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Yes you can.

You can buy a prehopped kit if you want to keep it mr beer simple.
If you want to add you own hops then you'll need a large pot and a way to chill.

I'd say it's time for you to decide if you'd like to stick with Mr beer methods or progress.
 
Orfy said:
Yes you can.

You can buy a prehopped kit if you want to keep it mr beer simple.
If you want to add you own hops then you'll need a large pot and a way to chill.

I'd say it's time for you to decide if you'd like to stick with Mr beer methods or progress.
Click to expand...

As someone who upgraded from Mr. Beer over Christmas, I do think that it's the way to go.
 
somecallmetex said:
As someone who upgraded from Mr. Beer over Christmas, I do think that it's the way to go.
Click to expand...

I threw out the Mr Beer thing after 2 batches, the little spigot would drip if you aren't real careful, no real airlock. My justification of "well if I want to make a small batch" was overturned after I ordered some 3 gallon carboys :)
 
Hello Everyone... just found this site and it looks terrific!

My daughter bought me a Mr Beer kit for Christmas. Hmmmm, I thought. So, I brewed the Pale Extract mix that came with it. Came out pretty decent, so I whipped up some "Whispering Wheat" (now carbonating) and I've got a darker beer in the fermenter, ready to be bottled on the 18th. I've got a blueberry recipe enroute to replace that.

Problem is, these 2 gallon batches dont' keep up with demand...

What's the best kit for doing 5 gallon batches?

PS: I've been using table sugar for carbonation at 70 degrees (as per their recommendations). On the first batch, it worked "okay." Should I be using corn syrup? If so, light or dark? If I do use corn syrup, I'm concerned about stirring up all the sediment when I mix it in... adding a thick liquid to each bottle ain't gonna be accurate at all.

Thanks for your help and look for me to become a regular!
 
ifishsum said:
The cane sugar used for priming isn't a problem for the cidery taste IMO - after some experimentation I came to the conclusion that it's mostly the booster, greatly exacerbated by 70+ fermentation temperatures. Once I started subbing in 1 lb of DME in place of the booster, the cidery taste was pretty much gone. When I got my fermentation temps under control (read: below 70) I started making some really decent beer.
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That is interesting... their instructions say to ferment between 68 and 76 degrees. On my first batch, I didn't measure room temp but found out later that it was 65 degrees. Since then, I put a small heater in my brew room to take the temp up to exactly 70... hope I didn't screw up.
 
i was thinking of brewing oktoberfest next, do i need to cold ferment/condision oktoberfest? my concern is i have no fridge space i could put on my porch, but the temp would fluctuate a bit, what temp do i want for cold condishing
 
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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A couple of suggestions for you...

1) Another Mr.Beer Recipe might get you most of the way to what you're looking for. Try the Bengal Tiger IPA, which has lots of hop flavor & aroma, but might not hit the ABV or Bitterness marks that you're looking for.

2) Here are a couple of recipes from other MB customers that might be up your alley: 1 and 2. I've never tried either of them, but they look like winners, and it would be pretty easy to sub whatever extracts you have available for the ones listed in the recipes (they're both pretty specific!).

Good luck!
 
BigTexun said:
Should I be using corn syrup? If so, light or dark? If I do use corn syrup, I'm concerned about stirring up all the sediment when I mix it in... adding a thick liquid to each bottle ain't gonna be accurate at all.
Click to expand...

You probably don't want to use corn syrup (well, who knows, maybe you do). You might be thinking corn sugar (aka dextrose), which many folks use as a priming agent. It comes in dry form, and can easily be added to each bottle a la the MrBeer directions.

If you want to prime the whole batch at once, I'd recommend racking into some sort of bottling bucket (a second fermenter works great, just make sure it has a spigot) and mixing your sugar in there (you can boil it with a small amount of water to make mixing easier). If you stir the primary fermenter, you'll definitely stir up some yeast, and nobody likes that.
 
Hello All,

I am trying to up my mr-beer brewing game.

I bought a 3 gallon "primary" bucket w/ lid from my LHBS, along with a racking cane, tubing, and some dextrose.

