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First time posting, so please bear with me!

I started my first batch of Mr. Beer (WCPA w/Booster) Saturday morning, and I have seen NO activity. I checked the beginner's fermentation boards, and now that it has been a full 72 hours, I am wondering what I should do. I followed the MRB instructions to the letter, obsessing over the sanitation especially, and everything settled straight to the bottom of the keg. Keg is in a dark kitchen cabinet & temp doesn't vary much from 70-72 degrees. Any thoughts for this noob?
 
Your yeast may be dead. My recommendation is for you to go as quickly as possible to your LHBS and pick up a package of yeast, e.g. Cooper's, re-hydrate the contents of it in a 1/2 cup of body temperature water for 10 minutes, then pour into your MB "fermenter." You've got a Northern Brewer shop in Milwaukee and The Purple Foot. While you're there, pick up a hydrometer so you can be certain that the beer has not fermented.

Scott Birdwell
DeFalco's Home Wine & Beer Supplies
Houston TX
www.defalcos.com
 
Thanks for the advice...one other question - is this batch worth saving, or would I be better off starting over with a new can of HME & 1lb of LME, as I've read this offers better results than the booster?
 
One thing you need to verify is whether or not this has done any fermenting up to this point. A hydrometer is indispensable for determining this. The folks at the LHBS can tell you how to use it. It is not inconceivable that your beer has actually fermented already, but you simply haven't seen any action (a lot easier if you could use an air lock on these MB fermenters). If the fermentation has already happened, you're good. If it hasn't and the wort still smells OK, I would still pitch the new yeast. If you're concerned about the booster, you could still dissolve a pound of DME in a pint of water and pour it in. It'll boost the body and the alcohol. Frankly, I don't think I would bother at this stage. The booster isn't as nasty as, say sugar, but it really doesn't add flavor or body to the beer, just hooch. The beer will just be a bit light in body and low-medium in body.

Scott Birdwell
DeFalco's Home Wine & Beer Supplies
Houston TX
www.defalcos.com
 
First time posting, so please bear with me!

I started my first batch of Mr. Beer (WCPA w/Booster) Saturday morning, and I have seen NO activity. I checked the beginner's fermentation boards, and now that it has been a full 72 hours, I am wondering what I should do. I followed the MRB instructions to the letter, obsessing over the sanitation especially, and everything settled straight to the bottom of the keg. Keg is in a dark kitchen cabinet & temp doesn't vary much from 70-72 degrees. Any thoughts for this noob?

The fact that you say that everything has settled to the bottom makes me think there is something going on, but it is different from what you expected. You probably expected to see bunch of foam on the top. That foam is known as krausen. That happens sometimes, but it doesn't always happen. Or it sometimes happens, but doesn't last very long, so you may have missed it.

The existence of krausen is a good indication that fermentation is happening, but the lack of krausen is NOT a good indication that fermentation is not happening.

If there is a layer of sediment forming on the bottom, it means that you've got fermentation going on. That layer of sediment is known as trub (rhymes with lube). I'd say you're doing fine.
 
Thank you as well for the info...I think I'll give it the full 2 weeks & see what happens when it's time to bottle. Patience is key, right? I guess I still have time to get rid of all the BMC in my fridge & do some "research" at my local microbreweries for my next batch :)
 
Thank you as well for the info...I think I'll give it the full 2 weeks & see what happens when it's time to bottle. Patience is key, right? I guess I still have time to get rid of all the BMC in my fridge & do some "research" at my local microbreweries for my next batch :)

Or, you could do like was suggested and get a hydrometer :mug:

If you just wait 2 weeks and then bottle, you could very well end up bottling a bunch of sugar water and dead yeast. Also, you have no way of knowing if fermentation is finished if you don't have a hydrometer. FYI, 2 weeks is the absolute minimum you should even consider letting your beer ferment. 3 or 4 weeks would be even better.
 
GOT a kit as a gag gift many years ago... and been brewing ever since!... it made damn good beer. My Favorite was BIG BEAN BOCK... lasted a day.
 
Hmmmmm... 1st batch, 100% by the MR. BEER book.

After 3 weeks in primary, and a full week of bottle conditioning and a few hours (at most) in the fridge...

