My souped-up Mr. Beer

[San Jose State University]

So I figured before investing $600 I'd try homebrewing with a Mr. Brew.

If you don't know what that is, it's basically just a little 2 gallon fermentor with a couple vents in the cap to let air out (although it can get in). You use a can of hops and malt and you add sugar to get it going. The yeast is some generic dry crap.

Right now I've done three batches and now I'm trying to do something better. I made wort with DME and hops, and placed it in the fermentor with some homebrewheaven.com dry yeast.

It's been about 48 hours now and the yeast has some cultures going on top and some bubbling... but nothing like the sugar-filled wort for my other batches. I'm sure it'll be fine, though.

Anyone have comments or opinions on my souped-up Mr. Beer mix???

 

[Schlenkerla]

What did you use? How much DME & Hops. How long did you boil your wort?

The MRB kits are pre-hopped and as fool proof as reconstituting malt, water and yeast?

 

[Kayos]

I would boil the water with 1/2-1 oz of hops for an hour, add some for the last half hour, then add then DME for the last 5 minutes. You can actually get up to 3 gallons in those things and if you go here:

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipes

you can get a bunch of recipes for a 3 gallon batch. Do real batches of good beer from those recipes. Also, let it sit in the MrB keg 3 weeks before bottling to get some clarity before you bottle. That's how I had success before upgrading to better and bigger equipment.

Oh, and finally, don't exaggerate on the price of the equipment so much. You'll scare people away from homebrewing . Good equipment for 5 gallon batches is under $100.

 

[BrewFrick]

I had previously started a thread about the Beer Machine. It's a great little tool for the homebrewer and a "gateway" item to get you into the real deal with 5 gallon batches. Here is a recipe that I had great success with in the Machine. It's a little high on the bitter scale but that is what I like, feel free to modify:

2 lbs Bulk Light LME
1 lb Extra Light DME
½ lb Pilsner Malt
1 oz Warrior Hops - 16AA
1oz Saaz Hops
Nottingham Dry Yeast

Very simple recipe, I really liked the beer this made. I am afraid to put this in the recipator as the IBU is probably like 70 or something. I had drinkable beer at about a week and a half. Cleared very well and the Nottingham really helped with this I think. Just be warned, I have found that all the beer I brew in the machine has a kind of plastic aftertaste to it that the other beer I have made the traditional way does not. I think this is the gasket piece or the de-foamer disks, the next one I do I will not use the de-foamer thing on and it should be fine but if not it's the gasket imparting the flavor and I will not brew in it anymore.

 

[rdwj]

So I figured before investing $600 I'd try homebrewing with a Mr. Brew.

You can get a basic starter kit for about $75. Not sure where you got your figures

 

[San Jose State University]

Oh, and finally, don't exaggerate on the price of the equipment so much. You'll scare people away from homebrewing . Good equipment for 5 gallon batches is under $100.

If you have a way to start homebrewing with equipment to make and bottle or keg it for $100... sign me up! I just started building up my collection of 5 gal equipment and a large pot cost me 30 bucks at half price.


Also though... As it was my first time brewing with malt and with using a different yeast... does anyone think I could have killed my yeast? After 48 hours the little bit of yeast on top bubbled... and now it's slowed down already. My sugar recipe's bubbled a LOT more.. and longer.


For my two gallon recipe I used the following:
.8lb DME
12 AAU bittering
5 AAU finishing

 

[Ryanh1801]

I just spent 200 on a 5 gallon kit deluxe/ 30Qt pot/and burner/and first beer. So its no too bad.

 

[Whelk]

I just bought a $50 setup for my friend. Obviously that doesn't include a pot (and he's cooking on his stove), but still. And if you're concerned about money, don't keg! Obviously we'd all love a nice keg setup, but I'm way too broke to afford that stuff, so I just bottle with great results.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Well, you've got a ways to go before you're an EAC, but at least you're on the path...

