Just made the jump from Mr. Beer to a 5 gallon setup!

And I'm super pumped. So if anyone has tricks to make the transition any easier/better/tastier, feel free to chime in! I just wanted to brag really, i feel pretty accomplished, albeit a tad scared at the same time.

Congrats. If you've already done a couple Mr beer brews, you should be ready to try a steeping or partial mash recipe. A couple of pointers from another former Mr beer brewer.

1. I found adding specialty grains made a large difference.

2. Don't be afraid to continue using dry yeast. Danstar makes some cheap and reliable dry yeast.

3. Rehydrate dry yeast. I can't stress this enough.

4. Check out the brewing network. They have pod casts that have been extremely helpful. I personally enjoy strong brew.

Have fun!

Hey, thanks for the info! My first pitch in a mrb keg with liquid yeast didnt go so well. It didnt really seem like it was as aggressive as even the mrb yeast, which i did not care for honestly. We will see what the final product yeilds, but i am feeling like a whole new world has opened up to me with a plethora of options and infinite possibilities. Now, if i could only figure out how to decipher some of these amazing recipes!

Enjoy ! It just keeps getting better. . . . . .

NRS

And you keep spending more and more money, I'm addicted.

I still have a couple mr beer kits laying around; I found that getting 5 gallons instead of two gallons for the same effort is way worth any additional cost.

For five gallon batches you might want to try partial mash on the stove top. Most recipe kits involve some sort of steeping so if you've done that you can handle a partial mash for sure!

Have fun!

Definitely check out brew in a bag for partial mashing. It is extremely easy and adds a lot of flexibility. I would also picking up john palmers 'how to brew'.

Malric said:

Definitely check out brew in a bag for partial mashing. It is extremely easy and adds a lot of flexibility. I would also picking up john palmers 'how to brew'.

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Yes! Excellent advice, definitely will pick that up asap after my first brewcraft kit is fermenting. I will be steeping so e stuff for this batch, so i will have a little experience with the process.

What kind of thermometer would i want to use to check the steeping temps on the stove? Also, when sterilizing bottles in the oven, can i do the bottle caps as well, or should i not bother and use liquid sterilizer?

I got a 12" thermometer this one and have been happy with it. I wouldn't mess around with the oven, I'd suggest some StarSan liquid sanitizer.

I've never baked or heat dried to sterilize. I found that star san works well. Just dill up a 5 gallon bucket and throw a bunch of bottles in.

I personally went to a three keg kegerator after 15 batches. A lot less time consuming and I brew more often.

Malric said:

I've never baked or heat dried to sterilize. I found that star san works well. Just dill up a 5 gallon bucket and throw a bunch of bottles in.

I personally went to a three keg kegerator after 15 batches. A lot less time consuming and I brew more often.

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Stop it, you're making me want to spend more money!!!

Heh, that's a regular feeling. I just finished my fermentation chamber. Old fridge, dual stage temp controller and dyi ferm (heat) wrap. Before that, I built a 120v 2000w heat stick to help with the boil. Next project is a hop spider.

Remember, brewing is cheap, its the equipment and tinkering that will add up.

Yes. I spent a lot on my initial investment for equipment but it will pay off down the road.

I have starsan so i will try that first. It just seems that baking is a little less hasstle if you hate sanitizing a ton of bottles every time you are ready to bottle. Some people have seen results and are fine with baking bottles every time, so i was curious.

+1 on the starsan and dont fear the foam.

I understand you not wanting to cough up any more cash, but think of it the other way - if you don't sanitize well, you throw away the money you paid for your ingredients as well as your time. Also, I would personally rather spend 20 bucks on star-san than burn the $#@! out of my hand.

If you have a dish-washer, empty it, run a cycle of water through it to rinse out all of the soap and then run it again with your bottles in upside down. The drying cycle will sanitize the bottles.

If you're going to go with liquid yeast for your 5 gallon batches, you'll want to make a starter. If you're going to make a starter, you'll want to use a pitching rate calculator to determine how big of a starter to make. Pitching the right amount of yeast is one of the top 3 things you can do to make a great tasting extract brew (with the other two being temperature control during fermentation and proper bulk aging). The pitching rate calculator is here:

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

If you've got enough yeast to do the job effectively, at the right temperature, and at the right time, you can make virtually any recipe taste great.

Cool, i will use that religiously! Starsan comes in such a tiny bottle, cost me 4 bucks. Thats the primary reason i want to elongate it's usefulness and use the oven technique..

You can stretch out the star san. I mix up 5 gallon batches and store part of it in a keg. I also keep some in a spray bottle to hit my keezer taps, hands, etc. It's still active as long it foams.

The 32 oz bottle works out to 50 cents per 2.5 gallons of sanitizer
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=513

I would suggest sticking with dry yeast for a bit until your comfortable with your process. Liquid isn't all that difficult, but you do need to plan a couple of days ahead of brew day. I ended up buying a stir plate from Rebel Brewer because my dyi plate kept tossing the stir bar.

http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/products/Stirstarter-Economy-Stir-Plate.html

Kegging is expensive, but substantially less time consuming. I couldn't find anything on craigslist, so I bought most of my stuff through kegconnection.

http://www.kegconnection.com/