Three questions from the brewing but confused.

Hi All,

I'm new to this whole home brewing thing, though not to drinking beer. My lovely wife was kind enough to buy me a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas. However, after starting up my first Mr. Beer brew (it's still fermenting which leads to question one) I have greater aspirations. Maybe even some all grain brewing.

Anyhow, my three questions are:

1) I'm still fermenting my first Mr. Beer brew (it's been in the little keg thingy for 8 days). It's never really foamed vigorously by any stretch of the imagination. I pulled a little this evening and it smells like a piece of bread and tastes very sweet so I'm assuming that it's got a while to go before all the available sugars are consumed by the yeast. However, I'm wondering if the yeast I got was of poor quality. The beer does not taste sour or vinegary so I don't think it's been contaminated. Should I consider re-pitching? Or should I just throw it out and start over?

Which leads to my next question.....

2) After this beer in the Mr. Beer I plan on moving to a two stage brewing system for my next batch. The common volume of beer for most batches seems from my reading to be 5 gallons. A bit of elementary math tells me that 5 gallons of beer produces 50 some off 12oz bottles. That seems like a lot of beer. How long does it take you guys to burn though a 5 gallon batch? Do you get tired of a beer by the time you are close to finishing it? I don't know that I'd have much help either as my wife does not really like beer and the older I get, the less help I get from my friends. Does it keep long? Years? Or will it get skunky in brown bottles if I don't get to it in 6 months?

Which leads me to my next question......

3) If 5 gallons is too much for me to brew with any hope of drinking it in an appreciable amount of time, do beer recipes scale well? Does it work to simply turn a recipe for 5 gallons into a recipe for 2.5 by simply halving everything?

Now those are three long winded questions. I'm really excited about the prospect of brewing my own beer. Thanks everyone.

3. Working from the bottom up, brewing scales very well. You can cut a recipe in half or quarters. In fact, Cooper's sells 6L brew kits in Japan. You can double it or scale it to 1000 barrel batches.

2. I generally have 6-8 five gallon cornies sitting around and probably brew once or twice a month. If I get tired of a flavor, I take it to a homebrew meeting.

1. Your fermentor may just be cold. Most ale yeasts like it around 70-72F. Repitching can't hurt. A buck for a package of Munton's or Cooper's dry ale yeast is cheap insurance.

). How does your wife feel about cider? It's even easier than beer.

Ditch Mr. Beer and go to the full 5 gal thing. I started with a Beer Machine, and quickly outgrew it. The fear of not being able to drink 5 gallons of beer evaporates as soon as you have a couple of friends over. Honestly, when I started brewing, I thought 5 g was going to be nigh undrinkable. Well, it IS quite easily consumed. Your worry will soon be to brew enough!

As for your current batch, it doesn't sound like it's doing much... after 8 days it should be damn near done fermenting... I agree with all of d42's advice.

I have a little thermometer that I've been keeping right next to the fermentor that reads between 70-75 degrees. How much yeast should I re-pitch with? The Mr. Beer things says it makes 2 gallons of beer if that helps.

It's interesting that you mention cider. I was thinking about using the little Mr. Beer fermentor to make cider or mead for her. She does like cider.

That makes me happy to learn that recipies scale well. Unless I find that 2.5 gallons of beer is too little, I'm probably best off that way.

Thanks.

As above. Repitch with some decent ale yeast.

Beer will last a long time in the bottle as long oxidation is minimal. After the first 24 hours you do not want any O2 in your beer. Be careful not to splash wen you are bottling etc. You can add a bit of ascorbic acid to your beer before bottling (or to the carboy/brewing device) if you are worried about O2.

I started with Mr.Beer too. The first thing is ,most of the yeast they sell in the kits is old,they sit on the shelf a long time . Try to keep around 70 degrees if a Ale or 45 degrees a lager. I learned a lot of basics with he kit, then moved to five gallon extract kits and now I am doing all grains.

The best I can say is the info I have seen or read is beer life is about three months at bestonce bottled but could be longer if stored in a closed closet. For as consumtion of the beer to each is own on what we drink and how much.

