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Ok, great! Thanks for the help. I will start checking my FG of my beer when I think it's done. So how do you tell when you've achieved your final gravity? when the numbers are consistent for two consecutive days?

Schlenkerla said:
If you use the 1-2-3 method you'll get good results. Watching the airlock is not proof its done, but it has never failed me. If all things are going well and you can check it daily, you will know when its done. The two chambers of fluid in the airlock will be almost the same w/ a slightly lower level on the gas-pressure side. For this very reason is why I only buy the "S-Style Airlock".

Officially speaking, measuring the Final Gravity (FG) with a hydrometer 2 days in a row w/o change is proof its done. This is as long you are hitting the target gravity.

The only time I do this Final Gravity measuring is when I'm making something that has really long slow ferment. My 1st Apfelwein was fermented at 53'F. It took ~12weeks to hit 1.005 and another week to hit FG target of 1.000. 13 weeks is a long wait at times taking the measurement is really warranted.
 
flashover600 said:
Ok, great! Thanks for the help. I will start checking my FG of my beer when I think it's done. So how do you tell when you've achieved your final gravity? when the numbers are consistent for two consecutive days?

Usually 3 consequetive days.
 
cola said:
so foam is a sign of being underfermented?

Yes - Its usually form bottling too early or you added too much priming sugar. It can also be that you have an infection.

Odds are from the past discussion is that you bottled before it finished fermenting.
 
flashover600 said:
So how do you tell when you've achieved your final gravity? when the numbers are consistent for two consecutive days?

You need to know what recipe calls for for Finished Gravity. (FG) Most MRB Recipes will not state a FG. Mainly because it really marketed for beginers who don't have a hydrometer. My guess is 1.008~1.012 normally.

I stated two consecutive days in a row. Revvy says it should be three. Yes- Being consistent is important here. Knowing its done. When its done you keep getting the same reading. 2 times or 3 times whatever you are comfortable with when you do the check.

If you don't what I mean by gravity & hydrometer look at this link.

http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixA.html
 
Revvy said:
It's not really a good idea to prime with white sugar...most of us use Priming sugar, which is corn sugar...or Dry Malt extract {DME}, or you can use those priming tabs, putting one in each bottle...Table sugar often leads to a cidery taste in your beer...(Again look at the posts earlier today where we talk about using a bottling bucket.)

That is funny cause I think the coopers drops are actually made up os 70% white sugar or something like that.
 
jasno999 said:
That is funny cause I think the coopers drops are actually made up os 70% white sugar or something like that.

According to Copper's themselves, it contains 73% sugar, 23% glucose in a crystalized form....so it's not pure white sugar.

In some of the stuff that I just found looking for that info there seems to be a lot of people who don't like using them, and usually the complaints that they have call it a cidery taste as well.

I've never used it myself...but there are some applications that I might. Like deciding to prime half a batch of mead or Apfelwein and not wanting to mess with using a bottling bucket...Especially if there is any cidery taste present, it would be expected.

Plus it's a lot more accurate then measuring the sugar and putting it in each bottle, there's less chance of bottle bombs.
 
don't fear the 5 gallon setup. Even though you may not drink all the bottles right away, the longer they sit, the better they will get. You'd be surprised how different the beer will taste after a couple of months in the bottle.

That's good to know. I'm fairly certain I'll move up after a batch or two once I feel like I understand what I'm doing.



And with the higher grav beers such as barley wines..they often don't even become drinkable for a year.

That's good to know too as I've read that four months was the time frame to drink it by. It's tough to make heads or tails of all the different things I've been reading and know which are accurate.


But before you commit, play around with the mr beer or the smaller carboy, work on your technique...even make up small batches of beer recipes found here and ferment them in your mr. beer....And then when you do step up to larger batches...

That'll probably be the route I take once I get the first one under my belt :)


don't throw away the mr beer...you can use it for apfelwein

Speaking of which, I have the Apfelwein recipe but it's not clear how to make it using the Mr. Beer. Do you just halve it or is there some other modifications to the recipe that need to be made for it to work in MRB?
 
Thwizzit said:
Speaking of which, I have the Apfelwein recipe but it's not clear how to make it using the Mr. Beer. Do you just halve it or is there some other modifications to the recipe that need to be made for it to work in MRB?

