Mr Beer - Read all about it and ask questions

wps-hbt
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
firerat said:
Well, my brew has been in the Mr. Beer for two weeks coming this Saturday, so it's time to bottle.

One thing has been bothering me. I've kept the Mr. Beer in a cooler with some ice packs and had it at a pretty steady 68° F.

Now my apartment stays at a steady 74°F. Once I bottle, will I be ok to keep said bottles at 74°F with no issues, or do I need to keep it at the high 60's?
Click to expand...

You are fine to keep it at 74°F during carbonation, although they will go stale faster if you store them long term (months) at that temp. However assuming you drink any reasonable amount of beer you should have little to worry about.
 
I have successfully fermented in the L'keg for 4 and 5 weeks both. I regularly ferment for four weeks now and have had no issues. I believe if you do not move the keg after active fermentation has completed, you would be fine for a long time.

If you have wide temperature swings, move the keg much, or otherwise have activity near the keg, then maybe you are asking for trouble.
 
Chilling stops the carbonation.
If you've primed correctly it will stop of it's own accord without chilling.
The only way to tell is to crack one or two and try.

Nothing wrong with warm beer, it's better than cold beer.



.
 
Okay, I need some input. I have a Mr Beer, in which I have produced a couple of undistinguished but drinkable batches. The problem is temperature. The room that I keep my Mr Beer in is my computer/hobby room, which we keep very cool in the fall and winter. (Around 55 - 60 degrees) There are some minor temp swings as heat works it's way in but it mostly stays there. I want to make a cheap fermentation chamber for my Mr Beer. I have placed two copy paper boxes on their side with one on top of the other. In the bottom one is a light at one end of the box. At the other end is a slot cut from one box to the other to allow heat transfer but minimize light infiltration to the primary box in which I have placed the Mr Beer. This heats around the keg nicely and raises the temp into the 68 - 76 degrees recommended. My question is how to I cheaply turn the light on and off to keep the temperature from going too high? I have looked at thermostatically controlled outlets but they cost around $35 -$40 and this is more than I can get away with spending right now. (Daughter's wedding and Christmas coming up! Wife upset over multiple hobby expenses!!! Don't ask!!!) Any ideas?
 
I made a "Son of Fermentation Chiller" since my issue is keeping it cool, not having to warm it up.... But, you could reverse the thermostat and drive heat instead of cool. I bought the cheapest thermostat from HD ($17), but you could also use an old one if you replace your typical house thermostat. Have the thermostat drive a 12volt to 120 Volt relay (from Radio Shack) that the light bulb plugs into. Just an idea. Not sure it will be any cheaper than the $35-$40 you quoted in the end, but if you already have an old household 12Volt thermostat (I had one from replacing my old one with a programmable one, but decided I wanted one without the Mercury switch in it), and an old 12 V power supply ( I have them from a variety of old electronics, etc.), then maybe all you will need is the relay.
 
When I first started I put my kegs in a heavy cardboard box and used a heating pad for heat. I used a piece of scrap Lexan from work to make a door and so I could check my beer without opening the door and loosing my heat. The Lexan door is hinged with clear packing tape, and a tab of adhesive velcro insures that it stayed securley shut. The heating pad is turned on low and plugged into a cheap mechanical temperature controller. The heating pad is stuck to the side using adhesive backed Velcro. Even when the room was at it's coldest the heating pad was on about 10% of the time. The little probe dangling down is for the indoor/outdoor thermometer sitting on top of the box.

BeerTempBox2.jpg


BeerTempBox1.jpg
 
Thank you both for your input. Good ideas both. I, however, think that I will stick with my first idea and pay the small amount for a thermostatically controlled outlet to turn the light on/off in order to regulate the heat. Thanks again.
 
and I was hoping for a quick once-over of my intended procedure. Before I begin I will say that hopefully this will be the last time I intend to do it this way since I intend on upgrading my kit to a real set-up soon.

