put 10% simple sugars into my beers, it was an example. Replace 10% with ANY other number you like. Sugar thins out a beer. Less sugar thins it out less. Simple. Why do we add sugar? To bump up alcohol and decrease body, whereas adding additional malt will bump up alcohol and increase body because it won't be 100% fermentable like sugar is. Extract recipes sometimes use sugar to counter the fact that you can't control mash temp and thus, can't control fermentability of the extract. A IIPA made with extract almost always has plain sugar added for exactly that reason.

JACWagon, it doesn't mean you are going to have a thin and watery beer. That's not what I'm saying. Depending on how much sugar you used, it may not be very noticeable or it could make a dramatic change. My point is simply what I stated earlier - all other things equal in the fermentable bill, a higher sugar percentage means a thinner bodied beer, plain and simple.
 

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