2 1/2 gallons of applejuice and a half pound of the corn sugar will do it for the Mr. Beer...I'd pitch the whole packet of whatever yeast you choose...If you use montrachet it will be extreemly dry...if you want something semi sweet add a quarter pound of Lactose. Or research on Ed's thread what people have said about using different yeasts. Some of them won't ferment to complete dryness....
 
Revvy said:
2 1/2 gallons of applejuice and a half pound of the corn sugar will do it for the Mr. Beer......

The original recipe calls for 5 gallons of Apple Juice and 2 pounds of Dextrose so I going to go with 2.5 Gallons of juice and 1lb of dextrose, will 1/2 pound be enough?
 
I've used cane sugar many times for carbing w/o any cidery taste to speak of ever.

If you read Charlie Papazian's book, he will say any fermentable sugar over 20% of the total fermentables will give off a cidery taste. Corn Sugar Included!! Its not a problem if you're making cider!!

Priming For a 5 gal batch;
- 2/3 Cup cane sugar (.88 oz by wt / gal)
- 3/4 Cup corn sugar (1 oz by wt / gal)

FYI - Yeasts for cider;

  • Montrachet - Dry
  • Cote Des Blanc - Less Dry, more fruity
  • Wyeast 3068 - Heffeweizen Yeast - Fruity
  • Wyeast 4184 - Sweet Mead Yeast - Sweet

I have tried both the monty & cotes both are good. Cotes need yeast nutrients or it'll get stuck. In fact all ciders should have yeast nutrients to ferment cleanly. No Rhino farts. Monty w/o nutrients will smell a lot like rotten eggs. So much that that wife will ***** at you until take it out or open a window and install a fan. Much of the smell depends on what chemicals are sprayed on the apples to keep insects away. (The use of Sulfides)

I prefer the monty.

Cider improves dramatically w/ age. Keep if for a year and its better than champagne.
 
Thwizzit said:
The original recipe calls for 5 gallons of Apple Juice and 2 pounds of Dextrose so I going to go with 2.5 Gallons of juice and 1lb of dextrose, will 1/2 pound be enough?

I couldn't remember the amount of dextrose, you're right, it's 2 pounds (I had a brain fart or something)...so 1 pound for your batch. I added a half pound of lactose for my 5 gal batch and it tastes just right to me, so if you add go with a quarter pound.
 
Schlenkerla said:
In fact all ciders should have yeast nutrients to ferment cleanly. No Rhino farts. Monty w/o nutrients will smell a lot like rotten eggs.

So THAT's what causes the Rhino fart eh? I always wonderd (That and which home brewer actually put their nose that close to a Rhino's arse and decided that they smelled the same?):D
 
I just opened my first bottle of homebrew ever (yes from a Mr. Beer.) Its actually not bad. My fiance said she could drink it and shes not a beer drinker. I cant wait to see what I can do with a real set up.:mug:
 
Revvy said:
I couldn't remember the amount of dextrose, you're right, it's 2 pounds

OK, thanks.

So, could I just buy one of those 5 gallon plastic pails with the spigot and an airlock/rubber stopper and just make the full-size batch? Is it that simple or do I need some other equipment?
 
Revvy said:
So THAT's what causes the Rhino fart eh? I always wonderd (That and which home brewer actually put their nose that close to a Rhino's arse and decided that they smelled the same?):D

Not me. I was one of Edwort's AW disciples.

I can confirm the recipe for 2.5 gal batch of AW

  • 2.5 gal of pasturized cider or apple juice
  • 1 lb of corn sugar
  • 1 pack of montrachet
  • 1.25 tsp of yeast nutrient
 
kevinito78610 said:
I just opened my first bottle of homebrew ever (yes from a Mr. Beer.) Its actually not bad. My fiance said she could drink it and shes not a beer drinker. I cant wait to see what I can do with a real set up.:mug:

How old is it now? Wait 4 months after its been in the fridge that long. You will be surprised how good it gets if you wait a little bit.

:mug:
 
Thwizzit said:
OK, thanks.

