The Results are in!!! BLECH!!!

got a Mr Beer kit for Christmas. really took my time and followed the directions, but had to do an emergency re-pour back into the brew pot due to a leaky spigot on the fermenter, then poured it back into the fermenter. (before I realized that aerating the wort was good!)

let it sit in the fermenter for 3 weeks, bottles for 2 weeks, chilled in the fridge for 5 days, and I couldn't wait any longer. (heck the directions said "ferment a week, bottle a week, and enjoy!") I opened one up. just as I thought. nasty! it was surprisingly apple like at first, very dry, then slowly fading to a nasty bitter flavor that made me want to gag. I dumped the rest of the bottle.

Why'd it taste so bad? here's my thoughts: followed the directions PERFECTLY...boiled the water, removed from heat, then poured in the extract. never boiled again. (directions didn't say to) added 4 quarts of room temp water to the fermenter, "to absorb thermal shock" as per the directions...then poured the water in, which was probably still around 180-190 degrees. mixed it up then pitched the yeast (again, following directions, didn't say to let it cool down below 80 degrees). I'm thinking the temp was way to high and killed some yeast, because over the next several weeks, I never saw any activity in the fermenter. no foamy head from fermentation, nothing. it just kind of sat there.

not giving up hope yet, I bottled it, again, following their directions perfectly. it took over a week for the bottles to build pressure. also, I noted that at time of bottling, it smelled like apple cider/vinegar. I didn't have much hope at this point.

I'm surprised it carbonated at all really, so obviously I had SOME yeast working in there!

anyway...I'm going to let this sit awhile longer to see what happens, but...I doubt this one will get better with age!

I have MUCH higher hopes for batch #2, which I started about 2 weeks after the Mr Beer kit, this time using a real set of ingredients, a glass carboy, and doing a 5 gallon batch over the MrBeer's 2.5 gal. I saw LOTS of activity in the carboy, and it actually smelled like real beer when I bottled it. another few weeks and that one will be ready to crack open!


Now...gotta go find a real beer to wash this bitter taste out of my mouth...it's lingering!

well...at least it LOOKS like beer!!





HOLY GINOURMOUS PIC BATMAN!

hold on...let me try something... there, that's better!

Get them out of the fridge and leave them back in a warm place for a few more weeks. If you bottled in those big plastic MR beer bottles, your beer is still waaaaaaay green. The 3 weeks at 70 degrees that we talk about on here in terms of bottle conditioning is for average gravity 12 ounce beers. Those bigger bottles take longer to condition....So right now you are tasting really green beer.

Could you resize the pic to something reasonable? you are major league warping the screen with that pic.

70cuda383, If it's anything like my experiences (except for one or two), your next batch will taste light years ahead of Mr. Beer. If it (the Mr. B) doesn't turn out any better, maybe you could kill slugs with it...

Revvy said:

Could you resize the pic to something reasonable? you are major league warping the screen with that pic.

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yup, already done! I resized it as soon as I posted it....can you refresh your page? or is it still too big...it looks ok on my screen.

i saw a few videos of the Mr Beer kits. and i was so confused one how few steps it had to make beer. Thats why i never bought one. I started with Brewers Best for my first batch. I just bottled it on monday but i tried a a little bit today and it tasted amazing! not done yet but i know its going to be awesome when its done

Revvy said:

Get them out of the fridge and leave them back in a warm place for a few more weeks. If you bottled in those big plastic MR beer bottles, your beer is still waaaaaaay green. The 3 weeks at 70 degrees that we talk about on here in terms of bottle conditioning is for average gravity 12 ounce beers. Those bigger bottles take longer to condition....So right now you are tasting really green beer.

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really? what about the apple cider/vinegar smell at bottling vs my 2nd batch that actually smelled like beer?