Tools:
My full fermentor
Munton's carb drops
24 brand-new 16oz glass bottles from LHBS
Bottle caps
Bottle capper
1 large bucket to be filled with sanitizer solution

Notes:
This is a Mr Beer WCPA, brewed using the Mr Beer instructions, left in primary for 3 weeks total. Unfortunately, I brewed this before I found HBT, so I didn't know about using DME and cooling the wort, etc etc etc. I don't have a hydrometer right now, but will be getting one when I upgrade. There hasn't been any noticable activity in the last few days, but there is a small krausen ring so I think I got fermentation.

Process:
1) Inspect bottles for hairline fractures and cracks
2) Give the bottles a healthy wash using unscented detergent
3) Put the bottles and @30 caps in the big bucket o' sanitizer
4) Sanitize the Mr Beer spigot
5) Pull the bottles one by one from the bucket, dumping the sanitizer back in the bucket
6) Drop 4 Muntons tabs in the bottle
7) Fill bottle. Unfortunately, I don't have a bottling wand, so I have to do it the Mr Beer way. I reckon a little ozidation isn't going to hurt this too much, seeing as how it's just a Mr Beer brew ;)
8) Place a sanitized cap on each
9) Crimp caps all at once
10) Gently dry the outside of the bottles and put them in the box.
11) This is the hard part... Ignore them for 3 weeks while they sit at 70F in a dark place :)

Any thoughts/comments/screams of anguish will be very welcome!

Thanks and Happy Halloween!
 
Sounds good overall.

The amount of Muntons tabs for an average carbonation, is 4 tabs per 12 oz. bottle. Since you are using 16 oz bottles, I would up that to 5 per bottle. I use about 11 for a 1 liter bottle, approx 1 tab per 3 oz is my guideline.

Hope it turns out well for you.
 
And done!!

Everything went super smoothly. Apparantly, I have 12 oz bottles tho :D. 24 happily-filled bottles of beer. I was suprised that I managed to get a full case out of it. I guess my top-off after wort was a little more than I thought. The taste wasn't bad at all. Now comes the hard part, the waiting!

My step-son was instrumental in helping me get this done right, and he had so much fun he wants to help me on the next brew day!

A great big thanks to everyone here for their words of wisdom and advice. I'll keep you up to date on the progress. Once I upgrade, I'm looking to go to extract with steeping grains. I have a nice stout and an English brown ale in mind.

Here's to my new obsession!!
 
I am making my second batch using the Mr. Beer, this time it is the American Devil IPA. I threw out the provided yeast and I am using US-05 instead. I have been saving some glass bottles and now I need to pick up a bottle caper, I am going with the bench caper. This batch will be bottled to glass bottles instead of the Mr. Beer plastic bottles.
 
Ok, so my Mr. Beer #1 (West Coast Pale Ale) is currently bottle conditioning in my cupboard at a pretty steady 70°. I used the crappy booster and yeast provided with the kit just to see what it will come out like and so that I can compare other beers I will brew in the future. I did sub out dextrose in place of table sugar for bottling.

While bottling, I gave my brew a taste test, and it tasted like rotten apple juice. Nasty, but we will see what happens.

This weekend, I'm planning on brewing my second batch. I have a can of Canadian High Country. I plan to sub out the booster for DME per suggestions in this thread.

Any other additive sugestions? (i.e. hops or whatnot)
 
firerat said:
This weekend, I'm planning on brewing my second batch. I have a can of Canadian High Country. I plan to sub out the booster for DME per suggestions in this thread.

Any other additive sugestions? (i.e. hops or whatnot)
Click to expand...

Definitely substitute Light Pilsen DME(1lb.) for the Booster, I did it. I also recommend that you add a packet(1/2 oz.) of SAAZ Pellet Hops. This is how I make it now and really enjoy the result. I also boil the DME for 10 minutes, add the HME and boil for 10 minutes, add Malto Dextrine and the Hop sack and boil for 5 more minutes.

