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muleskinner90 said:
I'm a noob. What about using a "wine thief"? That way you can put the sample right back into 2 gal fermenter.
Click to expand...

As a general rule, once I close the LBK, I don't open it again unless I absolutley have to (late additio, clean air vents, etc.) and when I do as short amount of time as possibel and sanitize, sanitize, sanitize. My thinking is, I'd rather sacrifice a little to the hydro than ruin the whole two gallons. I don't let the sample go to waste, I drink it.
 
You can always put your sample back in,,,,but each time you risk oxidization and infection. If you don't like wasting so much you can always get a refractometer, they only take a few drops for a sample.
 
As a general rule, once I close the lid I don't open it until it's been bottled unless I absolutely have to (late addition or clean the air vents from krausen overflow). My thinking is I'd rather sacrifice a few ounces to the hydro than take a chance if ruining the whole batch. BTW, the sample doesn't go to waste, I drink it.
 
muleskinner90 said:
This coming Monday is my two week mark from pitching the yeast in my Mr. Beer kit that I got for Christmas. It also is the two week mark for my Northern Brewer 1 gal kit. Both are my first attempts at homebrewing. I'm thinking about bottling the Mr. Beer this Monday and waiting one more week on the NB. The Mr. Beer is the American Light LME. The NB is the Irish Red Ale. Suggestions? Thanks. This place is awesome!
Click to expand...

Were it me, I'd let the MB batch sit in the fermenter for three weeks.
 
azmark said:
You can always put your sample back in,,,,but each time you risk oxidization and infection. If you don't like wasting so much you can always get a refractometer, they only take a few drops for a sample.
Click to expand...

I have read a lot about these not being as accurate as hydrometers and I am really confused as to their purpous now because of this. They can range anywhere from $30 to several hundred dollars.
 
I have done a few batches with Mr. beer. ( I have to say I can not wait to upgrade to a 5 gal setup). My first couple of batches where good and my last two no so good.

My last two batches did not come out well at all. The first bad batch had a very cidery taste so bad I could not drink it all. The following batch I am getting a small amount of cider back ground taste. I am very sanitary and I have a hard time to believe that is the cause of the cidery taste. One thing I know I have been doing is leaving the beer in the fermentor for longer than they suggest. This last batch I left it in for 19 days and they suggest only 7 days. The reason for this is because they say to taste it and it should taste like flat beer, well it never tasted like flat beer always the cidery taste. I am starting to hate this off flavor in my brew.

I did just go out and buy a hydrometer but I already had a new batch in the fermentor and actually tasted like beer so before I bottled it I took a reading. I was expecting a reading of somewhere near 1.000 but I actually had a reading of 1.010. I thought that was high? what do you think?

ANY thoughts or suggestions will be great.

Thanks
 
nab911 said:
I have read a lot about these not being as accurate as hydrometers and I am really confused as to their purpous now because of this. They can range anywhere from $30 to several hundred dollars.
Click to expand...

They are pretty accurate. You just have to run the brix # they measure through a calculator, (I have brix Calc on my iPhone) the final gravity is run through a formula to take in to consideration the presence of alcohol.
 
azmark said:
They are pretty accurate. You just have to run the brix # they measure through a calculator, (I have brix Calc on my iPhone) the final gravity is run through a formula to take in to consideration the presence of alcohol.
Click to expand...

Well I might pick one up. I don't feel like hydrometers are very accurate after actually using one now because there is is so much room for interpretation with meniscus level and temperature (i guessed based on thermostat and the warmth of the kitchen from cooking).
 
Got my glass bottles today, bottling tomorrow wondered if those bottles needed washed and if so can i run them through the dishwasher? Or will sanitizig them be enough?
 
Bottled my first batch today and started my second batch. Cant wait to taste the first batch in 2 wks or so.
 
My wife bought me a Mr. Beer brew kit for xmas and I bottled my first batched the other day so I decided I wanted to start another batch. Mr.Beer kits are made for a 2 gallon batch which fits inside the 2 gallon plastic keg. I bought a Briess CBW Porter PME this time which is 3.3lb of extract. My question is, is there a way I could make a batch with the entire extract that will fit inside my 2 gallon barrel or would it be better to just buy all new equipment like a 5 gallon carboy? Hope someone has some insite on this!
 
Ok, I might be freaking out over nothing, but this might be a decently big issue.

My house was in the mid to high 60s all month, so it was about perfect for beer.

Today, a heat wave hit our area, and I just checked the room where my Mr. Beer is. It's been in there for 8 days, and today, its at 77 degrees.

