Mr Beer - Read all about it and ask questions

DonutMuncher said:

Ahh.. I guess I figured carboys seemed popular among a lot of brewers. Why do you think it's overkill... because it's really heavy and expensive for just fermenting? If that's the case, I think I do see your point - it's much cheaper to get some plastic buckets.

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Carboys are a lot harder to clean and to work with in general. Which is easier to pour hot, sticky liquid into: a basketball hoop or a golf hole? Basketball hoop = bucket, golf hole = carboy.

Also, buckets are often an *order of magnitude* cheaper than carboys -- but if you get one free then it is *infinitely* cheaper (well, I guess it would actually be undefined cheaper, since you can't divide by zero -- whatever, the point stands).

One thing.. I do like smaller batches (2.5-3 gallons). Can you ferment a 2.5 gallon batch inside a 7 gallon bucket? Is that too much headspace.. or does headspace in the fermenter not even matter?

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I mainly brew 3 gallon batches in 7 gallon buckets and I've never had an issue. There's enough CO2 to still bubble the airlock, so there's plenty of nice, heavy CO2 to push the nasty, light O2 right out of there.

For secondary I use my wine-making carboy. That is, I *would* use it... but I've never secondaried a beer. When I did a smaller batch of apfelwein in my carboy I dropped a couple small pieces of dry ice in. A few grams of dry ice turns into a dozen liters of CO2, and pieces that small sublimate (solids don't evaporate) nearly instantaneously.

C = 12g/mole
O = 16g/mole
CO2 = 44g/mole
1 mole gas = 22.4 L
3 gal = 11.3 L ~ 22g dry ice (about 4 nickels' worth of weight)

If you use CO2 to fill the headspace on your carboy, you might make sure you don't seal the top until the gas has sublimated... or else it could be "energetic" in your airlock.

Oooh... thanks Justibone, you have been infinitely helpful. I'll peruse my local grocery stores and Wally World (per recommendations on this site) in an attempt to grab a free bucket in the near future.

Chris6, I'm certainly no veteran, but if you're still relatively new to the game and like the kits, I've heard the ones from homebrew stores are often much better (like AHBS and Northwest Brewers). They usually make 5 gallon batches, but you can slice them in half to make two 2.5 gallon batches. I think these kits tend to taste much better, especially if you get ones that come with specialty grains and hops, which you probably did not get with the Mr. Beer ones. I'm probably going to venture this way next (still have some more Mr. Beer brews to do).

But if you're going away from kits altogether, I'm still too new to be able to give you any recipe advice

I really don't want to split the kits in half because I have to make 2 batches of that brew. I've made a hefeweizen from a 2.5 gallon recipe one member gave me and hopefully came out delicious. Its bottled and needs one more week.

But moving away from Mr. Beer is a great thing to do. The quality of the beer increases greatly.

Chris6 said:

I really don't want to split the kits in half because I have to make 2 batches of that brew.

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Sometimes two batches is a good thing, because you can make it "straight" and then a variation. When I made wheat beer I made half of it just wheat beer and half into a shandy... gets twice as much experimentation done in the same amount of time.

i Started out/ am in the process of making the Mr. Beer West Coast pale ale, i never thought brewing could be so much fun, i think this is going to be a life long hobby of mine

BrewNewbI3 said:

i Started out/ am in the process of making the Mr. Beer West Coast pale ale, i never thought brewing could be so much fun, i think this is going to be a life long hobby of mine

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Haha, a lot of guys end up feeling that way.

I tested a batch of beer a bit early and it has no head at all

is this normal? it's an amber ale and it was in fermenter for 2 weeks, conditioned for 1.5 weeks.. fridge for 2 days. I have the bulk of it still conditioning i was just worried there might have been an infection. It seemed to taste fine.

Lack of head is not usually a sign of infection. Don't worry, your beer is fine.

Lack of head has more to do with the proteins in the beer instead of infection. The most probable causes of lack of head are:

1) incomplete carbonation
2) recipe doesn't have ingredients that give [the beer] good head
3) bottles in the dishwasher or otherwise exposed to soap that prevents head proteins from forming head
4) bad luck!

But a lack of beer head is not a sign of infection that I've ever heard of.

EDIT -- REASON 5: your beer glass could have soap or another material inhibiting good head formation.

hmm i could see 5 being it.