Lastly, Let it ferment for at least 3 weeks, let it bottle condition for at least 4 weeks, and I am sure you will love the result. It is actually close to a canadian draft ale this way. Eventually, when I go to AG, I want to try to make a clone of Molson Canadian (a favorite everyday beer of mine), but until then, this is a close substitute.

Happy brewing!!
 
I'm all for substituting DME and adding some extra hops (maybe a 10 minute boil). As for fermenting three weeks I would not do it. If your ferment temperatures are above 66f two weeks is enough time. WCPA is a very basic recipe and I would not waste the extra week in the fermentor. Yes, beers generally do get better with more ferment time but there are diminishing returns to the extra time. You could leave it in the fermentor for 4 weeks and it might improve slightly more, but the extra ferment time is cutting into your production capacity. WCPA is not a fine wine. It is a generic session/drinking beer. It only gets so good so get it carbing and conditioning and save longer ferment times for when you are more experienced and making beers that really benefit from the extra time.
 
Basic question:
SWMBO wants beer. She's hinted about Mr. Beer a half dozen times.
I've just started making wine/cider. I have all the equipment for that (carboys, buckets, hydrometer, airlocks, etc.).
So...do I get her the stupid Mr. Beer, because it makes "beer" and looks cool, or do I try to go for a wort/extraction kit and make her some "good stuff"?
 
Old_Philosopher said:
Yeah, I just have to convince her that you guys, and I, know best. :cross:
BTW: LOVE your signatures!
Click to expand...

Think of it this way. Christmas comes and goes. She got a Mr.Beer for Christmas...and WOW they're on clearance at BBB. So now you can "save" money buy buying 5 gallon kits cuz they're cheaper and you can split into the two MR.Beer kegs. Then teach her to steep, culture yeast, next thing you're mini-mashing and she'll want a SABCO!
Should take less than a year. :fro:

-OCD
 
beerocd said:
Think of it this way. Christmas comes and goes. She got a Mr.Beer for Christmas...and WOW they're on clearance at BBB. So now you can "save" money buy buying 5 gallon kits cuz they're cheaper and you can split into the two MR.Beer kegs. Then teach her to steep, culture yeast, next thing you're mini-mashing and she'll want a SABCO!
Should take less than a year. :fro:

-OCD
Click to expand...
Good plan...but I question the year estimate. It's been twenty, and we're still working on scrubbing the toilet.
 
oldtrucker said:
Mr. Beer tells me that Cowboy Lager is close to Sam Adams Boston Lager. What do you think? How close?
Click to expand...
Not very...unless you ditch the Booster, replace with DME, add some Crystal 60L. Then add some Hallertauer & Tettnanger hops. I have always loved SA Boston Lager, the standard Mr Beer Cowboy Lager was not very good. Only when I started steeping grains & adding DME & hops did I get beer any where close to the SA prodcuts. From there it was a short hop to ditch Mr Beer completely.
 
Ok so my first brew, the WCPA I brewed using the booster pack, is at 2 weeks in the bottle carbing. I put a bottle in the fridge to test tonight and to compare with other bottles I will let go longer. A taste test at bottling told me this stuff tasted like a weird banana cider. :ban:

God bless research and devolopment. :mug:

My second batch, the High Country Canadian Draft I used light DME in place of the booster and threw in a 1/2 oz of 6% hops just for the hell of it. We will see what happens in a few weeks.

I am now down to 2 can of MB: Whispering Wheat Weizenbier and Octoberfest's Vienna Lager. Both cans are hopped.

I want to move on to extract brews utilizing specialty grains to get used to steeping and whatnot.

So give me some suggestions on what to do with these cans. Additives? Mix the two for a scary MB recipe from hell? (kind of leaning to this but have no idea what I will end up with :drunk: )
 
firerat said:
Ok so my first brew, the WCPA I brewed using the booster pack, is at 2 weeks in the bottle carbing. I put a bottle in the fridge to test tonight and to compare with other bottles I will let go longer. A taste test at bottling told me this stuff tasted like a weird banana cider. :ban:

God bless research and devolopment. :mug:

My second batch, the High Country Canadian Draft I used light DME in place of the booster and threw in a 1/2 oz of 6% hops just for the hell of it. We will see what happens in a few weeks.

