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Yet another Mr. Beer new brewer - longish post

Last night I bottled my first batch of beer thanks to a Mr. Beer kit given to me by my wife. I did the primary in the brown Mr. Beer barrel for a week and a secondary for two weeks in a clear Rubbermaid 2 Gal stackable water container that comes with a spigot. The Rubbermaid container is made of the same type of plastic as the Mr. Beer barrel is. I used the same technique that the Mr. Beer jug uses to allow the CO2 to escape from the secondary without having to use an airlock. The local homebrew store sold me a box of pre-owned Grolsch 16 oz bottles (22 brown, 23 green) with a bag of new gaskets and some corn sugar for $20. My first batch filled 14 bottles and it smelled great. I put 1/2 cup of water in a measuring cup and put the sugar in it. Then I microwaved it for 1 minute until hot and stirred the sugar in. I then microwaved it for another 1 minute at half power so that the water boiled for 45 seconds. I added it to the secondary after letting it cool and just before bottling. I also sanitized the bottles and caps and gaskets before bottling.

I just used the American Light mix with adjuncts (Booster). Since the Mr. Beer kits already have the hops, hot and cold break removed from the extract all I had left on the bottom of the primary and secondary was a coating of inactive yeast on the bottom. For my next 3 batches I will be doing all extract (I have already poured the other 3 Booster packs down the drain).

A couple of observations:

  1. The Mr. Beer kit is the perfect size for me. The standard 5 gallon kits would be unacceptable because they make too much beer in one batch.

  1. I can see that all extract or extract and specialty grain brewing will be my destiny. I have no desire to go all grain, I am not that hardcore and it makes too much beer in one batch. Maybe it will change in the future, but right now it does not look likely.

A couple of questions:

  1. If I am just using a Mr. Beer kit do I really need to use a separate secondary since there are no hops or hot or cold break? I guess the real question is: is leaving the beer on the yeast in the barrel for three weeks bad?

  1. When I stop using their kits and start brewing from "scratch" can I just halve the 5 gallon recipes and be OK? I like malty flavored brews with low bitterness. What kind of recipes should I look for?

Thanks in advance,

Frank

Reply to
Frank
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I started exactly the same way several years ago. You do not really need to secondary but it can help to clear your beer by allowing time for yeast to drop out of suspension without sitting on top of dead yeast and unfermentable matter. as far as recipe selection you are fine halfing 5gal recipes. just be warned that once you get into the hobby you will find that

Reply to
BKBooth

Thanks for the reply. With a family I don't have the time or money to get an all grain setup with a mash/lauter tun and that's why I don't forsee moving that direction. You do bring up an interesting question: how can I tell how old cans or bottles of extract are? Mr Beer does not list the canning date on the label. I saw some Coopers and other brands of malt extract at the local homebrew store yesterday. Judging by the thick layer of dust on the cans I think they are probably not fresh ;-).

Frank

Reply to
Frank

Reply to
BKBooth

I started brewing 2 and a half years ago with a 5 gallon "get everything at the same time" kit. I remember thinking, "My god! This is WAY too much beer." I quickly realized that 5 gallons goes very quickly. I usually get between 30 and 31 Grolsch bottles. It's not that I even drink that much of it, but that I give a lot of it away to family and friends. There is nothing more satisfying than handing out your own beer at a family gathering. I brew from DME kits and will never go to all grain. I enjoy the afternoon brewing sessions, but much two year old would never put up with me spending much more time than that. The only advice I have for you is, don't be afraid to be creative. I have purchased some DME kits and added fruit extract to them and had great success (the wife loves them). I actually got coffee and chocolate to blend nicely with a porter last year. I'm currently trying to get apricot nectar, raisins, Nottingham beer yeast, and some corn sugar to ferment into something good. Good luck brewing. You'll have a blast

Reply to
strumpmonkey

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