Mr Beer - Read all about it and ask questions

[pig-punisher]

First post.

I was not happy with my MB results so I took some liberties. I boiled 1 pound light DME 1 pound amber DME in 1 gallon for 60 mi. added 1 oz n brewer at boil 1 oz galena for 20 and 1 more oz NB and 1 can of classic light HME at flame out. Think I over hopped? This stuff is going nuts in the LBK.

 

[Kealia]

Do *I* think you over-hopped? Yes.

You've got 3 oz of hops + the HME in a 2.1 gallon batch. The "good" news is that by boiling 2lbs of DME in one gallon of water you lost a lot of hop utilization due to the high gravity of the boil.

But, NB hops aren't in-your-face bitter like many others are so you might be OK. Hate to sound like a cliche, but time will tell.

Did you run those numbers through any type of software first to determine your IBUs or did you just wing it?

 

[pig-punisher]

Do *I* think you over-hopped? Yes.

You've got 3 oz of hops + the HME in a 2.1 gallon batch. The "good" news is that by boiling 2lbs of DME in one gallon of water you lost a lot of hop utilization due to the high gravity of the boil.

But, NB hops aren't in-your-face bitter like many others are so you might be OK. Hate to sound like a cliche, but time will tell.

Did you run those numbers through any type of software first to determine your IBUs or did you just wing it?

Just winged it. No gravity readings no recipe, just wanted to experiment. That American classic light HME is not that great so anything will be better than that.

Also I filled the LBK to 2.5 gallons thinking the headspace would be ok and now it is overflowing a little. I don't think it's enough to worry about though.

 

[Tombstone0]

First post.

I was not happy with my MB results so I took some liberties. I boiled 1 pound light DME 1 pound amber DME in 1 gallon for 60 mi. added 1 oz n brewer at boil 1 oz galena for 20 and 1 more oz NB and 1 can of classic light HME at flame out. Think I over hopped? This stuff is going nuts in the LBK.

I plugged your recipe into brewpal and it estimated 116 IBUs, it'll probably be a bit lower than that because of the partial boil but it will still be very bitter.
The bitterness will subside over time if its too much at first.

If its overflowing make sure the channels in the lid don't get clogged or you might have a mess on your hands. You might want to take the lid off clean and sanitize it and put it back on. If you think it'll overflow again put the lid on loosely.

 

[pig-punisher]

Thanks guys for the replies. I will clean and sanitize the lid tonight. Would it be a bad idea to move it to a different fermenter? Its been in the LBK for 2 days now.

 

[bpgreen]

Thanks guys for the replies. I will clean and sanitize the lid tonight. Would it be a bad idea to move it to a different fermenter? Its been in the LBK for 2 days now.

I would leave it where it is. If you transfer it to a different fermenter, you increase the risk of contamination and/or oxidation.

 

[pig-punisher]

I think I'll just relax and leave it be. Next time should I not boil the DME for the full 60 min.?

 

[Kealia]

Are you familiar with what you get from hops with different boil times? If not, do a quick Google search for something like HOP BOIL TIMES and you'll find a couple of quick graphs that will explain it.

And use some brewing software when adding things. That can tell you how bitter your beer is going to be ahead of time so you can tweak it to your tastes.

 

[Tombstone0]

I think I'll just relax and leave it be. Next time should I not boil the DME for the full 60 min.?

You don't have to boil dme for an extended amount of time, all you need to do is sanitize it. It was boiled when they made it. With malt extract the different boil times are typically all about the hops.

 

[vnzjunk]

This sounds very familiar to me. Except for the hopping it was my story too. Welcome to the slippery sloap of rolling your own brew and brewing experimentation. It sure sounds like you hit the hops a bit heavy, the equivalent of 6oz? for a 5 gal. batch. Maybe ok for a burnt out hophead:cross: but your brewing curve would probably be better served at this stage by trying to obtain a more even balance between bittering and malty. That said I brew what I like unless attempting to brew something specifically for someone else. So long as I like the finished product I am happy I don't so much brew to satisfy what others who try my brews might like in their own beer taste. So long as you like it (including all them hops) be happy. The proof is in the tasting. If you find that it is too hoppy for you then cut back.......more likely quite a bit LOL
Good luck and be happy.

First post.

I was not happy with my MB results so I took some liberties. I boiled 1 pound light DME 1 pound amber DME in 1 gallon for 60 mi. added 1 oz n brewer at boil 1 oz galena for 20 and 1 more oz NB and 1 can of classic light HME at flame out. Think I over hopped? This stuff is going nuts in the LBK.

 

[vnzjunk]

I think I'll just relax and leave it be. Next time should I not boil the DME for the full 60 min.?

