Mr Beer - Read all about it and ask questions

[Nova5]

Since you're still at home with the parents consider getting a cooler to stash the fermenter in, to contain the odor. I fine the Igloo Cubes are perfect. the fermenter just fits at an angle and when you bottle in 12oz glass bottles it fits them quite well also. The cooler also acts as a bomb chamber. If you overcrank the Mr Beer lid down and block its channels, you can actually cause it to go BOOM. Bottles, to much sugar can make bottle bombs. If anything blows up inside the cooler, the mess is perfectly contained and you just carry it outside and wash it out.

 

[dave2851]

Not in your town but close.
Google maps

http://maps.google.com/maps?near=Fa...235,-77.144623&spn=0.582813,1.432343&t=h&z=10

Jays Brewing Supplies
12644 Chapel Rd., Suite 113
Clifton, VA 22033

Get Directions
(703) 543-2663
jaysbrewing.com‎

myLHBS (my-Local-Home-Brew-Shop) - more info »
6201 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA (703) 241-3874 ‎ 8.4 mi E

I will have to check them out.

As an update, I bottled my first ever batch yesterday. Did half the bottles with table sugar, the other half with "Sugar In The Raw" natural cane turbinado sugar. It will be interesting to see how they come out.

On a far cooler note - my lovely bride has seen the child like excitement in my face when the topic turns to home brewing. My birthday is later this month, and I have been given the green light to upgrade from Mr. Beer to a decent brewing setup. Now to find the best and most reputable place online - anyone have a suggestion?

 

[Justibone]

As far as Internet Brew Stores go....

Austin homebrew and Northern brewer are both recommended. Most places are on the up-and-up, though, so it's hard to go wrong. Those two have huge selections and are generally recommended by those who patronise them.

I know from experience that Austin will do what it takes to make your transaction a satisfying one, and they do offer phone support.

 

[CptMidway]

After reading most of this thread I picked up a Mr. Beer kit from my neighbor in San Diego who homebrews. I'm really excited to give this a try after watching him brew for the last few months.

I have the standard pale ale kit, but would like to make it hoppier. How would I go about this?

Thanks!

 

[Malticulous]

After reading most of this thread I picked up a Mr. Beer kit from my neighbor in San Diego who homebrews. I'm really excited to give this a try after watching him brew for the last few months.

I have the standard pale ale kit, but would like to make it hoppier. How would I go about this?

Thanks!

The easiest way is to dry hop. Just put some hops in after the yeast drops. If you boil it for 20 minutes or so you can add more flavor and bitterness by adding hops in your pot.

 

[morgantm]

Another new Mr. Beer brewer here as well. Put the American Blonde Ale in the fermenter on 12/26/10, plan on sticking it in the fridge on Friday to cold crash and then batch priming and bottling on Sunday.

Do you guys recommend to transfer to secondary and then cold crash or cold crash in the primary fermenter and transfer to secondary after cold crashing?

 

[CptMidway]

Sweet, thanks for the info!

 

[Justibone]

Do you guys recommend to transfer to secondary and then cold crash or cold crash in the primary fermenter and transfer to secondary after cold crashing?

Cold crash in the primary, so you can leave as much stuff as possible behind. I don't think you really even need a true secondary -- you can just bottle it after it has been in the primary for about three weeks, if you want. (Check the gravity with a hydrometer to be absolutely sure it's done fermenting.)

 

[Justibone]

I have the standard pale ale kit, but would like to make it hoppier. How would I go about this?

You should know which kind of hops you like, as well. For instance, citrusy hops would be citra and amarillo, spicy hops would be saaz, and typical American pale ale hops would be centennial and cascade. There are many other types of hops, so the best thing to do would be to go to your home brew store and smell which ones you want in your beer.

Boiling kills the smell and leaves the bitterness, but if you don't boil and instead add them directly into your beer (the leaves are anti-bacterial) then whatever you smell is what they will add to your beer. You can use hop pellets or whole leaf, and if you are not boiling then AA% doesn't mean anything at all to you.

