Seasoned Beginner's Questions

Hi, newbie to the forums here. I'm already finding a ton of info that pertains to myself, but I'll have plenty of questions to ask. To start, I've brewed about 8 batches of beers with the Mr. Beer brew kit over the last 18 months (bought the kit second-hand, though never used). I brewed both using their recipes, and developing my own. I'm at the stage now where I'm ready to take another step into the "master" direction, but all I have as far as equipment goes is Mr. Beer kit, a few accessories, and it's instructions... Lately it's gotten quite boring. And I constantly pop a brewing question in my head at random times so I thought I'd ask here. My goals for the next few months or year is to increase production and quality. The small amount of brew that Mr. Beer makes isn't enough. I guess another Mr. Beer barrel or new kit isn't out of the question.

There is so much info around this place. If you don't mind giving me a few answers/opinions, I'd really appreciate it.

1) I'm going to convert a mini-fridge into a kegerator. Are there any mini-fridges out there you recommend that would fit two 5g kegs and a 5lb CO2 tank? Looking to double tap it.

2) Any books you recommend?

3) Mr. Beer doesn't help here, but I've added brown sugar, canned blueberry, apricots, peaches and raspberries to my boiling wort depending on what I was brewing at the time, but the end product just doesn't have that "taste" or "smell" that I was looking for. Am I adding this at the wrong stage? I tasted a Sam Adams Blackcherry Witbier, Pyramid Apricot Ale, and other fruity beers but I can't seem to get it right. Do I ad during bottling or in the middle of the fermentation process or something instead?

4) I'm finished with the plastic Mr. Beer bottles for bottling. Should I go with glass bottles or kegging?

Thanks for your help. I'll be useless in answering questions around this forum but I will have a ton of questions.

Howdy welcome!

1) Pass
2) How To Brew by Palmer; Brewing Classic Styles by Palmer and Zainisheff
3) I'm pretty sure that Sam Adams uses extracts, rather than actual fruit. Not my bag.
4) If you have the ways and means, go for kegging. But bottling is more portable, so suit yourself (use glass, of course).

And, don't bother with another MrBeer. Get yourself a 6.5 gallon carboy and go full-scale.

I suggest a chest freezer over the mini fridge.

Thanks guys.

Why chest freezer? It may be an option for me and may be a good idea. I'm sure I can make room for it. Is it just because it's bigger? Easier to load?

Where should I buy future supplies online?

gregger said:

Where should I buy future supplies online?

Click to expand...

I've bought from Austin Homebrew and Brewmasters Warehouse; was happy with both. Also Northern Brewer and Midwest are registered here; check them all out, you're not going to go wrong with any of those.

1. I found a cheap older fridge on craigslist and ripped out the guts. It fits 3-5 conries. I also bought a 3 way manifold which I mounted in the fridge for my CO2 distribution. Only problem is I have to keep all kegs at the same pressure. I also drilled a small hole to run a line outside of the fridge to my CO2 bottle. Seems to work fine.

2. How to brew by John Palmer is the best book I have read.

3. I have never made a fruit beer but if I were I would add the fruit to the secondary just like dry hoping.

4. I keg and use a counter pressure to bottle 3 or 4-22 ozers for competition ect. It's an expensive set up but its worth it in the long run.

Go straight to a 6.5gal bucket or two and start brewin!

I'm up to four buckets and four corney kegs now. With two taps, this lets me ferment for four weeks and use two kegs for carbing/conditioning. When one keg on tap runs out, the rotation begins. New keg is ready to tap, enpty keg is filled from a bucket, and we brew new to fill the e,pty bucket!

Fruit should go into your fermenter, not the boil. Assuming you ferment for about four weeks, add in week three, then strain and bottle/keg.

Many people say the extract-flavors taste artificial (ie cherry tastes like cough syrup).

An alternative is simulating the taste you are going for by using spices that remind you of the fruit. IE instead of apple, try for apple pie-type spices.

Chest freezer will require additional regulator won't it? They are conveneint though. Craig's List for a used refer can leave more $ for the setup. I had a basement one with extra room which decided it for me. Split fridge/freezer and I can fit 3 corny's and the CO2 on the wood base I built raising the bottom 8-10". Still room for two shelves above for whatever.

How to Brew, but 3rd edition in print better than online 1st. I still like Papazian's because it was my first and the source of RDWHAHB.

Go easy on the extracts, add slowly to taste. Too many, including me, dumped the recommended amount which was too much and bound to tast like cough syrup. Fresh fruit is great by must be prepared or at least a moderate risk of infection when the yeast is less able to fight? I add to secondary. Others like coffee at bottling.

Kegs, did you forget about your first questions? just givin ya .....

I assume that primary and secondary refer to moving your fermenting brew from one carboy to another? Why would you do this?

By the way ya'll are awesome.

The latest from John Palmer on the AHA website is that at this point, him, Jamil and the White Labs/Wyeast folks recommend a secondary (which is transferring into a clean carboy) for secondary ferments only (like adding fruit, or souring)

When you're adding fruits, you're adding more sugars that will be fermented, so you're basically kickstarting the beer fermenting again....but it does it good to rack off of the yeast/hops/general trub that collects in the primary. Although to be completely honesty I'm sure you could get perfectly fine results just adding fruit to your primary.

To answer your original questions
- I used a chest freezer and I'm very happy with it. A $180 freezer can be modified to hold 4 kegs, and you're hard pressed to find a fridge with that kind of capacity for cheap.
- I just started kegging and it was the best thing I've done. It's $$$$, but it makes brewing SO MUCH EASIER. I used to dread bottling day. Now transfers take 10 minutes.
- Fourthing the recommendation for How To Brew. More info in there than you'll probably ever need to know.

I might add, being another Californian, getting a fridge to control your ferment temps (or doing it another way) is also a very good thing for your beer. I know nowhere in my house stays 65* consistently, so I used a fridge with a temp controller as my fermenting chamber.

1. sanyo 4912, I've done the same thing.
2. How to Brew, Clone Brews, BYO magazine subscription
3. sorry, dunno about these
4. I've started kegging, and I'll never look back!

2. I have to agree with just about everyone else on How to Brew by John Palmer, it's been really useful. Yeast: A Practical Guide to Fermentation by Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff was a pretty interesting read with a lot of useful info on fermentation. Currently working my way through Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff & John Palmer. Brew Your Own has been pretty cool as well.
3. I've only done one fruit brew, a Mango Wheat and racking directly onto it in secondary seemed to work really well. It took about 6 pounds for 5 gallons, but the mango flavor was definitely there.
4. Unfortunately I still bottle, and from what I have read in the forums it has its advantages but I can't wait to switch to a kegging system.