Either way doesn't seem like a big deal. People just seem excited about things like a good head on a beer.. Thanks guys, i got one more question, i need to bottle today but i'm not all that sure how much priming sugar to throw in the fermenter?

Got 3/4 or whatever the package says, got it from the LHBS and it's made for 5 gallons.. but i know Mr. Beer is really like 2 gallons.. but that's 8 quarts right? and there's 8.5 quarts in a mr. Beer, probably going to lose out on some Dextrose..

Ringmaster, 3 & 1/2 weeks is not enough time for the beer to fully mature
and probably why there was not much head. 3 weeks in the fermenter and
3 weeks carbing at room temp will yield much better results.
It would be better to add your sugar to the bottles. If you stir it in the
fermenter it's going to be a total mess. There are some experienced MB
brewers over at : http://www.mrbeerfans.com/ubbthreads/
that could help you out quicker with any questions. My appologies if that
was against the rules ect...just trying to help out.

I'm pretty sure people say they mix it up in a bottling bucket, and that you can do it in a fermenter if you give things half an hour to settle back down.. Besides things will be settling to the bottom of the bottle while they sit in the fridge, i usually give it a couple of weeks and i don't have to worry about anything floating in the beer.

By 2 weeks the Attenuative phase should be done anyway. So why can't i just let it condition in the bottle instead of the fermenter?

Thanks for the forum!

You could move it to another vessel and mix it but there is a small risk of
infection. Stirring sugar in the fermenter could bring up some trub or off
flavors that have settled. Not sure if 30 minutes would be enough time to
clear. Honestly, adding sugar to the bottles takes about 1 minute and is
probably the fastest step to bottling. I use the dominos dots sugar cubes
that are 1/2 tsp size for the 12 oz bottles and a small funnel and appropriate
size measure for other bottles. 10 days is probably enough time for the yeasts
to consume all the sugar in the wort but they continue to clear and clean up
after themselves for days afterwards. I get clearer and better beer faster
by letting it stay in the fermenter 18 -21 days than rushing it to bottles.

Personally I don't know anyone that advocates batch priming in the primary fermenter, unless you are talking about a second fermenter that is empty. That is done quite frequently if you have another Mr. Beer fermenter or bottling bucket. You would have to mix the priming sugar and would completely resuspend any and all trub. It would take several hours if not days to settle, and by that time your fermentation from the priming sugar would have already taken off This would at the very least result in much more sediment in your bottles than necessary.

If you lack a bottling bucket or another fermenter to use as a bottling bucket, I would forgo the batch priming and just do as HJ recommends and measure priming sugar to the individual bottles. If done with some attentiveness, there won't be much variation between bottles.... I used to do this all the time.

I wouldn't recommend the amounts of priming sugar that the Mr. Beer guide says though, to me that is way too much carbonation. I use http://kotmf.com/tools/prime.php to figure my desired CO2 volume.

Once bottled, you may condition them any length of time you desire.

Guess i'll just stick with the dextrose tablets until i get a bottling bucket. I guess i'm a little paranoid about Autolysis, i hear it can start creeping up at 3 weeks.

What does leaving the beer sitting on a bunch of dead or i guess possibly dormant yeast really do for the beer? Wouldn't it be better to get it out of the primary fermenter sooner?

Ringmaster said:

What does leaving the beer sitting on a bunch of dead or i guess possibly dormant yeast really do for the beer? Wouldn't it be better to get it out of the primary fermenter sooner?

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Yes, it is probably better to get the beer off the yeast cake rather than let it sit.

HOWEVER:

The risk of contamination is greater than the risk of autolysis at the three week point, IMO.

YMMV.

Well yeah but i gotta bottle anyway and i know the beer can condition in the bottles, so why don't i just let it condition for longer?

It cuts the secondary out of the picture and i get to free up the fermenter faster. Is bottle conditioning bad?

Ringmaster said:

It cuts the secondary out of the picture and i get to free up the fermenter faster. Is bottle conditioning bad?

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Secondary is only de rigeur if you are adding extra flavoring, i.e., hops or fruit or something. It's also helpful if the beer is a big one, i.e., 8+% ABV, I guess. Few people recommend secondaries for most homebrew beer.

Bottle conditioning is not bad, it is good.

