Just poured my first home brew

[quincy07]

So after 4 weeks, I just poured my first home brew. It is Mr. Beer's Classic American Light, or something like that. It was in the fermenter for 3 weeks, would have bottled after 2 had I not melted the plastic bottles that came w the kit in my dishwasher, and in the bottle for a week. I put one in the fridge last night to test the progress. It is slightly under-carbonated and tastes a little yeasty. I think the yeast taste could be because I didn't leave the yeast in the bottom of the bottle. The color is darker than I would expect an "American Light" to be, but that could be because I followed the Mr Beer instructions and boiled the LME. I think I'll leave the rest of them alone for another couple weeks and see how they taste then and in the mean time plan my next brew. Thanks for all the insight I have received from everyone on this forum, it has been very helpful and I have learned a lot.

 

[unionrdr]

They def need 3-4 weeks on average at room temp to carbonate & condition. Then a week fridge time to allow any chill haze to form & settle. You'll also get more co2 into solution for longer lasting carbonation in the glass & good head. Also,late extract additions will give a lighter color & cleaner flavor from less maillard reactions.

 

[Jaybird]

I have had the "American Light" and I too thought it was too dark for the style. It seems like all the Mr. Beer kits I have tasted had that "yeasty" taste to them. I think Mr. Beer can improve a lot on their kits. But they sell em' and it gets a ton of people into brewing, that's for sure.

Cheers
Jay

 

[Tinhorn]

That's where I started also and made me want to do it better
Figured more sugar and ginger would amp it up! It was swill and I drank it all! But made me want to figure it out ! Years later still learning

 

[BansheeRider]

So after 4 weeks, I just poured my first home brew. It is Mr. Beer's Classic American Light, or something like that. It was in the fermenter for 3 weeks, would have bottled after 2 had I not melted the plastic bottles that came w the kit in my dishwasher, and in the bottle for a week. I put one in the fridge last night to test the progress. It is slightly under-carbonated and tastes a little yeasty. I think the yeast taste could be because I didn't leave the yeast in the bottom of the bottle. The color is darker than I would expect an "American Light" to be, but that could be because I followed the Mr Beer instructions and boiled the LME. I think I'll leave the rest of them alone for another couple weeks and see how they taste then and in the mean time plan my next brew. Thanks for all the insight I have received from everyone on this forum, it has been very helpful and I have learned a lot.

So was the beer in the bottle for only a week? You should do 3 weeks in the LBk and 3 weeks bottle condition. Also you said you boiled the LME. From my experience mr beer LME is hopped (HLME), which means you don't have to boil the LME. Just boil the water, remove from burner and mix in the HLME. This will keep from darkening the wort too.

 

[quincy07]

So was the beer in the bottle for only a week? You should do 3 weeks in the LBk and 3 weeks bottle condition. Also you said you boiled the LME. From my experience mr beer LME is hopped (HLME), which means you don't have to boil the LME. Just boil the water, remove from burner and mix in the HLME. This will keep from darkening the wort too.

It was in the lbk for 3 and in the bottle for 1. I know you should wait for 3 weeks in the bottle I was just curious of how it was coming along. I was surprised it was carbed at all. And as far as the LME goes, I don't recall exactly if I boiled it or not. I followed the directions to a t so whatever they said to do is what I did.

 

[quincy07]

That's where I started also and made me want to do it better
Figured more sugar and ginger would amp it up! It was swill and I drank it all! But made me want to figure it out ! Years later still learning

My next brew definitely won't be a mr beer kit. Too expensive and I don't want to wait for shipping when I have have a LHBS right down the street.

 

[BansheeRider]

It was in the lbk for 3 and in the bottle for 1. I know you should wait for 3 weeks in the bottle I was just curious of how it was coming along. I was surprised it was carbed at all. And as far as the LME goes, I don't recall exactly if I boiled it or not. I followed the directions to a t so whatever they said to do is what I did.

Did the kit come with hops?

 

[quincy07]

Did the kit come with hops?

No. It was a hopped malt extract

 

[quincy07]

After another week in the bottles I poured another. It poured much clearer and the yeast taste is much less prevalent, but still present. It also didn't build much of a head, but has a good carbonation to it.

I have another in the fridge for me to drink tonight as I ran put of store bought. The rest I'll save for this weekend which will be 3 weeks in the bottle.

 

[Fancy_Pants]

Definitely pick up the book "How to Brew" by John Palmer, even if you are working from a kit. The instructions in the kit are for simplicity, the book will tell you which way you should do things and why. That said, the longer the beer is in bottle at room temperature, the better it will get. You could see remarkably better beer in 6 weeks.

 

[quincy07]

So after 3 weeks at room temp and 48 hours in the fridge I tried another. I'm starting to think the "yeast" flavor I was/am tasting isn't yeast at all but the "cider" flavor caused by table sugar at bottling. It is carbed well, perhaps a little over carbed, but still won't build much of a head. The head I'm getting is closer to that of a soda where it is larger bubbles that dissipate quickly. I think I added 1/4 tsp of table sugar to each 12 oz bottle. I am definitely not going to be doing that again in the future and will opt for corn sugar, dissolved in a little water, and a bottling bucket.

