Home Brewing with Mr. Beer

[BrewMaster]

Hey all, I was thinking about buying a Mr. Beer kit from a local store in my town and after reading all of the comments I am sold on it, everyone seems to be very pleased with the taste of the beer and the time it takes with the exception "Bob" haha. But please share more recipes I would love to try some of your brews and see how well they taste.
Happy Brewing

[greenBird]

BrewMaster-

I have brewed many-o batch of Mr. Beer kits, and had some great tasting beers (with the exception of two batches one that was fermented at too high of a temp and one that was pitched too hot). They are good for beginner brewers as the recipes are not complex (in composition) and you can pretty accurately tell when your beer is done with out using a hydrometer, although if you begin to soup up the recipes I strongly recommend using a hydrometer, because the visual signs of fermentation are not nearly as noticeable as the wort becomes thicker and you can easily end up with a young beer. My only gripe with Mr. Beer is that 2 gallons is far to little beer to be self sufficient (if thats what you are looking for). I love my Mr. Beer keg, and I still use it (along with a 5 gallon fermenting bucket and 3 piece airlock), but if I had it to do over again, I would most likely start with a kit from Coopers. They are a little more expensive, but you get more beer in the end, and its a much more inclusive system. Lastly, the instructions in the Mr. Beer kit leave a little to be desired. Mr. Beer is intended to be a raw introduction to beer brewing and kudos to them for making a product that gives you no excuse to not try home brewing, but do your due diligence when it comes to internet research (sounds like you have). One thing that helped my beer taste better that was not in the instructions was -get one of those stick on thermometers from the pet store, stick it on your keg, and don't pitch your yeast any higher than 80 degrees at the absolute most. I pitch between 68-78 and I have noticed a significant difference in flavor. The kit yeast is pretty hearty and you can pitch hot with out killing it, but why start the fermentation process hot and get all those off flavors. Good luck, happy brewing -cheers

[greenBird]

BrewMaster wrote:

Hey all, I was thinking about buying a Mr. Beer kit from a local store in my town and after reading all of the comments I am sold on it, everyone seems to be very pleased with the taste of the beer and the time it takes with the exception "Bob" haha. But please share more recipes I would love to try some of your brews and see how well they taste.
Happy Brewing

Also check out Craigtube on youtube. Tell him TheGreenByrdProject sent you.

[cdbruss]

Thinking of getting some of the 16oz. glass bottles with the swing tops (Grolsch style). Has anyone had any experience using these - good or bad?

[greenBird]

They make nice gifts, but to be honest, I drink my beer way to fast to want to deal with cleaning and replacing those stoppers and gaskets. Although I will say this, unlike the traditional glass bottles with the crimped caps, the grolsch bottles will not explode when over carbonated. My personal belief is that the bigger the bottle the better. I bottle in Pint/liter sized PET bottles. Less cleaning, less bottling, and lets face it.... If I'm going to crack a nice cold home brew, I'm not drinking less than a pint any way.

Some people may criticize the PET bottles, but I have never noticed a difference in taste versus glass bottles, there lighter if your shipping (although I do not condone shipping beer as it is illegal ) and again plastic wont explode if you over carbonate, which does happen from time to time, especially if your brewing with out a hydrometer (which I also do not recommend, but it is possible). If you do use plastic though, be sure to only rinse the bottles, don't use a brush of any kind, as if you scratch the inside of the bottle, it creates a place for beer spoiling bacteria to hide. Same goes for your fermenting buckets. You don't need soap either, just rinse them thoroughly, soap can leave a residue that could kill the head on the beer. I say try it all, and see what you like best, and gift what you decide you don't like. Good luck -Cheers-

[ChiliHead]

cdbruss wrote:

Thinking of getting some of the 16oz. glass bottles with the swing tops (Grolsch style). Has anyone had any experience using these - good or bad?

I use them too and they are good. Just make sure you get under the gasket when sanitizing. You can also buy new gaskets at any brewing store

[BillyB]

Can Splenda which is a product of sugar be used in place of bottling sugar?

