Mr. Beer Recipe Review

[freyguy]

I'm about to take my first batch of beer out of my Mr. Beer fermenter and would like to get started on the second batch as soon as I do so. My first is an American Lager that I plan on leaving in the fermenter for 2 weeks, and in the bottles for at least 2 weeks, probably 3. For my second, I wanted a stronger beer because thats what I enjoy. I'm fond of Barleywine's, so I found one on Mr. Beer's website called "Big Ed's Red" (http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/mrbeer/BigEdsRed11000ber.pdf).

I already have all of the ingredients that they recommend and I believe that I'm ready to start it. I've been trying to read up on this site on how to make Mr. Beer beer better, but I'm pretty confused. I've followed the instructions so far, but I believe I will be using corn sugar for bottling instead of table sugar. Also, I plan on attaching a hose to the spigot when bottling.

I was hoping you could take a look at the recipe and let me know if I should change anything. My idea is that I'll wait till this beer is done before I make a decision to go all out and buy the real homebrew equipment. I'll probably make a couple of easier batches while this one is lagering. Any help or pointers you can give will be appreciated! :)

Thanks,
-Brian

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"Big Ed's Red"
Help us honor our retired Brewmaster extraordinaire, Ed, with this outstanding Barleywine. You’ll have to be as patient as Ed, while you give this beer twice the normal time to ferment and twice the time to carbonate. Store for at least six months before enjoying. A great brew to share with your favorite homebrew fan on a winter’s eve.

Ingredients
1 can West Coast Pale Ale
1 can Octoberfest’s Vienna Lager
1 can Golden Wheat Unhopped Malt Extract
1 cup Honey (you provide)
1 oz Cascade Hops
1 oz Willamette Hops

Instructions for brewing:
1. Clean and sanitize the following equipment according to your Brew Keg instructions: a pot of three quart size or greater, a metal spoon or metal whisk, your keg fermenter, keg lid, spigot assembly, and a funnel or cup measure for transferring to the keg fermenter as well as your can opener. Keep all on a sanitized
surface.
2. Place 4 cups of water in the pot. Bring the water to a boil, then remove from heat.
3. Add the West Coast Pale Ale, Octoberfest’s Vienna Lager, Golden Wheat Unhopped Malt Extract, 1 cup honey, 1 oz Cascade hops and 1 oz Willamette hops. Stir with a sanitized spoon or whisk until fully dissolved. This mixture is called the wort. Note: hops will appear as green leaf particles and will not dissolve.
4. Add 4 quarts of cold tap water to your sanitized keg fermenter.
5. Add the wort from the saucepan to the brew keg using the funnel or cup measure, and top up with cold tap water to the 8.5 quart mark. Stir to make sure that the wort is all one temperature. Preferable temperature is between 70 and 80 degrees. Warning: if the temperature is too hot, there is risk of
killing the yeast.
6. Sprinkle the yeast from both packets on top of the wort. Allow to sit for 5 minutes, then stir the wort vigorously with the sanitized spoon or whisk.
7. Screw the lid in place and set the keg fermenter in a room with a stable temperature (68 to 76°F is best). Leave the fermenter for at least three weeks, or until the fermentation has ceased.
8. Bottle in PET carbonated beverage bottles or non-screw top beer bottles, using the correct amount of priming sugar as directed in your Brewing with Mr. Beer booklet. Carbonate as usual, allow to lager for at least six months before popping the first one open for best results.

[BrewDog]

Welcome-

The biggest thing to make better Mr. Beer is skipping the Booster and using a can of unhopped extract in its place. The Big Ed's Red recipe doesn't call for any Booster and that's a good thing.

(FWIW, Booster is a mixture of corn sugar and malto-dextrin powder. Granted, it's better than telling the poor noob's to add table sugar, but not much better.)

If you can get a 1/4 lb or so of freshly crushed Crystal malt (40 or 60 lovibond rating) you can steep it into the wort and really make this a pretty kick ass beer. Just heat the 2 quarts up to 155F and soak the grains in there for 20 mins or a half hour in a grain bag. After that, pull the bag out and bring it up to boiling and continue as you would normally.