It's probably best to strain them out before bottling. Also, the aroma fades over the course of several weeks to months, so if you overdid it then the beer will calm down after. Also, if you don't drink them fast enough, the last ones won't have the same hop aroma, so keep that in mind if it turns out you really like what you've made!

 

[morgantm]

Cold crash in the primary, so you can leave as much stuff as possible behind. I don't think you really even need a true secondary -- you can just bottle it after it has been in the primary for about three weeks, if you want. (Check the gravity with a hydrometer to be absolutely sure it's done fermenting.)

Ok cold crash in the primary, got it. I was just planning on transferring it to a secondary to batch prime it and then bottle it right after that. I'm sure almost 3 weeks at 66*F will be enough from what I've read for this brew but I'll check the gravity just to make sure. I have a refractometer that will read from 1.000 to 1.070 so that should work for that.

Friday - Stick primary fermenter in the fridge to cold crash
Sunday - Remove primary fermenter and let settle while I santize the bottles and the secondary.
- Transfer to secondary and batch prime
- Bottle
2 weeks carbonating
2 weeks conditioning
Couple days in the fridge and enjoy

Everything sound good? Thanks!

 

[Kealia]

I will have to check them out.

As an update, I bottled my first ever batch yesterday. Did half the bottles with table sugar, the other half with "Sugar In The Raw" natural cane turbinado sugar. It will be interesting to see how they come out.

On a far cooler note - my lovely bride has seen the child like excitement in my face when the topic turns to home brewing. My birthday is later this month, and I have been given the green light to upgrade from Mr. Beer to a decent brewing setup. Now to find the best and most reputable place online - anyone have a suggestion?

Congrats on the first bottling!

I don't think it's fair to say that you're upgrading to a "decent brewing setup", though. There's nothing wrong with the MrB stuff. I use it, Ale Pails, carboys, buckets, etc. and do extract batches, all grain batches and partial mashes all with excellent results.

I don't mean to nitpick, but I do get tired of people looking down on MrB stuff when there's nothing wrong with it.

 

[Kealia]

Ok cold crash in the primary, got it. I was just planning on transferring it to a secondary to batch prime it and then bottle it right after that. I'm sure almost 3 weeks at 66*F will be enough from what I've read for this brew but I'll check the gravity just to make sure. I have a refractometer that will read from 1.000 to 1.070 so that should work for that.

Friday - Stick primary fermenter in the fridge to cold crash
Sunday - Remove primary fermenter and let settle while I santize the bottles and the secondary.
- Transfer to secondary and batch prime
- Bottle
2 weeks carbonating
2 weeks conditioning
Couple days in the fridge and enjoy

Everything sound good? Thanks!

Spot on!

 

[rycov]

is there a benifit to coldcrashing if your gonna bottle carb? the yeast have to comeback into solution anyway right?

 

[Kealia]

is there a benifit to coldcrashing if your gonna bottle carb? the yeast have to comeback into solution anyway right?

Yes, clarity of the beer and less trub in the bottles. After you cold crash there's still plenty of yeast in suspension to carbonate the beer.

Cold crashing isn't necessary, it's brewer's choice.

 

[dave2851]

Congrats on the first bottling!

I don't think it's fair to say that you're upgrading to a "decent brewing setup", though. There's nothing wrong with the MrB stuff. I use it, Ale Pails, carboys, buckets, etc. and do extract batches, all grain batches and partial mashes all with excellent results.

I don't mean to nitpick, but I do get tired of people looking down on MrB stuff when there's nothing wrong with it.

Poor choice of words on my part - I don't look down on Mr. Beer, I just know that there is whole new world out there to try. That being said, I went to the Northern Brewer web site and ordered the Deluxe Kit. Can't wait till it arrives!

