Mr Beer - Read all about it and ask questions

What kind of malt did you use? If it's LME, for future reference, bring the water to a boil, then remove from heat, add the LME and stir until completely dissolved.

For both LME and DME, unless you're doing a full volume boil, you may want to use just a portion of the malt for the boil, then add the rest at flameout (or with no more than 5 minutes left in the boil). This approach reduces darkening, reduces the odds of scorching and improves bitterness extraction from the hops.

 

Moofi (woot.com) has Mr. Beer Kits today for $25 shipped: http://moofi.woot.com/moofi/potionofinebriation .

 

That redirects to home.woot.com, where a Mr Beer kit was available for 45 minutes (from about 12:05 to 12:50 am yesterday) in a woot off. It's long gone.

 

moofi is a different section of woot, originally for friends and family as I understand it.
That deal is still active, and if its redirecting for you, I suggest you check your browser- its doing you wrong

 

It redirects to woot.com for me, too - on multiple browsers.

 

Then try deals.woot.com and click the top link.

Moofi has always worked just fine for me.

 

Try this http://deals.woot.com/If that doesn't work you can find the thumbnail of the little keg off to the right.

 

No worries, I wasn't looking to buy one, just checking it out.

I found it here for anybody else interested.

 

Hi Everybody!

I just happened to buy a Mr. Beer kit on sale just to give home brewing a try. I absolutely love it! Someday I would like to invest in more advanced equipment, but my space is severely limited so, for now, the Mr. Beer is great for me. I just finished my first brew about a week ago (Mr. Beer Classic American Blonde) and thoroughly enjoyed drinking it and sharing with friends. I am currently waiting on my next batch of Cowboy Lager to finish.

My question is this; I would like to try to make my own recipes, but everything I look up seems to be for people with a lot more equipment and the capacity for 5 gallons. Does anyone know any simple "from scratch" recipes that would work with my Mr. Beer, and what equipment I might need to purchase?

Also, My next batch is going to be a Mr. Beer Whispering Wheat. I am considering adding a 1/2 cup of honey to the wort to alter the flavor and increase the alcohol content. Has anyone tried this or have any advice?

Thanks. Happy brewing!

 

Revvy has done a lot of stuff with 2.5 gallon batches. here's a link to a post where he has his tutorial and some recipes

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/2-5-gallon-batches-81047/index2.html#post1031686

 

Most 5 gallon recipes can be scaled to Mr Beer size, but the easier approach is to cut the recipe in half, then over fill the LBK a bit. There's some variance in kegs, but in mine, if I fill to the bottom of the letter Q, I get 2.4 gallons.

 

Thanks for the advice. I actually just purchased a second fermenter (so I can keep a steady supply of beer), so I would imagine that I could simply use a full 5 gallon recipe and divide it between the two kegs.

 

Not only is the 2.5 gallons of shwag beer I made from the Mr Beer kit still disgusting, it also makes me sober every time I drink it. It's like magic, because I keep drinking it anyway.

However, the Mr Beer keg fits perfectly in my fridge! I might get another one for cold crashing!

 

Hello all. I just a mr beer kit but I am stumped in finding a means to keep it within the 74 degree fermentation range. I live in Florida where running the ac at 70 degrees for months is not only unfeasible but expensive. Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

swamp cooler, get a a large cooler that you can put the mr. beer in and surround with frozen soda bottles or something like that to keep the temp cool, replace daily as they melt.

or get a rope tub from walmart for $6 and pour water in to partially cover up the mr. beer kit and add ice bottles if necessary to keep the temps within specs.

 

To keep things cool in AZ, I just picked up a $35.00 mini bar fridge. Holds 2 kegs. Johnson Controller for $65.00 and you don't have to worry about ice packs or constantly checking temps.

 

Hey guys! Enjoying reading this thread, but as a total newby I remind you that some of us have only just started and have NO idea what you are talking about if you use jargon that is well known among hobbyist, but not so much to the general public. PLEASE if you use even the common (to the informed) name for a piece of equipment or technique, remember that this is a NEW GUY section. Example: What the hell is a "carboy"? Remember, you were probably as stupid as I am about this once upon a time! LOL

 

Carboy= large glass jug... 5-7 gallons usually used to ferment your wort. They can be larger but usually the larger ones is used for grape juice or "wine"... Welcome to home-brew...
Fermenting= turning sugar into alcohol (basically)

 

Damn! It's AMAZING what you can learn if you spend some time scrolling through the forum topics....learning a bunch just in the noobie section alone! Thanks, y'all! 'Bout to take the plunge and buy me some equipment and get started. Will be asking lots of questions and lettin y'all know how it's goin!

 

Like in any new endeavor, or hobby there is a starting point where you know little or nothing except that you are interested, and want to learn. The coolest thing about this forum is that people who were in your shoes at some point really want to help you, and don't berate you because you don't know much yet.
But like you said, some searching on the topic's, reading the "stickies" will help you ask informed questions. And like anything in this life, effort = results.
I love this forum, I learn something new every time I visit, and the general tone is very entertaining There are some (many) really great people here:rockin: And that now includes you

 

I'm planning on going to Bed Bath & Beyond tomorrow to see if they have any Mr. Beer kits on clearance. I mainly want one so I can have a compact 2.5g fermenter.

Edit: I didn't find any Mr. Beer kits on clearance.

 

HI just drunk my 1st batch taste pretty good got me drunk too.

 

Hello Friends,
My second Mr. beer Brew is almost done fermenting. With my first brew i bottled it after 2 1/2 weeks of fermenting and let it carbonate and condition in the bottles. This second is a wheat beer however and i was wondering if conditioning is necessary. Any other tips for a refreshing summer brew would be well appreciated

Thanks

 

Typically wheat beers can be drank (drunken?) young. You'll still need time for it to carb (typically 2-3 weeks) but after that you can generally start drinking them unless they are very heavy gravity or you've added other adjuncts like fruit.