I'll move them back to my fermenting room, but I'm skeptical on this one!

so...then the .5L bottles that I put my second batch into...will also take longer to condition? I was figuring that around 4 weeks for those in bottles to be ready...longer on them as well?

biggerthanyou83 said:

i saw a few videos of the Mr Beer kits. and i was so confused one how few steps it had to make beer. Thats why i never bought one. I started with Brewers Best for my first batch. I just bottled it on monday but i tried a a little bit today and it tasted amazing! not done yet but i know its going to be awesome when its done

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my second batch is also a brewers best--scottish ale. MUCH better feeling about it just by following the directions--seeping the grains, adding extract, boiling for an hour, adding hops, cooling it down, pitching yeast, stir...Mr Beer was like "boil water, add extract, toss yeast, wait a week."

Green? Maybe, but the vingar flavors dont sound like something that would ever be in a mr.beer kit recipe green or not. I would suggest letting them sit in bottles for a couple weeks/months anyway because it could still end up drinkable after its had time. Time heals all.

I've been let down by Mr. Beer on more than 1 occasion. I used it for a year with very mixed results, I know some guys swear by them but I've given up. My last batch was one of their seasonals, a Double Brown Ale. After being in a 20oz flip top for 4 weeks at 70F, I put one in the fridge for a few days and popped it open with some company over. I dumped the whole bottle...tasted nasty. I don't know what else I can do to improve the results other than ditch it altogether. One another note, the Brewer's Best Scottish let me down when I made it last year...came out waaay smoky...hope it works better for you...good luck!

Revvy said:

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees that we talk about on here in terms of bottle conditioning is for average gravity 12 ounce beers. Those bigger bottles take longer to condition....

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About how long on average would you recommend for a 22oz bottle? 5 weeks?

It sounds like you killed off a lot of your yeast by pitching it at that crazy high temperature, causing the yeasties to become distressed and produce a lot of off flavors. Your fermentation temp may have been to high as well, that cause me a lot of problems when I first started.

I started out by making 4 Mr. Beer kits that I received for Christmas. The first batch was dumped, the beer was undrinkable. I made way too many mistakes to even list but mainly fermented the beer at like 90 degrees.

The second batch I made was a cider that I used honey instead of granulated sugar in. I only used about 2lbs of honey which wasn't enough, then I learned that I made more of an apple mead than anything. It was bad and I dumped all but 4 bottles of that batch. Those 4 bottles have been sitting since and I will try them eventually.

Next, I tried my third Mr Beer kit which I made by following the directions exactly and last time I tried one it was still a bit buttery. They have been sitting in bottles in my closet for close to 6 weeks now. Again I will eventually get to trying these I am in no hurry.

My final Mr. Beer batch was their wheat beer. I ended up racking the MB wheat kit onto some strawberries and bottled a week later. It carbonated very quickly but turned up super dry and cidery. So again, It is just sitting in my closet. Hopefully it gets better.

During that time, I have bought myself about 500 dollars worth of real equipment. I have made 2 batches of beer from Brewers Best kits that turned out great and I made one batch of apfelwein which was good, it just got drank fast so it never matured.

In conclusion, I am one of those people that for the life of me could not get a decent beer out of a Mr Beer kit. I thought it was my methods but as soon as I upgraded my equipment and moved to partial mash kits I was making good beer.

70Cuda383 said:

followed the directions PERFECTLY...boiled the water, removed from heat, then poured in the extract. never boiled again. (directions didn't say to) added 4 quarts of room temp water to the fermenter, "to absorb thermal shock"

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There's one problem right there. You are supposed to use cold water, not room temperature water to absorb the thermal shock. You use cold water so that you can get the temperature near optimal ranges. Also, you really have to let it condition longer than just 5 days. Mr Beer is not really even drinkable until at least a month and a half. Good rule is 2 weeks fermenting, 2 weeks carbing in the bottles, and another 2-4 weeks for conditioning at least.

It really sounds like you killed the yeast when you pitched it into that fairly hot wort. If wort sits around long enough something (bacteria, wild yeast, etc) will get a hold of it and start feasting on it. Leave it like Revvy suggested but based on what you've written I agree with you, not looking good. Just chalk it up to a learning experience (lesson learned #1 - don't buy kits from that mfr). Good luck on the second and all future brews. We've all made dumpers, it sucks but don't let it get you down too much.