Halfing a all grain Kit might work well for you. I did not try this I just moved up, but remember, Practice makes perfect. I still use my mr. Beer kegs for fementing in my fridge and making soda.

Dirtpusher

mezman said:

How long does it take you guys to burn though a 5 gallon batch? Do you get tired of a beer by the time you are close to finishing it? I don't know that I'd have much help either as my wife does not really like beer and the older I get, the less help I get from my friends. Does it keep long? Years?

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As you consider quantity to brew, consider the following:
- Many beers will continue to develop (i.e. improve) over 5 to 8 months in bottles, with heavier beers lasting longer (and also taking longer to be good enough to drink).

- You're probably only going to drink 10-11 oz of each 12 oz beer, or 14-15 oz of every 16 oz beer, since you'll leave some on the bottom to keep the sediment (dormant yeast, etc) in the bottle.

- If you test for gravity, you'll loose a little to that and a little to evaporation. Not much, but perhaps as much as 20-40 oz depending on the amount tested.

I mention this only to suggest that there may be less drinking per 5G batch than you think.

As for getting tired of a beer, think about how you drink now? Do you always buy different brands, or stick with one for awhile? For me, I have a two-three different homebrews on hand, but I don't think I'd fret if there was only one for awhile. Personal choice.

Have fun!

Can you use a mini CO2 cartridge with those Mr. Beer kegs? I saw a mr beer keg in the paper for cheap and thought it might be useful as a mini keg.

If I were you I would at least get a food grade 6 gallon bucket with lid and airlock and brew in that. You could still put half in bottles and the rest in the keg. Unless it uses those co2 cartridges you'd be best to use it fairly soon after you tap it or will go flat.

Hi Denny's Brew - I don't think you can you can charge a Mr. Beer keg with CO2. It's got a one way vavle to vent off the fermentation gasses, so unless you plugged them, you wouldn't be able to hold any pressure in it. It's also made of pretty thin plastic so I don't know how sturdy it would be in any case.

Et. Al - I went to the local brew store last night and bought a fresh packet of yeast (Nottingham to be specific) and re-pitched the beer. It looked promising at first with some good looking yeasty bubbles, but after about three hours activity stopped again and was not too promising looking this morning.

I'm gonna taste it when I get home, but if it's sweet at all, I'd be awfully leery of bottling because I don't want my bottles to a-splode. Any specific advice on what I should be looking for or tasting for before making the go/no-go decision and possibly throwing it out? Thanks again!

It can take up to 24 hours for yeast to get going depending on the various conditions. Do you have a hydrometer? If so take a reading then take another reading in a coupe days. If they are the same then probably ok to bottle. Give it a week if you are still leary or have no hydrometer.

What was the kit/recipe?

The first 24 hours or so after yeast pitch in is aerobic and produces no alchohol, just CO2 and some other things. It will swith into anaerobic mode and will start crunching sugar into booze after that.

Your temp seems ok. Though air temp and liquid temp usually differ. Liquid often a couple deg less since it cools during the night when you have the heat down and takes time to warm up to air temp. The yeast munching action adds some heat though.

Buy a cheap floating aquarium thermometer. There only a couple bucks and you can often find them at a do store. Santise it in bleach water or whatever and rinse it off then drop it in there for a minute. Only way to get a reliable reading.

There is a good chance it's done already though. Do you know what the OG was supposed to be based on the kit? SOmetimes you don't get a big fermentation, particularaly when the temps are a bit low.
If you had a hydrometer you could tell if it's pretty much done.

I dont' have a hydrometer. The new yeast has been in for two days now and the old for eight. I tasted it last night and it no longer tasted sweet to me, at least not like last time, but tasted a little more sour, which was a bit concerning since I hear that one way to tell if your wort was contaminated.

I think I might bottle it this weekend and see how it goes. As long as the bottles don't explode, whats the worst that could happen? I end up wth some bad tasting beer and need to start over, right?