The Brew Times
How to improve head retention in your homebrew?
I think one of the most disappointing things that can happen in homebrewing besides getting an infected batch of beer, is poor head retention. We have all had that feeling when we pour our beer and nothing, no foamy head. I thought it would be useful to break down some easy ways you can help improve your head retention. The first thing you want to do is to make sure that all your equipment and bottles are thoroughly clean. No gunk, dust, or anything inside of them. I would suggest cleaning your equipment and bottles with a brewing cleaner quite often to help keep everything nice. You also want to make sure you have good bottles and caps. If you are using our PET bottles they do last a long time, but we do recommend replacing the caps every few months depending on how often you are brewing. If you are noticing that your carbonation and head retention are starting to suffer might be time for some new caps. Now onto glassware. It is critical that you are using a clean glass that has no dust, or oily soap residue in it. Both of those factors can have an impact on head retention. You also want to make sure that you are using the proper glass for your beer style. There are all different types of glasses out there and they can impact your head retention as well as your aroma. Another factor that will impact this is the proper pouring of the beer. Tilt the glass at a 45-degree angle and then when the glass is about two-thirds full level the glass. If you want to add some items to your brew to help with head retention you can also do that. You can steep some carapils malt for 30 minutes at 145-155 and this will help improve the head retention of your beer. It is also critical to make sure that you are adding the proper amount of priming sugar to your beer and that your carbonation and conditioning temperatures are in the ideal range for your recipe. That wraps this up and those are all the tips you can use to help improve your head retention in your homebrew. Cheers, Robert
Read moreThe Brew Times
Beer Battered Asparagus
I can’t believe it! It is nearly Spring already! When I think of warmer months on the horizon, I think of cold beer, springtime activities with the family, and great food! Speaking of great food, if you have a hard time finding reasons to eat your veggies, this beer-battered asparagus recipe might just change your mind. Paired with a tangy and refreshing dipping sauce, you might not have to bribe anyone to eat these! What you need: 1 bunch of medium-sized asparagus with the ends trimmed 2 cups of buttermilk 2 eggs separated ¾ cup beer (Northwest pale ale or other Pale ale beer) ¾ cup All-purpose flour ¾ cup white cornmeal 1 teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper ½ teaspoon black pepper 4 cups peanut oil Sea salt Dipping Sauce: 1 cup mayonnaise 1/3 cup lemon juice ½ tablespoon Dijon mustard Zest of one lemon 4 tablespoons minced garlic 1 tablespoon tarragon leaves, minced ¼ teaspoon black pepper 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper Salt How to make it: In a shallow pan, soak asparagus in buttermilk for 12 to 24 hours. After, remove asparagus from buttermilk, but do not rinse. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine the egg yolks, beer, flour, cornmeal, salt, cayenne pepper, and black pepper. In a large deep pot, heat peanut oil to 350 degrees F. Meanwhile, in a large clean bowl with an electric mixer, beat egg whites to stiff peaks. Gently fold beaten egg whites into the batter mixture. Dip spears, 1 at a time into batter, then carefully lay in oil. Do not overcrowd the pan or they will become soggy. Fry in batches, if necessary. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes, turning the spears with tongs to ensure even cooking. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate. Sprinkle with sea salt, to taste. Serve immediately with cold dipping sauce. How to make the dipping sauce: In a food processor, combine all ingredients and blend well. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving. Now all you must do is pour a cold one and sit back and enjoy some delicious eats! I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you make it, please let us know what you thought in the comments! Cheers! Ashley
Read moreDifferent ways to use hops to jazz up you’re brew day