Try skimming through www.howtobrew.com if you haven't already. I'm sure it will give you a lot of great ideas. You know, hops come in countless varieties and each one is a little different. The same is true, to a lesser degree, with Malt Extract.

For what it's worth, you can buy everything you need to do an All grain batch for $50, plus a $50 turkey fryer and burner, plus a $40 tank of propane. $140 for a full all grain setup. The cost for Extract batches is about the same. Of course, if you can do a boil on your stove, or if you decide you don't need to boil your wort (lots of people don't- they just boil the water to sterilize/sanitize it, and then bottle it until it cools, then add it to a super-concentrated wort that can be boiled on the stove), you can skip the propane and skip the turkey fryer and burner, and brew with a #2 plastic bucket, a $1.50 airlock, a 2 gallon pot from good will, a couple of 2 liter bottles (for holding pre-boiled and cooled water) and bottles and a capper.

As for where you find bottles for cheap, if you really have to ask, then you probably don't have many brain cells to spare... free bottles are easy to find. Cheers!!!

 

[coyotlgw]

My grand total for everything that I could possibly justify for a starting rig was still only about $500 and that included almost $300 for a minifridge and controller.

Out of all of this, $130 for the deluxe kit (glass secondary fermenter) was about as much as I needed to spend for quakity goods and Pale Ale kit.

03/16/2007 BREWERS CONNECTION $1.00 (5gal R.O. water)
03/15/2007 BREWERS CONNECTION $48.63 (5gal stainless steel pot)
03/14/2007 MOREBEER, MOREWINE $61.20 (Temperature control hardware hack)
03/08/2007 THE HOME DEPOT 476 $214.51 (Wine cooler, 45 bottle, range 40-60 degrees)
03/05/2007 BREWERS CONNECTION $179.41 (Deluxe Beginner kit, 24x 20oz bottles)

I just brewed my first today and already posted an "oh no!" thread though, so I probably have no room to talk

 

[BierMuncher]

You have a long way to go to close the gap betwee $30 and $600.

I'd say take the small leap into 5 gallon, stove top Extract brewing. Before long, you'll be outside doing AG brews on a nice day.

Mr Beer is a good introduction to the brewing concept, but Mr Beer is to home brewing, what Ragu is to fine Italian food.

 

[Bobby_M]

For my two gallon recipe I used the following:
.8lb DME
12 AAU bittering
5 AAU finishing

That's a really small beer. 1.018 OG with a potential ABV of 1.8% I suspect it's done fermenting already.

 

[kabert7]

My buddy and I started brewing about 15 years ago and had very little disposable income. We boiled our wort on the kitchen stove(my wife still hasn't forgiven me for the boil-overs or bleached towels). We bought very little and had some great, and some not-so-great beer.

Long story short; knowledge, experience, and love of the craft make good beer, not $600.00 in equipment. And I don't say that to be preachy, because now I can afford some of those higher end items. They are nice, just not necessary.

Enjoy.

 

[San Jose State University]

That's a really small beer. 1.018 OG with a potential ABV of 1.8% I suspect it's done fermenting already.

Wow. Thanks. How do you calculate that?

 

[Whelk]

Wow. Thanks. How do you calculate that?

There are programs like Qbrew (free) or Promash (not free) that can calculate that sort of stuff. For a two gallon batch, you'd need more like 3 lbs of DME or so.

 

[BierMuncher]

Wow. Thanks. How do you calculate that?

Simplistic formula (you need to have a hydrometer)

Take gravity reading immediately before you pitch your yeast into the mix.

Eventually, when you feel the fermentation is complete, take another reading. Several readings a few days in a row that do not change are your indicator that fermentation has completed.

Take the beginning gravity and subtract the final gravity and multiply by 1.31.

Example:

Beginning gravity 1.052
Ending gravity 1.010

Delta = .042
42 x 131 = 5.5% ABV

 

[Bobby_M]

Yeah I just plugged the numbers into Qbrew.