Mr Beer - Read all about it and ask questions

skitter said:

Makes sense, but I have but 1 LBK

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The AM Devil IPA, is more a Brittish IPA,,,and not very bitter at that.

If you want to tone it down a bit, as other have said, just add a bit of extra malt, and increase the volume.

To increase the volume, you don't need a second LBK, just add a little extra top off water. With the extra DME your abv shouldn't go down, and you'll get more beer!

Azmark,

I "accidentally" (didnt read the directions quite as well as I should have) brewed my first batch with 1g water + contents from pot + another 2 gallons of water (instead of topping off to the 8q mark), I am assuming this is what you are referring to? Add a little more water without reducing the head-space?

Also, the IPA I am using is the Craft Series - Diablo IPA, not the Devil IPA

Sorry about that, Diablo, much the same as the Am devil. Very hoppy for a Coors Light drinker, not hoppy at all for a craft IPA drinker.

Adding more water than Mr. B suggests will reduce your head space, but not enough to cause too much problems with most recipes. 3+gallons would be a bit extreme. Mr. Beer instructions get you to about 2.2, if you stick to around 2.5ish and keep your fermentations cool, you shouldn't have too many blow off issues.

ericbw said:

Great idea. Two 1L bottles in a pitcher and then you don't have to explain to everyone how to pour it.

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Once they are carbed and conditioned, the longer they sit in the fridge, the sediment layer becomes more compact. I don't stir up much sediment with an aggressive pour after the bottles have been in the fridge for a couple weeks. This is easier to do with a full pipeline though, as it is difficult for me to keep them in the fridge for that long...

Indeed, I don't plan on having them around for too much time, I usually go through a 20 pack in 3-4 days, which is why I only pick one up on payday

Of course, this is going to be quite a bit different as I will be required to drink out of a glass with this, but I will "have" to finish the whole 1L bottle that day

Once I get the carb bit worked out, and hopefully if I don't blow up any plastics, I'll switch to glass bottles.

I have 24 amber 1 liter PET bottles from 3 mr beer kits. I will not be using them anymore and would like to get rid of them. only 14 have been used and only once, the other ten have not been used and have the locking caps still. All of them are in perfect condition and have the caps. I would like to sell them for $20 plus shipping charges, paypal only. PM me if your interested

finsfan said:

I have 24 amber 1 liter PET bottles from 3 mr beer kits. I will not be using them anymore and would like to get rid of them. only 14 have been used and only once, the other ten have not been used and have the locking caps still. All of them are in perfect condition and have the caps. I would like to sell them for $20 plus shipping charges, paypal only. PM me if your interested

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As I am currently unemployed and have numerous other priorities I will have to thank you for your generous offer and work with what I have until a later date.

Much appreciated though

Mr. Beer is what got me into brewing. It really made everything much easier, which beginner and near beginner's need. Plus the beer is better than most store bought brands. I wrote about my beginner experiences here http://www.squidoo.com/Home_Brewing_Beer

My first post here. My wife bought me a Mr. Beer years ago and I never opened it since we were getting ready to move in a few months and I figured to set it up at the new house. That was over 17 years ago. It got buried in a closet and I just forgot all about it until we were cleaning out the storage closet a couples of months ago.

I decided to finally give it a try. Of course I threw out the canned mixture and yeast that was in the kit. To begin, I started to look for information on brewing with Mr. Beer. And then I stumbled on this thread and started reading it........ Well after reading this thread (well, most of it), I went to my LHBS, bought a Mr. beer refill (Dark Winter Ale), a pound of DME and went at it last Sunday.

My main problem was the place where I was brewing was 74°-75°F, which from what I understand is just at the upper end of acceptable. This thing took off like gangbusters. It blew the lid of the airlock (like I said, old, old style Mr. Beer) twice with foam coming out of the airlock for about a day. This all started about 24 hours after I started the batch. after about 48 hours it settled down to a blurp about every 3 seconds and the high krausen reduced down to less than an inch. Now, 4-5 days later, it vents out of the airlock about once a minute.

