Mr. Beer Extracts

So I have family that support my brewing by buying the Mr. Beer extracts. Great sentiment, not exactly what I have in mind however.
So whats the best way to reuse these?
I have a few that are unhopped and just pure malts. I usually make smaller test batches out of them. But what about the ones that are prehopped?
Can I still use hops? Are they useless?
Any ideas?

eBay. Then take the proceeds and buy a starter kit. You'll never look back.

When I first started brewing it was with a mr. beer setup and an internet document entitled "Better Mr. Beer". It helped. However, during the first few weeks of super new-to-brewing enthusiasm, I made the very uneducated decision to buy about 8 of those pre-hopped mixes. (Okay, that was a long intro just to say the following
The way i used them was to boil the prehopped mix with 1-2 lbs. dme for an hour, adding aroma and/or flavor hops during the boil. If you want it more bitter, add some bittering hops, too. In other words, act as if it's pale, amber, or dark LME. By boiling for an hour, you're going to boil off most of the hop flavor/aroma that the mr. beer peeps put into it. Then, theoretically, you can add your own. good luck.

monk

Maybe you can use them to make yeast starters. I usually just use some light DME, but this stuff sounds like it would work quite well also.

I hope I don't need a starter kit still... i have been brewing for 3 years now...

Good Idea Monk. I like the thought of boiling out some of that hop flavor. Do you think it would be possible to bring the temperature back down so that I could steep some specialty grain?
Is 2.2lbs too much for a yeast starter? Sounds gigantic.
Thanks for the ideas guys.

If your cans are like mine were, they're 1.2 lbs. Still, I'd use half a can for a starter.

And if you decide to use the prehopped mixes for lme, i'd suggest maybe a 30 minute boil. They've no doubt be boiled past the hotbreak by the mr. beer folks, so it wouldn't be good to boil it for another 60 min. Removes too much nitrogen or something. Can't remember exactly, but it's not that good.

good luck

monk

If you don't have a smaller fermenter, I would buy a 3 gallon PET Carboy. You can get them from Lowes or Home Depo for $5-6 each with excellent brewing water. Look for a triangle on the bottom with a "1" in the center. This is PET. If you do this it has to be PET. I use carboy caps with these.

Use this as your primary, buy two if you want to do a secondary.

If you have hopped mixes & unhopped mixed brew 2.13 gallon batches.

The instructions for a their beer making is a no boil process. Like Coopers or Barons. Boiling only muddies the hopped flavor.

MRB Extracts Only - Boil 4 cups water. Flame-out. Add the hopped can w/ the booster - (corn sugar & malto-dextrine) or one can each; hopped and unhopped. Steep your aroma hops; 1/4 to 1/2 oz per two gallons. Hops w/ 4-8 AAU's or think of your IBU's... Dump in fermenter add water to 2.13 gallons. Pitch.....

If you use DME use 1 lb and about 2 oz crystal malt. Steep crystal for 30 min < 160F with 1 gallon water. Boil, bitter and flavor hop as normal. Flame-out. Pour in one unhopped extract. Stir till mixed. Steep Aroma hops. Add to more water to make up 2.13 gallons and so on......

You can down load their PDF instructions at; http://www.mrbeer.com - Go to the download section.

The no boil seems unnatural but works.

They also have 100's recipes, you can improvise off of them. You can make a decent beer that won't disapoint you. You may be surprised.

As you can tell I got these as a gift too. Getting a fruit cake or being regifted is much worse.

If you make seasonal beers, the smaller batch is nice. You will like not having pumpkin ale in February!!!

colonel_colon said:

Is 2.2lbs too much for a yeast starter? Sounds gigantic.
Thanks for the ideas guys.

Click to expand...

That's a huge starter, but you can divide it up and vacuum seal it or Zip Lock it. I usually start with 2 to 4 oz of DME to a cup of water and step it up once or twice.