I am super worried that it will produce off flavors and be nasty, so I put it in my guest bathtub, with 4 2-liter bottles that I had previously frozen just in case.

Two questions, is this too late, and will the spigot be ok submerged under water?
 
S2005 said:
Ok, I might be freaking out over nothing, but this might be a decently big issue.

My house was in the mid to high 60s all month, so it was about perfect for beer.

Today, a heat wave hit our area, and I just checked the room where my Mr. Beer is. It's been in there for 8 days, and today, its at 77 degrees.

I am super worried that it will produce off flavors and be nasty, so I put it in my guest bathtub, with 4 2-liter bottles that I had previously frozen just in case.

Two questions, is this too late, and will the spigot be ok submerged under water?
Click to expand...

Since it happened on day eight, the chances for off flavors are reduced greatly. Most of flavors are produced in the first few days.

If the spigot is submerged, you'll want to sanitize it well when it's time to bottle.
 
Good to hear. I got scared! :(

I'll be sure to sanitize the spigot really well prior to bottling.

How would you recommend I sanitize it without shaking up the LBK too much?
 
Can you go more than 3 weeks in the LBK? I got called out of town and my 3 weeks will be on tuesday the 15th but I wont be back until the
21st or 22nd
 
Today is the two week mark from my first brew day. Should I bottle? I brewed Classic American Light.
 
JCummins87 said:
My wife bought me a Mr. Beer brew kit for xmas and I bottled my first batched the other day so I decided I wanted to start another batch. Mr.Beer kits are made for a 2 gallon batch which fits inside the 2 gallon plastic keg. I bought a Briess CBW Porter PME this time which is 3.3lb of extract. My question is, is there a way I could make a batch with the entire extract that will fit inside my 2 gallon barrel or would it be better to just buy all new equipment like a 5 gallon carboy? Hope someone has some insite on this!
Click to expand...

Good question...you have a couple of options here, imho

1. Get a second LBK and split the batch between 2

2. Get a 5 gallon carboy and airlock and begin to step up from the MRB

Really its just a matter of personal choice and how comfortable you feel about stepping up your brewing right now
 
S2005 said:
Ok, I might be freaking out over nothing, but this might be a decently big issue.

My house was in the mid to high 60s all month, so it was about perfect for beer.

Today, a heat wave hit our area, and I just checked the room where my Mr. Beer is. It's been in there for 8 days, and today, its at 77 degrees.

I am super worried that it will produce off flavors and be nasty, so I put it in my guest bathtub, with 4 2-liter bottles that I had previously frozen just in case.

Two questions, is this too late, and will the spigot be ok submerged under water?
Click to expand...

You'll probably be OK, and not notice a difference. As others have mentioned, be sure to sanitize the spigot before bottling
 
Mine is at 11 days. Gonna be hard to wait 21, but I think I can handle it... There are still bubbles on the top, lots of sediment on bottom... Is that how it should look?
 
I brewed my first batch on New Year's Day. I bottled it. Yesterday. what is the best temperature for it to condition? I put it in my basement that is about 67. I have a cold room that is 10 to 15 degrees cooler. Not sure where to put it,
 
S2005 said:
Good to hear. I got scared! :(

I'll be sure to sanitize the spigot really well prior to bottling.

How would you recommend I sanitize it without shaking up the LBK too much?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why you'd shake the LBK while sanitizing the spigot. Soak a qtip in sanitizer and run it around the inside of the spigot.
 
cwk229 said:
I brewed my first batch on New Year's Day. I bottled it. Yesterday. what is the best temperature for it to condition? I put it in my basement that is about 67. I have a cold room that is 10 to 15 degrees cooler. Not sure where to put it,
Click to expand...

The room you have it in now is just about perfect. The other room would be fine once it has carbonated, but is probably too cool for carbonation.
 
JCummins87 said:
My wife bought me a Mr. Beer brew kit for xmas and I bottled my first batched the other day so I decided I wanted to start another batch. Mr.Beer kits are made for a 2 gallon batch which fits inside the 2 gallon plastic keg. I bought a Briess CBW Porter PME this time which is 3.3lb of extract. My question is, is there a way I could make a batch with the entire extract that will fit inside my 2 gallon barrel or would it be better to just buy all new equipment like a 5 gallon carboy? Hope someone has some insite on this!
Click to expand...

If I were in your shoes I'd probably slightly over-fill the LBK ,to about 2.5 Gallons, using the 3.3lbs can of extract and about 8 Oz of brown sugar, possibly even do a 15 or 20 minute boil with some cascade hops. That'll give you a nice 5.5%er.