I found that the Mr. Beer yeast yielded VERY, VERY fruity beer. The yeast didn't seem to do well below 68F. I'd suggest you get a packet of Nottingham or SafeAle 56 Dry yeast, and keep the fermenter at 68F. The high temps listed in the directions below cause a lot of the fruity esters, so a better yeast will yield a better result. Fermentation is exothermic (it produces heat). This heats it up even more so and can produce harsh fusel alcohols at high temps.

Don't use a whisk when the wort is still hot. You can stir in the extract and hops, but don't whisk it until it is cool. Then, you want to whisk the hell out of it to get as much oxygen into the wort as possible. This will help produce healthy yeast for the fermentation.

You'll want to rehydrate your yeast first before pitching it. The yeast will do better that way. Use a cup of 80-90 degree water and sprinkle the yeast in there. Let it sit for 10-15 mins before pitching.

3 weeks for a single stage primary on this will be ok, but if you can let it ferment for 7 -10 days in the primary, and then siphon it out into a secondary vessel (a glass carboy is best) for a couple weeks, you'll get a FAR superior beer. (Try to leave as much gunk behind as possible when doing this and try not to splash.)

Since you want to age this one, be very careful when bottling, both on the aeration side as well as ensuring good sanitation practices.

Otherwise, there's nothing blatantly wrong with those directions.
(some things could be done better, like a full wort boil and chilling it with a wort chiller), but it'll work as posted.

Good luck and let us know how it (and your first batch) end up.

HTH-

[EBW]

B'Dawg knows what he's talking about. Ihave had alot of questions about Mr. Beer and he has helped every time. I make excellent beer now thanks to his advice and others on this site, and you will to. Two main things, stay away from table sugar and Mr. Beer yeast. Also use DME or corn sugar to prime bottles. Mr. Beer is a good way to start If you change these few things, and in no time you'll find yourself spending all of your extra money on better equipment. Welcome and enjoy!!!

[EBW]

Oh yeah, by the way, I always boil all the water that is going into the beer, it helps keep down on any unwanted organisms in the beer that may attribute off flavors.

[BrewDog]

EBW-

Thanks for the kind words <blush>

You make a great point about boiling all the water. This is particularly true if your water comes from a well.

[freyguy]

Thank you for the tips guys! I'll be sure to try these tips out for my next beer. I'll have to stop by my local homebrew store and see if they have the crushed Crystal malt, sounds like a great addition.

I went out and purchased some corn sugar and priced the real deal brewing kits. I figure I'll wait until Big Ed's is ready to drink and then make the decision if I want to go up and get serious about it. (I'm sure I will, I just want to be sure to use my x-mas gift some :D ) I also picked up a piece of 1/2" ID tubing so that I can put it on the spigot for bottling. I read somewhere that it is better than just pouring it in.

I'll be bottling my American Lager tonight and can't wait.
Thanks again!

[jdubbmancandy]

yeah tell me about it iv'e done 3 batches now and i just did a mini mash bel dubble im hooked iv'e spent 300 bucks but i have 7 carboys and thats with all the stuff and a wort chiller etc i have 3 in the primarys now gonna do a bavarian heff mini mash in the next few days. My name is josh i have a problem lol.

[freyguy]

Thanks again guys. The beer is in the primary fermenter now.

I used spring water and took all of BrewDog's suggestions (Malt, yeast, and all the tips). I have a 6 gallon carboy that I'll move this beer to at a weeks time. I'll be sure to let you know how it is. One question....the guy at my LHB store said to move it out of the carboy and let it sit in the Mr. Beer Keg for a day and bottle it from there. Do you guys agree, or should I just bottle out of the carboy (be kinda hard I guess)?

[Nilboglin]

Hiya
I think you figured it right. He is probably suggesting that because it would be easier to bottle from the Mr Beer Keg.

I move my beer from my secondary carboy to a bottling bucket. It has the spigot and makes for much easier bottling. Same idea.

Also there is usually some sediment in the bottom of the secondary. When I transfer to the bottling bucket that gets left behind, keeping it out of my beer.

So you have an easier time bottling and leave behind any sediment that may have collected in your carboy.

For a Mr Beer brew this one sounds pretty cool. I am looking forward to hearing about how it turns out.