The Brew Times Homebrewing Blog
First Time Brewer FAQs
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="g8LEilEyr5k" video_title1="First Time Brewer FAQs" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} When you are brewing your first batch of beer you will have a ton of questions. So we thought it would be helpful to answer some of the most frequently asked questions for the beginner brewer. How do I open my Mr. Beer can? Something that we get quite often. You will open your can of HME from the bottom so make sure the label is upside down when you go to open. It is very difficult to open the can from the top where the yeast packet is. How important is sanitization? It is extremely important! If this process gets messed up it can affect your entire brew. Bad sanitation practices can lead to a bad beer which leads to a bad homebrewing experience. This is one of the most critical parts of brewing and something you want to make sure you are doing correctly. How to clean your fermenter after you bottle your beer? You always want to make sure that you clean your fermenter after you bottle your beer. The best way is to use unscented soap and a soft cloth. You never want to use anything abrasive that could scratch the inside of your fermenter. You can also use Oxy Clean Free & Clear or we sell a brewery wash on our website that works wonders. But always make sure to clean your fermenter when you are done brewing. How can I tell if my beer is fermenting? During the 1st 24 hours, you might not see much action going on in your fermenter and that is totally fine. It can take 48-72 hours for you to see the primary or most active stage of fermentation take place. You will see bubbles on top of your beer during this part. However, you may miss it and it looks like nothing is going on in your fermenter but there is! Always check the bottom of the fermenter, if you see some sediment start to build up at the bottom then you know your beer is fermenting and you are good to go. What is that sediment at the bottom of my fermenter and bottles? That is what is called Trub and is a by-product of the fermentation process. It is always a good thing to see. It means your beer has fermented. You will also see it in your bottles and this is from the natural carbonation process. Some people choose not to drink the last little bit others do. It does not hurt you, it may just give you a little gas. How important is fermentation temperature? Extremely important! Too warm and you can get off-flavors in your beer and too cold the yeast might not ferment all the sugar. Yeast can work in a wide range of temperatures. We have found that we get the best results in our brew room fermenting at 70-72 degrees. This is for all yeasts except for lager yeasts of course. The best way to keep track of this is just to get a stick-on thermometer and put it on your fermenter. Cheers, Robert
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Is there a difference between using carbonation drops and regular sugar?
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="0Vu2C3EREIY" video_title1="Is there a difference between using carbonation drops and regular sugar?" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} A lot of people swear by carbonation drops, and others don’t see a need in using them. A question that I saw the other day was asking if you can tell a difference in your beer between using one or the other? The short answer to this question is no, you cannot. Or at least it would be very difficult to tell. It such a small amount of sugar that you are adding to the bottles that it's not going to have a big impact on your beer. The main reason for carbonation drops is their ease of use. When using our Mr. Beer 740mL bottles you just drop 2 in the bottle and your good to go. That’s it, no measuring or fussing with sugar. Now we have heard that carbonation drops can help with head retention in some cases, but that is often hard to tell between 2 fully carbonation and well-made beers. So I think it is just a matter of perception but you really can't tell the difference between using carbonation drops and sugar when it comes to bottling. But I think what everyone can agree on is carbonation drops sure make the bottling process a whole lot easier. Cheers, Robert
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A little holiday cheer to spruce up your beer
AHHHHH the holidays! It is the time of year where many brewers and drinkers a-like are seeking to either brew and or imbibe beers favored with all manner or seasonably appropriate ingredients. So, what happens if you want to drink a beer flavored with a Holiday edge, but you missed the boat on brewing that “cinnamon amber” or that “S’mores stout”? Do not worry, the bartender in me has you covered. These tips are also a great way to incorporate a food tasting element into your experience, or that of your party guests! Today I am sharing with you some of my favorite ways to garnish your beer, once it is already in your glass! Below are a few fun and easy holiday additions you can make to your beer/glass at serving time: Rimmed Pint Glasses: One of the easiest things you can do to spruce up a beer, is to serve it in an appropriately rimmed glass, not only is it very simple to do, but the possibilities for options are also nearly unlimited. Try these fun combinations, just to see what you think! Small, rimmed, plastic serving cups also make a fun and impressive looking way to share several samples of beer with your holiday party guests. Chocolate candy cane rim: Add a drizzle of chocolate syrup to the rim of your beer glass. Next, hold your beer glass sideways and spoon crushed candy canes, generously over the rim of your glass so that the candy bits stick to the chocolate. I find this combination pairs best with a good stout, or porter. Top it with whip cream for a little something “extra”. Graham cracker rim: You may have seen this one before! Tray rimming your glass with chocolate or strawberry syrup and then dip or sprinkle your rim with crushed graham cracker! This is another great one for those dark winter brews and dessert beers! Cinnamon sugar rim: This one always reminds me of eating delicious cinnamon toast as a kid! I love to drizzle the glass with a bit of honey and dip the glass in a mixture of cinnamon and raw sugar. This rim lends itself well to porters and stouts but it’s delicious with a biscuity amber too! Garnishes and Toppings: A quick garnish or topping is a nice way to add some festive cheer to that beer! Plus, it is a good way to add a pairing element to your beer drinking experience…. Who does not like a beer AND a snack? Here are a couple of suggestions to get you off the ground! Toasted marshmallows on a toothpick: Pair this one with a chocolate and graham cracker rim, and you have got yourself the perfect garnish for a “s’mores” stout. You will end enjoy taking a chomp of toasty, melty, marshmallows between sips! Donut holes: I love garnishing beer glasses with these! They are inexpensive and come in many flavors. Make a small cut with a knife and slip the donut right onto the rim of the glass…. BOOM, instant pairing! Who needs lime wedges when you have bite-sized donuts? Whipped Cream: A generous heap of whip cream with a sprinkle of cinnamon or cocoa Makes a wonderful topping for a large variety of beers! Now you may be rolling your eyes at me right now…. “Ashley, how could you?” Well friend, tis the season to break some my “purity” rules when it comes to drinking beer. Sometimes you just got to, kick off your shoes, and have some fun! The rules will still be there when you’re done! NOW, go forward Holiday drinkers, AND BE MERRY! Cheers! Ashley