If this is a typical MrB refill I'd say that you're safe testing one at two weeks in the bottle (at room temp). I'm betting you'll be pleased with it at that point.

 

Just. Made. It. Through. The. Whole. Thing.

Lots of valuable info here, that is for sure. Thank you everyone who has contributed and helped me on my way toward making the best Mr. Beer brew possible. I am definitely going to start with the extracts, then start making modifications, (i.e. adding DME, Hops, etc.) but I was happy to read that I can move to all grain without having to give up the convenience of the LBK (apartment living and all). I am excited to try some of the simple BIAB techniques I have seen discussed! Thank you again to everyone who has contributed to the wealth of information!

 

It's nice to be a part of this.

 

Hello, another beginner question here.
I'm on my last Mr Beer refill, it is an October Vienna Lager (amber). My plan is to ferment in the 2.5 gal keg then carbonate and condition in the bottles that came with the set. My question is does the type of bottle help/hinder conditioning? The plastic bottles from Mr. Beer have been used twice before, should I bother buying glass ones or come up with a way to bulk condition?

Thanks

 

I like plastic because you can give the squeeze test. They get tighter or harder as the co2 builds up pressure in the bottle. There is no difference in using glass but you cant squeeze test.

 

So I just found out that Mr Beer has discontinued most of the beer kits I gazed at for so long (I'm too cheap to pay almost ten dollars in shipping for so little product and I would rather feel a product in my hands before buying). When did this happen and are the new kits better than the ones they are discontinuing? *Not like I would buy them to be honest, since after I am done with the two additional refills I bought at BB&B, I want to just pick up some malt extract from my local store.

Also can I do grain brewing in the Mr. Beer kit? My local store really only focuses on all-grain brewing (their malt selection is somewhat pathetic).

Also their season refills seem like such a rip-off. I can pick up a 24-pack of premium beer (more beer than I could brew with those kits) for less money from Costco and don't even need to be a Costco member to get that deal (state law).

 

Well, since you're not going to buy them anyway I guess there's no point in discussing them

And the seasonals were actually some of their best beers. Heck, you can go buy two cases of just about any cheap beer for less than you could the seasonal, but that's not really the point is it?

 

I can buy a case of Heineken, Stella Artois, Samuel Adams, or Corona for less.

 

Mr Beer was recently bought out by Cooper, so I imagine they are out of seasonals because they're retooling them so to speak with new recipes. If you notice all the basic refills are different now but the all-malt and premium refills are still the old MB ones. Stay tuned and I'm sure you'll see them back soon!

 

They now use A retooled malt for some of the recipes the cooper malts are a little bit bigger of a can. Yes you can do all grain in a trash if you wished it's a fermentation vessel keep it clean and sanitized your good to go. As far as cost yes Mr. B kits are a little pricey but you can have some level of control over the product in the end I have three five gallon buckets two Mr. B kegs that I first used for split batches and did an all grain three gallon boil poured to 2.5 gallons in the Mr. B keg

It's all what you make of it some beer can be made less expensive some can't

 

Thanks!

 

Yes…but at some point you have to stop and ask "what am I paying for?"

Heck, just last year they sold a deluxe refill for just $15 and that was two 550g cans of malt (HME & UME)… now they want $18 dollars for 800g's of malt?

 

Cooper is the rival to Mr. Beer's old malt manufacturer, Maltexo (Lion Co.), so they had to reformulate all their malts. It looks like Maltexo already found a new distributor. A company called Brew Demon will be selling the old Mr. Beer malts starting sometime this summer and at a decent price too.

http://www.brewdemon.com

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/images/smilies/rockin.gif

 

Is it possible making a beer, flavored by honey? Thanks in advance,

 

It is possible, but not as easy as you might think. Honey is basically all simple sugars, so it ferments almost completely out. Not only that but most honey is very light on flavor, and most of what flavor there is gets driven off during fermentation. So, unless you use a lot of honey you'll simply end up with a lighter bodied beer with no honey flavor.

If you're just trying to get some honey flavor in your beer I'd recommend using honey malt. It tastes and smells just like honey, but watch out because, unlike real honey, honey malt is very strong. A little bit goes a long way. I would recommend AT MOST .5 lbs of Honey Malt in a Mr. Beer size batch.

 

Definately.
Pink Ms Beers.
My GF's wine is always better than mine.
Could be the 100% grape juice ive seen her topping it up with.

Think I'll just use a bucket though.

Has anyone got any advice about that?

I usually brew from crop so it's usually wine and Cider but I'm wanting to brew some pale Lager.

Don't really want to use a pre mixed packet and add water. I want to use fresh stuff.

Sort of planning next years harvest.

 

Hi guys (and maybe gals)...complete newbie here...name is Chris, and I live in the sticks north of Baltimore, Ohio.

Im brewing my first batch, West Coast Ale in a Mr. Beer kit. I have decided Sundays will be my "brewing" days....I followed the directions to the letter (except to let it ferment for 2 full weeks instead of 1), and pitched the yeast on June 17th. My schedule is to bottle on July 1st (my birthday!), warm condition until July 15th, and then chill, then sample on July 22nd.

I dont drink much beer, and am a very patient guy, but I am excited at the aspect of drinking beer that I made.

I know the creed is sanitation, sanitation, sanitation, and I have taken every step to ensure Im not getting any bugs. I also plan on sanitizing my bottles right before bottling, but I do have one question...should I be concerned about the sugar? Should I take any special steps to ensure my sugar is "clean"?

Thanks, and what a great site...Ive been reading for a week now, what a wealth of information!

Regards,
-Chris