Bottling question-Mr Beer newbie.

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Silviakitty

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...and I'm sorry for the newbieness.

According to the instructions, fermentation of this particular kit (west coast pale ale) is supposed to be over in seven-ish days. It also said a sample of a beer finished fermenting should taste yeasty but not sweet.

It's day eight. I taste-tested, and it actually tastes like beer, just flat (that was pretty exciting, actually...kind of like 'I MADE BEER!'). So I got my stuff together for bottling.

I filled one bottle, put the cap on and shook it, and I noticed it looked slightly carbonated already, with a few bubbles and a bit of foam at the neck. I know it's not actually carbonated, but I started to get paranoid that I bottled too early. I put that one bottle in a plastic bag in case of explosion and ran over here to type this post. :eek:

As I said, it tastes like beer, but flat. It's slightly cloudy, but from everything I'm hearing homebrew tends to be. I'm basically asking before I finish up so I don't have a heart attack from bottle explosions in the middle of the night. :D

I know it won't hurt to wait to bottle the rest of the beer, but what about the one I already did?
 
Sorry, I had to post that immediately in case you were still shaking it.

Oxidation of beer is something that we brewers avoid almost as fearfully as contamination.

You don't want any bubbling when bottling, much less intentionally shaking up the bottle like a crazy kitty person.

OK. now that we have that settled, hold your bottle at a 45 degree angle(or so) when bottling so that the beer doesn't splash, bubble, etc.

WTF was your question? Sorry I nearly spilled my own beer half way through reading your post.

If it didn't taste sweet.......then something was wrong. Did you add priming sugar? I think mr beer says to add it to every bottle.

You will want to not shake your bottles, you will also want to leave that stuff in the bottle for a good month before tasting it again.

Mr beer will taste like slightly warmed over crap for the first 3 weeks or so. But the law that states that "any beer, regardless of where it came from, will taste better the longer you wait" will take effect, even on mr beer, after a month.
 
I've never used Mr. Beer, but one of my friends does. She always follows the directions on bottling, etc, and it works. Well, one time some bottles exploded but that was her stupidity. She didn't wait the right length of time, and then stored them on top of the fridge (where it's quite hot) for like a month without refrigerating, and k-boom! It was a mess.

So, aside from that one time, she's had great luck with it. So, I say follow the directions and don't worry.
 
I agree!!! Regardless of what the Mr.Beer instructions say... wait. I got my Start with Mr.Beer also. Welcome to the obsession err um hobby. :)


<EDIT> Sorry Yooper!
 
Didn't mean to make you spill your beer there. ;)

When I say it didn't taste sweet, that was before adding the priming sugar (before bottling at all). The instructions say that if the sample out of the fermenter tastes sweet, it isn't ready to bottle. Of course, it also says to gently shake the bottle to help dissolve the priming sugar once the beer is added, so I'm thinking maybe I'm going to stop listening to the included directions anyway. *grins*

The question is, basically, should I worry about the one bottle I did fill exploding? (and a corollary I didn't think of before: if it was going to explode, when would it be likely to happen?)

(and there's nothing wrong with being a crazy kitty person! At least so long as I stop shaking the bottles. :))
 
No, if it didn't taste sweet when you bottled, it should be ok. But get a hydrometer sometime, so you can "double check" and make sure it's finished just in case. My friend made lots of Mr Beer kits (still does) and that was the only one. And it was because she was going out of town or something and bottled early. If you bottled when it was finished, there isn't any reason to worry!
 
No, just drink that one first. Beer is not as delicate as we pretend it is, but when one does go bad....WHAT A SHAME!!!!

If you waited the right amount of time, then you are fine Miss Kitty. And no, I didn't drop that one lol. The image of you shaking your first born was hilarious though I must admit!
 
Oh, I plan on not only getting a hydrometer, but a full kit; I'm already hooked in.

So soon, the Mr Beer newbie questions will be at an end! Then will begin the carboy questions. ;)

thanks much.
 
Here's the whole picture: kitchen table, little plastic wannabe keg, a whole bunch of brown plastic liter bottles...me sitting there with a bottle in one hand and the instructions in the other looking confused but shaking anyway. The paragraph after it says that aeration is bad, it says to shake gently to mix in the sugar.

Don't shake the baby! :D
 
Dump the one bottle so you don't have to worry about it. Then wait 3-4 days so that you'll have no shadow of a doubt that your beer is indeed fermented. At that point, sanitize the bottles and add the amount of sugar mr. beer suggests (he's not always wrong). Cap 'em and keep them somewhere dim at room temperature. I'd agree with Cheezeperson and wait a good 3-4 weeks. It might be pretty light on flavor and body, if you used the recipe with one can of mix and one bag of booster, but it IS beer. And you made it. And you will make even better beer next time. :)
 
Oh, and if you do keep using the mr. beer fermenter in the future, here's a tip:

don't take samples until you're pretty sure it's done fermenting. Everytime you take a sample from the spigot it pulls air in through the lid. You don't want that nasty outside air in your fermentor, it can cause an infection.

Cheers!
 
Welcome to the hobby and glad you're already hooked. It'll only get better from here on out. Ya, get a hydrometer (maybe $7?) to help you judge when it's ready. I started with Mr. Beer and usually gave it extra time than was needed just to be sure. By the end of it, I developed a taste for warm, flat beer. Mr. Beer's recommendations on tasting and checking for bottle-ready beer can easily be interpretated wrong but I don't know how else to go about it. A hydrometer will show you the way. Another thing- instead of pouring table sugar with a small measuring spoon, I'd recommend carbonation drops. It'll save you a lot of time and frustration. Both can be picked up at your local homebrewing store if you have one. If not, there's always online.
 
cheezydemon said:
You will want to not shake your bottles, you will also want to leave that stuff in the bottle for a good month before tasting it again.


I sorry cheezydemon is wrong! - Go ahead and shake to disolve the sugar once its capped! In fact I would shake them a few days later too if the sugar settled out.

This will not effect the flavor or oxidize your beer.

Excessive shaking, and splashing while bottling is normally considered bad, but once bottled that air will be in there forever. Not a problem.

There is CO2 in your beer. Thats why its foaming up once you shake. When you do this you are releasing CO2. The CO2 is heaver and makes a natural beer-CO2-Air barrior when you store it upright.

Store it for 2-3 weeks at ~ 68F. The bottles will feel hard if your are using PET.
 
If you want to make things easier. Use a 3 gal carboy fitted with a S-Style airlock. When it stops bubbling. - Bottle.

Use the MRB keg just as a bottling bucket.

A hydrometer is not a bad investment, but its a PITA to use. I rarely use mine I have refractometer instead. You can get away w/o either but you need to keep a close eye on airlock bubble activity and temps.

If you have raging activity for many days then it slows down and then stops you can be pretty sure its done. This is what I do most of the time.
 

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