I want to rack to a secondary to clear my beer up a bit (I have a massive massive russian imperial stout mod in the fermenter (week 3) right now). The lid is a full seal with rubber seal inside. Will this be a problem? I dont want an exploding bucket, but my plan was to rack the beer (from the top of the mr. beer fermenter) into the secondary bucket (removing the hop sack) and let that sit for about 2 more weeks to clear up. Then prime the whole batch back in the Mr. Beer fermenter when I go to bottle it.

Does this sound right? What issues might I run into? Will there be too much air in the 3 gallon bucket? Will not having any kind of blow-off be an issue? thoughts?
 
Antifreze said:
Does this sound right? What issues might I run into? Will there be too much air in the 3 gallon bucket? Will not having any kind of blow-off be an issue? thoughts?
Click to expand...
Well, it isn't an ideal secondary fermenter, but it'll probably accomplish what you want it to accomplish. For one, I think it is more head space than you want, unless you can purge it with CO2 before racking into it. You should also consider drilling a hole in the top and installing a 3 piece airlock. There won't be a lot of CO2 produced int the secondary, but the thing will gas-off a bit.
 
mrbeerrep said:
Well, it isn't an ideal secondary fermenter, but it'll probably accomplish what you want it to accomplish. For one, I think it is more head space than you want, unless you can purge it with CO2 before racking into it. You should also consider drilling a hole in the top and installing a 3 piece airlock. There won't be a lot of CO2 produced int the secondary, but the thing will gas-off a bit.
Click to expand...

so would I be better off just racking to the bucket, cleaning the mr. beer fermenter out, sanitizing, and then racking back into the mr. beer fermenter?
 
I'm starting brewing again after about a 15 year hiatus. I'm putting together a countertop Brutus 10 but wanted to try to reuse as much of my equipment as possible to save costs. One of the items is a counterflow chiller that's been sitting in the basement. The plastic lines going to it show mold growth, so of course I cut them off and will replace them. However, I'm concerned about the internals of it since there's a decent likelyhood that there's been some mold growth in there as well. Do you think the chiller can be salvaged, and if so how can I go about cleaning it out and getting rid of any mold contamination?
 
jjyoung said:
I'm starting brewing again after about a 15 year hiatus. I'm putting together a countertop Brutus 10 but wanted to try to reuse as much of my equipment as possible to save costs. One of the items is a counterflow chiller that's been sitting in the basement. The plastic lines going to it show mold growth, so of course I cut them off and will replace them. However, I'm concerned about the internals of it since there's a decent likelyhood that there's been some mold growth in there as well. Do you think the chiller can be salvaged, and if so how can I go about cleaning it out and getting rid of any mold contamination?
Click to expand...

jjyoung, seems this is posted on the wrong thread. I don't believe that there are many Mr. Beer users that are using counterflow chillers and would be able to help you with an answer, I suggest you re-post on a different thread.
 
jaybird88 said:
i was thinking of brewing oktoberfest next, do i need to cold ferment/condision oktoberfest? my concern is i have no fridge space i could put on my porch, but the temp would fluctuate a bit, what temp do i want for cold condishing
Click to expand...

You do not need to cold condition, or lager, the Mr. Beer oktoberfest recipes, unless you are using a lagering yeast or an advanced Mr. beer recipe. If you are using the typical Mr. beer dry yeast, or any typical ale yeast, then lagering (or cold fermenting) is not needed or desired really. As for cold conditioning, which is sometimes used for clearing after fermentation, but is usually not too necessary for the Mr. Beer octoberfest vienna lager recipies. I have made many of them and have not needed to cold condition or lager any so far. Hope this helps.
 
If anybody has an old Mr. Beer keg that they don't want anymore I am looking to buy one. I am just in an apartment right now and could use a second one to keep up a brew cycle. Let me know the price with shipping. Thanks fellas for such a fantastic site, I could read it all day!!!!
 
Antifreze said:
so would I be better off just racking to the bucket, cleaning the mr. beer fermenter out, sanitizing, and then racking back into the mr. beer fermenter?
Click to expand...

Probably not. All that racking will almost certainly expose your beer to more oxygen than just letting it hang out in the bucket for a week or two, especially since a Mr.Beer keg isn't really an ideal secondary fermenter either.