The results are... pretty crappy. Now granted, this was a can of WCPA that was already a year past the expiration date (I know, I know...).

But the results are very cidery, IMO. The beer smelled cidery going into the bottle, but I really didn't want to keep it in the primary any longer. I was getting antsy and didn't want to ruin it.

I took 6 bottles of the batch and started cold-lagering this evening. Hopefully, it will clear more and taste better over the next few weeks.

My intent is to put 1/3 of the batch into the fridge after 1 week, then 2 weeks, then finally the rest at 3 weeks (including 2 bottles that had a LOT of sediment in them).

Any thoughts on how to salvage this? I know I was pushing it by trying a bottle tonight, but I really wanted to give my homebrew a try!

(Funny aside, I ha to add "homebrew" to my Firefox dictionary just now, I think I shall be typing that a LOT! :D )
 
Hmmmmm... 1st batch, 100% by the MR. BEER book.

After 3 weeks in primary, and a full week of bottle conditioning and a few hours (at most) in the fridge...

The results are... pretty crappy. Now granted, this was a can of WCPA that was already a year past the expiration date (I know, I know...).

But the results are very cidery, IMO. The beer smelled cidery going into the bottle, but I really didn't want to keep it in the primary any longer. I was getting antsy and didn't want to ruin it.

I took 6 bottles of the batch and started cold-lagering this evening. Hopefully, it will clear more and taste better over the next few weeks.

My intent is to put 1/3 of the batch into the fridge after 1 week, then 2 weeks, then finally the rest at 3 weeks (including 2 bottles that had a LOT of sediment in them).

Any thoughts on how to salvage this? I know I was pushing it by trying a bottle tonight, but I really wanted to give my homebrew a try!

(Funny aside, I ha to add "homebrew" to my Firefox dictionary just now, I think I shall be typing that a LOT! :D )

Cidery tastes are caused by too much simple sugar in the brew. Booster isn't supposed to contribute to cidery tastes, but many people say that it does. I'll use it, but only when I have a lot more than 1 can of HME, so I don't really know how it is when it's a high percentage of the fermentable sugar.

Cidery tastes will almost always condition out if you give them enough time, but it may take more than a few weeks at room temperature.

For future beers, try going all malt and fermenting at around 65F instead of in the high 60s to low 70s. It will likely take more than a week to ferment, but it's worth the extra time.
 
OptimatorPrime said:
First time posting, so please bear with me!

I started my first batch of Mr. Beer (WCPA w/Booster) Saturday morning, and I have seen NO activity. I checked the beginner's fermentation boards, and now that it has been a full 72 hours, I am wondering what I should do. I followed the MRB instructions to the letter, obsessing over the sanitation especially, and everything settled straight to the bottom of the keg. Keg is in a dark kitchen cabinet & temp doesn't vary much from 70-72 degrees. Any thoughts for this noob?

Thanks everyone for the advice...I wasn't able to get to my LHBS to pick up a hydrometer (I'm chomping at the bit to check it out, though), however, since last night, it looks to be going into overdrive...a thick krausen has developed on top, so I am still hoping to bottle in the next 10-14 days.

Getting very excited to get deeper into my new hobby :)
 
I also brewed my mr beer pale ale for the first time on saturday, but in an effort to make something my wife would drink ( shes not a big beer fan ) i added cherries and watermelon puree to my wort. was this a bad idea? a day after it started to ferment, it had some nice foam on top and stuff was moving around quite nice, and now there is no foam, but ive noticed stuff is still moving pretty well. should i be worried? ive decieded to bottle it next thursday the 14th as it will be payday and i will be going out of town for the next 10 days on friday. I figured if i bottled it then i could condition it for the 10 days im out of town the but it in the fridge to chill and **try** to enjoy.

also, the kit says to use white granulated sugar for priming, ive heard and read some not so great things about that, should i use cane sugar or brown sugar instead? what would yall recommend?
 
plenty of people use fruit, thats fine. just make sure fermentation is done before you bottle. 10 days isn't really long enough to carbonate (usually) but you can still try one, just don't be too quick to judge it then. as far as the priming sugar goes, people say that it can give a dry cidery taste if it is used in a big enough quantity. for priming you don't really use that much so i would suggest just following the instructions on that. i primed with plain table sugar when i did my mr. beer kit and it came out just fine.
 