I am now down to 2 can of MB: Whispering Wheat Weizenbier and Octoberfest's Vienna Lager. Both cans are hopped.

I want to move on to extract brews utilizing specialty grains to get used to steeping and whatnot.

So give me some suggestions on what to do with these cans. Additives? Mix the two for a scary MB recipe from hell? (kind of leaning to this but have no idea what I will end up with :drunk: )
Click to expand...

When I was still doing MrBeer I used 1 can of the Whisper Wheat, 1lb Wheat DME, 3/4 t ground coriander, 1/2 oz orange peel, & .25 oz Sterling Hops (boiled 20 min). It was fantastic!
 
firerat said:
I am now down to 2 can of MB: Whispering Wheat Weizenbier and Octoberfest's Vienna Lager. Both cans are hopped.

I want to move on to extract brews utilizing specialty grains to get used to steeping and whatnot.

So give me some suggestions on what to do with these cans. Additives? Mix the two for a scary MB recipe from hell? (kind of leaning to this but have no idea what I will end up with :drunk: )
Click to expand...

The Mr. Beer site has lots of recipes. It looks like the Howling Red ale could be made with 1 OFVL and 1 WWW (instead of Golden Wheat), add Cascade hops and a pound of light Pilsen DME. Or use all 3 cans and steep with cascades. I would try one of those and see what you get. Let us know what you decide and how it turns out.
 
Old_Philosopher said:
Well, SWMBO said forget Mr. Beer, and go for the gusto!
I guess I'm off to find an extract kit. :ban:
Click to expand...

See, you're actually months ahead of my schedule. Full size boils would be nice, an immersion chiller, And then later(Christmas) a cooler MLT. :tank:

-OCD
 
I bottled my American Devil IPA and put an Irish Stout into the fermenter. I ordered a bottle capper from Northern Brewer. I should be putting the Irish Stout into 12oz bottle in a couple weeks.
 
I am doing a Kriek from a Brewferm 3.3lb can tonight in my Mr. Beer fermenter. The original can says it makes 12 liters (~3 gallons) at an OG of 1.053, so I'm going to scale the DME and water back just a bit to not overfill the Mr. Beer and maintain the same OG. I think this will work well, since I don't anticipate wanting much more than about 20 bottles of Kriek - a little goes a long way!
 
Well, that was easy! I ended up with an OG of 1.065 (17 degrees Brix), and just over 8.5 liters of wort + yeast starter in the Mr. Beer. I pitched an entire 11.5g sachet of Safbrew T-58 yeast, which is a Belgian-style yeast. It was double what mrmalty.com suggested I needed, but I am actually trying to minimize the Belgian esters, as I don't much care for them.

I pitched at 3:15, and at 8:15, I have a bit of a krausen on top of the fermenter, so obviously my yeast were ready to do the job. We'll see how this goes!
 
Boy, I knew it would go fast with the overpitch, but I was at 1.027 (10.2 degrees Brix) this evening... starting from the OG of 1.065/17 Brix! The hydro sample tastes great already. I think this is going to be a tasty brew, in spite of all of the things working against it (old extract can, slightly out-of-date yeast, overpitching yeast, etc.).
 
I just tapped my first keg (first non-Mr. Beer 5 gallon extract kit). Yummy.

However, I gotta say that brewing 5g extract kits is A LOT more work. Good thing you get double the qty. I decided to do two batches today, as well as rack another batch out of primary and into a keg. I'm just starting the second batch and I'm already pooped.
 
I racked my Kriek out of the Mr. Beer keg into another Mr. Beer keg today, on top of a can of tart cherries which I crushed. I'm a bit concerned about the difficulty of getting a good, non-oxidixing pour out of the spigot, so definitely I'm going to look at replacing the stock Mr. Beer spigot with something different after a while.

On the other hand, how often am I going to be making 2.5 gallons of fruit beer like this batch?
 