Your original plan should work, just rack carefully. :mug:
 
The last batch I made has no head (The Witty Monk Witbier). I'm not sure if I needed to use more carbonation tablets in each bottle or just let it sit longer. It tastes fine though. Any thoughts?
 
krossouttheeyes said:
If anybody has an old Mr. Beer keg that they don't want anymore I am looking to buy one. I am just in an apartment right now and could use a second one to keep up a brew cycle. Let me know the price with shipping. Thanks fellas for such a fantastic site, I could read it all day!!!!
Click to expand...

Just go buy one from Mr Beer. 10 bucks plus shipping. Get the better taps, and a bottling wand to go with it!
 
It may be worth trying Bed Bath and Beyond. Someone posted that they try to unload all there Mr. Beer kits after Xmas... might be to late, but worth the try.
 
I got a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas. I have always wanted to brew my own so my Wife bought me a kit. I mixed up the Cowboy ale (I think) and had it in my basement. temp around 61 to 67 for 3 weeks. I didnt see it clearing up so I kept it in the keg until this past weekend. It was 5 weeks since mixing.
I bottled it in real bottles not the plastic ones as I have some home brew supplies I aquired for free on a free share site. Anyway, I never noticed any real bubbling during the fermentation process. I had little peices of what looks like yeast float up the top of the mixture. When bottling the beer smelled like apple cider but with a yeasty smell as well. the beer looks like a corona when I poured it into some of the clear bottles. ( I know use dark bottles but hey I had em laying around)
Was my work all in veighn??? Is the beer fine? I have 22 bottles sitting in a old vintage beer crate in my basement and I wanns know if I should even be excited or should I just go home and start opening and pouring out my batch?
 
I have never really noticed the bubbling in Mr. Beer, and it's always turned out fine. Do you have it on the floor of your basement, because that will be even colder than the rest of the basement. I would just assume that it's fine and try one in a couple weeks.
 
somecallmetex said:
I have never really noticed the bubbling in Mr. Beer, and it's always turned out fine. Do you have it on the floor of your basement, because that will be even colder than the rest of the basement. I would just assume that it's fine and try one in a couple weeks.
Click to expand...

Thnaks for the info. I had it on my bar top. behind bar nuts pretzels and coasters. I really have enjoyed bottling up my beer and hope to be doing 1000's more over the years.:mug:
 
So my stout is about to go into bottles so I went ahead an ordered some more ingredients for the next batch. I ordered 2 cans WCPA, 1 can Golden Wheat UME, Centennial and Colombus pellet hops, and liquid draft yeast. I am thinking of adding the Centennial pellets first right after the extracts, boiling for 10 minutes, adding the Colombus pellets and boiling for another 5 minutes. Good plan or not? I'm aiming for somthing not too light with a stronger hoppiness, and citrusy flavor from the hops. Also is it cool to let the wort sit in the fermentor for an hour or so to cool or should I be doing it differently? Thanks guys.
 
I got a Mr. Beer for christmas, I brewed my first batch the following day. I followed the intructions exactly, probaby my first mistake. I left the beer fermenting for 2 weeks, then 2 weeks warm, and 2 weeks in the fridge. The beer came out flat and very cidery. After reading up to page 100 in this thread I picked up several tips. I went to my local HBS and picked up some extra light DME, Nottingham dry yeast, corn sugar, and star-san sanitizer.

I brewed a batch tonight using 1lb of DME in place of booster and used a can of the high country Canadian draft. I boiled the wort for an extra 30 mins. I let it cool then added it to the keg. I checked the temp it was around 78F. So I pitched the yeast. But I forgot to let the yeast settle an sirred it instantly. Right now my fermenter is in my closet on the floor. The house is kept at 68 degrees. I plan on following the 2-2-2 method again.

Did stirring the yeast instantly mess anything up? Did I hurt my little yeastie friends? If so what can I do the help them out? I appreciate any help/suggestions. Sorry for such a long post. I just wanted to give the whole story.
 
The stirring won't hurt a thing. Yeast are pretty hardy critters.

Um, you are actually bottling the stuff, yes? I mean the third '2' of your 2-2-2 should be in bottles, primed and capped.

Getting some extra DME, and high quality yeast, are a great step forward.
 
cfay100 said:
I got a Mr. Beer for christmas, I brewed my first batch the following day. I followed the intructions exactly, probaby my first mistake. I left the beer fermenting for 2 weeks, then 2 weeks warm, and 2 weeks in the fridge. The beer came out flat and very cidery. After reading up to page 100 in this thread I picked up several tips. I went to my local HBS and picked up some extra light DME, Nottingham dry yeast, corn sugar, and star-san sanitizer.