I've filled up the Mr. Beer LBK to above the Q (of 8 Quarts) and even with some major krausen happening there was very little overflow/seepage, definitely not a problem if it's in a swamp cooler.
 
I bottled and put my bottles in the same room I used for fermenting. It runs about 60 to 65 is that too cool?
 
JCummins87 said:
My wife bought me a Mr. Beer brew kit for xmas and I bottled my first batched the other day so I decided I wanted to start another batch. Mr.Beer kits are made for a 2 gallon batch which fits inside the 2 gallon plastic keg. I bought a Briess CBW Porter PME this time which is 3.3lb of extract. My question is, is there a way I could make a batch with the entire extract that will fit inside my 2 gallon barrel or would it be better to just buy all new equipment like a 5 gallon carboy? Hope someone has some insite on this!
Click to expand...

If you use the LME and nothing else, I think you'll end up with the right size batch - around 1.048 SG, I think. Is the porter LME hopped like a kit? If not, you'll want to add some hops and try only boiling half the LME then adding the second half at the end of the boil. Basically follow the Mr. B instructions other than that. The Mr. B keg works fine as a fermenter, no need to get bigger equipment to make other beer.

The batch size is actually somewhere between 2.125 and 2.5 gallons. I use 2.5 gallons to calculate recipes.

Again, don't buy a 5 gallon carboy just because you're using non-Mr. Beer ingredients.
 
stevehardt said:
Good question...you have a couple of options here, imho

1. Get a second LBK and split the batch between 2

2. Get a 5 gallon carboy and airlock and begin to step up from the MRB

Really its just a matter of personal choice and how comfortable you feel about stepping up your brewing right now
Click to expand...

Ok I'm a total noob at all of this what is lbk exactly and I'm assuming mrb is Mr beer? What's a good site to get carboys n an airlock?
 
ericbw said:
If you use the LME and nothing else, I think you'll end up with the right size batch - around 1.048 SG, I think. Is the porter LME hopped like a kit? If not, you'll want to add some hops and try only boiling half the LME then adding the second half at the end of the boil. Basically follow the Mr. B instructions other than that. The Mr. B keg works fine as a fermenter, no need to get bigger equipment to make other beer.

The batch size is actually somewhere between 2.125 and 2.5 gallons. I use 2.5 gallons to calculate recipes.

Again, don't buy a 5 gallon carboy just because you're using non-Mr. Beer ingredients.
Click to expand...

It's not a pre hopped extract but I did purchase some hops to put in it. So I should bowl half the extract with 2 gallons of water and towards the end of the boil add the rest of the extract?
 
JCummins87 said:
It's not a pre hopped extract but I did purchase some hops to put in it. So I should bowl half the extract with 2 gallons of water and towards the end of the boil add the rest of the extract?
Click to expand...

Sounds about right.

LBK=little brown keg
mrb=Mr. Beer

Northern Brewer, Austin Homebrew, and Midwest seem to be the biggest, best online suppliers of homebrew kits and equipment
 
Any suggestions for what I can mix into a batch of Classic American Light HME to give it a little something-something? I received two cans of this one with the Mr Beer kit for Christmas & want to try something different to compare tastes.

Problem is I don't live near any brewing stores so something I can pick up at any grocery store is preferred. Thanks
 
JCummins87 said:
It's not a pre hopped extract but I did purchase some hops to put in it. So I should bowl half the extract with 2 gallons of water and towards the end of the boil add the rest of the extract?
Click to expand...

Yes, indeed, it is an unhopped Malt Extract of the porter variety:confused: First time I've ever seen an actual "style of beer" kit can with no pre-hopping.

http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Products/Extracts.htm#Porter

What hops have you got and what kind of quanitity??

You're going to need to do a hop schedule that has a bittering addition, at the very least, and then flavour/aroma additions if you feel that's what you are looking for.

Bittering additions are usually from the start of the boil. The longer you boil and the larger the weight of hops you use the more bittering you'll get (IBUs), generally using a boil of up to 60 minutes. Flavour additions are somewhere from 20 to 5 minutes from the end of the boil (flameout) and aroma are about the last 5 mins to flameout and then dry hopping.

Have a look at the following link, download the QBrew recipe calculator and data base from thescrewybrewer.com. It's also got all of the details for most, if not all, of the Mr. Beer ingredients. :mug:

Just looked at the version of QBrew on my computer and it doesn't have any details for the Briess CBW Porter, but you could select the robust porter as your beer style, then make additions of fermentables and hops to get, close to, somewhere between the upper and lower parameters for the style with regards Original Gravity (OG), Bitterness, colour, etc. etc.
 

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