Hops are pretty awesome, and they can add all kinds of amazing flavors to your brew. If you're new to brewing, you might be wondering well how can I take hops and jazz up my beer? Well, we got some basics techniques for you that can help you utilize hops and create your own unique brew. The first thing you need to consider is the choice of hops you want to use. Hops are categorized by what is called alpha acid. Alpha acids are the principal component in lupulin, which is the resin of the hop cone. This is the main agent that imparts bitter flavors into your beer. So if you are using a high alpha acid hop you will be able to get more bitterness in your beer than a lower alpha acid hop. Some high alpha acid hops are Chinook, Citra, or Warrior just to name a few. If you are picking a hop that has a lower alpha acid those tend to be used more for flavoring and aroma than bitterness. But at the end of the day, it's your brew, so you can use whatever hop you want. The main component that will affect how the hops impact your beer is how you use them. The most common way to use hops is to boil them. This is how you get bitterness into your brew. So a few things to consider when doing your hop boil. The size of your boil will impact the amount of bitterness you can extract from your hops. If your boil is closer to your actual finished batch size, then you can get more bitterness out of your brew. If you are doing a very small boil volume, then you might need to use more hops to get more bitterness out of your brew. Now the second part about boiling hops is the temperature and the duration. So the longer you do a boil you will extract more bitterness out of your brew. A shorter boil will result in less bitterness. Doing a hop schedule will also bring out different flavors and traits of the hops. For example, you boil one hop for 45 minutes. 20 minutes into that boil you add another hop, then 35 minutes in you add another hop. One way to stop boiling is to chill the wort quickly So once you are done with your hop boil if your remains between 185-210 degrees the hops will still impact bitterness into your brew. This is called high isomerization. So once you are done with your hop boil try and continue on with your brewing process as soon as you can to reduce getting extra bitterness out of your brew. The last main thing you can do with hops is called dry hopping. This is done after the beer has started to ferment. Now doing this does hardly adds any bitterness to your brew. This is more to add aromas and flavors. Doing late-stage dry hopping can have a profound impact on the smell of your beer. Cheers, Robert
Read more
How to Make Beer
Brewing beer at home is simpler than you think. If you can follow simple instructions and have common kitchen items, plus a Mr. Beer Kit you easily brew up a batch of the best-tasting beer your palate has ever experienced. These steps outlined are for brewing our basic ingredients that come with our Mr. Beer Kits. Step 1: Prepare Gather your brewing equipment. You'll need: Brewing pot for use on your stove (1-gallon capacity) 2-Galon fermenter Purified refrigerated water Mr. Beer No-rinse Sanitizer Whisk Stir Spoon Mr. Beer Hopped Malt extract Mr. Beer Brewing yeast (found under the lid of your hopped malt extract) Mr. Beer Booster or LME (optional) Bottles Carb Drops or sugar for bottling Make sure to check out our Mr. Beer Complete Brewing Kits. They come with everything you need to get started. All you have to supply are common kitchen items. View Our Beer Kits Step 2: Santize As a rule of thumb, your brewing equipment can never be “too clean”. Sanitizing is one of the most important steps to having a successful brew! Before you begin brewing, fill your fermenter with one gallon of water and add HALF the packet of included “No-rinse cleanser” to the water. Use this solution on all your brewing equipment including the keg, spoons, scissors, and anything else you may be using during the process. Maintain the other half-packet for your bottling process, later. Step 3: Brew 1. Place your pot on the stove with the heat off and add 4 cups of water. If your kit contains Booster packets, add them to the cool water and stir to dissolve. 2. Bring water to a boil. Once boiling, remove the pot from the heat. 3. Open the can of brewing extract and pour it into your pot of hot water. Stir with a sanitized spoon to combine. (If your kit includes LME packets, they will also be added in with the can of brewing extract.) This unfermented mixture of beer is called “wort”. Step 4: Ferment 1. Add cold water to your fermenter to “Line 1”. This is approximately 1-gallon of water. 2. Pour your wort into the fermenter and add more cold water until you reach “line 2” on your fermenter. This will bring your total volume to approximately 2-gallons. 3. Stir with a sanitized whisk and sprinkle in your included packet of yeast. Screw on the lid. Step 5: Bottle After fermentation is complete, typically within two weeks, it's time to bottle your beer. 1. Sanitize your Bottles and caps by mixing the remaining portion of the no-rinse cleaner with one gallon of water in a large bowl. Rinse each bottle with sanitizer and empty the excess back into the bowl. 2. Prime your bottles for carbonation by adding carb drops or sugar to each sanitized bottle. 3. Fill each bottle with beer about an inch from the very top of the bottle and cap each bottle as you go. 4. Once bottled, place your bottles in a warm area (72-75 degrees F) to condition for 2-3 weeks. 5. After conditioning, place your beer in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours That's it! You just made your first batch of beer, congrats! Now sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor, cheers!
Read moreHow to change the flavor of your beer during bottling?
