Any home brewers around here?

I got a Mr Beer Premium kit for my birthday. Last weekend I got it out and made up the first batch. Now fermenting in the back closet.


Did not know I should soak and wake up the yeast. I'll see how it goes.

Rex
 
Rex,
It is not an absolute requirement to soak the yeast. Mr Beer directions say to pitch the yeast directly on top and stir after 5 minutes. So your'e good either way. Mine is still bubbling a bit so I will give it another week. I was going to bottle today but Mr Beer is known for rushing the results and creating bottle bombs and gushers. If you let it all ferment out then add the priming sugar and bottle it will carbonate nicely and make a better overall end result. I have been studying about all things beer over on Home Brew Talk forum. Plethora of knowledge for free (best kind) and a book by Jim Palmer that goes into great detail on the best practices and procedures. I am looking at going to all grain in the future when I accumulate the rest of the stuff to do it. Have fun with the Mr Beer and let us know how the batch turns out.
Bob
 
Tom, Rex and Ed,
It's in the bottles!!!!!! I deviated from the directions again by mixing my priming sugar with a cup of warm water and stirred it in the fermentor. This will even out the prime to all bottles and reduce the risk of gushers or bottle bombs. Tasted the brew and it tastes just like flat beer. Just like it is supposed to. I think the extra week and a half did it a world of good. When I brought the fermentor in the beer was not cloudy and there didnt appear to be anything floating in it so I continued with the bottling instructions with the exception of the deviation I mentioned above. I'm going to let it sit for about an hour to settle from adding the priming sugar and go from there. In a couple of weeks I will test drive one and see how it is doing. More info then!
Bob
 
Quick update. Beers been in the bottles 2 weeks and they are progressing nicely. The bottles are firm but not over taught so I am guessing they wont be over carbed. I plan to move them into a fridge in another week and cold crash/store them till I get around to drinking them or giving them away to freinds and associates. Thats one of the main reasons I started the Home Brew hobby was to share it with freinds. Tom, did you get a batch going yet? I have been working on the All Grain jump by getting a 6.5 fermenting pail, a stainless immersion chiller and a corona grain mill. I also found a great deal on star san and No rinse set up as a kit for doing 5 gallon batches of sanitizer and a spray bottle of No rinse. Pretty cheap so far and having a ton o fun. Next item is a 10 gallon rubbermaid water keg style cooler to convert to a mash tun. Bought the burner and 7.5 gallon pot a week or so ago. I never realized how expensive stainless cook ware has become. A 10 gallon stainless pot is right around a hundred bucks....Ouch. So I will just be happy with my aluminum till I hit the lottery. LMK how you guys are doing on your batches.
Crippled and crazy azzed Bob
 
Bob,

Thinking of going all grain already? You are seriously hooked.

No, I haven't done another batch, still nursing the last one. I generally do one five gallon batch a month and that keeps me from having to buy the expensive, rot gut store bought stuff. It's hard to drink a beer anymore that doesn't have live yeast in it.

Tom
 
TLGriff said:
Bob,

Thinking of going all grain already? You are seriously hooked.

Tom
Click to expand...

Yup I am hooked. I am an empirical scientist kind of guy and have read too much info on the subject already. I am one of those who tend to go all in when their interst gets picqued. As soon as the Mr Beer worked and I had read a few threads over on Home Brew Talk I decided that if I was going to do this I needed to go to all grain so I could control as many aspects of the brew as possible. So while batch one has been ageing I have been accumulating equipment when I could find it cheap or on sale. The turkey fryer was a big score and the stainless immersion chiller got me to needing to build a mash tun asap. New rubbermaid Igloo style round water coolers are kind of high right now, but since I am in no hurry I will wait around and see if I can get one off of ebay or amazon for cheaper. Found a grain grinder for 29 bucks and several folks on the forum have had excellent results with so that too is done and waiting for the tun to get fabbed. Since I a a welder and have all my own equipment still I will fab up a brew sculpture out of metal I have around or buy some of what I need. That way I can save that 8 to 18 hundred bucks too. Hope you catch up soon, but if you have been sick you still have some of the last batch waiting around too. Have a great day!!
Bob
 
Tom,
Quick update the Corona Mill will be delivered today. I am going to mount it in a Homer Bucket from the depot and use a 5 gallon water bottle as a feed hopper. Should be able to mill a 10-15 pound grain bill pretty quick. the rest of the stuff is waiting for me to put it to use. I dont have unlimited time now since I picked up a side job with my torchmate machine. Might work out to be good for my wallet and buying equipment. Have you started another batch yet? I know you were sick for a while, but you should have recovered by now hopefully. Have a good day!!
Bob
 
Bob,

Be careful when you crush your grain to not get it too fine. It should be crushed just enough to expose the inside of the berry, kind of like cracked corn. If you get it too fine it will put too much sediment into the beer and give it off flavors as well. I use a mill similar to the Corona that I've motorized. We use it to make whole grain wheat flour as well for baking.

I also made a mill just for cracking grain with two counter rotating knurled cylinders. I still need to figure out some sort of mount for it before I can try it out. it's made to be powered with a cordless drill. If it performs as expected, I'll make the design available on the site as a project.

I'll be making another batch of Porter this weekend. I need to use up some of the hops from last years crop.

Tom
 
Tom, do you have the brewing software? I have been looking for it to input my recipe so I can predict the outcome but no luck so far. The mill arrived and I have looked at the plates and probably need to space them a tad further to avoid too much flour. I plant to do a homer bucket enclosure to keep the grain contained. Probably motorize it later too. Thanks.
Bob
 
Hi Bob,

I use the online calculator Beer Recipator for designing my own concoctions. It's easy to use, fairly predictable and allows me to print out a copy or save the electronic file for future reference.

Aren't the plates in your mill adjustable? Mine has a thumb nut that I can adjust from a fine flour to a coarse crack.

Tom
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top