So, could I just buy one of those 5 gallon plastic pails with the spigot and an airlock/rubber stopper and just make the full-size batch? Is it that simple or do I need some other equipment?

Yeah you could...or a 5 gallon better bottle carboy with airlock. FOr apfelwein, that's all you really need. The next piece though not required for the apfelwein would be a hydrometer and wine theif...you'll be using that for both beer and wine...
 
Revvy said:
Yeah you could...or a 5 gallon better bottle carboy with airlock. FOr apfelwein, that's all you really need. The next piece though not required for the apfelwein would be a hydrometer and wine theif...you'll be using that for both beer and wine...

But the Carboy requires a siphon correct? The pail just pours out of the spigot into the bottles, no?
 
Thwizzit said:
But the Carboy requires a siphon correct? The pail just pours out of the spigot into the bottles, no?

You need to syphon, it makes for cleaner beer. Bottling from the primary is ok for heffes, porters, stouts and schwarz biers. Not good for paler style beers.

Buy an auto-siphon.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/siphon.html

You will be glad you did. Its really simple to use.
 
Schlenkerla said:
You need to syphon, it makes for cleaner beer. Bottling from the primary is ok for heffes, porters, stouts and schwarz biers. Not good for paler style beers.

Buy an auto-siphon.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/siphon.html

You will be glad you did. Its really simple to use.

Cool, thanks. I think I may end up with a carboy after all. Would I need one of those Tubing Clamps to go with the Auto-Siphon or does it have one on it already?
 
shafferpilot said:
I really very rarely use the clamp, but you will have to buy it seperately if you feel it's a necessary piece of hardware.

I just wanted to make sure that once the siphon starts I can stop it and fill the next bottle.

Going back to the Apflewein, is it OK to bottle it in gallon or 1/2 gallon jugs or is it better to bottle it in the smaller liter or 16 oz bottles?
 
Thwizzit said:
I just wanted to make sure that once the siphon starts I can stop it and fill the next bottle.

Going back to the Apflewein, is it OK to bottle it in gallon or 1/2 gallon jugs or is it better to bottle it in the smaller liter or 16 oz bottles?

Morning... If you get the bottling wand and attach it to the autosiphon, you won't loose the siphon when you fill a bottle...It has a little nipple that you depress against the bottom of your bottle and it fills, when you pull the wand out, the filling stops, but the siphon remains.

You can bottle still apfelwein in anything...But if you carb it you have to use champagne or beer bottles. I just bottle some of my still wine in a couple of sanitized used rum bottles.
 
Thwizzit said:
I just wanted to make sure that once the siphon starts I can stop it and fill the next bottle.

Going back to the Apflewein, is it OK to bottle it in gallon or 1/2 gallon jugs or is it better to bottle it in the smaller liter or 16 oz bottles?

I gotcha. I use a bottling bucket with a wand, so I didn't quite have your whole story in my head when I wrote that. Those bottling wands are pretty sweet. Just remember to keep the bottle filling happening low, as in below the carboy so the syphon goes in the right direction. Also, I've found that filling bottles slowly at first helps to avoid aeration.
 
Mr. Beer tells you to fill the bottles directly from the spigot on the fermenter but I was wondering if it would be better to get a bit of vinyl tubing and connect it over the spigot so it goes right to bottom of the bottles instead?

Also, is 'food grade' vinyl tubing any different from the vinyl tubing you can get at Home Depot?
 
Thwizzit said:
Mr. Beer tells you to fill the bottles directly from the spigot on the fermenter but I was wondering if it would be better to get a bit of vinyl tubing and connect it over the spigot so it goes right to bottom of the bottles instead?

Also, is 'food grade' vinyl tubing any different from the vinyl tubing you can get at Home Depot?


In my opinion it does not matter. It will not hurt as long as the tube is the right type and properly steralized. But why add another element to the mix that is goign to cause you to have to clean more items and steralize more items????
 
mr beer is banking on the idea that you'll be drinking all of your batch in a short amount of time. In that case the tiny bit of aeration occuring at bottling time is insignificant. If your bottles will be conditioning for a month (the minimum IMHO) and then it takes another month to drink them all, aeration will begin to show up.
 