Read moreThe 5 benefits of brewing with hopped malt extract
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="IAp29Pa93Gs" video_title1="The 5 benefits of brewing with hopped malt extract" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} Like anything, there are some pros and cons. Brewing with hopped malt extract is a great way to brew and one of the best ways in my opinion. So, we wanted to break down the top 5 benefits of brewing with hopped malt extract and then what we think is its major drawback. Saves Time When brewing with hopped malt extract you are going to cut a large amount of time out of the brewing process. You are taking your brew day from being 4-8 hours long and cutting it down to roughly 30 minutes. Now you are not going to lose any taste or flavor in your beer, you’re just cutting back on the time it takes to brew. With HME the mashing of the grains and boiling of hops and all that is done already. So you are skipping that step in the brewing process. That is how you are cutting out time. Now if you want to add some grains and hops to your beer then you can do that with your HME as a base and still take hours off the brewing process. All in all brewing with HME just saves time without sacrificing quality. Saves Space With brewing with Hopped Malt Extract, especially with Mr. Beer, you are reducing the amount of equipment you need and space your fermenter takes up. All you need to brew are common kitchen items. When brewing using other methods, you will need additional pots, buckets, and tubes. It’s a lot more initial investment in equipment and a lot more items you will need to store. More Efficient Brews When brewing with all grain one factor you need to worry about is how much efficiency you are getting from your brew. To get a good efficiency you need to hold your mash at an exact temperature, with a specific amount of water for a specific amount of time. If one of these is off then you will get the maximum efficiency from your brew. So your ABV will not be as high and some of the malty flavors may not be as present. With brewing with HME, this step is already precocity done for you so it's one less thing you have to worry about. As long as you are mixing your ingredients thoroughly you are going to always have an efficient brew. Consistency As I have mentioned there are a lot of variables when brewing with all-grain. When brewing with HME you are just about guaranteed to get a great beer every single time. Removing all the boil temps, boiling times, transfers, etc. you are reducing the variables where something can go wrong. If one of these factors is off, then you could get a bad beer. With HME a lot of those variables have already been done so you just have to follow our basic brewing instructions and you will get great tasting beer every single time. Encouragement The last one is just the encouragement to continue brewing. If you spend $100’s on equipment, and 8 hours brewing a batch of beer and it comes our terrible you might not ever do it again. While brewing with HME all of the difficult variables are accounted for and the setup cost is just the initial kit purchase and you can brew great tasking beer every time. 1 Major Drawback Now the one major drawback to brewing with HME is the color. Beers brewed with HME will always tend to be darker than they should be. This is a result from when the wort is condensed down to syrup it can darken slightly. So the effect of that is your beers are always going to be slightly darker. This is not a big deal when brewing stouts and porters but when brewing lagers or IPA’s this can cause them to be a darker golden color than a light golden color. But hey, for all the benefits of brewing with HME I think they significantly outweigh its one drawback. Cheers, Robert
Read moreWhat you need to get started homebrewing?
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="D8-h3yNNXmg" video_title1="What you need to get started homebrewing?" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} Depending on what type of method you are going to use to homebrew, you will need different items. While some only require common kitchen items, others require extra equipment to brew up a batch. The 3 brewing styles we are going to cover are Malt Extract, Specialty Grains, and All Grain. Malt Extract Brewing with Malt Extract is the simplest way to brew beer. It provides great tasting beer with less time and equipment required. All you need are common kitchen items to brew with. For brewing with Mr. Beer Malt extract you will need a 4qt or larger pot, mixing spoon, can opener, measuring cup, and that’s it! Most people have that available already in their kitchen so there is no need to purchase any extra equipment. You can also brew 5-gallon batches of malt extract. Depending on those instructions you may need a larger pot. If you are brewing with Coopers Extract (our parent company) then you mix everything up in the fermenter. So you don’t need a large pot. Specialty Grains Brewing with specialty grains is an added step in the brewing process. This is taking grains and in simple terms, steeping them in water for 30 minutes or so. You will usually have several ounces of grains and then you will still use a malt extract can as a base. For Mr. Beer, these make up a lot of our recipes. You will need everything that you need for Malt Extract brewing plus some additional items. You will need a larger pot, oftentimes to hold 1 gallon of water. You will need a thermometer so you can monitor your water temperature to help in stay within a range. You will also need tongs and a large strainer big enough to hold the wet grain bag. After the boil, you will put the grain bag into the strainer and run some hot water over it. All-Grain Now for brewing all-grain, you will need significantly more equipment as well as space to brew. You will need an 8 gallon or larger boil kettle. A mash tun, which is usually a 7 or 10-gallon cooler or kettle with a ball valve. A hot liquor tank, a false bottom for the mash tun, tubing that is high temperature resistant for transferring liquid, and a heat source. Most people use a propane burner. So to brew all-grain it is a significant investment in equipment, space, as well as time. I don’t know about you, but ill stick with the malt extract. Less equipment takes up less space, less time brewing and the beer tastes amazing! Cheers, Robert