So my lovely g/f got me an early Christmas present, a Mr. Beer kit. It is perfect due to our small apartment and animals (2 dogs and a cat). I broke out the kit this evening and made the WCPA. All in all, it was very enjoyable, although I fear I made a few newbie mistakes.

First, I over estimated the size of my pot, so after trying fruitlessly to get the booster mix to boil, I transferred it to a smaller pot and continued making my wort. I noticed while making the wort that the old pot I am using has some scratches, but I did sanitize the pot before use. Will these mistakes mess up my batch?

I am just trying to get the basics down, I am not expecting terrific beer but hopefully it will be better than the Miller Light garbage I am used to drinking. :mug: I plan on using the 2-2-2 rule, as long as I can be patient (it may be closer to the 2-2-1 rule, :D) I have already ordered the bottle set and another beer mix, the Witty Monk Witbier (one of the premium mixes, w/o the booster), with the left-over Amazon gift certificate from my birthday. :D

I can see myself doing a lot with the Mr. Beer system once I get the basics down. One day, if I stick with this I will graduate to a 5 gal. system, once I move on from living in apartments.

I had a great time making my first batch, the wort smelled amazing, I just need some reassurance I didn't mess up my first batch.
 
Scratches in the boil kettle won't be a problem. I did the WCPA for my first brew. It was okay, but replacing the booster with malt extract will greatly improve Mr. Beer. The Witty Monk will likely be a better beer.
 
Shooter said:
Scratches in the boil kettle won't be a problem. I did the WCPA for my first brew. It was okay, but replacing the booster with malt extract will greatly improve Mr. Beer. The Witty Monk will likely be a better beer.
Click to expand...

Well I woke up this morning to check on my keg, hidden away in a kitchen cabinet and found a nice layer of krausen (sp?) on the top. Hopefully this is a sign that things are beginning to happen. :)
 
rcgbrew said:
I am just trying to get the basics down, I am not expecting terrific beer but hopefully it will be better than the Miller Light garbage I am used to drinking. :mug: I plan on using the 2-2-2 rule, as long as I can be patient (it may be closer to the 2-2-1 rule, :D)
Click to expand...

Really there is no such thing as the 2-2-2 rule. Think of it instead as the 3-3 rule: 3 weeks in the Mr. Beer keg, 3 weeks in the bottle. 3 weeks in Mr. Beer gives the yeast time to do the job and then clean up after themselves, and 3 weeks in the bottle is what it takes to properly condition and carbonate. Though you will think that the carbonation is done after just one week, you still have VERY GREEN BEER. And green beer is not very tasty.

Impatience is the biggest challenge to homebrewing. You risk turning yourself off of the hobby if you drink green beer, because you'll be very disappointed (though there is the novelty of "I did this myself!"). Be patient. Give it three weeks in the bottle. Your beer (and your taste buds) will thank you for it!
 
khiddy said:
Really there is no such thing as the 2-2-2 rule. Think of it instead as the 3-3 rule: 3 weeks in the Mr. Beer keg, 3 weeks in the bottle.
Click to expand...

Really there is no such thing as a 3-3 rule. :cross:

Your beer does get better if you let it do it's thing over time, but there's no rule.
Just helpful suggestions based on thousands of collective batches from thousands of homebrewers who have done it before us. :tank:

-OCD
 

Similar threads

M
Yeast fermentation temps
Replies
20
Views
2K
mike_bkk
M
alutis05
Brewing ALL-GRAIN dark beer (lager).
Replies
9
Views
709
AlexKay
A
N
Sharing Nostalgia with the Beginners: What Was The First Beer Your Brewed?
2 3
Replies
89
Views
5K
palmtrees
palmtrees
bmac8
I'm so lost. HELLLP! Just upgraded from white buckets to 10+ gallon stainless system...
2 3 4
Replies
142
Views
6K
sibelman
sibelman
A
Mr Beer Kit Gone Wrong
Replies
14
Views
2K
pvtpublic
pvtpublic
Williams Brewing 300

Latest posts

Back
Top