Thwizzit said:
Mr. Beer tells you to fill the bottles directly from the spigot on the fermenter but I was wondering if it would be better to get a bit of vinyl tubing and connect it over the spigot so it goes right to bottom of the bottles instead?

Also, is 'food grade' vinyl tubing any different from the vinyl tubing you can get at Home Depot?

Yes it would be better to fill with a tube from the bottom of the bottle to avoid oxidation from too much splashing.

The best thing to do is NOT to bottle from the mr beer, but into a SANITIZED (Also sanitize all tubing) bottling bucket type thing, in which you have added a solution of all your sugar boiled in about 1/2 cup of water. I recommended a few posts back getting a 2-3 gallon cooler from k-mart as your bottling bucket.

Transfer your beer (rack) into the bottling bucket with a tube stuck all the way down into the bucket, so as it fills and swirls upwards it will mix your priming solution with your beer. Then you can hook the hose to the spigot of the thermos and fill your bottles...

If you get a bottling wand from your LHBS, it makes filling extreemly easy. You would hold the spigot in the open position with a rubberband. And the bottom of the wand has a gasket that will only release the beer when you touch it to the bottom of the bottle...you fill til the bottle almost overflows and pull out the want, it will leave you the 1" of headspace that you need!

You should really use tubing that is food grade, and yes you can find that in the plumbing section of a big box hardware store....BUT I also believe that any clear tubing will work if properly sanitized and cleaned, because the beer will only be in contact with the tubing for a few seconds as it passes through it, not really enough time to leach any chemicals into the beer... As long as the tubing was thoroughly cleaned and flushed (preferably with oxyclean) and lot of water to rinse it off...But try as hard as you can to find food grade tubing.

You don't need much...just make sure that it fits the OD of the spigot...and if you need to use something to clamp it on...even a closepin...there's nothing worse than having your beer pour out if your bottling line comes off your bucket.
 
And like my buddy Shafferpilot just said...let your beer age as long as possible...at least 3 weeks before you drink it...and therefore don't get too much oxygen in the beer when you bottle...

In fact it never hurts to practice all this with plain water before bottling day.
 
jasno999 said:
In my opinion it does not matter. It will not hurt as long as the tube is the right type and properly steralized. But why add another element to the mix that is goign to cause you to have to clean more items and steralize more items????

First it's sanitize, not sterilize (we can't sterilize without an autoclave)...and second to make you beer taste as great as possible by avoiding excess exposure to oxygen, and third to properly and evenly mix the beer with the priming sugar to have even carbonation and avoid bottle bombs or flat beer...

Methinks you should definitley read http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

Sanitization and careful handling helps makes great beer.
 
Revvy said:
Methinks you should definitley read http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

I've actually read a bunch of that and a lot of other stuff in the last week and I think a lot of my questions stem from the fact that I'm reading up on how to brew beer the way you're supposed to do it but I'm doing it myself with a Mr. Beer and I've also been reading up on how to make the MRB produce better beer and not do it exactly like they tell you to.

So, I'm trying to figure out how to apply some of the standard brewing techniques to brewing with MRB and in doing all that I'm sort of half way between processes and trying to figure out how to either use some of the standard brewing equipment with the MRB or just go to the larger set up. BUT... I've only got my first batch of MRB in the fermenter for less than a week so I'm not in any real hurry yet to upgrade I just want to see if I can combine some of the techniques and make MRB the best I can.
 
Thwizzit said:
I've actually read a bunch of that and a lot of other stuff in the last week and I think a lot of my questions stem from the fact that I'm reading up on how to brew beer the way you're supposed to do it but I'm doing it myself with a Mr. Beer and I've also been reading up on how to make the MRB produce better beer and not do it exactly like they tell you to.

So, I'm trying to figure out how to apply some of the standard brewing techniques to brewing with MRB and in doing all that I'm sort of half way between processes and trying to figure out how to either use some of the standard brewing equipment with the MRB or just go to the larger set up. BUT... I've only got my first batch of MRB in the fermenter for less than a week so I'm not in any real hurry yet to upgrade I just want to see if I can combine some of the techniques and make MRB the best I can.