Read more4 Tips to Become an Expert Homebrew
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="RNK4lPBYxzw" video_title1="4 Tips to Become an Expert Homebrew" video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} We thought we would share our best advice or tips to help make you an expert homebrewer. These are not secrets by any means but are simple tips that can help you brew good beer and maybe a good refresher for the seasoned homebrewer. Chase Flavor Not ABV Many new brewers are looking to get "bang for their buck" and frequently look for ways to increase their brews ABV. After searching the web for ways to do so, many people think adding sugar to their batch will increase the ABV. While this is true, there are several other factors to keep in mind when homebrewing: different sugar types can introduce different flavors that will affect your beer's overall color, flavor, and body. That is why we recommend chasing flavor and not ABV. Find what flavors you enjoy drinking and go from there. If you want to brew high ABV beers check out some of our recipes, we have several across different styles that will hit that 8.5% and up range. These have been designed to balance the flavor and make a good beer, not something that tastes terrible but just has a high ABV. Different Brews Require Different Fermenting & Conditioning Times While brewing the Mr. Beer Refills this will not change that much. Although we have several different styles they are all around the same ABV and use the same yeast. So for Refills, we suggest 10-14 days to ferment and then 14 days to carbonate in the bottle at room temperature. Any time over that is good for conditioning any off-flavors that you may have. Now when getting into brewing recipes you will want to make sure you pay attention to the instructions. Depending on what style of beer you are brewing or the ABV of that beer, the fermentation times will be different. They range anywhere from 14-21 days. A few good rules to keep in mind here, we recommend bottling your beer before you hit that 24-day mark. When you let your beer condition so leaving your bottles out at room temperature past the initial 14 days, hop flavor and bitterness will start to dissipate. So keep that in mind for those hoppy beers. Patience is a Virtue This has to be one of the hardest things for new homebrewers, which is just waiting for your beer to ferment or carbonate in the bottles. For me it is still something that drives me crazy, I just hate waiting to try something new. If you rush things when it comes to brewing, then most of the time it's going to have a negative impact on your beer. Rushing through the brewing steps or the fermentation process can lead to off-flavors in your beer or even create a bad enough infection where it is undrinkable. So be patient when brewing and make sure you have some beer stocked up whether it's homebrews or craft beer. The worst thing for a homebrewer is to be brewing an amazing beer, but not having any beer to enjoy during the process. Seek Out Help I have found that homebrewers love to share their knowledge, so don’t be afraid to ask questions. You can’t know it all from the get-go, and the best way to learn is to ask. I have been working at Mr. Beer for 8 years but I still have a ton of brewing questions that I ask our brewmasters especially about more advanced brewing topics. So if you don’t know something or are unsure, just ask! Cheers, Robert
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The Ancient History of Beer
It is no secret to most, that our beloved beer has quite a colorful and long history. Have you ever wondered exactly how long though? Maybe you have never asked yourself “where did beer come from?” or maybe you have, either way, you can count on the fact that if you are reading this. I am going to tell you! Pull up a comfortable chair, pour an ice-cold mug of homebrew and come along with me for a journey through the history of my favorite beverage, BEER! Most of us are aware that beer has lots of history within Europe and most savvy beer aficionados can make it at least as far back as the 15th century with their brew history. What about before all of that? You may find yourself surprised to learn that the first confirmed and documented “beer” was brewed in Ancient China around 7000 BCE! That is a long time, though this beer was not what we would really recognize as beer, here in the western world. The process that inspired the concept of modern-day brewing came about in Mesopotamia at the Godin Tepe settlement, the region that we now know as Iran, around 3,500-3,100 BCE. Even though the oldest confirmed knowledge of beer brewing comes from China, there is evidence to show that Southern Mesopotamia (Modern day Iraq) beer brewing could have been in practice much earlier, possibly as far back as 10,000 BCE. The people of ancient Mesopotamia viewed beer as a staple of their daily diets and even as an important part of their culture. The brewing and consumption of beer were depicted in many different forms of art, from songs and great myths to paintings of individuals sipping their “beer” from a straw to filter out possible particulates (filtration wasn’t really a “thing” yet). It is believed that the straw was an invention of early peoples, (possibly the Sumerians or the Babylonians) specifically for the purpose of drinking beer! There is even a famous poem written about two drunk Gods, Inanna and Enki, the God of Wisdom (that is ironic). In the poem, Enki gets SO drunk that he accidentally gives away the sacred “Meh”, otherwise known as “The Laws of Civilization” to Inanna. This poem is thought to symbolize a transfer of power from the City of Iridu, to the city of Uruk. The Sumerian poem, Hymn to Ninkasi, is both a song of praise to the goddess of beer, Ninkasi, and a recipe for beer, first written down around 1800 BCE. Beer is even a major player in The Epic of Gilgamesh! The Sumerians relied on beer so much that it was regarded as a gift from the gods to help promote the health and happiness of humankind. The original Sumerian brewers were women, both priestesses of Ninkasi and average women, running their households domestically. These women would use a twice-baked barley bread as their grain base and beer brewing and bread-making were closely related in the minds of these ancient peoples, alike. Under the Babylonian rule, Mesopotamian beer production increased dramatically, became more commercialized. Even Hammurabi wrote harsh laws regarding the commercial distribution of beer. One such law, number 108 states: “If a tavern-keeper (feminine) does not accept grain according to gross weight in payment of drink but takes money, and the price of the drink is less than that of the grain, she shall be