A co-worker of mine who home brews from grain (he's been doing this for around 20 years) said that this sounded about normal for the temperature that I'm fermenting at. He suggests that I leave it go to about 12-15 days from start and then prime into bottles, or rack it into a secondary fermenter today or tomorrow. Since I'm not ready at this point to do two stage fermenting, I'm guessing leaving it go until next weekend is the way to go. I think I will try to batch prime and use E-Z cap glass bottles instead of the plastic ones that came with the kit.

I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to this thread. I knew not a thing about doing this before I read it.

Fermentation happens in the primary vessel or the secondary vessel, the yeast really don't know the difference. Leave it alone for 2-3 weeks then bottle. You made a good choice not using the plastic bottles. The caps may have dried out after all these years.

The Winter Dark is a known heavy fermenter even at lower temps. But, air temp of 74* is way too high. Remember the temps listed are the temp of the wort, which will be higher than the surrounding air during active fermentation.

I just started using the Mr. Beer kit. I live in florida and do not have central air. There is no place in my house that is cool enough for the vat to sit and not get too hot. I have a mini fridge that it fits into. The only problem is that 60 F is the warmest i can get it to. I don't know it this is going to effect (affect?) the beer. I have had it in there for about 2 days now and I can see the yeast bubbling at the top of it. Am I going to need to adjust the fermenting time? I got a hydrometer and I think the reading was around 1.066 to start. When should I think about conditioning it if it is going to be OK?

Thanks for any help to come!

It will ferment faster when warmer, but, again, you don't want warmer. You can go with a "swamp cooler" or a "temp controller" on your fridge. Lots of threads on those just try searching.

Two weeks fermenting, then take another hydro reading,,, wait 3 days and take another, if stable, time to bottle and condition. After priming and filling the bottles let sit in a dark, cool, room temp, closet for 2-3 weeks before cooling one for a few days, then drink. If good, chill up some more.

Room temp can get as high as 80 F some days if not higher. What about cold conditioning?

boochuckles said:

I just started using the Mr. Beer kit. I live in florida and do not have central air. There is no place in my house that is cool enough for the vat to sit and not get too hot. I have a mini fridge that it fits into. The only problem is that 60 F is the warmest i can get it to. I don't know it this is going to effect (affect?) the beer. I have had it in there for about 2 days now and I can see the yeast bubbling at the top of it. Am I going to need to adjust the fermenting time? I got a hydrometer and I think the reading was around 1.066 to start. When should I think about conditioning it if it is going to be OK?

Thanks for any help to come!

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Check out the Ebay aquarium temp controller thread, for an inexpensive temp controller. I built one for my Mini Fridge and it works great!
Since you don't have a temp controller yet, I'd try fermenting in the fridge, then after a few days once fermentation slows down move it out of the fridge to finish up. Most of the off flavors from hot fermentation comes from the initial reproductive phase, so having it at 60 in the beginning will help that greatly. Also, fermentation is exothermic so the beer should be fermenting in the mid sixties in a 60 degree mini fridge anyway.

been awhile since I used Mr. Beer but, IIRC leave it in the LBK for 2-3 weeks min, 74 is a bit high, but not terribly bad, try for 64-68. then to bottles. plastic isn't bad, especially if new (both the bottles and the brewer)... they will help show you the beer carbing, as they get hard to the touch,another two weeks or so. then two weeks for aging and you'll have delicious beer, maybe a tad bit longer if primary fermentation was at higher temps. Good luck and welcome to this fabulous hobby/obsession/reward!

Iirc? Lbk?

boochuckles said:

Iirc? Lbk?

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IIRC=If I Remember/Recall Correctly
LBK=Little Brown Keg (short for the Mr Beer fermenter)

bpgreen said:

IIRC=If I Remember/Recall Correctly
LBK=Little Brown Keg (short for the Mr Beer fermenter)

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and listen to BP, I know I learned a lot from him about Mr. beer on another forum.

I knew 74° was a bit too high, but I had nowhere else to do it. My main kitchen fridge runs at 38° which way too cold. I was just sent a brochure from my company to pick a gift for 30 years with the company. There are about 35 items to choose from, none of which interested me, except for maybe a 35 bottle Danby wine cooler. It says it has removable shelves and with an external temperature controller, it might be just the thing to use with the LBK (or maybe two depending on how the size turns out) for fermenting.

