Mr Beer Review - Good Beginner Brewing Kit |
The first two requirements are critical, but if you want a good, clean, tasty beer after spending the time to brew it, you need to exercise patience. Yes, you can have home brewed beer in two weeks, but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND You wait Four Weeks. Well, at least three and a half, that's how long I waited to try mine. :)
First, let's run through the brewing process and check out the ingredients, instructions and equipment provided by Mr. Beer.
My first Mr. Beer batch was the West Coast Pale Ale, one of their Standard Brew Packs. It included a can of hopped liquid malt extract, a pouch of Booster™ (they can trademark Booster?) and a packet of dry brewing yeast. Don't panic like I did when you discover that the yeast packets are not in the shipping carton, they're conveniently stowed under the plastic lid on each can of malt extract.
The Boil...
The Mr. Beer brewing process will last approximately 15 minutes once the water is up to temp. Begin heating the water and as it warms stir in and dissolve the Booster™, once it reaches a boil you can turn off the heat and begin stirring in the malt extract (what they call the "beer mix") until it is fully dissolved.
Why such a short boil? In extract brewing where raw hops are added a full 60 minute boil is required so the brewer can introduce specific amounts of hops along the way to achieve the desired result. In the case of the hopped malt extracts included with the Mr. Beer ingredient kit this step is already done for us, there is no need to do anything but fully dissolve the fermentables so the yeast has something to munch on to produce the alcohol.
Once the sugars are all dissolved what you have is called the wort, pronounced "wert." Next you will add your wort to the 4 quarts of cool water already in the keg fermenter (follow the Mr. Beer directions). Add more cool water to bring it to the 8.5 quart mark. I suggest filtered tap water that has been cooled in the fridge, stir it up good. I put the cap on and sloshed it a bit back and forth too, but be careful, the cap is not air tight. Which brings us to...
Fermenting Mr. Beer... No Airlock?
Why is there no airlock on the Mr. Beer fermenter? I'd like to address this because it may raise concerns among home brewers as an open door to contamination. Two small notches in the lip of the fermenter allow carbon dioxide gas to escape, which creates a positive flow of of gas outward from beneath the lid, for most of the fermentation process. The big lid which screws onto the lip of the fermenter provides adequate protection from foreign material and any microorganisms that could potentially take up residence in the fermenting brew.
Microorganisms don't fly around looking for stuff, and they aren't going to slither up the side of your fermenter looking for a way in. If you're work area is clean, the fermenter is clean, you didn't get any nasties onto the lip of the fermenter, AND you leave it covered for the duration of fermentation, you'll be fine. NO PEEKING!
If you want to see what's going on in the fermenter, scale up and buy a glass carboy. The Mr. Brew fermenting keg is dark brown for a reason, yeast works better in the dark. To make your yeast happier yet, keep the fermenter in a dark location, and at a relatively consistent temperature, between 68-76 degrees F according to the Mr. Beer directions. Though I have successfully fermented brews at 65°, right around 70° is the standard. A slight drift high or low, by a couple of degrees, will not mess things up.
Bottling...
Leaving your beer alone for at least two weeks in the fermenter is critical to allow as much settling as possible. You will bottle a clear beer, but there will still be enough yeast remaining to produce sufficient carbonation.
As a result, after two weeks in the bottle you will see a very light layer of sediment. The sediment was so miniscule in my final brews, literally just a dusting, that I was able to enjoy a beer right out of the bottle! Of course, to fully appreciate your home brewed ale you should pour it into the proper glass.
Brewing with liquid extracts in general results in a very clear beer, with a fine layer of sediment at the bottom. If you're seeing a thick bed of white schmutz on the bottom of your bottle, wait longer before bottling next time.
I used standard 12 oz. pop-top bottles that I save when I buy my favorite micro-brewed ales, but you can pick up a Mr. Beer Deluxe Bottling System for about $15. That system includes 8, 20 oz. plastic bottles, so you'll have to buy two sets in order to bottle your whole batch. You'd probably get about 10-12 of those 20 oz. bottles filled, and have a few extras just in case (no pun intended). I got about 18 12 oz. bottles out of my batch.
The Result...
My final beer weighed in at around 3.3% just prior to bottling. At first I thought something had gone wrong but Mr. Beer states that the final ABV should be around 3.7%, under optimum conditions. So I was close enough.
The beer pours a nice pale golden color, has a nice malty nose and a smooth mouthfeel before giving way to a pleasant hop bitterness at the end. As it sat in the glass it became a little fuller in flavor, given some time to "breathe."
It did have that mild homebrewiness to it, but I find that maximum time in the fermenter keeps that to a minimum by reducing the amount of trub the beer will sit on in the bottle.
One disappointment was the rather short lived head. I had to pour rather aggressively to acheive one in the first place, and it only lasted about 15 seconds. The carbonation is a bit inconsistent due to the addition of priming sugar to each bottle, in dry form, prior to bottling.
A typical priming situation involves dissolving dry malt extract or corn sugar into a small amount of water and stirring that solution thoroughly into the fermented beer before bottling, which results in more consistent carbonation.
One suggestion for priming with a Mr. Beer set up would be to dissolve no more than 3/8 of a cup of priming sugar (you can use confectioner's corn sugar) into 1 pint of hot water. Let it cool then divide evenly among the bottles before bottling the beer, just about 1/2 ounce per bottle should do it. This will help you get an even amount of priming sugar into each one, resulting in even carbonation. Better this than adding the dry sugar to each bottle and hoping it all dissolves into the cool wort.
You can estimate how much to add by measuring a 1/2 ounce of water and seeing how far up it goes in the bottle, then just add this much of the sugar mix to each bottle before adding the wort. It will mix as the wort flows in, but feel free to swirl it a bit as it fills. By the way, you can trust my measurements, I did the math. :)
In Conclusion...
I titled this post "Mr. Beer - Good Beginner Brewing Kit" but in fact it is a great kit to keep around and reuse, even for the more advanced brewer. The Mr. Beer kit offers a quick, convenient, and virtually hassle-free way to make very good tasting beer over and over again. I highly recommend it for anyone who'd like to give home brewing a try, but doesn't know where to start. This is a great way to get your feet wet, and learn the basics of the home brewing process.
Happy Brewing!
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