convicted and thrown into the water.” Yikes! Because women were the primary purveyors of beer at the time, the laws were female-gender specific, and breeching any of them usually ended in unfortunate death. The Babylonian people were clearly, very serious about their beer, so serious that they had a rigorous, 20 category system for cataloging the different types. Babylonian Beer became a major trading Commodity with other civilizations, especially the Egyptians. Egypt was really no different when it came to associating beer with a female deity. The Egyptian goddess of beer was Tenenit, and she is closely associated with Meskhenet, goddess of childbirth, and protector of the birthing house. The most popular beer in Egypt was Heqet (or Hecht) which was a honey-flavored brew and their word for beer, in general, was zytum. Beer in Egypt was widely considered acceptable as payment for labor. Laborers were often given daily allotments of beer, as well. The Egyptians believed that the knowledge of brewing was given by the god Osiris and that he personally taught humans how to do it. Just like in the previously mentioned civilizations, beer production in Egypt was originally managed by women and represented one of the primary responsibilities associated with the women within the household. Later, as the production of beer in Egypt began to become more “commercialized”, men took over most of the production. Beer was such a popular beverage in Egypt that Cleopatra attracted a lot of unwanted hate for implementing a tax on its sales. From Egypt, beer began to travel into ancient Greece and Rome, naturally. The Greek word for beer, zythos from the Egyptian zytum. Unfortunately, beer did not catch on as swiftly in these regions. Both Greeks and Romans were preferential toward wines and regarded beer as somewhat of an “uncivilized” Beverage. Sophocles even had some “not so nice” things to say about beer. Nevertheless, the Romans were brewing beer (cerevisia) quite early as evidenced by the tomb of a beer brewer and merchant (a Cerveserius) in ancient Treveris (modern-day Trier). Excavations of the Roman military encampment on the Danube, Castra Regina (modern-day Regensburg) have revealed evidence of beer brewing on a significant scale shortly after the community was built in 179 CE by Marcus Aurelius. As time went on, beer began to move into Northern Europe, this is where most of us start when discussing the history of beer because it represents the beginnings of the beer, we would recognize even today. Germans began brewing beer as early as 800BCE, as indicated by jugs found containing beer remnants within ancient tombs. The earliest brewers in Europe were also women. The “Hausfrau” would brew the beer as part of her dominion over the cooking. As time went on, brewing in Germany was taken over by monastic monks. In 1516 CE the German Reinheitsgebot (purity order) was instituted which regulated the ingredients which could legally be used in brewing beer (only water, barley, hops, and later, yeast) in so doing, continued the practice of legislation concerning beer which the Babylonians under Hammurabi had done some three thousand years earlier. The Germans, like those who preceded them, also considered beer to be a daily staple of their diets. From the Celtic lands, beer spread further across Europe always following the same basic principles first instituted by the Sumerians: female brewers making beer in the home, use of hot water, and fermented grains. In one Finnish saga, the female brewer, Osmata, attempting to make a great beer for a wedding, discovers the use of hops in brewing with the help of a bee she sends to gather the plant. This story is expressed as a poem. From the Sumerians to the Finnish, beer was regarded as a magical gift from the heavens and its inhabitants. See, that old saying “beer is proof that god loves us”, might have a longer history than you think! Clearly, we have come a long way in how to make, enjoy, and even what we call, “beer”. Through all the changes, one thing always remains the same, human history and beer history run right alongside each other. Coincidence? Well, I will let you be the judge of that, but there is no doubt beer plays a significant role in just about every major ancient Civilization that we know about. Next time you gaze down into that ice-cold brew, remember that you are looking at an ancient thread, uniting the history of mankind, forever. LONG LIVE BEER! CHEERS! Ashley
Read moreWhy you should not batch prime with Mr. Beer
Batch priming refers to the process of adding your priming sugar (sugar which creates carbonation) to the entire "batch" of beer, instead of the individual bottles. Fans of batch priming list simplicity and consistent carbonation from bottle to bottle as the primary benefits.
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Why You Should Homebrew?
If you have ever been wondering about why you should get into homebrewing or just want to learn more about homebrewing then this is the right place to be. Throughout this post, we will go over why I think you should homebrew, the different types of brewing methods, and then of course why you should brew with Mr. Beer. Now, you are probably wondering who the hell is this guy and why do I care what he has to say. Good point. I’m not sure that you will care what I have to say but at least allow me to introduce myself. My name is Robert Lewis. I am the Sales & Marketing Manager for Mr. Beer. I have been working at Mr. Beer for just about 8 years and homebrewing all along the way. I was never a homebrewer before I started working here, so I think I have a unique perspective on why homebrewing is unlike any other hobby. I hope you enjoy my stories and learn a little bit about homebrewing along the way. WHY SHOULD YOU HOMEBREW? Save Money I’m a huge fan of IPA’s. They are the best beers, hands down. Try to prove me wrong, I dare you. However, they can be quite expensive. One of my favorite IPA’s is from a local craft brewery here in Arizona. It runs right around $14-$16 for a 4 pack. That’s insane! It’s like $4.00+ a beer. I get it, they are making “craft beer” but, come on, that’s just too much. Now if you wanted to brew an amazing IPA, let’s say with Mr. Beer, for instance, that same type of beer would cost around $1.05 a beer. That’s it! You’re saving serious cash. Even if you wanted to brew the most expensive IPA that Mr. Beer offers, which is a crazy supper hopped imperial IPA, it would cost about $2.90 a beer. If you're like me who drinks about 6 beers a weekend, at $4 a beer that’s $24 a week, $96 a month, or $1,152 a year. Now if you homebrew and drink 6 beers a weekend at an average of $1.90 that is $11.40 a weekend, $45.60 a month, or $547.20 a year. So, you can save $600 a year by homebrewing! The more you drink the more you save. That’s what I call a win, win! Know Your Ingredients Like many of us, I am cautious about what goes into my body. Our