If you are looking for a simple way to add some unique flavor to your brews, then this episode is for you. Adding different adjuncts during bottling can alter the taste of your beer. Some of these will take the place of your carbonation drops others you will use with them. We wanted to highlight some of our favorite ones for you to use during the bottling process. Dextrose The first thing I wanted to talk about was dextrose. This would be used instead of carbonation drops or table sugar. The dextrose is an extremely fermentable sugar so it will help boost carbonation in your beer and get that crisp taste. If you are brewing a lager this would be something that could add a different dynamic to it. You will want to use the same amount as you would sugar when bottling. Honey or Maple Syrup Honey and Maple are something that you can use to replace the sugar when bottling. It will add some sweetness and some unique flavor to your beer. Honey tends to pair best with the lighter style beers and maple syrup with the darker ones, but you can mix and match how you like. When using honey or maple syrup when bottling you will want to make sure that you are using a freshly open bottle, you don’t want something that has been sitting around for a while. The ratio for honey or maple syrup to sugar is 1 to 1. So in our 740 bottles we use 2 teaspoons of sugar you would use 2 teaspoons of honey or maple syrup. You just add it right into the bottle then fill it up with beer. Vanilla Extract Most vanilla extract does contain alcohol so there is no need to pasteurize or sanitize it. During bottling time, you will want to add 1-2 teaspoons depending on how much flavor you want from the vanilla. Always make sure to use a sanitized measuring spoon and for this one you will still need to add your priming sugar or carbonation drops. Coffee We have a few recipes that call for adding coffee or expresso when bottling. For this mixture I would do it the same as you would the vanilla, 1-2 teaspoons depending on how strong you want the flavor. If you are using expresso you will want to make sure that it is at least room temperature when adding to your bottles. You can also use cold brew coffee concentrate as well to get those coffee notes out of your beer. This is great for stouts, porters just dark beers in general. We do recommend using the cold brew method as it just has a smoother taste and will pair better with your beer. Whiskey If you want to get really wild with it you can bottle your beer with some whiskey. You will want to add a shot or less to each bottle depending how strong you want the flavors. You do want to be careful though, adding too much booze to your bottle and the yeast will not be able to carbonate, so nothing more than a shot per bottle at most. Monin Flavor Syrup Comes in a ton of different flavors and they can all be found on Amazon. They have sugar-free and sugar sweetened ones. If you are using the sugar-free styles you will need to add your priming sugar just like you normally would. If you are using the ones that are sweetened with sugar, then the ratio would be 1 to 1 just like with the honey and syrup. Just add it to the bottle and then fill it with beer and your good to go. Those are just some of the adjuncts that you can add during bottling to get some unique flavors out of your beer. Depending on how much you add that will alter the impact of that particular flavor and always make sure everything is sanitized. One unique thing about altering flavoring during bottling time is that you can do some testing during this time. You can do half your bottles with honey and the other half with maple syrup to see the difference. This is a really a time where you can get creative.
Read moreWhat household items you can use to sanitize for homebrewing?
The best way to ruin a good brew day is to not have any sanitizer on hand. But what can you do if you make it to that point? Well, we got some common household items you can use if you’re in a pinch. Bleach You can use bleach to sanitize your brewing equipment. The rule of thumb is to use 1 cap full of bleach for every 1 gallon of water. You will want to make sure the bleach is non-scented. Scented bleach can lead to odd smells and flavors in your brew. When using the bleach, you will want to mix up the solution of 1 cap to 1 gallon of water and then sanitize like you normally would. The only difference is that you will want to rinse your fermenter, bottles, and utensils afterward until the smell of bleach is gone. This will help to prevent you from getting some odd smells or flavors in your beer. Oxy Clean Free You will want to mix 1 tablespoon of this into a gallon of water. Again, once you mix this up you will use it the same way that you would normally sanitize. With this one, we would also recommend just giving everything a light rinse once you have covered them in the solution. The Oxy Clean Free has a similar