As a newbie to brewing, I did consider buying me a Mr. Beer when I saw it at Sears, but I wondered if it would end up bieng a dud like one of them "As seen on TV" type products that break down or cease to function after a month or so. I wouldn't knock it as I HAVE heard some good reviews on Amazon...

......this is coming from a newbie who bought a Coopers to get acclimated with the ingredient gathering and such to upgrade eventually.

mpc88 said:

As a newbie to brewing, I did consider buying me a Mr. Beer when I saw it at Sears, but I wondered if it would end up bieng a dud like one of them "As seen on TV" type products that break down or cease to function after a month or so. I wouldn't knock it as I HAVE heard some good reviews on Amazon...

......this is coming from a newbie who bought a Coopers to get acclimated with the ingredient gathering and such to upgrade eventually.

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A fermenter is a hard thing to stop working. Yeast eating sugars is also pretty hard to stop.

What's nice about Mr. Beer is the easy batch size and the size of the fermenter. Also a nice selection of hoped malt extracts. Makes it very easy for beginners to get involved with very few additional purchases. But, you can easily grow to extract or partial mash while still keeping your batch size to 2.2 gallons.

mpc88 said:

As a newbie to brewing, I did consider buying me a Mr. Beer when I saw it at Sears, but I wondered if it would end up bieng a dud like one of them "As seen on TV" type products that break down or cease to function after a month or so.

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azmark said:

A fermenter is a hard thing to stop working. Yeast eating sugars is also pretty hard to stop.

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A fermenter is surprisingly low tech. All it is a container to keep liquid in. Okay, it needs to be food-grade so that plastics and leads and toxins don't leach in so you can't use the radiater of a 57 Studebaker. And you need something to let off pressure while keeping air out. So it needs to be able to attach an airlock or be installed with vents. And that's all. Could be anything. A fermenting buck it just ... a bucket and a carboy is just a water bottle. A Mr. Beer keg is... a plastic vessel with air vents and a plastic spigot. Perfect.

So I like the Mr. Beer keg not so much because it is Mr. Beer but because why *shouldn't* it be Mr. Beer.

And you can buy just the fermenter (not the beer kit or bottles) for just 10 dollars each from their website.

I *did* break one once. I had four feet of tubing and a bottling wand and I wanted some leverage as I filled my bottles in my sink. (The tubing occasionally got higher than the spigot so gravity was wasn't always working for me.) To give me leverage I place the keg precariously atop a three foot stack of books. It fell. The tip of the spigot snapped off and when I tried to wash it the wall got a rupture.

But, you can easily grow to extract or partial mash while still keeping your batch size to 2.2 gallons.

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I do all grain in mine as well as extract.

The instant beer kits might or might not be decent. I only tried one and it was fine. However as the point of making my own beer was to make my own beer I was rather anxious to start trying real recipes and didn't see any reason to wait.

First Batch, the Bewitched Amber made it into the bottles on Sunday, they are carbing nicely from what I can tell under the counter I have setup for them. I tried it, didn't taste too bad for fermenting higher, but definitely could be better. If I make it again I will probably be adding DME to it, but then again, I plan on adding 1lb of DME to every one of any can I buy just to give it more body as it seems that is a common issue.

I ended up with 9l though, since I didn't watch the fill mark, hoping that wasn't diluted too much! However since I have only 16 bottles total, I started the Northwest Pale Ale with just over 7L of total content in the batch, should be a touch thicker and reduce the bottle usage.

Now just being patient before I open the bottles...

I did the Bewitched Amber and added a bit of honey and it turned out very nice :-0)

Okay, I'm trying to optimize my process. Not a total newb, brewed about 20-30 batches. what I'm trying to figure out is the best way to cool down my wort in my plastic 6.5 gallon conical fermenter. in the summertime, after I cool my wort to 110 to filter, I transfer it to my fermenter, and it takes 4-5 hours to cool to <75 degrees, even sitting in front of a window AC. I'm a little worried about bacterial infection, since my last batch was the first batch I've ever had go bad (burned taste).

I was thinking of two possibilities:

1) filter my wort into bucket
- use immersion chiller again to cool < 75 degrees
- pour into fermenter for aeration, pitch yeast
(worried about using same wort chiller that may not be sterile anymore)

2) filter my wort into bucket
- stick bucket into fridge until it cools down
- pour into fermenter for aeration, pitch yeast

do I have to worry about aerating at a colder temperature?
does someone have a better idea, if not, which scenario sounds less risky?

