Me. Beer kit + more.

[mjwj12]

Just thought I'd let everyone know my brew came out pretty good! The mr beer American light has a great color and I'm on my third and I can feel it

 

[rodwha]

 

[skitter]

Awesome, that's about the color I gor in mine as well

 

[brew_heel66]

Nice. I have this one cold crashing at the moment and will be bottling it tomorrow. I did the primary for two weeks in the Mr. Beer then got a 3 gallon glass carboy and have used that as a secondary for the last 2-3 weeks (after pulling off two bomber bottles as testers). It has a gorgeous red color in the carboy but does indeed come out a similar golden color in the glass based on one of my early bottles. I hope I enjoy mine as much as you have enjoyed yours. I am a bit afraid after the first early bottle I tried. I stole a sip while transferring to my secondary and loved it but after carbonating it just tasted like it had been watered down. At this point I'm just hoping that I didn't let it bottle condition long enough or that the secondary will help out with some flavor development.

fwiw the american light is the one on the left in my avatar (taken about 2 weeks ago). Hard to see in such a small picture but you can catch some of that nice red hue. The one next to it is a belgian dubbel that was only a few days into fermenting.

 

[mjwj12]

I had put in my Oktoberfest in the fridge and tried it this morning. Superb! Got a very strong taste! Hoppppppy!

 

[mjwj12]

My third and fourth brew now.



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[skitter]

Traitor, stick to your Mr Beer kegs

 

[rodwha]

How are you maintaining the temp in those?

 

[mjwj12]

How are you maintaining the temp in those?

Keeping them in my laundry room where the temp never changes


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[rodwha]

It's cold in there? Or are you using a yeast that does well warmer?

 

[mjwj12]

I have a digital thermometer in there and it stays between 65 and 75degress. Perfect.


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[rodwha]

Depending on your yeast 75* may be way too high. Most prefer to be kept below 70*.

Do you know about swamp coolers? It's what I do. But I also live in TX where it's hot as hell! It'll be in the low 80's today while others have snow!

 

[boydster]

If that digital thermometer is measuring room temp, the beer temp might be quite a bit higher. Also, if it's measuring wort temp, having 10* swings in wort temp won't make the yeast very happy - the little buggers don't take kindly to temperature swings. Not to say it won't work, but if you can do something like the swamp cooler rodwha mentioned you will probably be very happy with the results.

 

[mjwj12]

Well thanks for the input! Today I transfered my red ale to the secondary fermenter for another week. It stopped fermenting after 5 days...I was very surprised. I even swirled it around a lil bit to try and adgitate the yeast but I'm sure it was done. I live in nc now. My room stays at a constant temp plus I have a fermometer on my pumpkin ale. It's showing 73 to 74 degrees right now. The pumpkin ale got so feisty I had to stop with my airlock and do something new.


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[rodwha]

73* is a bit warm for most ale strains. Do you know the temp range for the yeast you used? Most want to be kept below 68*.

Usually (all depending on yeast strain) mid or even low 60's is ideal.

 

[skitter]

Indeed, unless your doing a Saison or some Belgian beers, 63-67 is target