I am concerned you are making a false choice, i.e., do a secondary or bottle condition longer. The recommendations (and that is *all* they are) would be more towards allowing bulk aging in the primary fermenter in order to help clean up side reaction products -- which add less-than-yummy flavors to a beer.

So, bottle conditioning is nice, but it can't make up for too-short of a primary. On the contrary, if you slice too much time off the primary and the fermentation isn't complete you will have a good new name for your brewery: Grenade Grains...

So, a little extra time in the primary is a good thing, and it can do some things that even bottle conditioning won't, so don't be afraid to give it a chance.

Hey,

Like most people, I got Mr. Beer as a gift and am ready to brew my first batch.

Here's my what's holding me back. I have the St. Patrick's Irish Stout beer mix and I want a little more abv. I stopped by my local brew supply store and he gave me a can of Pale Malt Extract 1.4lbs. The can says that all it needs is to be boiled.

So, when and how do I add this to the Mr. Beer process? Do I add it after I bring the Booster to a boil? Or do I add it at the same time I add the can of the Irish Stout mix?

By adding up the numbers in Mr. Beer's brewing guide, this will give me 6% abv. Can I only add a half of can of the Pale Malt Extract to give me about 4.8 to 5%?

Thanks,
E

Monkey55 said:

Hey,

Like most people, I got Mr. Beer as a gift and am ready to brew my first batch.

Here's my what's holding me back. I have the St. Patrick's Irish Stout beer mix and I want a little more abv. I stopped by my local brew supply store and he gave me a can of Pale Malt Extract 1.4lbs. The can says that all it needs is to be boiled.

So, when and how do I add this to the Mr. Beer process? Do I add it after I bring the Booster to a boil? Or do I add it at the same time I add the can of the Irish Stout mix?

By adding up the numbers in Mr. Beer's brewing guide, this will give me 6% abv. Can I only add a half of can of the Pale Malt Extract to give me about 4.8 to 5%?

Thanks,
E

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I'd recommend replacing the Booster with the Malt Extract .

Bring your water to a boil (add a little more than what Mr Beer calls for to account for some to be boiled off), remove from heat and add the Pale Malt Extract. Stir it in completely and return to heat. Boil for 15 minutes, then remove from heat and add the St. Patrick's Irish Stout. Follow the Mr Beer directions from this point on, except leave your beer in the fermentor for 3 weeks. One week just doesn't cut it.

Tombstone0 said:

I'd recommend replacing the Booster with the Malt Extract .

Bring your water to a boil (add a little more than what Mr Beer calls for to account for some to be boiled off), remove from heat and add the Pale Malt Extract. Stir it in completely and return to heat. Boil for 15 minutes, then remove from heat and add the St. Patrick's Irish Stout. Follow the Mr Beer directions from this point on, except leave your beer in the fermentor for 3 weeks. One week just doesn't cut it.

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That was FAST..

THANKS!!!!!! That clears up a lot.

So the fermetation process will take longer because I'll be using a the malt extract instead of Mr. Beer's booster?

Thanks
E

Monkey55 said:

That was FAST..

THANKS!!!!!! That clears up a lot.

So the fermetation process will take longer because I'll be using a the malt extract instead of Mr. Beer's booster?

Thanks
E

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Actually, you'd want to allow more time for the fermentation whether you use the booster or not, Mr. Beer's instructions just recommend a time that's too short to really get a quality result. The fermentation should actually be done in less than a week, but by letting the beer sit in the fermentor the yeast will clean up some of the off flavors produced during the fermentation. Allowing the beer to age longer in the bottles will give you a better result as well. Depending on the temperature it can take 3 or more weeks to carbonate and condition fully, though if they're around 70 it will usually be carbonated faster than that. I usually pop one open each week, because I like to see how they're progressing, and I'm impatient.

I'm recommending you replace the Booster because, it's basically only sugar. Using it boosts the alcohol but gives the beer a thinner more watery flavor. If you're used to light beers that might not be a bad thing, though. Also, I'm guessing that the Malt Extract will provide more alcohol than the booster so you might hit the alcohol you're aiming for without using the booster.