[greenBird]

Splenda is nasty stuff, and has ben proven to cause similar side affects as Aspartame.(quote below from http://www.splendaexposed.com/ )

New chemical sweeteners (like Splenda) and the sweetener blends (aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame K blended together in one product) may be causing users to show signs of weight gain, disruption of sleep patterns, sexual dysfunction, increases in cancer, MS, Lupus, diabetes, and a list of epidemic degenerative diseases. The corporations continue to stand tough in their denial of any connection to chemical sweetener additives.

But its your choice, and I certainly wouldn't pass judgment on anyone who chooses to use it. I'm sure the crispy skin on t-day turkey is pretty bad for me too, but I eat that every year. As for the carbonation of beer, I honestly don't know, but my question would be this. The amount of priming sugar is so minute, I am curious of the motivation behind removing it from the process? I do know honey works well for priming, brown sugar as well, and I even had to use powdered sugar in a bind, but corn sugar has worked the best for me.

If you try this, please post back and tell us how it works, I'm curious.

[betty_cooper]

Thoughts on the Englighman's Nut Brown Ale? I have my first batch fermenting right now, I tasted after 1 week and it was still on the "too sweet" side so I'm letting it sit another week.

Another question - if corn sugar works better than white table sugar - do you use the same amount per PET bottle (2.5 teaspoons?)

[GreenBird]

Ya I have noticed the same thing with the Nut Brown Ale. I usually ferment for about 14-20 days (if I can be that patient, usually ends up being 14 days) and some times it is still a bit sweet. However after carbing for 10 days and conditioning cold for about a week or so, it dies down and is much crisper.

Another thing that works well with the Nut Brown Ale is the addition of some finishing hops, and its cheap.-

You can also try cutting out the booster and using another can of HME. The more adjuncts you use relative to your HME the more off/sweet/cidery/etc. flavors you are likely to get.- but its sounds like thats not the problem, sounds like your right, it just needs more time in the fermenter.

I currently have a batch brewing that consists of 1 can NBA HME, 1 can WCPA HME half a bag of booster, 1 cup brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon. I'll post the resaults. It has been fermenting for about 10 days and is not even close to being done, I'm thinking its going to take about 3 weeks. I didn't even bother hydro testing yet, you could float a paper clip in it lol.

As for the corn sugar, I don't know if this is correct or not, but yes I personally use the same amount of corn sugar. Ultimately time in the bottle will make your beer taste better. I have found that the longer you can keep your beer in the bottle and then subsequently in the fridge, the better it tastes (within reason of course, don't exceed 5-6 months on a basic brew like NBA)

Keep tasting it, you would be surprised what a difference even one day can make. Once you think its done and ready to bottle, let it go one more day and if it tastes the same, bottle it.

-Cheers, and post and let us know how it comes out.

[Dude]

What's the shell life of mr beer i just want to know how long i can keep it after its already made

[GreenBird]

Shelf life in my house is about 2 days after its conditioned ...

That really is a question you are going to have to do your own research on. There are many factors that come into play when determining a shelf life of any brew (Mr. Beer or otherwise)-simple vrs complex brew, and you should familiarize yourself with those factors - amount of HME or UME, adjuncts, other fermentables such as fruit, what type of beer your making, what temp your storing it at, and I'm sure a bunch of other variables that I have failed to mention. Some Mr Beer recipes are not ready to drink for 2-3 + months, while others are on the verge of exceeding there recommended shelf life after 4 months.

Remember.. no matter what the beer snobs tell you, Mr. Beer is still beer. It's like cooking if you use a macaroni and cheese mix, it will taste decent and its still macaroni and cheese. But if you make macaroni and cheese from scratch its going to be a little better and have your own signature taste to it. But in the end they are both macaroni and cheese and each have there place. Kind of corny, but a concept that many people tend to over look.

I currently brew using 2 Mr. Beer kegs and a 5 gallon true brew bucket, and I have never had my beer last nearly long enough for it to be an issue.

