Mr. Beer X-mas Gift Upgrade (help!)

[jrobidoux]

Hey Everyone,

I am a moderately experienced brewer with a few succesful all-grain batches under my belt. Anyway, for x-mas some friends got me:

1 can Mr. Beer hopped Red Ale Extract (19.5 ounces)
1 can Mr. Beer unhopped Golden Wheat Extract (19.5 ounces)
1 can Mr. Beer Oregon Fruits boisenberries

I want to make a beer with these things, as I thought this was a thoughtful gift. Even if they are not ingredients I would normally buy for myself, you can't really argue with the ease of use they provide the brewer. Anyway, anybody have any ideas on upgrading this recipe with either steeping or mashing some fresh grains, or adding additional fresh hops? Any help will be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks!

 

[bkorver]

Mr. beer recipes are designed for 2.5 gallon batches, so it would seem your options are to double it and brew it up, brew a 2.5 gallon batch with what you have, or maybe add another 3 to 4 pounds of (insert extract of choice here) and see what happens... the hopped red is going to mess with your hops scedule during the boil, so you won't want to use a lot if any bittering hops.

 

[johnnybrew]

jrobidoux - If it were me, I would use the Wheat extract and not risk the other two mainly because I don't trust that the hopped will actually reflect a real hop profile and I generally don't like fruity beers. The hopped one may indeed be worthy, but I wouldn't risk it.

As for the Wheat one, you can use it in place of a base wheat malt for any recipe that requires wheat and add any number of specialty grains for steeping. I would decide on the type of wheat beer you want to make then do a search for extract recipes. If you find an all grain one you like, you can post a request here for someone to convert it from AG to extract with steeping grains with brewing software applications (I use BeerSmith). If I am online and see your post I will help ya out. BeerSmith is a great tool - you might consider the investment. It's indeed one of my favorite additions to the brewery. Cheers. Johnnybrew.

 

[wyzazz]

Make a partial mash or extract beer with each of these, saving the Mr. Beer LME for a late extract addition. This will keep the bitterness of the hopped extract from increasing too much.

Also, the latest Basic Brewing Video episode is on Doctoring Mr. Beer.

 

[jrobidoux]

Leaving out the boisenberries is of course tempting, but I want to keep this as close to whatever it is they had in mind when they purchased these things for me as possible, so I will at least just dump them in at the end of the boil and cross my fingers.

Also, making a two gallon batch is no problem, as that is what I normally do anyway, so these two malt extract can serve wholly as my base. I'm just looking for a couple easy tweaks to kick it up a notch.

What about mashing a pound of Maris Otter to help give this beer some depth, and then throwing in some Goldings near the end of the boil to give it some hoppy freshness?

 

[Ramitt]

I really don't see how it could hurt.

 

[Gear101]

or buy a can of all three on your own and double the batch to 5 gallons