world is full of over-processed foods and drinks and who knows what the ingredients are? Most of the time I can’t even pronounce half the stuff on the back of the labels. You will notice that with beer most brewers don’t list what they use in their beers. Some of them add clarifying chemicals to make the beer look clear or stabilizers to extend the shelf life of the beer. That’s just not cool. With homebrewing, you know exactly what you are putting into your beer, so you can trust that you have the best, real ingredients to brew with. Mr. Beer ingredients are made from all-natural Malted Barley, Hops, Water, and then Yeast (which you add) and that’s all! We use the best ingredients possible and oversee the entire process from the grain fields to the ingredients that go into your beer kit. We want to ensure that you get the best possible beer each and every time you brew. Create Your Own Brew Just brewing your own beer is an extremely rewarding feeling but creating your own custom recipe that is all your own is an experience unto itself. Through some trial and error, you can create some amazing beer. I remember the first recipe I created. I wanted it to be this super hoppy IPA. So, I got all kinds of random hops and threw them together and the result was not that good. I went straight mad scientist and did zero research before I brewed it, I just winged it. Now my second attempt at this was excellent. I did a little research and picked some bittering hops that would pair well together, did a nice 45-minute boil with around 2 oz. of hops and the results were amazing. I think I shared that beer with anyone that was willing to taste it and all were blown away at how well it came out. It's quite a rewarding experience creating your own beer that tastes good and that people truly enjoy. Have Fun Brewing beer is always a good time. You have some friends over, turn on some tunes, drink some beers, and just brew away. It’s the perfect escape from the weekly grind and a great way to relax and unwind. Another fun aspect of homebrewing that is not talked about that much is brewing beer for special occasions, like birthdays, holidays, weddings, etc. I got married 7 years ago and I wanted to brew beer for the wedding, so I brewed 20 gallons of beer, (we like to drink). I still remember what I brewed, it was an American Lager, Pilsner, an Amber Ale, and an IPA. During the wedding reception everyone I talked to did not say the ceremony was great or the flowers or any of that, they all wanted to talk about the homebrew. Every single person mentioned how much they enjoyed the beer. Even in our wedding video, every single comment was “Congratulations, we wish you all the best… And Amazing beer”. It was something that I will never forget. The impact that a good homemade beer can have. To this day when I see extended family members they still talk about the beers I brewed and are always wanting to try something new. Appreciate Good Beer Within the Craft Brewing scene and even Homebrewing you can find a lot of beer snobbery. People like beers a certain way and I get that. I have also come to appreciate a beer that is brewed very well, but I am by no means a beer snob. For the longest time, my go-to beer was Bud Light or Bud Light Lime. Overtime my pallet has changed where I can appreciate a really good brewed craft beer. The more you learn about a subject the more you appreciate the work that goes into it. So, you can tell when you have a good beer and a really good beer. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ll still grab a Bud Light here and there. One thing that you have to appreciate about the big brewers is that no matter where you are the beer will always taste the same. Once you understand homebrewing you will know how hard that is. Most Craft Brewers have trouble replicating the same exact beer each time. So, I would say that your appreciation for good beer will increase but your appreciation for just beer, in general, will also increase when you learn about all that goes into making a great tasting beer. DIFFERENT BREWING METHODS Alright, let's get educated. There are a few different ways that you can brew beer at home. Some are quicker than others, some are more expensive, some offer more ways to customize your beer but, in the end, they all produce great beer. It just depends on how much money you want to invest and how much time you want to spend. If you are looking to get started you should follow the advice of the American Homebrews Association (AHA.) According to the AHA, “extract brewing is one of the best ways to introduce people how to brew beer at home. Not only does extract brewing make homebrewing easier to grasp and understand, but it’s one of the cheapest and newb-friendly ways to encourage people to take up the hobby. For this reason alone–the power to spark interest in making beer at home—the effectiveness of extract homebrewing should not be looked down on by those who brew with grains.” I have brewed with all these methods, so I have a good understanding of why one is better than the other. Let's dive into the different brewing methods. Hopped Malt Extract Brewing with Hopped Malt Extract is the best way to get started brewing, period. If anyone disagrees, send them to me and I’ll straighten them out. Brewing with Hopped Malt Extract (HME) is the best way to start because it includes everything you need except water and yeast. The inclusion of hops simplifies things. It will save you time, space in your house and allows you to create a consistent beer each time you brew. All you need is a starter kit with HME and a few common kitchen items like a pot and stirring spoon. HME is a thick syrup-like substance that is basically distilled beer. It is made the same way a brewery brews beer. You add your grains, and hops into water, spend a few hours letting that boil, then go through evaporation where you condense it down to a thick liquid. From there it is packaged and sent out for homebrewers to use. Much of the time-consuming aspects of brewing are done for you. To sum up in one sentence, add your can of HME to water, mix it up, add your yeast and that’s it! See super simple! It only takes about 30 minutes of your time from setup to clean up. Plus, you can customize your beer to your heart’s content. Just use your HME as a base and add just about anything you want from there. You can even add more hops. You are not losing any quality in the finished product by brewing with HME. What you are doing is saving yourself some serious time and increasing your chances of always brewing a quality beer every single time. LME, Specialty Grains, & Hops Liquid Malt Extract (LME) is made the same as HME, only without the hops. When brewing with LME you will need to add hops and, in some cases, specialty grains. The brewing time will be a bit longer and the equipment you need is a little more involved than brewing with HME. The basic brewing process for this