2 Different Mr. Beer HMEs

[GorillaPint]

Hi, new here. Quick question, couldn't find an answer after a little searching.

I bought a new Mr. Beer kit. It came with the classic american light but I also bought a can of the diablo ipa...along with some cascade hops I plan on dry hopping with. I read somewhere on here, cant find it now, but the thread mentioned adding an extra can of hme to improve or boost the brew. All I'm wondering is if I should add this extra little can of classic american light to the diablo because otherwise I may never use it, unless for another experiment.

I know mr. beer lists some recipes using 2 different cans of their malts but I don't see this combo anywhere.

 

[Devilsnight]

Might tast odd, might taste great. Keep in mind if you Add both to a single batch your probly at like 9%, your going to have to pitch your yeast accordingly otherwise it won't finish. You could add like a pound of light malt extract if you don't think one can will be sufficient for you. I'd recommend just brewing them both seperate and getting some experience from it though.

 

[rodwha]

I'd not mix them either, but work on doctoring up the American Light you have.

 

[rodwha]

Have you done anything with them yet?

 

[GorillaPint]

I may do them seperate, just to get a base line feel but it's not in my nature...lol.

Haven't done anything yet, just gathering stuff up like star-san, safale us-05 yeast, hops, yeast nutrient, hydrometer and stuff. I usually drink IPAs like sierra nevada torpedo and stone brewery and lagunitas so this classic american light just aint gonna cut it.

Can you guys advise on how to majorly improve that? thanks for the inputs

also gonna start a better bottle full of apfelwein. bought stuff for that like 5 years ago just never started it for some reason. so i grabbed another pack of montrachet and juice and gonna have a brewday.

 

[jgm038]

The CAL has minimal hop taste......as well as minimal malt taste........well, honestly, it pretty much has minimal taste all together. I don't think it will hurt.

I would definitely ditch the Mr. Beer yeast and use soemthing like US-05 though. Also, if you are using the little brown keg, I would expect it to overflow when the yeast kicks in.

 

[TopherJohn]

Since you don't know what is in the can, it's tough to guess on the result if you throw them together. In my Mr. Beer days I did several two-can recipes. If you want an IPA from this! you could treat the Classic Light as almost like an adjunct, but consider buying an additional ounce of hops and boiling for, say, half an hour. The Mr. Beer directions say to bring the water to a boil, turn off the flame and add the extract, but boiling the extract will darken the wort a little and allow a hop addition time to add extra bitterness that might be lost by mixing the IPA with the lighter extract.

Again, it's guesswork without knowing what they put in the cans.

 

[rodwha]

I looked at their claim for Diablo and it states it should be a 5.5% 70 IBU IPA. Were I you I'd probably dry hop it.

The other says it's 3.7% and 11 IBU's. I'd add maybe 1 lb of DME or LME and do a 20 minute boil and add some hops at 20 and 5 mins. You may even want to steep some light crystal (10-40) or even honey malt.

And I'm not sure about the yeast now that Cooper's owns it, but you could split a US-05 between the two.

 

[rodwha]

If you add 1 lb of light DME and split an ounce of Liberty/Willamette/Mt Hood or some such it ought to bring the ABV close to 5.9% and bring the IBU's close to 30.

You can also add 1/4 lb of crystal or honey malt for more flavor.

 

[jgm038]

Since you don't know what is in the can, it's tough to guess on the result if you throw them together. In my Mr. Beer days I did several two-can recipes. If you want an IPA from this! you could treat the Classic Light as almost like an adjunct, but consider buying an additional ounce of hops and boiling for, say, half an hour. The Mr. Beer directions say to bring the water to a boil, turn off the flame and add the extract, but boiling the extract will darken the wort a little and allow a hop addition time to add extra bitterness that might be lost by mixing the IPA with the lighter extract.

Again, it's guesswork without knowing what they put in the cans.

I would follow what he said. Since the CAL has no taste at all, I would add that first.

Then do the hop boil...Then use the Diablo IPA as a late addition, either at the end or last 5 minutes. Generally boiling Hopped Malt Extract is not advised, as it has been previously boiled to give you a certain hop profile and further boiling will change this hop profile.

 

[rodwha]

I think mixing them would really screw up the flavor as they are so different. I'm assuming the IPA has typical citrusy hops and the other is using something like Willamette or some such.

I've brewed 2.5 gals in the Mr Beer fermentor using US-05 without mishaps. I also kept the temp fairly low (mid 60's).

 

[GorillaPint]

thanks for the heads up jgm038. i didn't think about the overflow. maybe i should just ditch the LBK, burn through these malt extracts and give it away cuz i'm ready to boil my own malts and stuff...

my thoughts exactly TopherJohn. i have an ounce of cascade on hand, ready to fire. thought about maybe boiling the half ounce and dry hopping the other. this is where my judgement lacks. thank you

thank you too, rodwha. its hard for me to decide what to use because the lack of experience. i dont like a ton of bitter, but i really enjoy the strong floral and citrus dank hop smelling beers that are not too sweet and malty.

 

[rodwha]

The LBK is great for small test batches. Keep them.

They can handle more than the 2 gals the kits make. To be safe you can keep your batches at 2 gals though. I've not made a heavy beer in them though (maybe up to 5.5%?). Maybe a stronger beer would cause problems.

These beers will likely just be OK. Not bad, but not great either. I'd do them just for a little experience.

 

[GorillaPint]

ya stronger, hoppy beer is what i'm after...like 7%! =)
i guess i'll see. i'll try to remember to let you guys know what happens. i think i'm set on that one suggested method.

 

[dkevinb]

The LBK is fine for test batches, though mine almost exploded on Monday. I brewed a brown ale with Safale S-04 and it went wild. The krausen and hops clogged the vents and when I checked on it at 14 hours the lid was bulging. When I opened the lid it went BAM!!! and foam gushed out. I scooped many cups of krausen out and it still kept coming. I've never had this problem before, but I'm going to drill and grommet the lid for an airlock/blow-off tube before I use it again.

 

[GorillaPint]

ya sounds like tapping the lid for a real airlock seems easy enough. thanks for the heads up. was thinking of doing that just in case.