also, the kit says to use white granulated sugar for priming, ive heard and read some not so great things about that, should i use cane sugar or brown sugar instead? what would yall recommend?

white, granulated table sugar is just fine to use - a lot of us do it when we bottle from our MrB kegs. bacteria can't grow on raw sugar granules - so you don't need to worry about sanitizing the sugar itself, just add it to the bottles after they have been properly sanitized.
just be careful with your sugar measurements for each bottle and give each brew at least three weeks in the bottle before you try it, the addition of the sugars and flavors of the cherries and watermelon are going to need the time in the bottle to mellow and properly blend, you may not like the green beer not to mention your wife's poor tastebuds heh.
good luck and happy brewing:mug:
 
So since my first batch seems to be very unsatisfactory, I'm trying to formulate my next Mr. Beer batch before I move on to making bigger batches. (I bought a package deal at the LHBS; includes Brewers Best Basic Equipment Kit, first batch of ingredients and a class.)

But one more Mr. Beer batch before I move on.

So I have one can of (fresh this time!) WCPA and that's it. I already need to make a trip to the LHBS to get sanitizer at the very least.

From reading this thread, I'm thinking I should use:

1: Another can of WCPA mix, for two total going in (I love hoppiness)
2: raw honey instead of booster.

I already have a packet of Danstar Nottingham brewing yeast.

Is there anything else I would need? Or suggestions for improving the brew?
 
How do you figure bacteria can't live on raw sugar?

because of this thread on osmotic pressure, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/high-sugar-concentration-inhibits-bacterial-growth-146703/ and the fact that granulated sugar is 1/4% water with the remaining 99.75% being refined crystalline sucrose. the instant any bacteria or living organism lands on a granule the process of osmosis immediately sucks the water content out of the organism through its cell walls causing it to implode and die.
 
there are also a number of studies relating to the use of white table sugar to inhibit bacterial growth in wounds. google is our friend.
 
because of this thread on osmotic pressure, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/high-sugar-concentration-inhibits-bacterial-growth-146703/ and the fact that granulated sugar is 1/4% water with the remaining 99.75% being refined crystalline sucrose. the instant any bacteria or living organism lands on a granule the process of osmosis immediately sucks the water content out of the organism through its cell walls causing it to implode and die.

One word: spores.

Refined table sugar is not guaranteed to be sanitary. Should you worry, using it to prime bottles? No, not so much -- but it is not absolutely safe.

A better technique (which is admittedly difficult in a MRB fermentor) is "batch priming", where you boil a sufficient quantity of sugar for all of your bottles, and then add the liquid to the batch before bottling. The problem with MRB is that the yeast is still in there (you are bottling from your primary fermenter) so stirring the sugar in stirs up the yeast... whoops!

If you have an ice tea jar, or a cooler or something with a spout on it, you can use that to bottle from. Simply place your boiled sugar solution in the bottom of the jar, and use some tubing to siphon the beer from the MRB fermentor into the other container. Avoid splashing. Bottle from the nozzle, or using the siphon and a bottling wand, but -- avoid splashing. (Splashing causes oxidation and early stale-ing of your beer.)

The MRB fermenter, when not full of trub (yeast and protein sediment after fermentation) is a fantastic "bottling bucket", but you need two to pull it off. If you don't want to batch prime or use a bottling bucket or siphon or any of that crap, go ahead and just do it the way Mr Beer suggests.

But don't think that dry sugar is "perfectly" safe. It's not. It's usually fine, but it's not perfect. :)
 
there are also a number of studies relating to the use of white table sugar to inhibit bacterial growth in wounds. google is our friend.

Google is our friend.

It says "remove the crystalline sugar when it gets too runny or wet".

I'm pretty sure beer qualifies as "wet". ;)
 
I also brewed my mr beer pale ale for the first time on saturday, but in an effort to make something my wife would drink ( shes not a big beer fan ) i added cherries and watermelon puree to my wort. was this a bad idea?

Adding non-sanitized fruit to beer before fermentation is not necessarily a good idea. It risks infection. Fruit is usually added to the secondary (not primary) fermentor because by secondary fermentation the yeast have such a good headstart, and the alcohol can inhibit wild yeasts or bacteria.