method is you will steep your specialty grains, typically for 30 minutes. Then you will add in your LME, then you will need to add hops and do a hop boil to get some bitterness in your beer. This can be anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour depending on what you are brewing. You will also need a larger pot to boil your water and a large strainer for the grains. It will add at least 45 minutes to an hour to your brew day vs brewing with HME. DME, Grains & Hops Dried Malt Extract (DME) is made by taking LME and evaporating it down to a powder form. This is done to help increase the shelf life of the beer and also to preserve color. Sometimes when using HME or LME your beers can come out slightly darker than if you used DME. However, brewing with DME can be a giant pain if you have not done it before. The 1st time I brewed with DME I the pot overflowed on my stovetop and made a sticky mess. Imagine taking maple syrup and mixing it with some water, and then just dump that all over your stove, yeah it was a disaster. I think it took me a few hours to get everything cleaned up, and by that point, I did not want to brew beer anymore. So, when brewing with DME you have to wait for something called the “hot break” before you add your hops. Before this, the foam in your pot will keep rising so you have to be consistently stirring it and removing the pot from the heat so it does not overflow. It’s the most intense 15-25 minutes you can have. One wrong move and its disaster all over your kitchen. Now don’t get me wrong, DME can be good and I have used it since then, it's great for making really light-colored beers and has an incredibly long shelf life. Overall, it will take about 2-3 hours to brew a batch from setup to cleanup. The process is the same as brewing with LME, you just have to deal with the intense session with the DME. You will also need a little larger pot and a few other things you might not have in your common kitchen. All Grain Brewing with all-grain is the most complicated and time-consuming. However, it does allow for as much customization as you can possibly imagine. You can choose the exact kind of grains that go into your beer. I have brewed all-grain several times, mostly with friends and the days are typically 6-8 hours long and I usually wind up drinking too much beer so around hour 5 I'm pretty much done with the brew day. To brew all-grain is a significant investment in equipment. The basic all-grain brewing equipment starts around $125 and goes up from there to thousands of dollars. The ingredients you need are grains (pounds of grains), and hops. The basic method goes as follows. The first step is mashing where grains are steeped at a specific temperature for about an hour. Then you have the lautering process which is the act of taking the spent grains out of the liquid. This can be done by using false bottoms and drainage systems. The next step is called the sparge where you slowly transfer liquid from one container to another and rinse the grains to get rid of as much of the fermentable sugar as possible. These two steps can take 3-4 hours to complete. After that, you do a hop boil which is usually takes about hour. For a typical brew day it will take you 6-8 hours depending on the brew. While the customization is endless it does take significantly more time, equipment, and money to brew all-grain. WHY BREW WITH MR. BEER? Here’s a little secret. I am not passionate about homebrewing. But I do enjoy it. I brew as often as I can but I don’t wake up dreaming of brewing beers. I am more passionate about spending time with my family, doing fun activities with my kids, watching sports, exercising, sport shooting, and several other things. I choose to brew with Hopped Malt Extract (HME) from Mr. Beer so I can brew a batch in 30 minutes and do everything else I want to do. I don’t want to waste an entire day brewing a batch of beer. There are other things I would rather do than watch a pot boil for 8 hours. By using HME as a base I can easily experiment with other ingredients to make any kind of crazy beer I can think of in a short amount of time. Here at Mr. Beer, we have 16 different base styles you can brew from, then building off of those 16, we have created over 100 different recipes which we constantly rotate. We use hops, grains, DME, fruit, soda, heck even bacon. Since we are using the HME as a base it shortens the brew day and allows us to get very creative with our recipes. There are 6 key reasons why I think you should brew with Mr. Beer. They mean a heck of a lot to me, so I hope they mean something to you too. Saves Time It reduces brew day from 4-8 hours down to 30 minutes. Even the most complex recipes will take from 1 to 1.5 hours tops from set-up to clean-up. You will have time to enjoy the important things in your life. Who wants to spend an entire day watching the pot boil? Saves Space The Mr. Beer Kit is compact. We use a 2-gallon fermenter that does not take up much space.. All you need to brew are a few common kitchen items. No extra pots, tubes, strainers, buckets, or anything else. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the space to have my garage taken with a bunch of brewing equipment. Saves Money You can save $600 a year at a minimum. To get started with Mr. Beer all you need is one of our 2-Gallon Beer Making Kits. They cost between $39-$59 depending on what you get. Other homebrewing kits can range from $39-$49 for 1 gallon of beer or $125+ to brew all-grain, but you will still need additional items besides just the starter kit so it’s a little closer to $200. Let's break it down. The cost per beer, for a Mr. Beer Kit at $59.99 will cost you $2.50 a beer for your kit. For a 1 Gallon Kit at $39.99 it will cost you $4 a beer, and for the all-grain kit at $200 it will cost you $3.33 a beer. The best value to brew and save money is clearly Mr. Beer. Consistency I went over the basic brewing process earlier. A lot of the boiling involved with each of the processes requires you to hold the boil at certain temperature range for a specific period of time. If you don’t, you can mess up your beer and can get some off-flavors or beer that isn’t what you wanted. When brewing with Mr. Beer you don’t have to worry about that. Using our HME takes out those variables so you can get a more consistent beer every time you brew. We have all had that one experience when a friend you know is just hyping up this restaurant. You decide to give it a try after days of anticipation from hearing how good it is. Then that 1st bite of food is just terrible. Well, brewing with Mr. Beer can help prevent that in your beer. Each beer will live up to the hype. Customer Support I am extremely proud of the customer support we offer at Mr. Beer. Not only are we the best support for a homebrewing company, I think we offer the best support of any company. We have experienced Brewmasters that are very passionate about homebrewing. You