 

[Kealia]

Poor choice of words on my part - I don't look down on Mr. Beer, I just know that there is whole new world out there to try. That being said, I went to the Northern Brewer web site and ordered the Deluxe Kit. Can't wait till it arrives!

Kudos to you - good luck! It's funny how quickly this becomes an obsession, eh?

 

[dave2851]

Kudos to you - good luck! It's funny how quickly this becomes an obsession, eh?

No doubt ! I've been reading everything I can on this forum for a few days - can't wait to get started. And I bought a couple 12 packs at the store so that I can use their bottles - got variety packs so m'lady can let me know what she would like me to make.

She is an amazing cook, it's the least I can do to provide the beverages to go with the meals.

 

[Chris6]

Finally upgraded to a 6.5 gallon fermentor, so much easier to clean than a MB. I rushed my last batch due to me leaving for sea, that was a mistake. Another crappy batch. I will try one of midwests 5 gall kits in the spring when I get back.

Can any comment on midwests kits?

 

[rycov]

i've been using midwest. they're good. i havent used any others so i cant really compare. but i can say that my beers have been delicious.

 

[Justibone]

Ok cold crash in the primary, got it. I was just planning on transferring it to a secondary to batch prime it and then bottle it right after that. I'm sure almost 3 weeks at 66*F will be enough from what I've read for this brew but I'll check the gravity just to make sure. I have a refractometer that will read from 1.000 to 1.070 so that should work for that.

Refractometers don't work on beer, only on wort, I've been told. I don't own one yet, but from what I've read you really should use a hydrometer when alcohol is in the mixture.

Friday - Stick primary fermenter in the fridge to cold crash
Sunday - Remove primary fermenter and let settle while I santize the bottles and the secondary.
- Transfer to secondary and batch prime
- Bottle
2 weeks carbonating
2 weeks conditioning
Couple days in the fridge and enjoy

Everything sound good? Thanks!

Sounds good. You can try a beer at week one and week two, etc. We call those "surveillance beers", just to see how it's coming along. Tasting a couple of beers early and then seeing how much better they get with time helps you learn to be more patient... it's a good thing.

 

[MaxSpang]

So, I would most HEARTILY recommend boiling your sugar before putting it in beer.

That's what I'm thinking. Why take the risk?

 

[HopfulAddiction]

If substituting some dry malt extract for the booster in Mr Beer kit how long do you have to boil it? the Mr Beer directions say just until the booster is dissolved. thn pull from heat and add the HME

For my 1st batch I want to keep it kind of simple. And skip the whole full boil for an hour then ice bath that Palmer's book recommends since I wont be adding hops or anything. just the HME

And can this be done with the 4 cups of water that the Mr beer kit recommends? So I can use the water in the keg to cool?

 

[Justibone]

You should boil something 10 minutes to be absolutely certain everything's dead. However. While doing brewing unless you have some kind of space-age glycol-ethanol super-cooler-tube-in-tube thingie, the heat is going to keep killing after the boil is reached. So, for MrBeer and most brewing, just reaching boiling is hot enough.

My $.02

 

[Nova5]

Mr Beer has you do a partial boil and pour the hot wort into the tap temp water in the keg. This brings the temp somewhere around 90-100. Give it some time to cool and add yeast.

 

[HopfulAddiction]

So you don't have to boil the DME for a period of time to release the sugars to ferment just kill the nasties got it.

Thanks.

 

[IowaState]

So I tasted my beer last night after two weeks in the fermenter, and it didn't taste sweet it tasted like yeasty beer (not really yeasty just a little). Other than a slight, very slight, yeast taste it was pretty good! So my questions are, will the slight yeast flavor go away once I bottle? Should I let it sit there for another couple days, or should I bottle now? Should I use table sugar or something better?

 

[Justibone]

The slight yeasty flavor should go away when you bottle AND after you refrigerate.