We had a new guy come to our local brew club meeting with his first brew. It was a Mr. Beer Pale Ale brew. It was WAY cidery. We all told him to let it sit at room temp for a few weeks and try it again, however he had already drank most of it.

I know there's a whole subforum for MrBeer, and I wasn't trying to turn this into a MrBeer how too...

anyway, for overall purposes, what is a good fermentation temp? I started out with the room at 74 degrees, again, in the mid-range of what the MrBeer directions said (between like 70 and 78), but now I'm keeping the room at a much cooler 66-68. is that ok, too warm, too cool?

at this current temp, my Brewers best kit fermented like crazy for a few days, then sat for a few weeks before being bottled, and my 3rd batch now fermenting, is from williams brewery, its a fireside ale, and has been fermenting at a much steadier pace and for a longer period, maybe 4 days of active fermentation with bubbles coming out of the airlock

I'd start at around 62 ambient. The beer inside will be warmer because it's creating heat while it eats the sugars. Sometimes this is up to 5 degrees or more, so 62 is more like 67 inside the fermenter. Feel free to raise the temp a few degrees as it starts to slow down, so it's not too cold.

I have never brewed a Mr Beer, but for my fermentations I usually let it sit in the fermenter for 3 weeks or more, before even thinking about bottling/kegging. Then another couple of weeks to carb up and condition.

dbsmith said:

There's one problem right there. You are supposed to use cold water, not room temperature water to absorb the thermal shock. You use cold water so that you can get the temperature near optimal ranges. Also, you really have to let it condition longer than just 5 days. Mr Beer is not really even drinkable until at least a month and a half. Good rule is 2 weeks fermenting, 2 weeks carbing in the bottles, and another 2-4 weeks for conditioning at least.

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well...again, poorly written directions for the first time brewer! it said "cold water" not "refrigerated water" or more specifically...give an actual temperature of "cold"

nowhere did it mention hot wort killing the yeast, and on the side of the fermenter, it said 'do not exceed 140 degrees--not dishwasher safe' so, silly me, figured a gallon of 200 degree water, a gallon of 65 degree water, makes about 135 degrees, which is below the ONLY warning on anything...of 140:fro:

as soon as I got my second batch of brewers best, a real carboy, and read through the directions with that kit...I realized my Mr Beer kit was probably doomed!


but I wasn't gonna dump it, because there's a chance that it'll be ok, afterall, I followed the directions to a "T"!!! (well, except that whole part about ferment for a week, bottle for a week, and have drinkable beer in just 2 weeks!)

70Cuda383 said:

anyway, for overall purposes, what is a good fermentation temp? I started out with the room at 74 degrees, again, in the mid-range of what the MrBeer directions said (between like 70 and 78), but now I'm keeping the room at a much cooler 66-68. is that ok, too warm, too cool?

at this current temp, my Brewers best kit fermented like crazy for a few days, then sat for a few weeks before being bottled, and my 3rd batch now fermenting, is from williams brewery, its a fireside ale, and has been fermenting at a much steadier pace and for a longer period, maybe 4 days of active fermentation with bubbles coming out of the airlock

Click to expand...

It depends on the kind of yeast you're using. They all have different optimal temperatures. I would say 68 would probably be fine for Mr Beer yeast because during the really active fermentation the temperature inside of the fermentor is a couple degrees warmer. And if I remember correctly, Mr Beer recommends between 68 and 76, so you're fine there. I'm guessing you won't be using Mr Beer anymore though lol, so just check on the particular kind of yeast you are using.

i did a mr beer once, got the same thing, i let it sit around.... same thing (with that apple taste) then i picked up my kit from the home brew shop and never looked back!
i still have the mr beer thing though incase i wanna ferment in it later on

I took one sip of a mr. beer batch and threw it all down the drain. got some equipment from the homebrew store and have never looked back.