Equipment Update

I put my latest two brews in the wine chiller I bought on craigslist.  Even without a good thermostat, I can regulate the ambient temperature in my chiller to roughly 60 degrees.  The wort is usually a couple of degrees warmer, so although it is a few degrees cooler than I'd like, this still makes for a good fermentation environment.  Beats the heck out of the ice & cooler method I used last time, that's for sure! 

Sooner or later, I will purchase a Johnson temperature controller, which will allow me to get my fermentation temperatures set to a very specific range.  The device is basically a thermostat that allows you to set a specific temperature, then cuts (or enables) the power to your fridge to maintain the desired degree.  Having good temperature control will help with consistency in my brews.  
 
I also discovered I can fit four Little Brown Kegs in the unit at the same time.  This allows me to brew about 9 gallons of beer at once.  I haven't yet decided if that is a good or a bad thing!

Bottling Day 3, and Brew Day 4 and 5!

I put the Nut Brown in bottles today.  It was much clearer than I had expected, but I think that is due to the increased amount of yeast I used.  The hydrometer reading tells me it should have an ABV of 4.9%.  The traditional Mr. Beer refills are usually 3.7% ABV.  Also, based on the ingredients and final gravity readings, this brew would be classified as a Blonde Ale, not a Nut Brown.

Once that brew was in the bottles, I had 2 empty LBK's at my disposal.  I decided to brew a wheat beer, and more specifically a witbier, in one keg.  In the other, I wanted brew an Amber Ale.  Also, this time I had planned to use no Mr. Beer ingredients at all, and only those I purchased from the home brew shop.  Here are my ingredients for each recipe:

This time I added two new elements to the brews: hops and crystal malt.  Hops are used for adding aroma, flavor, and bitterness (to balance sweetness).  As with yeast, there are many, many varieties of hops so you can match the flavor and bitterness with the style of beer you are brewing.  Also, hops impart different levels of flavors depending on how much you use, how long you boil them, etc.  I chose pellet hops for my new brews, and the varieties I needed for my recipes are Willamette (fruity, floral), Cascade (bitter, citrus flavor), and Saaz (cinnamon, earthy).

Crystal malt is barley that has been roasted to bring out the sugars from the grain. Adding this ingredient to a recipe imparts sweetness and toffee or caramel flavors into the brew.  Using crystal malt involves steeping the grain in hot water to bring out the flavor.  You simply put the cracked grain in a muslin sack and steep it for 30 minutes or so.  It's a delicate process, though, because if the steeping temperature is too high, off flavors can make it into your brew. 

 The witbier also required some interesting ingredients:  Corriander seed, orange zest, and orange juice.

The good thing about the witbier (besides the taste) is the quick turnaround time.   I found a recipe that has the beer brewed, fermented, and carbed in roughly 20 days.  The Amber will take far longer, so the timing will be convenient for bottling and carbing between the two brews.  The staggered schedule will also put me on a better cycle for brewing, since I will be bottling and brewing on different days and I'll be able to keep the process going without waiting on a keg to be empty.

Nut Brown Ale @ 11 days in Little Brown Keg

I have purposely avoided over-sampling of the Englishman's Nut Brown Ale that I currently have in the fermenter.  In fact, since I have it in the cooler for temperature control, I sometimes forget that it is even there!  Ok, not really, but I haven't been babysitting this one like my first two brews.  I have only tasted it twice, once on day 7 and today on day 11.  I will measure the gravity at 14 days to see if it is near to the estimate.

There has been quite a bit of change in the flavor, but it is not quite ready yet.  The color is really coming around, too.  It is a deep copper color, and I expect that I will clear up a little more.  It looks like it will be about the color of Newcastle, which is pretty much what I was shooting for.  This will actually be more of a Brown Ale, and not a Nut Brown once it is finished.

Controlling temperature in the cooler has really worked out.  I only replace the ice bottle once per day, and temps stay between 64-70 around the clock.  Now that I bought the wine cooler, however, I won't need this anymore.  But, it is good to know I can fall back to it if I need to for some reason.

Vive Le Difference!

In order to provide a fair comparison to my first brew (West Coast Pale Ale), I went ahead and cracked open the trub bottle of Bewitched Red Ale after only a day in the fridge.  Either my brewing skills had improved dramatically from the first batch to the second, or there is quite a bit of difference in quality between these two booster packs.  My gut tells me it is the latter.


