Started my first homebrew batch tonight!!

[brewboss]

I started my first batch tonight in the Mr. Beer Kit. It is West Coast Pale Ale with standard booster(it'll be an all-malt recipe next time). While I was brewing I sipped on a sixer of Sierra Nevada Kellerweis Hefeweizen. Not a bad beer at all.

I made sure everything was sanitized and I follow the directions as close as possible. I'm planning on fermenting for 14 days and bottling in 16oz swing-top style bottles that I will be ordering tomorrow from mid-west supplies. Then conditioning for another 2 weeks. I did noticed while sanitizing the fermenter that the spigot on the kit is pretty much junk. It seems like when bottling you have to tip the whole thing up to get the bottom of the jug and would stir up a lot of sediment.

Will the alternative spigot and bottle filler from Mr. Beer help with this??

Any input or suggestions would be appreciated. I can't wait to learn more and become addicted(more than I already am anyway)?!

 

[lumpher]

sierra nevada - good choice to prime yourself. i like their pale ale. the timing should be about right for a hefe; drinking hefe right now myself. the spigot on mr beer is pretty bad; i started with 1, just like a lot of other people. i suggest you get an auto-siphon and use it. that way, since you have to tilt the mr beer, it has a strainer cap on it

 

[WyomingBrewer]

My Mr. Beer West Coast has an apple cider taste that just wont seem to go away. Hope yours is better. I have since upgraded to a 5 gallon system. Congrats on the first brew and here is hoping it turns out better than mine did. I did have a Mr Beer English Nut Brown kit that turned out really tasty but I made it as a half batch in my five gallon set up.

 

[brewboss]

Hopefully it'll turn out well. I've also considered buying a tap a draft system and conditioning in it. Does anyone have any experiences with this method? I'm so new to this and want to make sure I check out all my options.

 

[lumpher]

My Mr. Beer West Coast has an apple cider taste that just wont seem to go away. Hope yours is better. I have since upgraded to a 5 gallon system. Congrats on the first brew and here is hoping it turns out better than mine did. I did have a Mr Beer English Nut Brown kit that turned out really tasty but I made it as a half batch in my five gallon set up.

did you use a lot of table sugar in that batch? that'll cause a cidery taste

 

[jbsg02]

I just made my first batch almost 2 weeks ago and will be bottling it on Monday, which will be 14 days in the fermenter. I was planning on leaving it at room temp in the bottle for 3 weeks, then putting in the fridge to chill. My kit came with the American Blonde Ale. Hope your beer turns out well!

 

[Chris1272]

congrats on joining our addic...hobby If you think you will be staying with the Mr beer for a while I would recommend you order your yeast separately. When you order your bottles get some packets of dry yeast like Nottingham or some saf ale. they will keep in the fridge for the better part of a year. the yeast in Mr Beer is generic and In my opinion leave an odd taste in my mouth in the final beer. My father uses Mr beer so my experience with it is limited to the beers he shares with me when i come home but the Witty Monk that he made with the kit was actually very good. I would recommend that one if you like a wit style beer.

 

[RM-MN]

Leave your beer in the fermenter longer than the 2 weeks, like 3 or 4 to let the sediment settle out and compact a bit more. When you use the spigot and tilt the jug to get the last of it out, if your sediment has compacted well and you tilt it slowly, you won't stir up much sediment at all. Leaving it in the bottle longer will also help as more of the sediment will remain in the bottle when you pour. Just don't forget to rinse the bottles well immediately after pouring or you will have a tough time getting all the sediment out.

 

[petey_c]

I was ready to shelve my 3 Mr. Beer kegs, then I started reading this thread. I guess I'll do two more Mr. B batches and use different yeast for one batch. I wasn't too pleased with the Mr. Beer beer and maybe their yeast is to blame. (I did drink them all though.) If neither of those turn out good enough. I'll start using them to split 5 gal. batches and try different hops/yeasts etc. I still don't know enough about how different yeasts/hops will affect taste. At least I'm starting to know the names of yeast strains and hops. One of the best parts of brewing is, the research isn't too painful. I'm a fan of 3 weeks primary and 3 weeks (or more) of bottle conditioning. I tried the Mr. Beer 7/7 and it wasn't as good as a longer ferment/conditioning.

 

[petey_c]

Oh yeah, brewboss, the spigot that comes with Mr.B sucks azz. The upgraded one and bottling wand are much better. You need to minimize the amount of O2 when bottling (or kegging). I usually batch prime and then sit the back end of the keg on an inverted dust pan. After stirring, I let it sit for 30 minutes or so, then bottle. This lets the solids settle more and more liquid to be savored. Come to think of it, I've never much of a problem with suspended schist in the beer.

 

[monty3777]

Not that I am a fan of common wisdom - in fact common wisdom is always suspect to me - but these days the thought is that the cider taste does not come from using sugar. Rather, it is a result of off flavors produced by the yeast. I think if you let the beer condition longer you may get away from that cider taste.

With that said, my only experience with a cidery beer was when I brewed my first extract and added table sugar. FWIW as I'm certainly no expert.

 

[brewboss]

Oh yeah, brewboss, the spigot that comes with Mr.B sucks azz. The upgraded one and bottling wand are much better. You need to minimize the amount of O2 when bottling (or kegging). I usually batch prime and then sit the back end of the keg on an inverted dust pan. After stirring, I let it sit for 30 minutes or so, then bottle. This lets the solids settle more and more liquid to be savored. Come to think of it, I've never much of a problem with suspended schist in the beer.

By batch priming you mean adding the whole amount of priming sugar to the batch instead of each bottle individually right?

I am thinking about racking into a bottling bucket and then priming this way. If I can find a way to rack from the Mr. Beer spigot.

And, if I read correctly, you are saying to stir just before bottling and then let it settle for about 30 minutes?

 

[brewboss]

I'm not really sure what my best option would be when I get ready to bottle. I've read so much here. Any suggestions?

 

[Shooter]

I always just primed each bottle separately when using the one liter plastic bottles. If you're going to stick with Mr. Beer, the locking spigot and bottling wand are a big help.

 

[brewboss]

My first batch has been fermenting for 14 days today, so I'm going to bottle tonight. :rockin:

I'm using a Coors Light Home Draft 1.5 gallon bottle for part of the batch and putting the rest in 16 oz swing top bottles.

I plan on priming the 1.5 gallons with 6 teaspoons of sugar dissolved in 1 cup of water, and 1 teaspoon for each 16 oz bottle per the Mr. Beer instructions.

Does this amount of priming sugar sound right? Just wanted to make sure before I screw up the whole batch.

I can't wait until I get to taste it!!

 

[brewboss]

Haven't got to update recently, but I let the beer carb for 2 weeks at room temp. I ended up using two of the home draft bottles. After carbing I threw them in the fridge for a week and took them out replaced the co2 carts and poured the first beer. A little cloudy but not too bad. It didn't have much carbonation and it seemed very watered down. I'm going to chalk this batch up to beginners mistakes. Not enough priming sugar. The mr. beer instructions were vague and I didn't fully dissolve the hme before adding to the keg. And using the home draft bottles. Not to mention it was a basic kit with booster.

I've since started my second batch. Its the witty monk witbier. I used fermentis safbrew s33 yeast and used the mr beer yeast as a nutrient in the wort. I also think my fermenting temps were too high and have found a better location for my keg. I have 24 swing tops on the way to bottle, replaced the keg spigot and plan on racking into a bottling bucket.

I read the entire mr beer thread and gained a wealth of info. Hopeful I'm more successful this time.