I'm going to offer counter advice to the above post (ask 10 brewers how to do something and you'll get 20 answers).
Go with the 1lb wheat dme.
Warm the water up, but don't bring to a boil - it will make mixing in the DME easier.
Once mixed in, bring the water up to somewhere between 180 - 200 degress. That's hot enough to handle killing off anything if you are concerned about that.
At that point, add your HME and proceed as normal.
There's no need to bring the DME to a boil (or have BOILING water to add the HME into). Hot water makes dissolving the HME easier to pour into the LBK but it's not necessary.
Some people believe it's necessary to add the HME to boiling water to sanitize it - I'm not in the camp.
For the WW, there are plenty of hops in the HME to make a nice wheat beer without worrying about needing to add additional hops, too.
The priming sugar doesn't change anything, so you can change it if you want but I challenge you to taste a difference between using corn versus table sugar.
If you really want to kick it up a notch, switch out the Fromunda yeast for WB-06 (dry) or WLP300 for a nice hef.
Alright this sounds like what I am going to follow. Just how much DME should I use? 1Lbs? What about LME?
I am not sure what UME is
UME is Unhopped Malt Extract, and is a term used by Mr. Beer to denote the difference from Hopped Malt Extract, which is the basis of their kits. Both are forms of LME, but mixed between several grain sources.
Other LME is typically, to my understanding, just one or perhaps two similar types of grain to give an exceedingly predictable product.
Mr Beer extracts are essentially their formulations of multiple LME's, with or without hops and hop extract (HME vs UME), to create a more or less finished recipe. The UME is sold as a premium option to replace the corn-sugar based "Booster" for alcohol content in their recipes.
Thanks for clearing that up! I feel like I am back in my networking classes with all these abbreviations
I noticed your in York, PA! And you are brewing Brewmutt's Irish Red. Did you do that in the Mr. Beer or get together a "big boy" kit?
This seems to be the place to ask about Mr Beer, so here goes:
I got a Mr Beer kit and I've got my very first ever batch of homebrew going. I don't have any additional tools beyond what came in the kit yet. Its all set up in my unfinished basement so if there's a disaster its easy to clean. Plus its out of sight and in the dark. It fermented for 16 days at a fairly steady 66 F before it didn't taste especially sweet anymore. Then I bottled it in the 1L bottles using 2.5 tsp table sugar per bottle - just like the instructions say. That was 3 days ago.
Now we've had a bit of cold, rainy weather for a couple of days and my basement is down to about 62 F. The bottles are starting to feel a bit firmer but they've all got a layer of yeast sitting on the bottom already. Is it too cold to properly carbonate without taking ages? Is it so cold that I'm killing the yeast and possibly ruining my beer? What would you do?
You won't kill the yeast with cold unless you freeze it.
At 62, it will take a bit longer to carbonate than it would at 68, but it will still carbonate. I would give it at least 2-3 weeks before moving it to the fridge for a minimum of 3 days. 4-6 weeks in the bottle and a week or two in the fridge would be even better.
You won't kill the yeast with cold unless you freeze it.
At 62, it will take a bit longer to carbonate than it would at 68, but it will still carbonate. I would give it at least 2-3 weeks before moving it to the fridge for a minimum of 3 days. 4-6 weeks in the bottle and a week or two in the fridge would be even better.
+1
Or you can move them up into the house where it's (I assume) warmer to help the carbonation along. But, I would still hold to the timing mentioned above.
Those PET bottles will hold a LOT of pressure before they blow. I would say there is not a high probability that they will explode. A hydrometer reading is essential in the future, IMHO. You could just put the bottles in a plastic bucket & take them upstairs. That will contain anything, just in case. . .Thanks everyone for the replies. It is warmer upstairs in our home, but not by much. We usually keep it rather cool, say 68-72. The biggest reason I've been reluctant to do that is the risk of an exploding bottle. I don't believe there was much sugar left from the wort and I tried to be very careful when adding my bottling sugar, but the thought of a bottle popping all over my kitchen or pantry or whatever is not pleasant. If one's gonna pop, I want it to go in the basement. Hopefully before I bottle my next brew I can get a bottling bucket and wand so that I can batch prime and won't worry so much.
So with that said, how much risk is there of an explosion? These are the Mr Beer 1 L plastic bottles with screw-on lids. Anybody have any experience, good or bad, with these?
I winder if there's any correlation between Coopers buying Mr Beer and the fact that many of the recipes are now "out of stock"? I've never seen so many beers listed as out of stock at one time. Makes me wonder if Coopers has decided to discontinue some of the current recipes
Heh guys first post, I too got MB for christmas from my wife (by the way what does swmbo mean) so i made raspberry wheat with booster and primed bottles with sugar and made proud papas pilsner the same way using most of your advice ferment for 2 weeks and left them alone. well everything went well beer was good, now I got 2 more to try raspberry wheat but this time no booster replaced with golden wheat ume, and a cherry wheat with booster. My question is I read somewhere in the first 170 posts about fermenting for 2 weeks with out the fruit then rack into a secondary over the fruit for 2 more weeks then bottle, what will this do for the finished beer ? pros and cons ? I have bought another MB keg for this. Thanks to all who help us into future addictive behaviors anyways got to go before boss sees me screwing off. thanks Bill
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