The Red Ale is still "green", but even at this stage is is exponentially better in both flavor and appearance than the WCPA.  The bottle poured out a creamy head that hung around until I finished drinking.  This is a complete contrast to the WCPA, which had very little head at this stage, and instead was fizzy like champagne.

I have the Bewitched Red Ale cold conditioning in the fridge, and the Englishman's Nut Brown Ale should be ready to bottle by the weekend.   That means I will have TWO empty LBK's at my disposal this weekend!  I am thinking that I will brew an Amber Ale in one and a Hefeweizen, (wheat beer) in the other.  I have also decided to go completely off-script and use all non-Mr. Beer ingredients for both of these batches.

I may need to address my small bottle inventory before I crank out two simultaneous batches of beer, though.  I only have 32 bottles on hand, and half of those will be taken up by the Englishman's Nut Brown for bottle conditioning when fermentation is complete on the Amber and Hefeweizen.

Filling My Time (and Pipeline)

The process of controlling temperatures during fermentation of the Nut Brown Ale seems to be working well.  It was interesting to note that in the first two or three days while the yeast was really working, I was having to change out water bottles very frequently. However, once most of the activity stopped, I could get by with changing the bottles out about once a day.  I realized this after I changed out the bottles one day and the temperature in the cooler dropped to 59 degrees.  From that point on, one bottle every 12-18 hours would keep the temp in the 60's.

This method of temperature control, although effective, is a manual process and is subject to human error.  I decided to look for a more reliable way to control temperatures, and I found the answer on craigslist for $50.  I bought a 4.6 cubic inch wine cooler.  It can fit at least two Little Brown Kegs, and the temperature in the unit can be lowered down to 48 degrees or so.   This appliance will allow me to precisely control the temperature of fermentation, something that is critical for most non-Mr. Beer yeast strains.  Colder fermentation temperatures (50-55 degrees) are also required for lager brewing, something I'd like to try in the future.

Speaking of two Little Brown Kegs, I bought a second one from Mr. Beer for $10.  A second LBK will allow me to brew 5-gallon recipes, which most mainstream beer recipes are geared toward.  It also gives me the option of brewing different styles 2. 5 gallon recipes simultaneously if I want to have a wider variety of beer in my pipeline.

Finally, since I have the Bewitched Red Ale conditioning in bottles, and I am close to bottling the Nut Brown, I decided to make labels so I could distinguish the two.  The experienced brewers suggested I use paper and a glue stick since this combination will be easy to remove in warm water.  So, the photo on the right is my first attempt at a label.

A New Brew!

I decided to get a little more advanced for my next brew.  I purchased an Englishman's Nut Brown booster pack from eBay for $13 (free shipping!), which is decidedly cheaper than from Mr. Beer's web site.  However, I also wanted to venture into some alternate ingredients to further enhance the flavor of the beer.

I purchased 1 pound of Breiss Sparkling Amber dried malt extract (DME).  This is totally different than the Mr. Beer Hopped Malt Extract (HME) I have used in the last two brews.  First, it is in powder form and not canned liquid, which means it has to be mixed with water.  Second, it has no hop components, so it is sweet and not bitter.  Finally, by adding this to the booster kit, I will increase the alcohol content of the beer.


I also upgraded my yeast to a better quality version.  I bought Fermentis Safale s-04, which is specifically designed for English Ales.The upgraded yeast should also improve the flavor of the beer.   The only drawback to the yeast is that I need to ferment at a slightly cooler temperature (65-70).  I took an idea I saw online and put it to use.  I put the keg in a cooler and filled it with water to the same level as the wort.  I put in a couple of cooler packs to lower the temperature of the water.  My plan is to change out the cooler packs with frozen water bottles and continue to rotate to maintain a lower water temperature.

Since I bought the booster kit at a savings, I was able to add both the DME and the yeast and still break even on what I would have paid from Mr. Beer for the kit alone. 

Bewitching Bottling Day

I bottled the Bewitched Red Ale tonight after 18 days of fermentation.  The wort seemed to continue to evolve in taste and color, so I waited to bottle until I had a couple of consecutive days where the flavor and clarity seemed consistent.

I added some items to my equipment inventory for this go 'round.  The more research I have done, the more I have found that most brewers use a different sanitizer than the one that ships with Mr. Beer.  I suppose this happens out of necessity, because once you stop buying the kits from Mr. Beer you need to find a new method of sanitizing the equipment. 