You can use whatever you want to bottle, as long as it is some type of sugar. Honey, cane sugar and corn sugar don't leave much flavor behind, whereas brown sugar, molasses, or maple syrup leave more flavor behind. Use a carbonation calculator in order to know how much to add.

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

 

[Kealia]

Bottle and leave it for 2 weeks at room temp to carbonate.
Then leave it two more weeks at room temp to condition a bit before putting them in the fridge.

 

[Brewmaster_Taz]

I have personally bottled with dextrose, DME, cane sugar, honey and brown sugar. They all work. The brown sugar left the most flavor behind, and it was tasty.

for the standard bottles mr. Beer recomends 2 1/2 tsp of white sugar. I'm wanting to add Brown sugar or honey how much of each should I add to get enough carbonation w/o making a bomb?

Is it possible to over ferment your beer. or does the yeast just stop re-acting after a while.

Update: I started brewing for my competition that is in June. (since my house is colder than the recomended temp for the yeast [ranging from 63 - 67] I figured I'd leave it in longer). I ended up adding orange zest and the juice from an orange to my WCPA kit. and hoping to add honey or Brown Sugar in the carbonation process for color and additional taste.

Thanks to those who contribuited ideas (and things to stay away from) in this process I'll let u know when I bottle.

 

[Justibone]

for the standard bottles mr. Beer recomends 2 1/2 tsp of white sugar. I'm wanting to add Brown sugar or honey how much of each should I add to get enough carbonation w/o making a bomb?

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html
Use it. Love it.

Is it possible to over ferment your beer. or does the yeast just stop re-acting after a while.

It is possible to add so much sugar that the yeast just gorge themselves to death, and there are still fermentables left behind. This is called "attenuation". Also, some yeast can eat some things that others can't, etc... so it is possible to "under-ferment" your beer.

If you like your beer a little sweet, and not bone-dry, then it's very possible to "over-ferment" your beer. If you calculated the recipe correctly, and added just the sugars you wanted in the right quantities, and there are extra longer-chain sugars left over for *you* to enjoy instead of the yeast, then don't worry about over-fermenting. If you pop some champagne yeast in there, though, they'll over-ferment just about anything.

So, is it possible to "over-ferment" your beer? Yes. But don't worry about it if you followed a reasonable recipe and used the right yeast. Under-fermenting your beer is far more of a concern (bottle bombs).

 

[IowaState]

Thanks for the help!

 

[morgantm]

Refractometers don't work on beer, only on wort, I've been told. I don't own one yet, but from what I've read you really should use a hydrometer when alcohol is in the mixture.

Hmm, haven't really looked into it that much. If you don't mind, do you think you could find some more information on that. I did a little bit and found this in the wiki:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Refractometer

In the article it talks about using a refractometer to measure the abv of a finished beer.

I'm not doubting you at all, just trying to make sure I'm doing this correctly! The one reason I would rather use the refracometer is sample size. Thanks for the help!

EDIT: Just read more about wort calibration and all that stuff. Seems like I can use one, just going to have to do some samples with the hydrometer first. Guess I better order one!

 

[Darklordenron]

You can bottle with corn syrup. It's about 10% heavier than dry dextrose, by weight.

I'm using the mr.b 1 liter pet bottles. Is there something I need to convert, or should I just know that it's 10% heavier by weight? I'm confused at this point, and need to bottle in under 2 days!!
So all these homebrew shops close at 6pm, too late for me to go there unless it's the weekend!! WTH?!
Thinking about just using the recommended levels of suger, just substituting sugar in the raw or something of that nature. Nobody's actually said anything about if using a different kind of sugar effects the amount you need to add to the bottles. I'm kind of at a loss here

 

[McGarnigle]

I'm jumping in the middle here, but is there a reason you can't use regular table sugar? That's a much simpler option than corn syrup. Use slightly less (5% maybe) table sugar than you would corn sugar.