From your Mr Beer experience you already know that Mr Beer directions use virtually no boil time for the extract. You boil the small amount of water and booster and remove from heat source and add the LME. Then add it to cold water to reach pitching temperature. Therefore you can summize that the LME is all ready sanitized and processed and requires no more boiling. As mentioned previously the boil time relates to the hops. Better tasting beer is achieved by various other tweaks. If an hour of boil time would improve Mr Beer results you can bet that they would have you boil it for an hour. Other tweaks could include more extract in place of or addition to the booster. Using fresher ingredients such as all grain, different yeast and several other things. Settle on the hops from calculators (with slight modification if you wish) and play around with the other 'tweaks' 'improvements' and you will find what works best for you.

Good Luck and enjoy

 

[pig-punisher]

This sounds very familiar to me. Except for the hopping it was my story too. Welcome to the slippery sloap of rolling your own brew and brewing experimentation. It sure sounds like you hit the hops a bit heavy, the equivalent of 6oz? for a 5 gal. batch. Maybe ok for a burnt out hophead:cross: but your brewing curve would probably be better served at this stage by trying to obtain a more even balance between bittering and malty. That said I brew what I like unless attempting to brew something specifically for someone else. So long as I like the finished product I am happy I don't so much brew to satisfy what others who try my brews might like in their own beer taste. So long as you like it (including all them hops) be happy. The proof is in the tasting. If you find that it is too hoppy for you then cut back.......more likely quite a bit LOL
Good luck and be happy.

I agree on making beer to suit my own taste and I am a bit of a hop head. I did some research before brew day but I failed to realize just how far a little hops can go, however i think my brew will be OK and I will learn a great deal every time I brew.

As for the boiling times I did not boil the HME and I understand the concept of hop boil times. I just didn't know if different boil times would have an effect on the taste of the DME.

As for fermintation things are rocking along in the basement and I will report how it turns out in a month or so.

Thanks for all the help and keep the suggestions coming

 

[azmark]

Most of the new recipes do not include booster.

And attention all the new seasonal is now available, White IPA. Just ordered mine!

 

[azmark]

If you want to do a 60min hop addition, you will have to have some dme or lme in your boil.

 

[pig-punisher]

If you want to do a 60min hop addition, you will have to have some dme or lme in your boil.

Thats what I wanted to know. Thanks. You wouldn't wanna just make a hop soup for an hour and then add dme

 

[woozy]

>Therefore you can summize that the LME is all ready sanitized and processed and requires no more boiling.

That, and the fact that they tell you to sanitize your can opener...

 

[jkn09]

Ok...I've been lurking for a while but I'm finally ready to jump in. I was given a brand new Mr. Beer kit last week from a buddy who had no interest in it.

It's about a year old, so it's unfortunately got the older ingredient kits (Cowboy Lager & American Blonde, both with Boosters). I've read a lot on this site and have seen that adding DME/hops to either of these can result in pretty good beer. What if I combined the 2 kits with 1 booster? I know it'd be higher ABV and all that, but I have no reference as to what these kits taste like, much less combined.

Thoughts? And thanks in advance for any help.

 

[bigtuna101]

If I have beers that are gushing it is most likely I added to much sugar I'm the secondary process correct?

 

[bpgreen]

If I have beers that are gushing it is most likely I added to much sugar I'm the secondary process correct?

There are a couple of things that can lead to gushers and/or bottle bombs.

One is adding too much sugar at bottling (this is called priming and is different from a secondary).

Another is bottling before fermentation is finished.

The third is an infection.

If it tastes right, it's probably not an infection.

 

[bpgreen]

Ok...I've been lurking for a while but I'm finally ready to jump in. I was given a brand new Mr. Beer kit last week from a buddy who had no interest in it.

It's about a year old, so it's unfortunately got the older ingredient kits (Cowboy Lager & American Blonde, both with Boosters). I've read a lot on this site and have seen that adding DME/hops to either of these can result in pretty good beer. What if I combined the 2 kits with 1 booster? I know it'd be higher ABV and all that, but I have no reference as to what these kits taste like, much less combined.

Thoughts? And thanks in advance for any help.

Two cans of HME and one booster can make a pretty good beer.

Since they're a year or so old, you may want to get some new yeast.

 

[bigtuna101]

I think I did the sugar wrong on this batch, but I have to say once the suds clear it's a very tasty IPA. I used citrus wet hopped and willement dry hop. A little dark malt along with mostly an Australian light malt to go with the australin IPA HME I used. I added about 500g of corn sugar to the wort as well. I then used a brittish yest and it is great (minus gushing). It came out at about 7.5% and the head is creamy and rich. I had to let them sit in secondary for a good amount longer then I normally do as with me over surgering the bottling process I assume the yeasty flavor was due to fact the fermentation was still under way and they did not gush three weeks back but tasted bad. Now they gush and taste great. Sorry for the rant two pints in but hey I love making beer now.