That being said: the watermelon will be completely gone. The cherry will be fairly weak, due to the solvent action of the CO2. Dry cleaners use CO2 because it is so good at scrubbing organic molecules... that's what will most likely happen to your cherry aromatics. :(

Fruit is for secondaries, unfortunately.

a day after it started to ferment, it had some nice foam on top and stuff was moving around quite nice, and now there is no foam, but ive noticed stuff is still moving pretty well. should i be worried?

Nope. RDWHAHB. ;)

ive decieded to bottle it next thursday the 14th as it will be payday and i will be going out of town for the next 10 days on friday. I figured if i bottled it then i could condition it for the 10 days im out of town the but it in the fridge to chill and **try** to enjoy.

Don't rush your beer. You can leave it in the primary - literally - for over a month and it will improve. Patience, my young homebrewing grasshopper. ;)

also, the kit says to use white granulated sugar for priming, ive heard and read some not so great things about that, should i use cane sugar or brown sugar instead? what would yall recommend?

We recommend batch-priming, but that is a level of complication beyond the Mr Beer set-up. What I really, really recommend is: get good at brewing using the MRB, then when you want to expand your skills, transition to a partial-mash set-up and using kits that are not canned or pre-hopped. :D

Happy brewing!!
 
We don't do "sterile" in homebrewing... we do "sanitary". We acknowledge that we can kill 99.99999% of everything by boiling, but not 100%. If you don't boil, you aren't even trying.

Also, recall that I said: not boiling your bottling sugar is usually fine. Boiling your bottling sugar just takes a 1:100 event to something closer to 1:1,000,000 (pulling numbers out of my butt here). Lots of people have had individual spoiled bottles when they didn't boil, but the more steps you take to cut down the risk ,the less chance you'll get *individually* infected bottles, which is a hallmark of infected sugar. (Poor bottle sanitization or batch contamination often leads to many or all of your bottles being infected.)

But, whatever floats your boat. Confirmation bias is a mother-lover, ya know? ;)
 
So since my first batch seems to be very unsatisfactory, I'm trying to formulate my next Mr. Beer batch before I move on to making bigger batches. (I bought a package deal at the LHBS; includes Brewers Best Basic Equipment Kit, first batch of ingredients and a class.)

But one more Mr. Beer batch before I move on.

So I have one can of (fresh this time!) WCPA and that's it. I already need to make a trip to the LHBS to get sanitizer at the very least.

From reading this thread, I'm thinking I should use:

1: Another can of WCPA mix, for two total going in (I love hoppiness)
2: raw honey instead of booster.

I already have a packet of Danstar Nottingham brewing yeast.

Is there anything else I would need? Or suggestions for improving the brew?

In my experience, Honey is worse than Booster. Honey is nearly 100% fermentable, but Booster is only 80-85% fermentable (I forget exactly). I think using a pouch of Booster with 1 can of HME gives too much Booster, but a pouch of Booster with two cans is fine.
 
In my experience, Honey is worse than Booster. Honey is nearly 100% fermentable, but Booster is only 80-85% fermentable (I forget exactly).

Honey is close to 100% fermentable, unless you scorch/carmelize it first. ;)

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/medieval-burnt-mead-112163/

I think using a pouch of Booster with 1 can of HME gives too much Booster, but a pouch of Booster with two cans is fine.

When using adjuncts, my lager-brewing compatriots tend to suggest that the ratio of malt-to-adjunct is more relevant than actual quantities. I wouldn't know, because I like my beers malty as opposed to dry, and so my experience with adjuncts (like Booster) is absolutely minimal.

Based on what my lager-brewing friends say, though, I think I'm a +1 to what you said. :)
 
Google is our friend.

It says "remove the crystalline sugar when it gets too runny or wet".

I'm pretty sure beer qualifies as "wet". ;)

probably because a wound would still be open to new bacteria after it gets wet. the sugar is fine when its dry, but once it gets wet then it becomes susceptible to the bacteria. hopefully your beer won't have to many bacteria and will not be exposed to any after you bottle either.
 