I chose StarSan for this task, which seems to be far and away the leading home brew sanitizer.  Just like the Mr. Beer sanitizer, this is a no-rinse chemical sanitizer.  It is a liquid concentrate, and a little goes a long way: you mix 1 oz to 5 gallons of water.  It is much faster than the oxygen-based cleaner, as it only needs 1 minute of contact (instead of 10) to sanitize a surface.  The best part is that once you make the solution, you can continue to use it for a couple of batches.  I bought this bottle for $7, and it will most likely last me a year or more of constant brewing.

Since I bought the new sanitizer, I needed to buy something to hold the solution.  I bought an 11-gallon plastic bucket with handles.  It is flexible and easy to maneuver, and as luck would have it, my sink accommodates it perfectly.  I figured that if I ever get to the point where I am making 5 gallon batches of beer, this will do the trick. 

I made a 2.5 gallon batch of StarSan this time, and this turned out to be just about right.  I put about half of my new 16 oz. bottles in the solution, waited for a minute, then drained them and left them to dry while I put the other half in.  Each time I had the bottles soaking, I also put in the other equipment I'd need to sanitize (bottling wand, caps, funnel, etc.)

I had brought out my Little Brown Keg about 2 hours earlier in hopes that any solids that were agitated by the movement would settle by the time I started bottling.  After everything had dried, I attached the wand and added the priming sugar to the bottles and started filling.  The wand has a spring-loaded valve on the end that allows you to fill the bottles from the bottom to avoid any aeration.  Not much faster, but helps you avoid contaminating the beer.

I put the wand in the first bottle and immediately noticed lots of solids going through the wand.  This batch had never really cleared up like the West Coast Pale Ale had, but I wasn't expecting that on the first bottle.  Each subsequent bottle cleared up a little, and by the middle of the process I was getting what I expected.

The final bottle also had a lot of particulate matter go in from the keg.  I marked these two bottles as the ones I'll try first during carbonation testing.  Interestingly, I only got 15 bottles out of this batch.  However, I taste-tested this batch non stop for the past week, sometimes twice per day.  I probably drank 16 oz. worth over the 18 days it was in the fermenter.

I put all the bottles back into the box they were shipped in to further protect them from light.  I'll leave them there for at least two weeks again.  Now I have two batches in the pipeline, either in warm conditioning or in the fridge.  Either way, that means I have an open fermenter!  I already have plans to do something about that.  

My little brewery inventory is growing!  My next batch will go into the fermenter before the weekend.  I am going to brew a Mr. Beer booster kit with some additional ingredients I bought from the home brew shop.  Stay tuned....

"One of these things is not like the other..."

Today is day 14 of the Bewitched Red Ale's fermentation in the Little Brown Keg.   There is still a fair amount of particulate matter floating on top of the wort, as well as some floating in suspension near the top.  It is clearing up slowly, but my research tells me it won't get as clear as the West Coast Pale Ale (WCPA).

This goes along with my theory that Mr. Beer ships the WCPA with the kit since it ends up resembling a popular style of beer in both color and clarity.   Also, I suspect the WCPA would taste pretty good after a 7 day fermentation and 7 day conditioning period, which is one of the big selling points for Mr. Beer.

Visibly, the Bewitched Red Ale doesn't resemble the WCPA at this stage in any way.  The experienced brewers have been telling me to trust my taste buds and not my eyes, so I have been taste testing it over the past couple of days.  It is still a tad on the sweet side, so I am planning to give it a few more days in the keg to let the yeast gobble up as much remaining sugar as possible.  I am a little impatient, though, since I am eager to try out my bottling wand and 1/2 liter bottles I bought with the kit last time.

I also decided to take off the training wheels for my next batch.  I am going to start with the Mr. Beer booster kit, but I am going to upgrade the yeast and increase the malt extract.  More on that in a subsequent post...

Carbonation Testing & Cold Conditioning

Today marks day 28 of my Mr. Beer homebrew expirement.  Following the 2-2-2 pattern (fermentation, warm condition, cold condition), that makes today the first day of cold conditioning.  I put half of my 1 liter bottles in the fridge, and left the other half in the pantry for extended warm conditioning.
 