 

[bpgreen]

I think I did the sugar wrong on this batch, but I have to say once the suds clear it's a very tasty IPA. I used citrus wet hopped and willement dry hop. A little dark malt along with mostly an Australian light malt to go with the australin IPA HME I used. I added about 500g of corn sugar to the wort as well. I then used a brittish yest and it is great (minus gushing). It came out at about 7.5% and the head is creamy and rich. I had to let them sit in secondary for a good amount longer then I normally do as with me over surgering the bottling process I assume the yeasty flavor was due to fact the fermentation was still under way and they did not gush three weeks back but tasted bad. Now they gush and taste great. Sorry for the rant two pints in but hey I love making beer now.

One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that you want to get them all in the refrigerator now so that no further fermentation occurs.

 

[bpgreen]

Oops. Double post

 

[jkn09]

Two cans of HME and one booster can make a pretty good beer.

Since they're a year or so old, you may want to get some new yeast.

Sounds good. Thanks for the tip. I'll update soon!

 

[SulBruin3]

i have just mixed up the mr beer winter dark ale and have looked on a couple of websites to find out how much priming sugar i should use and this style was not listed. Any thoughts because this is a heavier beer and i do not want to over carbonate?

 

[mdbrewer1]

I'm usually pretty good at reading through a thread before posting a question, but at 483 pages, that seemed like a bit much. I did a search but a couple of the responses danced around the topic but I wasn't clear on the answer to my particular question.

I picked up 3 LBK for cheap and would like to use them to split up a 5 gallon batch of stout to experiment with different flavors. Can I split the wort into thirds (between 2 and 1.5 gal in each), let each primary in its own LBK, open each up for an addition after primary is finished, and then let it do a pseudo-secondary in the same LBK?

Essentially boils down to this... Can I primary in a LBK, open it up after primary fermantation is complete to do additions (e.g. bourbon soaked vanilla beans), and then let it set in the same LBK another 2 weeks or so for the additions to do their thing?

The fact that it isn't airtight gives me pause so I was wondering if anyone has tried it and what the results were.

Thanks!

 

[bpgreen]

I'm usually pretty good at reading through a thread before posting a question, but at 483 pages, that seemed like a bit much. I did a search but a couple of the responses danced around the topic but I wasn't clear on the answer to my particular question.

I picked up 3 LBK for cheap and would like to use them to split up a 5 gallon batch of stout to experiment with different flavors. Can I split the wort into thirds (between 2 and 1.5 gal in each), let each primary in its own LBK, open each up for an addition after primary is finished, and then let it do a pseudo-secondary in the same LBK?

Essentially boils down to this... Can I primary in a LBK, open it up after primary fermantation is complete to do additions (e.g. bourbon soaked vanilla beans), and then let it set in the same LBK another 2 weeks or so for the additions to do their thing?

The fact that it isn't airtight gives me pause so I was wondering if anyone has tried it and what the results were.

Thanks!

You could, but with the way the LBK is made, since there won't be much activity, you won't get a good layer of CO2 during the secondary fermentation and there will be a fair amount of headspace, so there's a greater risk of infection. If I were doing it, I'd split the 5 gallon recipe in half, slightly overfill the fermenters and just add the additions without transferring to a different LBK.

 

[azmark]

You could, but with the way the LBK is made, since there won't be much activity, you won't get a good layer of CO2 during the secondary fermentation and there will be a fair amount of headspace, so there's a greater risk of infection. If I were doing it, I'd split the 5 gallon recipe in half, slightly overfill the fermenters and just add the additions without transferring to a different LBK.

or just open it up after a week and toss it in. try not to blow off the co2 layer that is on it, and don't chuck it in ,,,, but without too much disturbance you'll be fine.

bp, didn't sound like he wanted to transfer.

 

[bpgreen]

or just open it up after a week and toss it in. try not to blow off the co2 layer that is on it, and don't chuck it in ,,,, but without too much disturbance you'll be fine.

bp, didn't sound like he wanted to transfer.

You're right. I just reread his post and he said he would do a pseudo secondary in the same LBK.

 

[mdbrewer1]

or just open it up after a week and toss it in. try not to blow off the co2 layer that is on it, and don't chuck it in ,,,, but without too much disturbance you'll be fine.

bp, didn't sound like he wanted to transfer.

Thank you both for the responses.

That makes sense to me. I think I'll give that a shot. Would it be less of a disturbance to put the additions in a muslin bag and slowly lower them in? One of the additions I'd like to try is toasted coconut and I've read that is a nice clean way to do it.

