Official first brew; Mr Beer West Coast Pale Ale

[Joe13]

That blood orange Hefe sounds delicious! I just got back from my trip and checked my bottles. they are rock hard (that's what she said) and I plan to put one or two in the fridge to cold-conditon for a day and to try tomorrow night. wicked excited! If it tastes good, I will be brewing my Wheat beer this weekend and getting it into the fermenter.

 

[Joe13]

Well, Friday marked the two weeks in bottles. So thurs night I put one bottle in the fridge. Friday evening i gave it a whirl.

There was a resounding pssst when i opened it which gave me a good feeling. the head wasn't too crazy, but the carbonation bubbles kept rising while the glass sat there. It smelled just like beer too! as for taste, It was still a little yeasty I think, but that might just be part of the homebrew taste. I was a big fan

I had another yesterday and it tasted similar to the first. Overall i am wicked excited! i plan to let the rest sit until next weekend and see how that goes. I may even refrigerate it a bit longer then 24 hours. Now to brew the next batch!

 

[Alemann]

Yeah I also started with the wcpa but 1 thing I found when doin the mr beer kits using all the booster left the beer with a slight sweet taste . I started using 75-80% of the booster and it was perfect.

 

[Joe13]

Yeah I also started with the wcpa but 1 thing I found when doin the mr beer kits using all the booster left the beer with a slight sweet taste . I started using 75-80% of the booster and it was perfect.

good to know! I have one more kit with booster to do and then I plan to move to the full extract kits.

 

[Mike37]

I had my first official glass of my own WCPA last night. Like yours, the head was very thin, but it tasted really good. Definitely young, but still really good. It's had 3 weeks in the keg, 2 weeks in bottles, and that bottle had a few days in the fridge.

But yeah there's just a slight hint of sweetness (almost a maple flavor) and a slight hint of yeast and breadyness. Otherwise it's kind of floral and grassy/wheaty. My wife loves it because it's not very bitter at all. Success!

 

[Joe13]

I had my first official glass of my own WCPA last night. Like yours, the head was very thin, but it tasted really good. Definitely young, but still really good. It's had 3 weeks in the keg, 2 weeks in bottles, and that bottle had a few days in the fridge.

But yeah there's just a slight hint of sweetness (almost a maple flavor) and a slight hint of yeast and breadyness. Otherwise it's kind of floral and grassy/wheaty. My wife loves it because it's not very bitter at all. Success!

Thats a good description! I can't wait to brew the second batch.



As for this batch, I've decided to throw two of the bottles into the fridge and let them hang there for a week. to see what that does to the flavor and the settling. i'll leave the other 4 on their shelf, hiding out.

 

[Joe13]

Well, I did another brew day saturday. I used my newly acquired MrBeer kegs and did a total of 8 gallons!

2 gallons each of the following:
Angry Ox Ale
Scottish Wee Heavy
Whispering Wheat
Blarney Stone sout.

The brew day went very well and i used the skills and lessons from the Pale Ale brew. I made one single switch off of the recipes and that was for the Scottish wee heavy. it called for some butterscotch schnapps which i didn't have, so it got some single malt scotch instead.

I didn't take photos unfortunately, but I can get a shot of all the fermenters tonight. They all have very nice Krausen (more then the Pale ale) and smell like they are cooking away quite well. going to give them three weeks in the fermenter and then it'll be a bottle party!

 

[troubled_dog]

Well, I did another brew day saturday. I used my newly acquired MrBeer kegs and did a total of 8 gallons!

2 gallons each of the following:
Angry Ox Ale
Scottish Wee Heavy
Whispering Wheat
Blarney Stone sout.

:rockin: Sounds just like me! My first Mr Beer was a Octoberfest Vienna Lager that came out awesome. The new brew day I had 3 LBK (little brown kegs) that magically appeared in my kitchen

Sounds like you have some delicious beer in the pipeline! Keep posting pictures, it keeps be busy at work.

 

[Joe13]

:rockin: Sounds just like me! My first Mr Beer was a Octoberfest Vienna Lager that came out awesome. The new brew day I had 3 LBK (little brown kegs) that magically appeared in my kitchen

Sounds like you have some delicious beer in the pipeline! Keep posting pictures, it keeps be busy at work.

Thanks man! after the WCPA i realized that one 2 gallon brew at a time wouldn't build up the supply like i wanted. So a lucky craigslist score netted me 41 bottles, filter funnel, 2 hop scales, adjustable measuring spoon, pre-measured sugar scoop, 3 kegs, a bottle capper and bottle caps. Plus some brew stuff that turned out to be too old to use. Not bad for 30 bucks though.

I didn't take any photos of the brewing, kinda got distracted. but I did drink another one of my WCPA. this one was bottle conditioned for 3 weeks warm, and spent 2 weeks in the fridge. It had quite an impressive head to it, as well as good retention!! I was stoked and snapped a picture

Also, had a smuttynose baltic porter a couple days ago. black as night, great coffee flavors.