I also put the trub bottle I collected during bottling in the fridge so I could test the level of carbonation.  Once the trub bottle got cold, I cracked it open.  Here's a video.

As you can tell, it is is carbonated, but it doesn't hold a head together very well.  Also, the bubble streams continued for at least 15 minutes  (might have gone longer, but I drank it by then!).   The best comparison of the carbonation is that it's bubbly like champagne.  You can see the little streams of bubbles on the photo below.

I posted a question on the Mr. Beer Fans community web site to determine if this is normal for this stage or if there is something wrong with the batch.  The pros told me that 6 hours was by no means long enough, and that I lost most of my carbonation when I opened the bottle.  Cold conditioning for at least 48 hours allows the CO2 to absorb into the beer, and I just didn't give it enough time.

Bubbles aside, the beer tastes like... beer!  Slightly sweet, light bodied, and totally drinkable.  I am curious what it will taste like once it has fully conditioned, and also when the extended warm conditioning is complete for the remaining bottles.

As you'd expect, there is quite a difference between the color of these two brews at this stage.  The photo on the left is from my first batch of West Coast Pale Ale at 10 days in the Mr. Beer fermenter.  The photo on the right is from the currently fermenting Bewitched Red Ale, now in its 9th day in the Little Brown Keg.
In addition, there is still a fairly thick layer of krausen on the top of the wort.  This was not the case with the West Coast Pale Ale, which had almost no krausen on the top from the start.

The Bewitched Red Ale will continue in the keg for 14 days.  The West Coast Pale Ale has been warm conditioning in the bottles for 13 days, so tomorrow I will put half of them in the fridge for cold conditioning.  The other half will continue in the pantry for another week or two, since I'd like to compare how the flavor changes over time.

I also visited a home brew shop, The Magnolia Square Market in Sanford, FL.  As I figured, they cater to the more experienced brewer, but they did have some custom kits that were hand-picked for Mr. Beer brewers.  They also offer home brewing classes, and I am considering signing up for a session.  You actually brew, bottle, and take home (yes!) a batch of beer during the course. 

Brew #2 In The Little Brown Keg

Today was brewing day #2!  I received my Bewitched Red Ale booster kit from Mr. Beer yesterday.  I decided to keep it simple and use the kit as shipped.  Before venturing into uncharted territory with different yeasts, extracts, etc., I'd like to visit my local home brew shop and get some pointers.  I now have a couple of weeks to wait, so I'll have some time to take a field trip.

After running by the store for a couple of things, I mixed up my new batch of beer and popped it in the fermenter.  The couple of things I picked up were from my lessons learned in batch #1, both for a grand total of $6.

First, I bought a small whisk for use in mixing the booster and water that gave me so much trouble last time.  Boy, what a difference.  It still takes a while (NOTHING about this hobby is fast), but the clumps break up more easily which allowed me to increase the frequency at which I could add the sugar.  I also chose a whisk that would fit into the keg during the sanitizing step.

Second, I bought a small, all metal can opener.  The only hand-driven can opener we had prior had plastic handles, and the instructions emphasize the use of metal utensils.  It also fits nicely into the keg for sanitizing.

In addition, I put my 4 cup measure into use in lieu of the baking dish.  This worked out perfectly.  I put all my utensils into the keg with the recommended amount of water for 10 minutes.  I then drained the solution through the spigot until the cup was almost full, but the utensils were still covered in solution.  I let that sit for another 10 minutes.

After cleaning everything and draining the solution, I was off and running again.  I poured cold water into the keg, mixed the corn sugar and water in a pot to make syrup, brought it to a boil, stirred the hopped malt extract into the hot syrup, poured that into the keg, added more cold water, and added the yeast.

In the can, the extract smelled like dates or prunes, but after mixing in and activating the yeast, it had a pleasant squash or pumpkin aroma.  Quite unlike batch #1, which smelled like bread from day 1.  Also, batch #2 was much richer and darker in color.  The batch #2 extract also had much more particulate matter in the can.

The pantry is looking good!!  The Bewitched Red Ale should be ready to bottle in two weeks, and the bottled batch of West Coast Pale Ale will be ready to drink a few days later.  Batch #2 will go into the smaller, 1/2 liter bottles like the one with the black cap below.

Decision Time

I opted for a completely different flavor for my second batch.  I ordered the Bewitched Red Ale refill kit from Mr. Beer, which is a contrast to the West Coast Pale Ale that is currently in the bottles. 