I can say this though, if you are using a basic Mr. Beer kit with not much modification, you should be able to use the 2/2/2 rule (2 weeks fementing, 2 weeks carbing and 2 weeks cold conditioning) and still have your beer taste good for 3-4 months after that, but I wouldn't push it much past that. But I am by no means an expert, I would be interested in what the beer gurus of this thread have to say.... Chilihead....you out there?? Hope this helps, or at least tickles your taste buds to learn more.

Cheers-

[MichaelTheKicker]

ah....just finished reading all 852 posts. I've got two Mr. Beer kits on the way that should be here tomorrow. My roommate has one and a coworker got one as well. I got some of those stick on thermometers that I'll be using. all the kits come with the WCPA but I'll hopefully be ordering some different brews soon. I'm thinking having a few of the WCPA going at once will let us try some different things right off the bat and see what works. Next stop is mrbeerfans.com I guess. I'm sure I'll be back to post about how everything is going though.

[Daddy]

cdbruss wrote:

Thinking of getting some of the 16oz. glass bottles with the swing tops (Grolsch style). Has anyone had any experience using these - good or bad?

I use the grolsh bottles exclusively. I dont' think you can use the quick prime measurement scoop you get from mrbeer.com as these are 16oz bottles, but they work quite well. Since they are emrald bottles, keep them out of light. The emrald bottle affects the flavor.

There are a few other bottles that have a similar mechanism but are brown. I recommend those. It would take a while to get enough for a batch (you need 16-17 bottles per brewkeg).

[Daddy]

BillyB wrote:

Can Splenda which is a product of sugar be used in place of bottling sugar?

Although I do not know for certain, I'd be willing to bet that Splenda would not substitute. It's not the sweetness that's necessary for priming the bottle, but the sugar (simle carbohydrate) and yeast. Splenda is not a carbohydrate, so I doubt it would cause the proper reaction.

[betty_cooper]

Update: My Englishman's Nut Brown Ale after 5 weeks (2-2-1) tastes strongly of green apple (acetylaldehyde). I'm really hoping this will fade with the last week of conditioning - otherwise, I'm afraid I may have ruined the whole batch :/

[steve]

"greenBird, I wouldn't want to test that theory about grolsh bottles.
I had one of those large brown 1 litre maybe larger bottles with the flip tops. One day I heard a pop. I couldn't figure out what it was. The next day I had a broken bottle, and the top neck was sitting on my kitchen table. Luckily that is all that happend. I would have hated to have that much beer on my floor.

[GreenBird]

steve wrote:

"greenBird, I wouldn't want to test that theory about grolsh bottles.
I had one of those large brown 1 litre maybe larger bottles with the flip tops. One day I heard a pop. I couldn't figure out what it was. The next day I had a broken bottle, and the top neck was sitting on my kitchen table. Luckily that is all that happend. I would have hated to have that much beer on my floor.

Wow very interesting !! thanks for the info, I have never had that happen, and I have heard that the excess carbonation can escape through the seal, but it does make sense that you can still get a bottle to explode if there is too much carbonation. Did your bottle explode from the correct measurement of priming sugar? or did you accidently add too much.- my first batch I used table spoons instead of tea spoons, my pet bottles looked like 2 liters, and my beer turned into champagne lol.- on a side not, I carb all my beer in plastic storage bins just incase I get an explosion - I generally use PET bottles so its not a problem, but I do use glass from time to time, especially during the holidays.

[Joey]

I want to buy sme refill kits but I dont want to buy online because of the shipping charges and the long waits. So, I was wondering if they are sold in stores?

[Keith]

If you really want a great beer, Bob, fly to Europe and plow through about a thousand really crappy beers. Then pick out the one or two per country that don't suck and buy as many crates as you like. As far as Mr Beer, it is a really fun way to make some beer - period (and that's the whole point, it is FUN). If you don't like the beer, why do you waste your time commenting on it? Personally, I invite you to go to Europe...