 

[Joe13]

Fermentation Chamber. AKA the closest.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Nice setup! I am a huge fan of the Whispering Wheat, I have done it a few times. Did you use the standard yeast? I use the Danstar Munich and have been really happy with the results.

 

[Joe13]

Nice setup! I am a huge fan of the Whispering Wheat, I have done it a few times. Did you use the standard yeast? I use the Danstar Munich and have been really happy with the results.

I used the standard yeast that came with the packet. I am quite surprised by the cloudiness so quickly. Hoping it keeps it up though. I like a cloudy wheat beer.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Report back on that one! I am curious how it turns out since I only used Mr B yeast on my first batch. With the wheat yeast I used, I got nice banana flavors that I really like.

 

[rcgriff88]

I find it crazy that you found all the kegs on Craigslist. After i read you found them on there I looked in my area for deals and nothing worth looking at plus alot of coffee makers haha

 

[Joe13]

Report back on that one! I am curious how it turns out since I only used Mr B yeast on my first batch. With the wheat yeast I used, I got nice banana flavors that I really like.

i shall let you know in roughly 5-6 weeks! with more pictures, as you can never go wrong with a ton of photos.:fro:

I find it crazy that you found all the kegs on Craigslist. After i read you found them on there I looked in my area for deals and nothing worth looking at plus alot of coffee makers haha

Yea, it was funny as hell. i just was sitting at work one day and decided to do a search to see what i could find.Typed in Mr. beer and the post came up. the post was like 3 weeks old, and not very descriptive. It just said 3 mr beer kegs, some bottles, and some other stuff. i e-mailed them thinking it was already gone, and two days later i heard back. went to pick it up and they lady just kept giving me more and more stuff. best thirty bucks i ever spent.

 

[rcgriff88]

Your a lucky SOB haha I told my fiancé that you got more LBK's and she gave me the font think about it look haha but I look it up everyday now and still alot of kerig coffee makers. Although I did find on mr beer listing but it's a hike away for one keg and a ton of booster packs. Id like to know what peoples opinions are about boosters.

 

[Joe13]

Your a lucky SOB haha I told my fiancé that you got more LBK's and she gave me the font think about it look haha but I look it up everyday now and still alot of kerig coffee makers. Although I did find on mr beer listing but it's a hike away for one keg and a ton of booster packs. Id like to know what peoples opinions are about boosters.

the wife thought I was going 'crazy'. I then informed her that crazy would involve a triple-tier, full electric, kegging setup.

I don't think the booster is a bad thing, but it doesn't really add anything to the beer (minus fermentable sugars). the four beers i brewed, 3 had booster in them. the whispering wheat had a full pouch, and the angry ox and scottish wee heavy had half a pack each.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

I also use the boosters, but I also add more malt in the form of DME. My first batch was the WCPA and I just used the can of HME and the booster and it is still cidery a few months later which could be too much sugar in relation to malt, or high fermentation temps, or both. I control my temps now and use more malt and have not had any issues since.

 

[rcgriff88]

I don't see alot of boosters mentioned thought I'd ask. But good strategy explaining to your wife haha I'd deff get this extra LBK if I was closer to their location ha

 

[Joe13]

I got to start bottling yesterday! was only able to do 4 gallons as a friend needed to borrow my capper for his mead. I will do the other 4 gallons today. the first two that were bottled were the Scottish Wee heavy and the Angry Ox ale. I purchased colored bottle caps to make distinguishing them a lot easier! Red is for the Ox and Blue for the Scot. Didn't get a ton of pictures, but these show you the magnitude.

So many bottles, all of different sizes. It took my friend 40 mins to do they math out so I could fill the right amount of each size to make it even across all four.

One thing I found out: I had more then 256 fl oz. in the kegs. Mr. Beer has you top of the keg to 8.5 quarts, which is about 275 fl oz. So I ended up using more bottles then i calculated for. Luckily I have a swing top 24 fl oz bottle, so there will be a big wheat bottle when I'm all said and done.

 

[Joe13]

Photos from bottling day number 2

Two of the four bottled

Missing from this shot is another 6 22 oz and 6 34 oz bottles.

The Irish Stout. It was the last to be bottled and the only one i tried. tasted wonderful.

 

[Joe13]

3 weeks fermenter, 2 weeks bottle carb warm, 1 week 2 days cold conditioning at 40 degrees in the kegerator.

Scottish Wee Heavy

Angry Ox Ale

the head retention was amazing, the weird, bubbly fizziness from the first batch is gone, and the taste is sublime.

 

[Joe13]

Tried the Whispering Wheat last night. Sad beer indeed. it is alcohol, but thats about where it ends. The wheat had the same bubbly fiziness that the pale ale had, and it tasted the same too. I have attributed that fiziness to using a single cam of DME and the whole pouch of booster. It'll be a good, generic, 'hot as hell' drinking beer.