From everything I have read, it appears the basic booster refill kits from Mr. Beer are not overly flavorful on their own.  Experienced brewers often customize these kits by adding more or alternate ingredients to enhance the flavor and body of the beer.

As much as I like flavorful beer, I don't quite fall into the "experienced brewer" category yet. My next kit should be arriving this week, so I will have a decision to make.  I am leaning toward just using the "stock" kit so I can get a real sense of what the basic Mr. Beer kits have to offer.  But, 5-6 weeks is a long time to wait for beer that *might* be good.

First batch in the bottles

I know, I know.... Everyone says to keep the wort in the keg for 14 days until you bottle.  Today is the 13th day of keg fermentation, but since it is Sunday, I decided to go ahead bottle a day early.   I figure it is better to do my first bottling job on Sunday, when I can be more relaxed and not rushed.

The beer is crystal clear now.  Smells and tastes pretty much like a flat domestic mainstream beer.  Safe marketing on behalf of Mr. Beer, I suppose, since this is a taste that most people will be familiar and comfortable with.  I am hoping, and I have read, that warm conditioning will bring out more flavor.

I have watched the videos on the Mr. Beer web site about bottling, along with some others on YouTube.  I HIGHLY recommend watching the videos, as there are some tips there that you won't find in the instructions that come with the kit.  I have also been reading through threads on the Mr. Beer Fans community site to make sure I was going about the process properly.  All of that made me much more comfortable going into this phase.

I sanitized everything per the instructions in the kit and videos.  I used a big bowl to collect the sanitizing mixture for later use.

I let everything dry and then I carefully moved the keg out of the pantry and placed it over my kitchen sink.  Fortunately, I have a deep sink, so the bottles fit almost perfectly under the spigot.  I had read some complaints from users about the last bit of beer not draining properly from the keg, so I decided to use a small shim (1/2" thick book) under the opposite end of the keg to get the largest volume of beer nearer to the spigot.

I put the appropriate amount of priming sugar in each bottle and started filling them from the spigot.  I had expected this to take longer than it did, but it was really only the last bottle that seemed to fill slowly.  I kept each bottle at an angle to reduce aeration.  I was able to fill all 8 PET bottles up to the bend in the neck, per the Mr. Beer instructions.

With the keg tilted at a slight angle, I was actually able to fill up an extra 16oz PET bottle (formerly Pepsi Max).  According to the videos on the Mr. Beer site, soda bottles are OK to use since they are made to contain carbonated beverages.  I had rinsed the bottle thoroughly earlier in the week, and I included it in the sanitizing.  I will say, however, that this last bottle contained quite a bit of sediment, and was not nearly as clear as the other bottles.  I am planning to use it for carbonation testing anyway, and I won't rely on the taste since it had soda in it before.

I tucked the bottles back into the pantry on the baking sheet and will wait 21 days before putting one in the fridge.  In the meantime, my refill kit and extra bottles should be arriving in the mail in the next few days.  I went with the Bewitched Red Ale for the refill, 16 oz. bottles, and I also included their bottling kit with the new spigot and wand assembly.  I had a 20% off coupon, and the discount pretty much covered the bottling kit.  I cleaned and sanitized the keg and spigot with the leftover solution I had saved from the bottle sanitizing earlier.  I am all set and ready to go for batch #2 when my refill kit arrives!

Complete Makeover in 10 Days!

Well, not quite.  But, the first batch has been in the keg for 10 days now.  There hasn't been much change in the look, smell, or taste of the brew in the past 2 days.  It has a golden hue, a slight yeasty smell, and no sweetness. I think the extra few days in the keg will do it good, as it may reduce the final amount of yeasty aroma.  I poured a little bit in a shot glass so I could take a photo of how it looks on the 10th day :

Compare that to the initial wort stage:

Looks like the yeast has done its job!

Condition, ferment, repeat

Once my first batch is bottled this weekend, I'll be warm-conditioning my bottles for 21 days.  Since the keg will be idle and empty during that time, I figured the best use of my conditioning time was to brew another batch of something.

I am looking into some options for my next batch.  Since this batch is a West Coast India Pale Ale (IPA), I'd like something with a different flavor.  I have been considering red, amber, or brown ales, along with German Apfelwein, or "apple wine" (cider).  There is a very popular and easy recipe for brewing Apfelwein that can be modified for a Mr. Beer kit, but it takes much longer to ferment.  I'll probably stick with beer for now, but I'll keep the Apfelwein on my radar as a future project.

