EM3 Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 I just bought my first homebrewing kit from MR. Beer. I was in Pigeon Forge, Tenn this past weekend and found it on sale so I just needed a new toy. Has anyone tried this and if so does anyone know any good resources or have any tips or tricks they might know and care to share? I may try to make a second batch arrive about the same time I should be getting my RB 61's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1101 Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 Been brewing since 1987. Been on a 3 year hiatus though due to moving and excessive business travel But....setting up to resume the hobby this fall. Looking very forward to it. Also, have been making wine yearly as well and have not stopped that. We have a large group that does the wine thing every year with a shipment of grapes from California. Lot's of fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 One trick I have heard to get best results is to use yeast that comes in a liquid form? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EM3 Posted July 23, 2007 Author Share Posted July 23, 2007 Yep I have been reading that. My kit came with the powdered king. I figure my first couple of batches may be a disaster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 I brew hard cider and I have had great luck. I created my own recipe which turned out very good. 5 gallons raw pressed apple cider, 3lbs raw honey, and dry champagne yeast to get all that sugar out. Have made this batch 4 times and it is wonderful after the first glass your toes go numb. It looks like champagne but taste great. After fermintation and multiple racking I add a tad of honey to the bottle to give it fizzzzz. Hell Yeah! "Seti's Ozark Shreeking Cider". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damonrpayne Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 I've made some and enjoyed it, been on a long hiatus while building a house and such. Be sure to look into filtering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigStewMan Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 i've tried twice and both were disasters. don't know what went wrong, i followed directions exactly. the first time was extremely bitter, the second time tasted like apple cider--neither were the taste i was looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel's wife Posted July 23, 2007 Moderators Share Posted July 23, 2007 "Also, have been making wine yearly as well and have not stopped that. We have a large group that does the wine thing every year with a shipment of grapes from California. Lot's of fun." Mark, That sounds like loads of fun. Do you guys get a large shipment? How does it work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rplace Posted July 24, 2007 Share Posted July 24, 2007 EM3, Welcome to a great new obsession....er, hobby. I have been brewing for over 10 years. Tons of fun. You can make great beer with a very small investment in equipment. Most important, early on, is to make sure everything is clean and sanitized. Next use quality fresh products. Follow those two rules and you will be more then happy with the results. Since you already have the Mr. Beer set up I would use it, but not expect too much. If it is unused I would see if you can return it and get the equipment to do "extract" brewing. Not trying to burst your bubble but Mr. Beer = Bose and getting just a few pieces of equipment and quality ingredients will be like listening to Klipsch speakers.[] Read this http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html and buy his book. Next check out this on line forum http://forums.moreflavor.com/ tons of great info. No joke you can make beer as good as any yes ANY you can buy and a lot better then the average brew pub; who is brewing for the masses and trying to cut corners to make a buck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted July 24, 2007 Share Posted July 24, 2007 Cats Meow 3 was a great online database of brews but it seems to be gone but there is a downloadable version. This is most helpful. http://hbd.org/brewery/cm3/dl/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssh Posted July 24, 2007 Share Posted July 24, 2007 I brewed for several years, had four or five mashes going most of the time, lagered in a spare ref., and kegged instead of botteling.I haven't in seven years, though...not enough time. My favorite was a honey lager. SSH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1101 Posted July 24, 2007 Share Posted July 24, 2007 "Also, have been making wine yearly as well and have not stopped that. We have a large group that does the wine thing every year with a shipment of grapes from California. Lot's of fun." Mark, That sounds like loads of fun. Do you guys get a large shipment? How does it work? Christy, this whole wine and beer making bobby is really a hoot. I could go on and on. I am originally from Syracuse, NY, and for about 6 years I owned a homebrewing and wine making supply store called Cicero Cellars. I was heavily involved in the hobby, regional competitions, and judging. I never ended up making very much money, but I wound up with a fantastic collection of brewing equipment, reading material....and a ton of free ingredients.....I.E. Free beer and wine. I got to be an expert brewer and winemaker. The winemaking actually got me into brewing in the first place since my grandparents and uncles made wine when I was a little kid. I got interested in the process. I moved to Georgia in 2000 and downsized big time. I got a new job and had to cut way back on my hobbies due to travel. But here in Athens I hooked up with the brewing crowd and one of my favorite spots is the local brewpub where they all hang out....so the hobby continues....kind of. I can still brew competitive batches. All my recipes are on CDs for reference. Everything I did since 1987 has been recorded for reproducing. As far as winemaking, last year we had a 53' refrigerated trailer show up at my buddy's house and we had over 4,000 lbs of grapes for our group alone. There's about 12 of us. We have a modern electric crusher/destemmer and a bunch of food grade plastic barrels...and a few other gadgets. We have a large but very old mechanical press that forces us to spend a couple of days pressing the wine. We process the fruit like any decent winery keeping sanitization as a priority, and paying strict attention to PH. We use very little chemical additives. Just what is necessary to guarantee