A few more recommendations. First try to keep your fermentation in the mid 60's, if it's in the 70's that's ok, but the beer will be better in the mid 60's. Second, replacing the Mr. Beer yeast is also a good idea. I like Fermentis US-05 dry yeast, it's cheap and works well. The Mr. Beer Yeast will work fine for your first few times, though. I eventually came to think of the flavor that Mr. Beer yeast gives a beer as "That Mr. Beer Flavor", other people who didn't drink my beer as often as I did, had no idea what I was talking about, though. You won't likely notice it until you've made quite a few batches.

Alright Alright, i'll let things sit for 3 weeks in primary. That'll make it close to 2 months before i can drink the beer..

On another note i'm going to make Ed's Apfelwein in the next couple of days picked up the yeast but i forgot to grab starsan while i was at the LHBS.

Starsan is good, I like it. But in a pinch, and the way we used to do it 'old school', is a capful of regular ordinary household bleach in a gallon of water works too. Let the stuff sit in it for about 30 minutes, then rinse. Good to go. (I used this on my last batch of Apfelwein, and it turned out great)

That reminds me, I need to do another batch, it's been about a year now.

First of all this is an awesome forum, have learned so much, but am still a noob. After reading several days on the forum, I took the plunge and bought some equipment from Mr Beer, I got two fermintation barrels, and I bought 2 premium beer's the Pilothouse Pilsner and the Bohemian Pislner. Along with a mini auto syphon some tubing 2 cases of glass bottles and capper and some corn sugar.

On Saturday I made the beer and pitched the Mr Beer yeast at 70 degrees then placed them in my storage room which is dark and cool, it stayed at 70 through the week-end, however the temp of my wort dropped to 66 yesterday(so says Mr Beer stick on temp gauge), I am worried that this may be to low for the Mr Beer Yeast, I was planing on doing a 3-3-1 on the beer, but now I am wondering if I should move it to a warmer location?

Please advise

The 66 degree temp is actually where you want to be with Mr. Beer recipies. I leave my batches in the fermentor for two or three weeks at temps between 66-68 until about two days before bottling. I then let the temps ramp up to room temp. More time is really needed when it comes to Mr. Beer recipies. The 2-2-2 is really the minimum amount of time to allow.

+1 on subbing the Booster. You can always use it on another batch later.

The malt you bought is better than booster b/c the yeast won't eat all of the malt, therefore leaving something behind for you to actually taste. In a stout you pretty much want as much flavor as you can get, and the malt will give better flavor than the booster.

Use the booster on something pale, or something where you want a nice, crisp flavor.

LCTitan said:

The 66 degree temp is actually where you want to be with Mr. Beer recipies. I leave my batches in the fermentor for two or three weeks at temps between 66-68 until about two days before bottling. I then let the temps ramp up to room temp. More time is really needed when it comes to Mr. Beer recipies. The 2-2-2 is really the minimum amount of time to allow.

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So I should move it to a warmer area acouple of days before bottling? Thanks for the fast response.

presby72 said:

So I should move it to a warmer area acouple of days before bottling? Thanks for the fast response.

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It's not totally essential. It's helpful for the yeast so that they can have the extra energy to be able to clean up some of their own byproducts, but if you forget I wouldn't stress it.

I have been reading for quite some time I don't post that often but I thought I would add this little tidbit of information. The Mrs. gave me one of these "devices" for a gift some time back and I have had the chance the use it a couple of times using extract recipes.....Some turned out some didn't.

I now own two of the "kegs" and I still use them for brewing. The thing that does get to me and it's not here but many other dark corners of the internet is you will have people say its not real home brewing....I look at this way I am making a smaller batch is all...I find that it is easier for my Mrs. to deal with as well because it is easily stored.....

In fact here are two brews I started on Sunday...one is the Mr. Beer fall Seasonal Brown and the other is a black and blue berry amber ale..



The Fall Seasonal

Use the booster for your apfelwein! They work great in them!

Thanks Tombstone and JusTibone.

I'm starting to understamd brewing a little moRe.

I just came across the thread "Ignore the Instructions.". I'm definitely going to let the yeast clean up after themselves.

Thanks,
E

nianticcardplayer said:

I have been reading for quite some time I don't post that often but I thought I would add this little tidbit of information. The Mrs. gave me one of these "devices" for a gift some time back and I have had the chance the use it a couple of times using extract recipes.....Some turned out some didn't.