can give them a call any time Monday through Friday. We offer live chat and an awesome Facebook group, Mr. Beer’s Brewing Society, where you can learn all kinds of new things about homebrewing. If you have any issues, we take care of it. You have a damaged shipment? We send you a new one. Bad beer? We’ll send you a new batch. Just got some brewing questions? We got you covered. We welcome you as a part of the Mr. Beer family. We don’t have customers, we have brewing partners, friends, and family. The Only Homebrew Company Owned by a Brewery Mr. Beer is owned by Coopers Brewery in Australia. Coopers is the oldest family-owned and independent brewery in Australia and they have been brewing beer for over 150 years. They have been in the homebrewing space since the 1970s and create the highest quality malt extract in the world. Coopers creates all of our Mr. Beer Hopped Malt Extracts. This makes Mr. Beer the only homebrewing company whose ingredients are created by a brewery. The same ingredients you use to brew are used to make beer in the brewery. They use state-of-the-art technology and oversee the entire process from “grain to glass.” Coopers is also extremely focused on sustainability. The water they use comes from below the water table and runs through a reverse osmosis process that removes the high salt content. They have an onsite powerplant so that they don’t rely on the local grid. All water, steam heat, grains, etc. is recirculated throughout the brewery and used in more ways than one. I hope you enjoyed this and are now motivated to homebrew. It’s a great hobby, lifestyle, and very rewarding in many ways. If you have questions about brewing please reach out to us. We are more than happy to help. Thank you for taking the time to read through this. As they say at Coopers Brewery and we say here, “Cheers Mate!" Robert
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Beer Brined Turkey
Thanksgiving is around the corner… How could we forget? We cannot! That pumpkin spice malarkey is everywhere, *said in a tone that implies my sanity is fleeting*. So how do you bring your beer into your Thanksgiving feast, without spiking it with pumpkin and besides drinking it as a meal accompaniment? Well my fine, beer-drinking, friend… What about letting that fat bird (the one that did not get pardoned), take a swim in your BEER? You hear that? That is angels singing because this recipe came straight from heaven! Besides being delicious, brining your turkey in beer has lots of benefits! The naturally occurring chemicals within beer, create the perfect conditions for tender, juicy meat, AND the sugars found in your brew encourage a lovely, caramelized skin. This is also a fantastic way to utilize whatever “truby” liquid is left at the bottom of your fermenter after bottling. Got a batch that did not turn out just right? Well, now you do not have to throw it away or suffer through drinking it in the interest of not wasting the investment. Do I have your attention yet? Good. Now join me as we turn that “sober” bird, into a delicious “drunken” one! Gone are the days of dry, bland white meat. You can thank me later, from your inevitable tryptophan stupor. Here is how we brine our turkey with beer! Gobble, gobble, GLUG. What you need to make the brine: (Makes about 2ish gallons of brine, the recipe can be doubled if you need more) 2 Gallons of water (plan to set aside about 4 cups of it for dissolving the sugars) 1 cup of kosher salt or pink salt (basically any salt that is not iodized, avoid table salt) ½ cup Brown sugar or raw sugar (Brown sugar has a little molasses in it which is “very nice”) About 48 ounces (That’s approximately 4-12 oz bottles) of your favorite stout, red, or basically whatever sounds good or that you have on hand or reserved from a previous batch. Stouts are great because the extra sugar gives the turkey skin great crisping potential and lends enough strong flavors to carry through in the meat. This beer can come from your fermenter, a bottle of homebrew or from a commercial bottle or package. Herb Butter- because after that salty bath, that bird is going to need some moisturizer 1 stick of butter, softened (half a cup) 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped (You can use dried rosemary too, roughly a tablespoon 4-6 leaves fresh sage chopped (You can use dried sage as well, up to a tablespoon.) 4 sprigs fresh thyme chopped (You can use dried sage as well, up to a tablespoon.) 4 sprigs fresh oregano minced (You can use dried sage as well, up to a tablespoon.) You can certainly use more or less of the herbs listed, to your liking. These quantities are for approx. a 12lb turkey. You will also need a brining vessel large enough to fully submerge your turkey in the brine. Those 5-gallon buckets from the hardware store work quite nicely. Let us make it! Get that thawed bird out and get your game face on! Combine salt and brown sugar with the 4 cups of water from the 2 gallons into a saucepan. Heat this mixture, stirring frequently until salt & sugar are completely dissolved into water. Allow the mixture to cool. Pour the solution into the brining bucket and add the remaining water. Next, dump that beer into the bucket. Remove giblet bag from the neck cavity of the turkey (often tucked up under a flap of skin) and the neck from the carcass cavity (keep that for delicious gravy!). Submerge turkey in brine and soak, chilled, for 12-24 hours. Remember this is raw meat, so if you cannot refrigerate your brining vessel, you will need to pack it with ice to maintain a food-safe temperature and prevent an ugly brush with botulism. (Turkey must be completely submerged. Increase brine if needed.) After the brining period, it is time to rinse the turkey. Before taking it out of the brine, add about 8 cups of water to a kettle or pot on the stove and bring it to boil. Next, grab that bird, tress the legs if need be, and rinse the turkey with cold water, and then with the hot water you just boiled. Pat the turkey dry with a paper towel. Turn the oven on to 350 degrees. Combine the stick of softened butter with the herbs and rub the butter and herb mixture liberally all over the turkey, give it a good massage. Place the turkey in the oven at 350 degrees. For a 12lb turkey, cook for approx. 1-1/2 hours, then reduce the oven temp to 125 and continue to cook until the internal temperature of the turkey reaches 165 degrees. A twelve-pound turkey can take anywhere between 2-3 hours but keep a close eye on the legs. If the legs start to brown too quickly, wrap them in foil for the duration of the cooking. Once cooked, remove the turkey from the oven and cover it with foil but loose enough to allow it to vent so the skin does not become tough and chewy. Let the turkey rest for 20-40 minutes. And whalah! Presto, TURKEY! Now pair that delicious creation with a delicious beer! Cheers! Ashley
Read moreCan you bottle & brew using the same sanitizer solution?