chemical breakdown as our Mr. Beer No-Rinse Cleanser but since it is not Food Grade, we would suggest rinsing it just to be safe. Hydrogen Peroxide Another great substitute is Hydrogen Peroxide. This works very similarly to our No-Rinse Cleanser. You will want to make sure that the grade of peroxide is 3% or higher. This can be found at most drug stores. You don’t need to mix this with water or anything. Just get enough so you can sanitize all of your equipment. You will use this the same exact way that you use our No-rinse cleanser. That covers all the replacement cleaners you can use just in case you don’t have any Mr. Beer No-Rinse Cleanser. If you brew a lot, I suggest stocking up on some of the cleansers, it never hurts to have a few extra. I think the easiest thing to do is just stock up on No-Rinse! Cheers, Robert
Read moreBeer Braised Carnitas
It’s already February 2022 and Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, so naturally, I am thinking about the things I love… Among those things are beer and carnitas! If you are not from the Southwest, “carnitas” are braised, roasted, and shredded pork spiced with Mexican flavors. You can use that delicious meat to fill tacos, burritos, eat over rice, etc. It’s just delicious. An already delicious recipe becomes even better with the addition of your own homebrew! What you need: 2 dried New Mexico or guajillo chiles 4 pounds skinless, boneless pork shoulder (butt), cut into 2-inch pieces 12 ounces lager (any will do, including Mexican Cerveza) 4 garlic cloves, lightly crushed 4 teaspoons kosher salt How to make it: Toast chiles in a dry large heavy pot over medium heat until slightly puffed and lightly darkened on both sides, about 2 minutes. Remove from pot; let cool. Stem chiles and halve lengthwise, discard seeds. Bring chiles, pork, beer, garlic, salt, and 1 cup water to a boil in the same pot. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until pork is fork-tender, 60-80 minutes. Uncover pork; simmer until liquid evaporates and pork begins to brown, 20-25 minutes. Continue to cook, stirring frequently and scraping the bottom of the pot, until pork is shredded and browned, 10-15 minutes. Add 1 cup water to pork; cook, scraping up browned bits from the bottom of the pot, for about 1 minute. HOW TO PREPARE AHEAD: Carnitas can be made 3 days ahead. Let cool. Cover and chill. Reheat with 1/2 cup water in a covered pot, adding more water if needed to keep the pork moist. I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you make it, please let us know in the comments how it went for you! Cheers! Ashley
Read moreGet to Know the Mr. Beer Hops
Looking to expand your brewing knowledge? Well, we got you covered with everything you need to know about the different styles of hops.
Read moreBrewing with Mr. Beer Saves Water vs. Other Brewing Methods
Homebrewing with Mr. Beer is better for the environment than brewing all-grain due to using less water in the brewing process. Crazy right? Okay, so this is something that we wanted to look into. We don’t just make claims without doing our homework to make sure what we are saying is accurate. Thus, a test was conducted! We wanted to take a look at water usage when homebrewing. Water is a pretty important component of the brewing process, not much can get done without it. You need water to brew beer and you need good water to brew good beer. You just can’t get around it. So, if you wanted to use less water during your brew day to help do your part for water conservation than the best thing you can do is brew with Mr. Beer. We looked at the volume of water need for brewing a batch with a Mr. Beer Refill which is a 2.25-gallon batch and the volume of water needed for brewing a 2.25-gallon all-grain recipe of an equivalent beer. Let’s say a Lager coming in around 5% ABV. Okay so for brewing this batch from all-grain you are going to have to do your mashing and your boil. When brewing with all-grain you lose water to evaporation, so you need to use more at the start. In order to yield 2.25 gallons of wort for your brew, you are going to need to start with 4.25 gallons of water. Not to mention you are also going to spend a few extra hours brewing from all-grain instead of the hour tops when brewing with Mr. Beer. Now let’s look at the Mr. Beer Refill. When using our refills to brew you don’t need to do mashing and boiling. The only water you need is 2.25 gallons. You will mix your can of Malt Extract into this and add your yeast and your good to go. So, brewing with a Mr. Beer Refill cuts the water down that you are using as a homebrewer. 2.25 gallons with Mr. Beer vs. 4.25 gallons with all-grain. That’s about an 88% increase in water usage! That’s Crazy!! If you want to save on water for your brew day then try a Mr. Beer Refill. Brewing with Mr. Beer cuts down on time, helps with consistency, and makes an amazing beer!
Read moreHow to Brew a Low Carb Beer?