That is exactly what you should be doing. There's plenty of time for upgrades. One piece at a time is a good way to go, so the wallet police don't haul you away;)
 
When I used MRB I just tilted the bottle as much as I could and let it slowly fill up. I never let it make a dripping sound. It took me a little of thirty minutes to fill up 8 bottles this way but I atleast had peace of mind that oxidation wasn't happing.
 
Let me ask this - is there ONE thing in Mr Beer's directions that could cause 3 out of 4 batches to taste bad.

I've since graduated from the Mr Beer thing because it frustrated me so much but the directions seem so different than what making a 5 gallon batch of extract beer includes.

As I read Papazian's book and this forum I'm beginning to understand a lot better but I'm still amazed that people made GOOD beer from their Mr. Beer kits.

For starters - no boiling of the wort, table sugar directly in the bottles for priming, very little extract, booster, etc.

I sanitized and sanitized and ....well, you get the picture but my beer tasted like cider at best and vinegar at worst.

The first batch tasted good and was done EXACTLY the same as the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.
 
I'm using the Mr. Beer to brew an Irish Stout and I've gotten a hydrometer but I don't know what the gravity reading is supposed to be when I check it and the recipe doesn't say anything about it.

How do I know what gravity reading I'm aiming for? Is there a standard chart that has gravities for each style of beer?
 
Thwizzit said:
I'm using the Mr. Beer to brew an Irish Stout and I've gotten a hydrometer but I don't know what the gravity reading is supposed to be when I check it and the recipe doesn't say anything about it.

How do I know what gravity reading I'm aiming for? Is there a standard chart that has gravities for each style of beer?


http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/catdex.html


But if you read a few posts back it isn't recommended to take hydro readings on a mr beer (except maybe one when you add the wort to the fermenter and one 2 weeks later at bottling) at least not from openning the top of the fermenter...since there's such a small volume of CO2 protecting the beer from contanimation repeated openings of the top to look at it or to draw samples is not a good idea...

Like I said...best to take a starting gravity...Then wait 2 weeks for fermentation most likely to be complete...then take a reading to determine the ABV...

Plus if you're drawing repeated hydro samples you are decreasing the amnt of beer you'll have at bottling time...
 
Revvy said:
But if you read a few posts back it isn't recommended to take hydro readings on a mr beer

I saw where you had replied to another question from someone with an older model MRB by saying Since you have an older model, you could consider actually getting a hydrometer to test fermentation so I figured using a hydrometer would help figure out when it was done fermenting. Should I not use it and just wait 14 days?


at least not from openning the top of the fermenter...

Can't I just fill the test jar with a little beer from the spigot? Why would I need to open the top?


Plus if you're drawing repeated hydro samples you are decreasing the amnt of beer you'll have at bottling time...

I wasn't planning on taking repeated samples.I figured if I took one after 14 days of fermenting that would let me know if it was ready and I figured it had to be better than just guessing.
 
Another question... What is the point of taking starting Gravity? If you need to know what the Final Gravity is, what difference does it make what the Starting Gravity is?

As far as conditioning goes, it was mentioned earlier that you should let the beer sit for 2 weeks to insure fermentation and then bottle condition them for at least 3 weeks in a warm place.

What temperature is considered 'a warm place'? 70? 75? Higher?
 
Thwizzit said:
Another question... What is the point of taking starting Gravity? If you need to know what the Final Gravity is, what difference does it make what the Starting Gravity is?

As far as conditioning goes, it was mentioned earlier that you should let the beer sit for 2 weeks to insure fermentation and then bottle condition them for at least 3 weeks in a warm place.

What temperature is considered 'a warm place'? 70? 75? Higher?

In order to calculate the alcoholic content of your beer you need to subtract the final gravity from the original gravity x 131 (OG-FgX131)

Also when you start formulating your own recipes, or are brewing someone else's recipe knowing the original gravity helps you to know if you did everything right when you boiled everything together...

It's even more crucial in all grain brewing- for us working with extracts, we can increase or decrease the amount of water we mix with the wort we boiled to hit our targets. With ALL Grain, you don't have that flexibility because you're doing full volume boils...

After fermentation has happened, someplace in the low 70's and out of the light is the best place for bottle condition...At least for the first 3 weeks to insure that carbonation occurs.
 
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