success. Basically, we have a heck of a good time and get pretty grape juiced...in more ways than one. My son and I have been working on some shelving to get the brewing equipment set back up for this fall. I'm looking forward to my own draft again for the holidays. All my brews go in 5 gal. stainless soda kegs and my fermentations are all lagers (I.E. done in a refrigerator at around 52 degrees). I get great ales at the store and brewpub so I stick mainly to the lagers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EM3 Posted July 24, 2007 Author Share Posted July 24, 2007 EM3, Welcome to a great new obsession....er, hobby. I have been brewing for over 10 years. Tons of fun. You can make great beer with a very small investment in equipment. Most important, early on, is to make sure everything is clean and sanitized. Next use quality fresh products. Follow those two rules and you will be more then happy with the results. Since you already have the Mr. Beer set up I would use it, but not expect too much. If it is unused I would see if you can return it and get the equipment to do "extract" brewing. Not trying to burst your bubble but Mr. Beer = Bose and getting just a few pieces of equipment and quality ingredients will be like listening to Klipsch speakers.[] Read this http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html and buy his book. Next check out this on line forum http://forums.moreflavor.com/ tons of great info. No joke you can make beer as good as any yes ANY you can buy and a lot better then the average brew pub; who is brewing for the masses and trying to cut corners to make a buck. Well the kit was a gift so there is no investment on my end except for time. This way if I try it and don't like I am only out time. If I like it and want to move on I can. A friend of mine has this kit and I sampled some of his brew that he made and it wasn't bad at all. It was a dark beer with a hint of a fruit taste. Normally I don't care much for dark beers at all. Thanks for the links I will mark them as favorites. I am sure I will be back with more questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merkin Posted July 24, 2007 Share Posted July 24, 2007 I have been brewing for over 10 years. Tons of fun. You can make great beer with a very small investment in equipment. Most important, early on, is to make sure everything is clean and sanitized. Next use quality fresh products. Follow those two rules and you will be more then happy with the results. As rplace said. Also use good water. I tried with tap water and the Chlorine and other crap made it taste terrible. My brother-in-law did it with well water from the farm and the nitrates and such in it made it taste horrible. I've had great luck using the bottled water ( the generic gallons at the local grocery store) about a 1 1/2 to 2 bucks a gallon. for the extra10 bucks for a 5 gallon batch it is well worth it. Haven't made a batch in a few years though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rplace Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 Well the kit was a gift so there is no investment on my end except for time. This way if I try it and don't like I am only out time. If I like it and want to move on I can. A friend of mine has this kit and I sampled some of his brew that he made and it wasn't bad at all. It was a dark beer with a hint of a fruit taste. Normally I don't care much for dark beers at all. Thanks for the links I will mark them as favorites. I am sure I will be back with more questions. Hope my post about the Mr. Beer did not sound to negative. By all means use it and have fun. I have had many an Mr. Beer from others and it will not be a waste of time. Lots of award winning home brewers got thier start with MRB. Just keep in mind that it can be a LOT better and not much effort. Enjoy, have fun it is a great hobby...best of all it is way cheaper then audio gear. Another good thing about it is that it will open your eyes to how many different types of beer are out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klipsch Employees Trey Cannon Posted July 25, 2007 Klipsch Employees Share Posted July 25, 2007 Used corn to make "beer" a few times...then we squezzed it a bit to get the "good stuff' out.[A] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EM3 Posted July 26, 2007 Author Share Posted July 26, 2007 Used corn to make "beer" a few times...then we squezzed it a bit to get the "good stuff' out.[A] Had some of that back in fall Cherry flavored. In the voice of Cartman KICK ***! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EM3 Posted July 26, 2007 Author Share Posted July 26, 2007 Well the kit was a gift so there is no investment on my end except for time. This way if I try it and don't like I am only out time. If I like it and want to move on I can. A friend of mine has this kit and I sampled some of his brew that he made and it wasn't bad at all. It was a dark beer with a hint of a fruit taste. Normally I don't care much for dark beers at all. Thanks for the links I will mark them as favorites. I am sure I will be back with more questions. Hope my post about the Mr. Beer did not sound to negative. By all means use it and have fun. I have had many an Mr. Beer from others and it will not be a waste of time. Lots of award winning home brewers got thier start with MRB. Just keep in mind that it can be a LOT better and not much effort. Enjoy, have fun it is a great hobby...best of all it is way cheaper then audio gear. Another good thing about it is that it will open your eyes to how many different types of beer are out there. Nah it didn't put me off. You have to start somewhere. I mean I started grilling and then started smoking ribs etc. I really like the Pale Ales and usually don't go past anything darker than Killians Red but I have a friend that made some dark beer that have a fruity afteraste to it and I really liked it. He is still going strong with his Mr. Beer kit. I may look on the net and see if I can find some time of Lime flavored beer and a hard cider for the wife. Heck who knows if I get good enough maybe someday I will open a restaurant (BBQ) with a microbrew in it. Man is it ever cheaper than audio gear. I upgraded tv's in November and now I am working on speakers. By the end of August I should have enough to replace my Onkyo HTiB speakers with RB 61's and the sub with an offering from HSU. Surrounds will have to wait maybe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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