NBBC13 said:

Okay, I'm trying to optimize my process. Not a total newb, brewed about 20-30 batches. what I'm trying to figure out is the best way to cool down my wort in my plastic 6.5 gallon conical fermenter. in the summertime, after I cool my wort to 110 to filter, I transfer it to my fermenter, and it takes 4-5 hours to cool to <75 degrees, even sitting in front of a window AC. I'm a little worried about bacterial infection, since my last batch was the first batch I've ever had go bad (burned taste).

I was thinking of two possibilities:

1) filter my wort into bucket
- use immersion chiller again to cool < 75 degrees
- pour into fermenter for aeration, pitch yeast
(worried about using same wort chiller that may not be sterile anymore)

2) filter my wort into bucket
- stick bucket into fridge until it cools down
- pour into fermenter for aeration, pitch yeast

do I have to worry about aerating at a colder temperature?
does someone have a better idea, if not, which scenario sounds less risky?

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Water cold faster than air, so the immersion chiller will cool it faster than putting it in the fridge. Why do you want to transfer to a bucket first? It sounds like you're using an immersion chiller to get it to 110. Why not just use it to chill down to pitching temps?

bpgreen said:

Water cold faster than air, so the immersion chiller will cool it faster than putting it in the fridge. Why do you want to transfer to a bucket first? It sounds like you're using an immersion chiller to get it to 110. Why not just use it to chill down to pitching temps?

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The bucket is more of a convenience thing. I keep my fermenters in the basement, but do my brewing either in the garage or back deck. Too much of a hassle on my old back to carry the awkward fermenter down to the basement full, plus more likely it will drop. so I filter into bucket and pour into fermenter, figuring I'm also getting some aeration.

but now that I think about it, it is kind of silly not to reuse the submersion cooler again. too late for today's batch. have to try it out again next weekend.

For all the Mr. Beer brewers, check out the beerborg forum.
There's lots of help from other Mr. Beer brewers as well as every other brewer from the noob to the advanced brewer.

Hi new to both brewing and this forum. I want to hop up a kit I am brewing. "Mangrove Jacks robbers gold" its a starter craft kit were they give you a bag of 50 grams mixed Cascade/Columbus to dry hop after 5 days. Last time I brewed it , it was a tasty beer but I like mine hoppy so I was wanting to add more hops. I am going to add more Cascade and some Nelson Sauvin but how much do you recomend I use. Having only brewed kits before and I don't know how much extra is too much?

Cheer
Hopheadie

Hopheadie said:

Hi new to both brewing and this forum. I want to hop up a kit I am brewing. "Mangrove Jacks robbers gold" its a starter craft kit were they give you a bag of 50 grams mixed Cascade/Columbus to dry hop after 5 days. Last time I brewed it , it was a tasty beer but I like mine hoppy so I was wanting to add more hops. I am going to add more Cascade and some Nelson Sauvin but how much do you recomend I use. Having only brewed kits before and I don't know how much extra is too much?

Cheer
Hopheadie

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Are you boiling the hops or doing a dry hop? Dry hopping will add aroma, but won't add any bitterness.

Do you have any brewing software? Qbrew is free and screwy brewer has the Mr beer ingredients in a database on his website.

In order to know what the hops will do, we need to know the aa% and how long you plan to boil them.

What constitutes too hoppy depends on individual taste. Can you give an example of a commercial beer you like?

So I bought three more mr beer kits because they were ten bucks a pop. They all come with American light.

I'm thinking of adding two cans of puréed apricots(30oz), two cups extra dark malt extract, and 1/4cup clover honey. Should I have any worries or change anything up?

bpgreen said:

Are you boiling the hops or doing a dry hop? Dry hopping will add aroma, but won't add any bitterness.

Do you have any brewing software? Qbrew is free and screwy brewer has the Mr beer ingredients in a database on his website.

In order to know what the hops will do, we need to know the aa% and how long you plan to boil them.

What constitutes too hoppy depends on individual taste. Can you give an example of a commercial beer you like?