There is one issue with getting the second batch started quickly, however.  Beer fermentation takes two weeks and conditioning takes three, so I'll need another set of bottles ready when the next batch comes out of the keg.    With an extra set of bottles, I can always have something bubbling away in the fermenter while the previous batch is being conditioned and consumed.  Otherwise, I'll have to wait until my bottles are empty.

So now I'll start looking into getting another set of bottles, either from Mr. Beer ($15) or some other source.  This time, rather than the 1-liter bottles that came with my first kit, I am planning to use 1/2-liter bottles.  Not that I mind drinking a liter of beer every time I open a bottle, but I would like to have some smaller bottles so I can share with others and get their opinions on my brews.  Half-liter bottles (16 oz. or so) seem more reasonable for this endeavor.

Check it out

Mr. Beer encourages periodic checking of the wort to examine the progress, which I believe is important for beginners like me.   However, even though you should check the progress of your wort, patience is your ally during this process.  

There are a couple of ways you can check the progress of your wort, but there is one way you should absolutely avoid: opening the cap on the keg.  This could introduce bacteria, mold, and/or wild yeasts into your batch and spoil the taste.

The best way to check on your batch is to shine a flashlight through side of the keg to see foam at the top and bubbles rising through the wort.  You'll also be able to gauge the clarity of the batch.  This method helps you eyeball the layer of dead yeast, or trub, at the bottom of the keg.  This layer of sediment should increase over time. 

The second way to check on the progress of fermentation is to sample a little bit.  For a beginner, I think this is very important.  This allows the brewer to visually check the color and clarity of the beer, smell the aroma, and taste the batch.

To clarify, even though my first post was on April 3, I put the wort into the keg on the evening of March 26.  As I mentioned, Mr. Beer's recommendation was a minimum of 7 days for the fermentation stage. The seventh day of fermentation was April 2.

I had been shining a flashlight into the keg every day to check for bubbles and foam.  I never saw bubbles, but there was a very thin layer of foam that clung to the side for the keg first few days.  Beyond that, there were some half-dollar sized foam clumps that formed on the top of the wort.  After reading some forum posts, I was able to rest assured that this is normal for the style of beer I am brewing.

Even though I planned to leave the batch fermenting for up to 2 weeks, I wanted to see what the beer would look like using the minimum recommendation.   I sampled the batch on the evening of the seventh day to see how far along the fermentation process had come.  Since the tap runs very slowly (intentionally), I simply put a spoon underneath the spigot and drained a tiny bit out of the keg. 


The beer was still cloudy, and had a strong, bready aroma.  There was still a slight bit of sweetness in the taste.  All of these indicators told me the batch was not ready.  So, had I used the minimum recommendation, my beer would not have come out as tasty as it could have. However, this encouraged me to continue to sample the batch every day to find out how much the batch would change over time.

I checked the beer again on the evening of the eight day, and boy, what a difference.  My first step is always to shine the flashlight through the side of the keg.   I immediately noticed the clarity of the beer had improved.  Also, there were no floating clumps or foam on the sides of the keg

I put a spoon under the tap and took a sample.  The beer was a clear, golden color.  The aroma was still yeasty, but now it smelled more like beer and not bread.  There was almost no sweetness in the taste, and the overall characteristics were more like flat beer.

I was encouraged by the progress the batch had made, and I am sticking with my original plan of leaving it in the keg for up to 2 weeks before bottling.

Mr. Beer Has Arrived

I have always been interested in home beer brewing, but the entry point ($100 minimum) has kept me from trying the hobby.  In fact, even the cheaper kits from Mr. Beer are in the $40-$60 range for a full set.  Thanks to the internet, however, I am able to try the hobby for a more reasonable initial investment.

I bought a Mr. Beer Premium home brewing kit from Woot at roughly half retail price. As of today, the kit retails for about $40, and Woot offered it for $20+$5 shipping, which is about the maximum I'd want to spend.  $25 is just a little bit more than 2 six packs of quality craft beer, so I figure that is a good trade.

Mr. Beer's kits make 2 gallons of beer, which is approximately 21 twelve ounce bottles.  If I am successful, this will be cheaper (and more fun!) than buying craft beer at the store.  I've decided to document the process along the way for my own purposes, and perhaps help other beginners like me.