I brewed a batch tonight using 1lb of DME in place of booster and used a can of the high country Canadian draft. I boiled the wort for an extra 30 mins. I let it cool then added it to the keg. I checked the temp it was around 78F. So I pitched the yeast. But I forgot to let the yeast settle an sirred it instantly. Right now my fermenter is in my closet on the floor. The house is kept at 68 degrees. I plan on following the 2-2-2 method again.

Did stirring the yeast instantly mess anything up? Did I hurt my little yeastie friends? If so what can I do the help them out? I appreciate any help/suggestions. Sorry for such a long post. I just wanted to give the whole story.
Click to expand...

Did you notice any "froth" at the top of your beer a few days after you put it in the fermentor? If you did, the yeast was fine.

I've since moved up from the Mr. Beer kit that my daughter got me for Christmas... but before scrapping Mr Beer, I made 4 or 5 batches with it using their LMEs and yeast. I even used the specified table sugar for priming. All of my batches actually came out very good but, the few things I noticed:

1). When they say "let it sit for 7 days"; double it to 14.
2). Temperature makes a very big difference. If you use their yeast and ferment / carbonate below 68 degrees, you'll be waiting until next Christmas. I found a sweet spot at 70 degrees.
3). You can help the carbonation process by inverting your primed & filled bottles every so often (I think it keeps the yeasties mixed up).
4). If your brew seems cidery at first, give it another week. You'll be surprised how much better it'll be.
 
I noticed a little froth in the fermenter this morning. But I also noticed that we are keeping the house too cold 65 degrees. I'm going to move the fermenter near a vent and wrap it in a towel tonight after work.
 
Stirring vigorously after pitching the yeast did not hurt anything for my first batch (which turned out to be very good). One caveat about placing your fermenter next to a vent is that the temperature may fluctuate. Wrapping it in a towel or two should help. If you have a big cooler, putting the fermenter in there might be even better.
 
cfay100 said:
I noticed a little froth in the fermenter this morning. But I also noticed that we are keeping the house too cold 65 degrees. I'm going to move the fermenter near a vent and wrap it in a towel tonight after work.
Click to expand...

I ended up putting mine in a small bathroom and putting a little electric heater in there. That way, with a few tweeks on the heater's thermostat, I can control the temp in that one small space. I found that Mr. Beer was a whole lot happier at 70 degrees than the 65 I originally started at.

I've got two 5 gallon carboys in there now, bubblin away at 70. :) Careful lad, this is an addictive hobby. Contrary to what others may tell you, your experience with Mr. Beer will be quite helpful as you move up the chain!
 
I got 2 cans of mr. beer hopped malt extract for free. has anyone used these w/out a mr. beer kit and just made a small 2 gallon batch? might as well put these to use. did you add anything to it or just use the LME? Seems that it would be super weak.
 
I would not use two HME cans in one two-gallon batch. I would do two two-gallon batches and add UME to both.
 
alek said:
I would not use two HME cans in one two-gallon batch. I would do two two-gallon batches and add UME to both.
Click to expand...
Unless you like hoppier beers; many of the Premium recipes on the Mr Beer website use 2 cans of HME.
 
djt17 said:
Unless you like hoppier beers; many of the Premium recipes on the Mr Beer website use 2 cans of HME.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the correction. I assumed the gentleman was trying to brew the recipe from the can.
 
djt17 said:
Unless you like hoppier beers; many of the Premium recipes on the Mr Beer website use 2 cans of HME.
Click to expand...

And those that don't include a booster. The Mr. Beer cans are smaller. I'd pitch 'em both into a 2 gallon batch and see what happens.
 
hey, my brown ale has been conditioning for 3.5 weeks in about 66-68 temp, i cracked one open today, not good at all, very watery and a strange bad taste, no nut brown ale flavor at all, but good carbonation, i used mountpillier "famous irish" nut brown ale kit (5 gallon) but i cut it in half for two batches of two gallon, did i do somting wrong or did i just get a bad kit, thanks
 
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!
 
thirtyfour41 said:
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!
Click to expand...
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.
 

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