I now own two of the "kegs" and I still use them for brewing. The thing that does get to me and it's not here but many other dark corners of the internet is you will have people say its not real home brewing....I look at this way I am making a smaller batch is all...I find that it is easier for my Mrs. to deal with as well because it is easily stored.....

In fact here are two brews I started on Sunday...one is the Mr. Beer fall Seasonal Brown and the other is a black and blue berry amber ale..

The Fall Seasonal

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I can't get over how much it looks like a football...

It is brewing. Specifically, it is small-batch extract brewing, and anyone who says otherwise is a fool. If you want to be able to tinker more with recipes and whatnot, then other brewing tools will help you grow and expand in your knowledge, ability, and batch size... but no one says you have to do any of that.

In the end, the only people who are allowed any input into how and what you brew are the people drinking your brew, and if you don't like what they say then don't give 'em any more beer!

"...this is not a DEMocracy, this is a BEERocracy and I'm the beertator!!" ~paraphrased from movie "Bring It On" :fro:

Hey guys, first-time Mr. Beer brewer here. I've been reading this forum and learning a lot, I'm really excited to get into brewing but I'm worried that my first batch is ruined (I know, I know, RDWAHAHB, but here me out).

I've been fermenting for 8 days now and have seen absolutely no activity. No krausen at all, the fermenter doesn't look anything close to Niantic's pictures above. I've been keeping the fermenter in a rubermaid bin with frozen water bottles and the ambient temp has been consistently between 63-70 degrees. Shouldn't I have seen some krausen by now? Is it possible that I have dead yeast, or that I pitched the yeast when the wort was too warm?

OrelMiraculous said:

Hey guys, first-time Mr. Beer brewer here. I've been reading this forum and learning a lot, I'm really excited to get into brewing but I'm worried that my first batch is ruined (I know, I know, RDWAHAHB, but here me out).

I've been fermenting for 8 days now and have seen absolutely no activity. No krausen at all, the fermenter doesn't look anything close to Niantic's pictures above. I've been keeping the fermenter in a rubermaid bin with frozen water bottles and the ambient temp has been consistently between 63-70 degrees. Shouldn't I have seen some krausen by now? Is it possible that I have dead yeast, or that I pitched the yeast when the wort was too warm?

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Not necessarily, sometimes fermentation can be very fast, and you might have just missed it. If you have a hydrometer, take a reading and tell us what it is. If you don't, pour a little in a cup and taste it. If it's very sweet it hasn't fermented, and you might want to get some yeast from a homebrew store and add it in.

Be carefull with making a batch of beer using the Mr. Beer instructions. They neglect to tell you anything about temperature of your wort/added water combination before you pitch your yeast. You will want to get a thermometer to take this reading before you pitch your yeast. That said all four of my batches to date have fermented well. I am finding that Mr. Beer is a nice launching pad into five gallon extract kits. Make your mistakes now and learn as much as possible as you go.

With the Mr. Beer yeast, you may or may not have any krausen to speak of. It seems to happen pretty fast and usually when no on is looking.

If you have sediment on the bottom, then you have activity. Give it the correct amount of time (as described here, not in the MB instructions). More than likely, you have made beer.

Tombstone0 said:

Not necessarily, sometimes fermentation can be very fast, and you might have just missed it. If you have a hydrometer, take a reading and tell us what it is. If you don't, pour a little in a cup and taste it. If it's very sweet it hasn't fermented, and you might want to get some yeast from a homebrew store and add it in.

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Might I suggest some US-05 ?
The MrBeer yeast was not the best in my eyes after a few batches.
I stored it in the fridge and when brewing a batch I tossed a packet in boil purposefully killing it to be used as a yeast nutrient for the US-05.

+1 on both the US-05 and the source of the yeast nutrient.

Banjoman76 said:

Might I suggest some US-05 ?
The MrBeer yeast was not the best in my eyes after a few batches.
I stored it in the fridge and when brewing a batch I tossed a packet in boil purposefully killing it to be used as a yeast nutrient for the US-05.

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I agree, I use US-05 in most of my beers.
You can actually buy several fermentis dry yeasts on Mr. Beer's site, along with several Wyeast liquid yeasts. US-05 is actually about a dollar cheaper at my local homebrew store so if you have one nearby I'd recommend picking it up there.
Nottingham is another good choice, if you can keep your fermentation temperatures in the mid 60s, but they don't sell that on the Mr. Beer site.