As you already know, it is time to ring in the new year and I do not know about the rest of you, but I am happy to wave “bye, bye” to 2020! Along with hopes for a happier year going forward, many beer drinkers and non-beer drinkers alike, take the start of the new year as an opportunity to set resolutions that might help improve their health or even cause them to lose a few pounds. So, the question might be “how does a homebrewer make beer with less of a dietary impact?”. Luckily, that question has an answer, and that answer is “enzymes”. Did you know at Mr. Beer we have recipes that help to easily harness the power of enzymes? More about that later though. What is an enzyme, anyway? To put it broadly and simply, an enzyme is a substance that acts as a catalyst to bring about a specific biochemical reaction. The enzymes that we typically find/use in brewing generally come from the yeast, but they can also be added as a supplement to your wort. You may already be aware that enzymes make the process of the yeast turning sugar into alcohol, possible. Enzymes help to break down carbohydrates, both simple and complex so that the yeast cells can consume and convert them into alcohol. Depending on the Different types and quantities of malt sugars your wort contains, your yeast generally produces enough of its own enzymes during the fermentation process to ferment and convert an acceptable amount of the more complex wort sugars to not only create alcohol but leave enough behind to still maintain a good body, mouthfeel and foam stability. We know that a large majority of malt sugars generally ferment into alcohol… so what happens to those more stubborn carbohydrates that the yeast cannot manage to break down and ferment using its own enzymes? You end up consuming them, and they might end up contributing to some extra “thump in your bump” if you know what I mean. Do not worry though, because we have access to easy to find, easy to use, enzymes. You may be thinking “Great, now I have to track down some fancy brewing enzymes?!” Well, breathe a sigh of relief, because in most cases, you are a couple of “Beano” tablets away from your own “low-carb”, homebrewed beer! Yes, I said Beano…The stuff you take when that extra serving of frijoles threatens to turn you into a human fan-boat… You catch my drift. Believe it or not, Beano contains just the right spectrum of enzymes to rip apart those more complex Carbohydrates and turn them into sugars that can be converted to ethanol; that means you end up consuming fewer carbs and just a little more alcohol. This means you might be able to keep your beer AND your health resolutions… WIN. WIN. The even better news about all this, is my good friend, co-worker, and Brewmaster-Maximus, has already developed 3 recipes using those handy-dandy Beano tablets to get you started. Check them out for yourself. We call them our “Work out” recipes and you can find them here: Search results for: 'workout' | Mr. Beer. Unlike most commercially available low-carb beers, these recipes are full of flavor but still short on unwanted carbohydrates. All of this is made possible by our little drug store enzyme hero, “Beano”. With low-carb diets, all the rage right now, isn’t great to know you could still work your homebrew into them? Even though we have already designed a few low-carb specific recipes, pretty much any of our refills and even some of the regular recipes can have Beano added to them to lower the carbohydrate content! We recommend experimenting to see what results you can get using this method! All this being said, keep in mind that in “normal” beer, the stuff that gives beer “body” and “sweetness” is also the same stuff that your Beano enzymes are dismantling for consumption, so expect a “drier” result. I find this method works especially well to create, those coveted “crispy, dry lagers” that go down “really easy” but try it for yourself and let us know what you get! So now that you know that healthy goals AND homebrew can in-fact exist together, don’t you feel better? I know I do! After all, isn’t it just a little easier to stick with things when you can have a guilt-free treat? The best question now is, “what are you waiting for?”. Head to your medicine cabinet or your local drug store and get yourself some Beano and have a low-carb, brew-bonanza of your own! Happy New Beers! Bottoms up, Brewers! CHEERS!
Read moreGet To Know The Mr. Beer Grains
Looking to expand your brewing knowledge? Well, we got you covered with everything you need to know about the different styles of grains.
Read moreWhat are the different stages of Mr. Beer Recipes?
We did this video a while back, but we have updated our recipe offering and given all the new brewers we thought it was time for a new one. We break our recipes down into 3 categories. Extract Plus, Partial Mash, & Advanced Brewing recipes. Extract Plus – This is a can of hopped malt extract plus simple additional ingredients. This can be fruit, LME, DME, Hops. So it took our base cans and added a few additional ingredients. If you are going to start brewing recipes we would recommend starting with this category. Partial Mash – With these recipes, we are adding additional steeping grains. This is where you will steep some grains for about 30 minutes. Then you will hops or fruit or anything else to your brew and follow the brewing process. Advanced Recipes - This is where we take brewing to the next level. All of these recipes are LME or DME. So this will require longer boil times, usually up to an hour. This is because we are using unhoped extract so to get bitterness you need to boil your hops. You will also need some additional equipment as well.
Read moreWhat is the difference between a standard refill, a deluxe refill, and a craft refill?
We offer 3 different types of refills on the site, standard, deluxe, and craft. We thought it would be helpful to break down the difference in those for easy reference. We offer 10 different standard refills. These refills consist of a can of HME, No-Rinse cleanser, and a booster. The booster is the main difference in those. What this will do is increase the ABV of your beer and the body of the beer without altering the flavor or adding any other off-flavors. You will get 2 packets of the booster with your standard refill. The deluxe refill is also 10 different styles. These are the same base HME cans that are used in the standard refills. With these ones, you get your can of HME, No-Rinse, and 2 packets of LME or liquid malt extract. What these will do is increase the ABV of your beer and add more maltiness to your beer. It also added more flavor and body to the beer as well. Our craft refills come in 5 different styles. These are bigger cans of HME. So the beer they produce has a higher ABV, with more favor and hoppiness. With these, you get the can of HME, No-Rinse, and our Carbonation drops. Cheers, Robert
Read more