I made this it's own thread but then realized it probably should have gone here. Thanks in advance:

I've got my first batch of Mr. Beer bottle conditioning at the moment and I'm in the planning stages of my second batch; Bewitched Red Ale. I'd like to tune it up and give it a little more complex flavor, head, and punch. I'd also like to keep it pretty simple and as inexpensive as possible.

Here is my setup right now;
3 gallon carboy with an S type airlock for primary
Mr. Beer keg which I used for mixing the corn sugar in for racking
An auto siphon
A bottling wand
12 brown glass Grolsh bottles
4 Mr. Beer plastic one liter bottles

Consumables:
1 Can Mr. Beer Bewitched Red Ale
Corn sugar
A packet of Safale US-05 yeast from LHBS store (The Red Salamander in Grand Ledge)
1 oz. of Brewcraft Irish Moss
Sanitizers and 3 booster packs (I used honey in my American Blonde)

So what can I do to tune this batch up? I'd like to stay with mostly extracts (for now ;)) and I would like to do it relativity inexpensively.

Thanks Guys! BTW this forum rocks! :rockin:
 
If you use only one can of malt with either the booster or the corn sugar, you are going to end up with a very not-malty beer (aka a "dry" beer).

If you want more head proteins and more flavor, you need to steep some grains. Go to the LHBS and get a few oz. (4-8 of each, total of ~8-12 oz) of 20L or 40L crystal malt and caravienne or carapils malt. They only need to be steeped, not mashed, so that's super easy. Steep them for 20 min. or so in 150F water (1 cup per 4 oz grain), then pour the water (leave the grains in the steeping pan) into your boil. Steeping them will give you slightly more fermentables, but a lot more protein and a lot more flavor. While you are there, buy some fresh extract and add about 1/2 lb. per gallon (3/4 might be toooo much).

Your beer will have tons more malt flavor, more protein, and a LOT more alcohol. If you want to know exactly how much alcohol it will have, take hydrometer readings. Have fun! ;)

EDIT: THIS IS BACK-OF-THE-ENVELOPE RECIPE INVENTING; more careful calculations will yield better results. You will want the LHBS to crush the grains for you, or use a rolling pin to crush them yourself. You can rinse the grains with some of your boil water as well, if you want to get even more sugar and protein from them. Any amount of malt you add will increase both the alcohol and flavor, but any amount of corn sugar, booster, honey, maple syrup, brown sugar or white sugar will more than likely decrease the maltiness of the beer while increasing the alcohol. Also, you might want .25 oz of a hop that smells good to you, to add into the boil with about 20 minutes left in your boiltime.
 
I started out on MR Beer too, but graduated to making beer in my own carboy and kit. I found some really useful home-brewing techniques in Drink Me Magazine and some of the best beer articles - both inspiring and useful. I also heard they are always looking for new home-brewers to contribute.

Check it while you sip on your beer:
www.drinkmemag.com
 
Thanks for the advice, I give it a shot in a few weeks. On a side note, I just got "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" and am tearing through it! Monday I crack open my first bottle of homebrew!
 
Don't get me wrong, far be it from me to bag on Papa Papazian... but his book is considered a bit outdated. Read it, and enjoy it (his philosophy of homebrew stuff is great) but also realize that some of the things he said are no longer valid due to changes in what's available for homebrewers and advancement in the science of fermenting alcohol at home. :)

When in doubt, I personally go with "How To Brew" for technical/science information.

http://www.howtobrew.com/
 
Well, the autolysis boogeyman is one. Also, most senior posters on this board seem to be of the opinion that a secondary is not essential. Et cetera. :)
 
Green beer?

So I just popped the top on my first homebrew; it was in primary for a month, bottled for two weeks, and in the fridge for about 2 hours (I know, I just could not wait!).

The color was good, the beer was nice and clear, but it had a strange flavor to it; almost a club soda taste. I know time heals almost everything and I do plan on RDWHAHB.
My question is should I let the beer sit and bottle condition or does it just need more time in the fridge? Thanks guys!
 
It won't hurt a thing to give them another week or two or seven at room temperature in a dark place, but chill one overnight and see what it tastes like.
 
it needs more time in both, let it sit at room temperature for another week, then put it in the fridge for a while. once it sits in the fridge for a couple of days to a week it will be better. I don't know why, but I find that my beers taste better after sitting in the fridge for a while instead of drinking them as soon as they get cold
 
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