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="jn7c_NfU1pU" video_title1="Can you bottle & brew using the same sanitizer solution? " video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} Can you use the same sanitizing solution for bottling & brewing on the same day? We break it all down in this episode of BrewTalk with Mr. Beer. A lot of times if you’re working on being an efficient brewer you will bottle your beer then brew up another batch on the same day. This helps keep your beer pipeline flowing and since your already in the process of sanitizing and cleaning everything it just helps to put a batch of beer back into that fermenter as well. A question we see quite often when people are doing this is can you use the same sanitizing solution to sanitize your bottles & your keg for your new brew? The answer is you can, as long as you are getting it all done in a decent amount of time. In one of our previous videos, we talked about how long our No-Rinse cleanser will last once it is mixed up. Once the solution is mixed we advise that is will be at is most effective up to 3 hours. So if you are able to sanitize your bottles, bottle your beer, clean your fermenter, and then sanitize your equipment within the 3-hour time frame then you should be good to go. If you are going to bottle your beer, then come back later in the day to brew a batch of beer I would suggest mixing up a new batch of No-Rinse cleanser. When it comes to sanitizing it is always better to be safe than sorry. That’s also why we recommend always having a few extra packets of sanitizing solution on hand just in case. This same concept of bottling and brewing on the same day with the same sanitizer would also work if you are brewing multiple batches on a day. If you are going to brew 2-3 batches back to back, then you will be fine to use the same sanitizing solution to sanitize each of your fermenters. Cheers, Robert
Read moreWhat to do if you forgot to aerate your wort before adding your yeast?
{{widget type="Solvature\VideoSlider\Block\Widget\VideoSliderWidget" video_embed1="Yivte0ev4gE" video_title1="What to do if you forgot to aerate your wort before adding your yeast? " video_cta_color1="white" video_cta_color2="white" video_cta_color3="white" video_cta_color4="white" video_cta_color5="white"}} Today we are tackling another common question we see especially from beginners. Your brewing your batch of beer and you add your yeast and then you realize it! You forgot to stir up your wort before you added your yeast. Now before you freak out don’t worry, your beer is going to be good. 99% of the time the yeast will still do what it is meant to do and eat up all those sugars and give you some good beer. So first I wanted to talk about why aerating is so important to your yeast. If you want to reverence this in detail go back and watch our video on the life cycle of a yeast and yeast management. So what can happen when you do not aerate your wort is that it can lead to an off-flavor in your beer and create unwanted ester production early on. Plus your yeast can also have a slow start to the fermentation process. However, sometimes these off-flavors can condition out over time. So, if you did forget to stir up your wort just let your beer condition at room temperature for a little longer. When you go to try it, just put one in the fridge and let it cool and see how that one tastes. Then you can tell if the rest need more conditioning or not. Now one thing to note and why you will most likely be okay if you did not stir your wort. In the instructions when we have you dump your wort into the fermenter and then dump in more cold water, that is aerating your beer. You will notice just by doing that you have foamy bubbles on top suggesting that your wort did get aeriated. We tell you to mix to ensure that proper aeration has taken place and that the yeast is going to ferment well. So if you forgot to stir your wort, you most likely got some aeration that you might not get any off-flavors in your beer. That’s why it is always good to slow down on brew day and check off your steps as you go. Cheers, Robert
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Spent Grain Pizza Dough Recipe
Few things on the planet pair better with a glass of ice-cold beer, than a hot, fresh pizza. Sure, there’s tons of potential for fancy food pairings with beer, and we love that, but sometimes you just need a nice hot slice to go with your brew. Now that I have you thinking about pizza and beer, how about we talk about incorporating your spent grain from your brewing into a delicious and easy to make pizza crust! Sound good? Of course, it does. Just like Mom always said, waste not, want not; so, let us turn those perfectly good grains, into perfectly good pizza. Here is what you will need: 1 ½ cup Pizza flour (AP flour works fine too) ½ cup warm water (Alternatively, you can use ¼ cup beer and ¼ water warmed to about 110 degrees) ¾ cup wet spent grains (typically the lighter grains work best, but caramel malts can provide a rich flavor as well. Dark roast malts are great to use with pumpernickel or rye flour, recipes) 2 ¼ teaspoons Dry active yeast (You can throw a tablespoon of trub in there for flavor as well, but we need the bread yeast to create an ample amount of bubbles in our crust since this will be a heavier dough. Do not skip the bread yeast, ya hear? 1/4 teaspoon sugar or liquid malt extract ½ teaspoon salt Olive Oil How to Make the Dough In the bowl of a standing mixer, gently mix the yeast into water (or water and beer mixture) and sugar (or liquid malt) just to combine. Let sit for five minutes and it should start to bubble and smell delightful. If you do not have a stand mixer, you can also use a whisk to gently stir the mixture in a large bowl. Add the rest of your ingredients to the bowl and knead with a dough hook for 8-10 minutes. (Alternatively, you can use a regular medium-sized bowl, simply mix the dough by hand in the bowl, and transfer it to a clean, floured work surface for kneading.) After the dough is combined, turn it on a surface that it will not stick to. Add a good splash of olive oil to your mixing bowl. Place the dough back in the bowl and turn to coat in olive oil. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let rest in a warm spot for 2 hours. After that long, boring 2-hour rise, punch that dough like it owes you money and let rise again for 30 minutes, covered with a damp towel (just trust me here). In the meantime, preheat your oven to 475 degrees F. Remove dough from the bowl after the 30-minute rise and place it on to a sheet pan for a square pizza, or a round pan for a pizza that is also round. Using your hands, manipulate the dough to stretch it evenly over the sheet pan surface. Then, finish with sauce, cheese, and whatever other toppings your hungry heart might desire. Bake for 20 minutes, or until crust is evenly browned on the bottom. Use something other than your naked, fleshy fingers to lift the edges of the crust, and inspect for “doneness”. Some like it crispy, some like it soft, that is none of my business. Once your Glorious pizza is done to your liking, pull it out of the oven and allow it to rest for 5 minutes. Cut, Serve and enjoy with a tell glass of your favorite homebrew! Cheers to you, homebrewer (and a pizza chef)! Ashley
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