 

[SulBruin3]

quick question. I just tasted my latest batch and its taste good but flat. Could i open the bottles up and add a bit more sugar to get some carbonation into the bottles? Then let them sit for another week or two. They have been conditioning for 4 weeks now. Thoughts??

 

[Kealia]

How much sugar did you use and what temp have they been sitting at?

Generally, opening them up and adding sugar will immediately cause volcanoes (remember making those in science class?)

The only thing that worked for me in the past was to mix sugar and water (like you would for batch priming), boil it, coil it and then add a tiny bit to each bottle.

 

[SulBruin3]

They have been sitting in 65 to 70 degrees for 4 weeks. I used 3 tbsp (1.7 0z approx) of corn sugar and boiled with water. Then added directly to keg, stirred it a bit and then let the trub settle to the bottom before bottling. The one i drank last night was extremely flat, which really surprised me as i have kept other batches at the same temp all have had good carbonation.

 

[azmark]

That's one way to batch prime! Without a bottling bucket, you're better just to bottle prime. That said your temps are a little low for carbing so you might just have to wait a bit longer and possibly let them get a bit warmer for them to prime up.

 

[bpgreen]

They have been sitting in 65 to 70 degrees for 4 weeks. I used 3 tbsp (1.7 0z approx) of corn sugar and boiled with water. Then added directly to keg, stirred it a bit and then let the trub settle to the bottom before bottling. The one i drank last night was extremely flat, which really surprised me as i have kept other batches at the same temp all have had good carbonation.

Have you primed this way before?

I wouldn't recommend doing it this way. If you're going to batch prime, I would use a separate priming container. This can be another LBK, a Slimline or a bucket. Siphon or pour from the spigot (with tubing reaching the bottom of the priming container to reduce exposure to air). I used to add the sugar solution to the priming container first, and set the tube in such that it would swirl and mix with the beer. Others like to add partway through filling, being careful not to add air.

How did you come up with 3 T of sugar? If you're correct that it's 1.7 oz, that seems on the low side to me. I always weighed when I batch primed and IIRC, I used 60 g for most batches. 1.7 oz is about 48 g.

 

[SulBruin3]

Thanks but no. I read this somewhere in the beginning of this thread and will NOT try to prime in keg again. I got the amount from Tastybrew.com homebrewing calculators. I just bottled an amber and am now using a bottling bucket and boiling the priming sugar too. Every batch is a learning experience and the beer is getting much better...

 

[Lumo]

I have a Northwest Pale Ale that has been in the fermenter for 13 days. I really want to free up this fermenter for another batch. All visible signs of fermenting have stopped (no readings).

How does an extra week in the bottles compare to an extra week in the fermenter? Should I bottle now?

 

[bpgreen]

I have a Northwest Pale Ale that has been in the fermenter for 13 days. I really want to free up this fermenter for another batch. All visible signs of fermenting have stopped (no readings).

You can't really tell if it's done fermenting by looking at it. There's really only visible activity during the most active phases of fermentation. Depending on a lot of variables (yeast used, ingredients, fermentation temperatures) it may well be done after 13 days. You could give it a taste test and if it's not sweet, it's probably done. The BEST way to determine whether it's done is with a hydrometer.

How does an extra week in the bottles compare to an extra week in the fermenter? Should I bottle now?

That all depends on whether it is finished fermenting or not.

If it's finished fermenting, there are some who say that bulk conditioning (leaving it in the LBK) offers benefits over conditioning in the bottle, while others say there isn't much difference between the two.

If it's not done fermenting, leaving it in the LBK allows fermentation to complete, and bottling allows bottle bombs to be created.

 

[bzwyatt]

No question here, just excited 'cause I started another batch. I have one bottle left from my second batch a couple months back, stuck it in the fridge to see if a lot of time makes a difference. Bought patriot lager and american porter, both with the booster packs, started the lager last night. I love coming home and checking on it, smelling the beer, looking at the bubbles... It is like a new pet, hehe.
Anybody brew those recipes? Hopefully they are good...

 

[Flogamocker]

No question here, just excited 'cause I started another batch. I have one bottle left from my second batch a couple months back, stuck it in the fridge to see if a lot of time makes a difference. Bought patriot lager and american porter, both with the booster packs, started the lager last night. I love coming home and checking on it, smelling the beer, looking at the bubbles... It is like a new pet, hehe.
Anybody brew those recipes? Hopefully they are good...

I'm getting ready to bottle my Patriot Lager today - using 12 oz bottles and a capper for the first time. Trying to figure out how much priming sugar to add to the bottles . . .