#mr beer

[wally-b-feed]

mr beer tolkien

[twogallons]

Early morning brew session. Started my Camilla's Folly Recipe. OG was a bit lower than expected from qbrew and from the recipe online but that's fine. I can't wait to taste this one in February. Current Brew Status: 1. American Light - Bottled 12/24 2. Winter Dark Ale - Brewed 12/24 3. Camilla's Folly - Brewed 12/31

[twogallons]

1st Bottling & 2nd Brew Day

Monday (12/24) was a very, very busy day for me - one batch to bottle and one new batch to brew. Beer #1 (Classic American Light) had been fermenting for two weeks as of Monday and I felt it was ready. Sunday I took a FG reading of 1.006 and Monday had the same reading so with my patience getting the best of me I told myself it was done and ready to bottle. I moved the keg to the counter and cleaned out (santized) all my bottles and my bottling wand - decided to use 3 of the 1L Plastic Bottles and the rest would be 12oz Glass Bottles. Primed each bottle with the recommended amount of sugar from the Mr. Beer instructions (2.25 tsp for 1L & 0.75 tsp for 12oz) and then bottled using the wand. The bottling wand is probably the best purchase I have made so far and I am glad I didn't have to ever bottle without this thing. Capped all those bottles, threw them in some 6-pack holders and cleaned out the old LBK and let it air dry. Before I started bottling I actually started prepping for Beer #2 which I decided was going to be a Winter Dark Ale, which sounds delicious. The one thing I decided for this batch was that I am going to let it ferment in the LBK for 3 weeks, which puts me at a bottling date of about January 14th, which does seem really far away, but it should be worth it in the end. Anyway, so I sanitized my second LBK, my utensils and placed my can of Winter Dark Ale HME in some hot water to make it easier to get out. No other special ingredgients, just making this recipe straight up so I can get the process down correctly. The rest of this process just follows Mr. Beer's instruction sheet: fill LBK with 4 quarts of cold water, boil 4 cups of water and then remove from heat and pour the can of HME into the hot water until mixed, then pour this HME mixture into the LBK and fill the remaining space with cold water. At this point I check the temperature, take my OG reading and then pitch the yeast at about 68°F and get aerate the beer to give the yeast oxygen. I capped the LBK and put it in the closet which usually remains at about 68-70°F where it will stay for three weeks until its ready to bottle (after its FG readings). Monday (12/31) will be my next brew day - so excited to get stuff into a pipeline.

[twogallons]

First final gravity reading after two weeks in the fermenter. Then a taste - tastes like noncarbonated beer which is awesome. Pending the final gravity reading, tomorrow should be bottling day.

[beerorbust-blog]

So i’m beginning to not like Mr. Beer kits. The failure of my first batch can be chalked up to stale ingredients. This second batch was made with what should have been a pretty fresh kit ordered from Amazon and brewed within a week of receiving. I opened my first bottle from this batch tonight, after 2 weeks in primary and two weeks in bottle conditioning. This is the Mr. Beer American Devil IPA kit. The only modification I made was adding 1/2 oz of Chinook hops at 5 min left in the boil. What I notice right away is that there is no hop aroma. Maybe that is to be expected with the only aroma hop addition being what I added at boil end. The color is a nice amber. It pours a fantastic light brown head with ridiculous retention. I was 2/3 finished with the glass and still had a 1/2 inch of foam. The flavor is minimally enjoyable with really no hop flavor or discernible malt tones. In fact the flavor, when allowed to warm up becomes undesirable. There is a faint chemical smell that is familiar, something like paint. A burp leaves behind a faint plastic taste.

So yeah, overall not great. As I think back at the variables I can point at as possible culprits for this I think maybe the 1/2 oz of Chinook hops are possibly to blame. I used half of the pack for my first batch and poorly stored the remainder for several weeks prior to using them in this batch. So they may have been spoiled. Other than that the ingredients were fresh and my cleanliness and sterilization was immaculate. Then again, Mr. beer doesn’t sell the American Devil IPA anymore so who knows how long it sat in a hot Amazon warehouse? Oh well. Chalk it up as experience.

My next batch, which is brewed and in secondary fermentation, is a Northern Brewer kit for American Amber Ale. And because I can’t bring myself to brew a straight kit I added an ounce of Centennial hops at 30 minutes. At five gallons this stands to be a lot of beer to swallow it doesn’t turn out any better than the last two. Wish me luck.

[beerorbust-blog]

Batch #2: American Devil IPA

For my second batch I opted for another Mr. Beer kit. This time I did the American Devil IPA. Reviews of the brew were good. Many I read modified the recipe with extra DME to up the ABV (it's a sub 5% beer), or extra hop in the boil. I chose to only use my last 1/2 oz of Chinook hops for a 5 minute boil. Although, in hindsight that may have been a mistake because I did not store the hops in the fridge for the couple weeks since I opened them for my first batch. So i'm afraid that they oxidized and spoiled. They smelled OK. So right now i'm just hoping they don't leave a nasty taste in the beer. I guess the simplest mistakes are the ones i'll make first.

So the American Devil is brewed and fermenting. I don't think I can do another Mr. Beer straight recipe. If I use Mr. Beer again i'm going to have to either completely devise my own recipe using their selection of extracts, maybe with a grain steep, or use another brewer's custom recipe. I want to begin the creative process of brewing very badly; creating my own grain bill, choosing my hops yeast. I've got a 5 gallon brew set-up just screaming my name. I'll give the beer away to strangers if I have to. It might make me extremely popular.

So many variables go into making a beer what it is that I do find it daunting to experiment without a fully learned palate of what grain imparts what flavor, and what each hop leaves behind. So, in the words of Charlie Papazian, "relax, it's only beer".

[beerorbust-blog]

Bottled and Next Batch on the Way

So my first batch of home brew is bottled and tucked away for at least a two week nap. My only concern now is that the age of the ingredients I used, including the yeast (the kit sat in an unconditioned garage for a year and in my closet for 6 months), will play a factor in the quality. Time will tell.

I have the ingredients for my second batch on their way. Of course, I know what you’re thinking, “Dude, you totally should have had it already fermenting by now.” And you are right. But choosing what and how to brew my second batch was difficult. I searched, and found, a 5 gallon set-up so I could upgrade. But, as I thought about the beer I have bottled now, and 5 gallons of beer to come, I thought better of it. I mean after all, as much as I like beer I can only drink so much of it. And since I am a very recent transplant to a new city where I know no one, I have no friends with which to share it with. So, apart from giving it to strangers, I am the only one to consume it. And 5 gallons is a lot of beer for one man to drink….same kind….every day.

So I opted to do the 2.5 gallon Mr. Beer again. I placed an order for the American Devil IPA kit from Mr. Beer. I do love a good IPA, and with this kit being highly lauded by other Mr. Beer brewers on the forums, I’m excited about this one. A fresh kit with fresh ingredients. Bound to be good stuff. Now the question is, do I tinker with the recipe, or leave it be? Be still my hop heart.

As I watch every homemade home brewing video I can find, and read all I can about the hobby, I start to feel very inferior. Even though I am as new to this as one can get I already yearn to brew with the big boys. I feel like a kid playing scientist with a walmart starter kit. But I know a day of big batches will come. Then comes my own craft brewery. Yes. My goal is to chase down that bandwagon and push someone off for a place to sit. For every new brewery that does it right there are ten doing it wrong. And those don’t can’t last. So don’t judge me by the size of my fermenter. It’s what’s inside that counts.