Sugar in the raw probably requires roughly the same amount of corn sugar. Exact amounts probably don't matter here. Appropriate levels of carbonation vary a lot by beer style: British ales are about half as carbonated as wheat beers. So the worst case is you have a fizziness that is a little out of style.

 

[Gruven96]

I’ve brewed 1 batch in 5gal Brewers best kit in the past. A friend gave me 2, 3-pack refills for MB that was on clearance where she works. I thought I would never use them after seeing the MB kit for $50 on line. Then I came across kit on clearance for $20 and figure, why not? 14 gal beer for $20 = no brainer.

I made the Vienna Lager as per the directions. Left it in the fermenter for 12 days and they are now conditioning. Curious to see how hey taste b/c uncarbonated tasted like beer but very, very bland.

Wanting to be more adventurous and make something the G/F would drink I just brewed up the Cowgirl Honey Light recipe from the MB website. Picked up the Saaz I needed from the LHBS and away we went! Recipe sounds pretty good so I’ll be sure to let you know how it turns out!

The MB kit and this website have got me back in the gruve! :rockin:

 

[Darklordenron]

I'm jumping in the middle here, but is there a reason you can't use regular table sugar? That's a much simpler option than corn syrup. Use slightly less (5% maybe) table sugar than you would corn sugar.

Sugar in the raw probably requires roughly the same amount of corn sugar. Exact amounts probably don't matter here. Appropriate levels of carbonation vary a lot by beer style: British ales are about half as carbonated as wheat beers. So the worst case is you have a fizziness that is a little out of style.

I was just under the impression that a lot of guys dont like the way it carbonates or tastes. Inoticed lots of guys say to stay away from the MB yeast, and i also recall seeing something about the negative effects of table sugar. Just curious really...

 

[Justibone]

Any sugar is fine for bottling. You should probably boil it if the package has been open for a while, or really even if it hasn't, but I'm less paranoid than others.

Use a carbonation calculator. Here's one, but there are others if you Google. They typically have different options for types of sugar (honey, molasses, syrup, etc.).
http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

As a rule of thumb, the lower the % of fermentables, the more flavor left behind.

You won't notice very much of a taste from using different things to bottle, but if you have a sensitive palate, you might notice some flavor. It's not a big deal, as long as the amount of the sugar is relatively small -- like for bottling. A pound of sugar can make a beer taste different, but not a teaspoonful.

Relax. Don't worry. Have a homebrew (or a microbrew).
RDWHAHAB.

 

[McGarnigle]

I was just under the impression that a lot of guys dont like the way it carbonates or tastes. Inoticed lots of guys say to stay away from the MB yeast, and i also recall seeing something about the negative effects of table sugar. Just curious really...

I'm sure there are people who complain about carbonating with table sugar. I've heard people say the bubbles are larger. I'd love to do a blind taste test some day.

But there are probably more complaints about corn syrup than table sugar. If nothing else, it's harder to figure out exactly how much corn syrup to add because it's a different form entirely.

 

[HopfulAddiction]

1st batch is happily fermenting in basement. :rockin:

Based on my many hours reading here I totally ignored the Mr Beer directions on most levels. Ended up using a pound of light DME instead of the booster in the west coast pale ale. Decided to boil it in about gallon of water and then drop it in an ice bath (well snow bath) instead of Mr beer directions 4 cups. I rehydrated and confirmed the yeast worked in a warm sugar water bath. Ended up pitching the yeast into 50 some degree wort. Thermometer was moving very slowly at 50

The keg is now on top of a counter in the basement under a big box. I should be able to bottle it just by sliding it forward a few inches. Learned form the other newb that on the floor under the stairs is not a good location.

I had a spare aquarium thermometer that I stuck on the side of the keg above the spigot. It reads down to 62. If it doesn't read a temp tomorrow I'm going to open up a heat vent in the basement. It's been about 60 with all vents closed. That should give me a near ideal 65-68 degrees in the keg right?

Here's to beer

 

[Justibone]

Sounds good, Hopful.