 

[quincy07]

Definitely pick up the book "How to Brew" by John Palmer, even if you are working from a kit. The instructions in the kit are for simplicity, the book will tell you which way you should do things and why. That said, the longer the beer is in bottle at room temperature, the better it will get. You could see remarkably better beer in 6 weeks.

I have ordered "How to Brew" online and am waiting for it to be delivered. In the meantime I will continue to browse this forum and soak up as much info as possible.

 

[thatjonguy]

I have ordered "How to Brew" online and am waiting for it to be delivered. In the meantime I will continue to browse this forum and soak up as much info as possible.

You can read the first edition of How to Brew online for free.

 

[quincy07]

You can read the first edition of How to Brew online for free.

Damn, I forgot about that...

 

[Tippsy-Turvy]

I started on Mr Beer and after 2 batches my mind was set on moving on. However, I still had a couple of Mr Beer recipes left so what I did was brew them but add an extra ~1lb of unhopped LME each time to boost flavor and ABV. No comparison to what I can make nowadays but they were still a huge improvement over the original recipes.

 

[quincy07]

I started on Mr Beer and after 2 batches my mind was set on moving on. However, I still had a couple of Mr Beer recipes left so what I did was brew them but add an extra ~1lb of unhopped LME each time to boost flavor and ABV. No comparison to what I can make nowadays but they were still a huge improvement over the original recipes.

I only did one batch in my mr beer before moving on. I picked up an 8 gallon aluminum pot last week and did a full boil 5 gallon batch of a modified hefeweizen recipe that is happily fermenting in a water bath in my garage.

 

[unionrdr]

So after 3 weeks at room temp and 48 hours in the fridge I tried another. I'm starting to think the "yeast" flavor I was/am tasting isn't yeast at all but the "cider" flavor caused by table sugar at bottling. It is carbed well, perhaps a little over carbed, but still won't build much of a head. The head I'm getting is closer to that of a soda where it is larger bubbles that dissipate quickly. I think I added 1/4 tsp of table sugar to each 12 oz bottle. I am definitely not going to be doing that again in the future and will opt for corn sugar, dissolved in a little water, and a bottling bucket.

Seeing soda bubble carbonation can be 2 things ime. Not enough time at room temp to develope carbonation & conditioning more fully. This has also happened to me after using Cooper's carb drops at 7 weeks in bottles. There's a series of pics in my gallery of this kind of thing happening with my 1st brew. I thought it wise to save it as an example to others.
This also happens,ime,when bottled beers don't get enough fridge time if & when they happen to need it. 48 hours isn't enough time to form & settle any chill haze,for example. Not to mention,getting more of the co2 in the head space into solution. 1 week fridge time will give better carbonation & head. 2 weeks gives longer lasting,fine bubbled carbonation & thicker head. These are from my own observations of course... And bulk priming is def the way to go.

 

[quincy07]

Seeing soda bubble carbonation can be 2 things ime. Not enough time at room temp to develope carbonation & conditioning more fully. This has also happened to me after using Cooper's carb drops at 7 weeks in bottles. There's a series of pics in my gallery of this kind of thing happening with my 1st brew. I thought it wise to save it as an example to others.
This also happens,ime,when bottled beers don't get enough fridge time if & when they happen to need it. 48 hours isn't enough time to form & settle any chill haze,for example. Not to mention,getting more of the co2 in the head space into solution. 1 week fridge time will give better carbonation & head. 2 weeks gives longer lasting,fine bubbled carbonation & thicker head. These are from my own observations of course... And bulk priming is def the way to go.

Thanks for the input. I'll leave a few bottles for a week or 2 and see how they turn out. They've been bottle conditioning for 3 weeks at room temp, 72-74.

 

[BinghamtonEd]

+1 on the late extract additions. My first 3 extract brews all came out basically the same medium amber color, regardless of what extract (extra light, amber, etc) I used. Moving the majority of the additions to the end of the boil helped with that issue. My first batch was a True Brew amber ale kit, and had a little tartness to it, I chalked it up to fermenting too high (75). Now that I ferment in the 60-65 range, it hasn't come back.

 

[quincy07]

+1 on the late extract additions. My first 3 extract brews all came out basically the same medium amber color, regardless of what extract (extra light, amber, etc) I used. Moving the majority of the additions to the end of the boil helped with that issue. My first batch was a True Brew amber ale kit, and had a little tartness to it, I chalked it up to fermenting too high (75). Now that I ferment in the 60-65 range, it hasn't come back.

I brewed this batch to the tee according to the mr beer instructions. My latest batch is a honey wheat. I steeped half a pound of honey malt for 45 minutes in 3 gallons of water then sparged w 2.5 and commenced the 60 minuteboil. It turned out darker than I was expecting even before adding the extract. I'm not sure if I just steeped my grains for too long or if its just a characteristic of that malt but I'm not too concerned about it as long as it tastes ok.