Here's the package that I received:

Each Mr. Beer kit comes with the fermentation keg and ingredients you'll need to brew one 2-gallon batch of beer. However, the bottles are not included until you upgrade to the second level (Premium). Here are the contents of the Premium kit:

What you see above, from left to right, is:  Fermentation keg, bottle caps & tap assembly, 1 liter plastic bottles, Hopped Malt Extract (HME), Booster, sanitizing powder, assorted documentation, and bottle stickers.

Step 1 in the instructions is assembly of the fermentation keg.  Essentially, the only thing you have to do is insert the spigot in the hole and secure tightly (more on that later).  Once assembled you move on to sanitizing your beer making tools.

Mr. Beer provides a convenient way to sanitize the items you'll be working with to create your first batch of beer.  Included in the kit is a no-rinse sanitizing powder which kills any unwanted bacteria, molds, or wild yeast that may have inhabited your supplies.  From everything I have read, this powder is essentially an oxygen based cleanser that works in a similar fashion to hydrogen peroxide.  Since the byproduct is oxygenated water, you don't need to (nor should you) rinse the utensils and risk exposing your sanitized gear to a microorganism or chemical in the rinsing water.



Sanitizing consisted of filling the keg half full with water, adding half of the sanitizing powder, and then rolling the keg around to sanitize the interior.  After that, the instructions tell you to submerge your beer making tools (spoon/whisk, measuring cup, can opener, etc.) into the solution inside the keg, cap it, and allow everything to sit for five minutes.  After five minutes, drain some of the solution through the spigot on to a plate or dish so you can have a sanitized surface on which to lay your tools. I chose a shallow baking dish for this.  Once you have a sanitized dish, take the lid off of the keg and pour the remainder out.  It won't hurt to leave some drops of solution in the keg, since it is pretty much oxygenated water at this point.

Two items of note for this step:

• I chose a spoon for my stirring instrument.  In hindsight, the better tool for this task is a small whisk.  Later steps will illustrate why.

• I initially chose to sanitize a 1 cup steel measure.  However, I realized that I would prefer to use my 4 cup glass measure because I was ultimately dealing with 2 gallons of water.  I used the spigot to fill the 4 cupper up with the sanitizing solution from the keg.  The 4 cupper is also large enough for you to rest your whisk, thereby negating the need for a dish.

Now that you have everything sanitized, you're ready to start cooking your wort.  The first (and most arduous) task is to dissolve the booster in three cups of cold water.  This is where the whisk would have come in handy.  The booster is powdered corn syrup, and has a tendency to clump together.   You have to get all of the clumps broken apart and completely dissolved, and although I was able to accomplish this with a spoon, the whisk was clearly a better choice.  It took me 10 minutes or more to completely dissolve the booster with the spoon.  

With the booster completely dissolved, you are ready to apply some heat.  You bring the booster solution to a boil while stirring, and then remove it from the heat.

The instructions tell you to put the can of Hopped Malt Extract into a cup of hot water to improve viscosity.  I let hot water trickle over it while I was dissolving the booster.  I don't know that you need that much time, but I can say that my HME was easy to pour.  Open the can, and pour the entire contents into the booster solution, stirring constantly.






When you have emptied the can and stirred it all together, it should look like this:

Now you're ready to put the wort in the keg and take the final steps to begin fermentation.  Since the wort is hot, you need to add some cool water to the plastic keg.  Fill it up halfway with the water, and then add the wort and stir vigorously.  You'll probably need to add water now to completely fill the keg to 8.5 quarts.

The final ingredient for your batch of beer is the yeast.  Mr. Beer conceals the yeast under the plastic cap of the HME can, so it's easy to miss. 

Pour the yeast right on top of the wort in the keg, cap the keg, and let it sit for 5 minutes.  This procedure activates the yeast.  After five minutes, stir vigorously once again, cap the keg, and store it in an area that maintains 68-75 degree temperature with no direct sunlight.

Turns out that my kitchen pantry was ideal for a storage area.  To be safe, I put the keg on a sheet pan in the event there were any leaks.

Mr. Beer recommends a minimum of seven days for the fermentation process.  However, I have read from other sources that the real minimum should be 10 days, with 2 weeks as a best practice.  I plan to let it go for 10 days and then taste a sample.