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Thanks for reply. No there is no boiling up of hops, it is only a dry hop addition after 5 days then leave for another 5 before bottling. (Its a starter kit malt extract, water, yeast) then dry hop.

aa are 4.5-7 for the cascade and 11-16 for the columbus. Those are the hops that come with kit. I was planing on adding some more cascade and some Nelson Sauvin (aa 12-14) there will be no boiling with this brew.

Thanks a bunch for the tips!

First Batch, the Bewitched Amber is now week + 3 days old in the bottles, already at perfect carbonation, and the taste is better than anything store bought except the $10/6pack crafts.

2 Week fermentation? DEFINETLY! Will be doing that with ANY batch, possibly longer on the IPA I tend to try to transform.

If I read everything correctly, adding DME adds body and a mild sweetness that doesn't get completely fermented out right? I wanted to try the Bewitched Amber again since it was so good, but wanted to ad a pound of light DME to see how that would adjust the flavor, worried about it being too sweet though?

Thanks again guys, you saves a newb brewer from being stupid and made me HOOKED on my first batch!

Skitt

Hopheadie said:

Thanks for reply. No there is no boiling up of hops, it is only a dry hop addition after 5 days then leave for another 5 before bottling. (Its a starter kit malt extract, water, yeast) then dry hop.

aa are 4.5-7 for the cascade and 11-16 for the columbus. Those are the hops that come with kit. I was planing on adding some more cascade and some Nelson Sauvin (aa 12-14) there will be no boiling with this brew.

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If you're dry hopping, you won't get any bitterness, just aroma.

skitter said:

Thanks a bunch for the tips!

First Batch, the Bewitched Amber is now week + 3 days old in the bottles, already at perfect carbonation, and the taste is better than anything store bought except the $10/6pack crafts.

2 Week fermentation? DEFINETLY! Will be doing that with ANY batch, possibly longer on the IPA I tend to try to transform.

If I read everything correctly, adding DME adds body and a mild sweetness that doesn't get completely fermented out right? I wanted to try the Bewitched Amber again since it was so good, but wanted to ad a pound of light DME to see how that would adjust the flavor, worried about it being too sweet though?

Thanks again guys, you saves a newb brewer from being stupid and made me HOOKED on my first batch!

Skitt

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If you add a pound of DME, the final result will be sweeter than if you didn't add it. If you want to offset that, you could add a hop boil.

Doob said:

So I bought three more mr beer kits because they were ten bucks a pop. They all come with American light.

I'm thinking of adding two cans of puréed apricots(30oz), two cups extra dark malt extract, and 1/4cup clover honey. Should I have any worries or change anything up?

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Yeah man...I would add some more bittering hops. You're gonna end up with a sweet beer. Maybe boil some hops with some of that ume and a gallon of water for an hour. Then add your hme and honey at flameout. Do you have beer Smith or qbrew? Software can really help with recipes.

Man I haven't been to the Borg in forever. Need to drop by. Learned so much since I was a Mr beer brewer.

Just brewed my Pumpkin Lager. Hopefully it turns out well, it smelled so damn good in the fermenter. I'll report back in a couple weeks with an early taste. Here's what i did:
Mr. Beer Octoberfest
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3 cloves
1/8 tsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
8 oz pumpkin puree

When i bottle i think i'll do a mixture of white and brown sugar.

OK so I am past the fermenting and now conditioning a batch. It has been about 1 week and I am seeing a lot of sugar sitting on the bottom of the bottles. I am wondering if I should do anything or just leave it alone. The last batch I had, I don't recall there being any sugar at the bottom. Was it not mixed enough or just keep waiting? Waiting is not my strong suit and this hobby is full of that....

boochuckles said:

OK so I am past the fermenting and now conditioning a batch. It has been about 1 week and I am seeing a lot of sugar sitting on the bottom of the bottles. I am wondering if I should do anything or just leave it alone. The last batch I had, I don't recall there being any sugar at the bottom. Was it not mixed enough or just keep waiting? Waiting is not my strong suit and this hobby is full of that....

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That's not sugar. It's called trub. It's yeast cells and other solid settling out. You'll always get at least a little in homebrew as a result of naturally carbonating the beer.

Yeah just try to leave that stuff behind when you pour. If you're not accustomed to bottle conditioned beers it can cause farts or worse....sharts. yeast doesn't bother me now but when I first started drinking homebrew I would have to sleep in the living room. Lol