Has anyone ever made the Blackperry Trio Mr. Beer recipe? I've been searching everywhere for some reviews or tips but haven't found any. I've made a few other mr beer kits that have been terrible so was about to make the jump to real equipment and better kit when I realized I had got the stuff for this a few months back.
Anyone know if it comes out well?
Should I buy a different yeast than what mr beer provides?
They give a big temp range to ferment at. Anyone have an idea of what temperature I could shoot for?
I'm sick of making bad mr beer and then not wanting to homebrew for a few month so any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks
I haven't made that recipe, but I can tell you that simply switching from Mr Beer to "real equipment and a better kit" is not going to fix things. Mr Beer makes high quality extract kits and you can definitely make good beer with the LBK. I still use it for brewing small batches occasionally.
The first time I went to my LHBS, I was a little nervous about telling them I used Mr Beer, but thought I should in order to get the best advice. The guy helping me shrugged and said, "you can do anything in a Mr Beer fermenter that I can do with my fermenter except make 5 gallons at a time."
If you're making bad beer, you should step back and figure out why before going any further.
I haven't used the new yeast, but I suspect it's the regular Cooper's ale yeast, which is an ok yeast that is pretty forgiving of a wide variety of temperatures (probably why they use it). The old yeast was ok, but the packages were too small. I like to use US-05 or Nottingham for most beers. I've recently tried some of the Mangrove Jack yeasts (M10 and M44, I think) and they seem to do a good job, also, although M10 seems to need to warm up for the finish.
What are your brewing processes? When you say it turns out bad, how is it bad? What kind of flavors are you getting that you don't like? The more details you give, the better we can help.
A few things come to mind as likely suspects. Are they still saying to ferment for a week, carb for a week and refrigerate overnight? If so, that's probably a big part of your problem. You should ferment for two to three weeks, bottle and let them sit at room temperature for a month. Then refrigerate for at least a week (two weeks would be better).
Temperatures are also pretty important. Do you have one of the stick-on thermometers that show actual temperatures (not the ones that show too hot, too cold, good or whatever, but one that shows the temperature in degrees)? If not, get one. If all else fails, get a fish tank thermometer, but try to get one that goes down to 60F. I think the temperatures that Mr Beer recommends are on the high side. That helps with faster fermentation, but not necessarily with flavor. Also, the fermentation temperature will likely be 5 degrees or more higher than ambient temperature. So if you're fermenting in a room that's 70, your fermentation temperatures are probably exceeding 75, which will lead to off flavors with most yeasts. I like to ferment in the low 60s or even upper 50s with US-05 or Nottingham (that's fermentation temperature, not ambient). In warmer weather, I use yeasts that are more forgiving of higher temperatures (M10 is very forgiving of higher temperatures). You can lower your temperatures without going high tech in a couple of ways. I live in the desert, so a "swamp cooler" is very effective. I set the LBK in an aluminum roasting pan from the dollar store and fill it partly with water. I then drape a towel over the LBK with the ends sitting in the water. The towel wicks water, which then evaporates, providing a cooling effect. This works best in low humidity environments. You can also use a large cooler and add frozen water bottles, swapping them out as needed to keep the temperature where it needs to be.
One thing that can't be stressed enough is sanitation. If you're not getting things clean enough, you're not going to get good beer.
If you're adding simple sugars to the beer to increase the ABV, stop that. Simple sugars ferment almost completely, which thins the beer. They can also lead to more acetaldehyde, which can give a cidery flavor to your beer.
Another thing that may help is proper aeration. In the old instructions, I think they said to stir to mix well. But what you really need to do is whisk the heck out of it to produce a good layer of foam to ensure there is enough oxygen for the yeast to synthesize sterols and unsaturated fatty acids for proper reproduction. I use an electric whisk and keep it going until there is a layer of foam several inches thick (I think when I do a Mr Beer batch, the foam gets almost to the top).
Those are some of the biggest things that can help produce better beer (whether with Mr Beer or other kits).
But please give us more details about how the beers you've made are bad. Just saying they're bad doesn't give us enough information to really help (other than the shotgun approach I took, trying to hit all the bases, but inevitably missing some).