Anny homebrewers here?

[TheMightyFavog]

Just got a Mr. Beer for christmas, and I have a Brown ale fermenting away.

Any tips and.or suggestions?

[Warpy]

1. Not really, not for the first batch

When you do the final fermentation in the bottles to carbonate the brew, don't charge them with table sugar. Sucrose gives the brew a nasty cidery taste. It will be drinkable and it will get you there, but you won't enjoy it much. You'll find out what the words "skunky beer" mean.

Dextrose (glucose) is the only way to go.

Other than that, keeping room air away from the brew is the one essential so that it doesn't get colonized with wild yeasts or molds. That means maintaining a CO2 layer over it during the first fermentation and using a fermentation lock of some type for the second.

I used to do 5 gallons at a time, using plastic buckets from a Chinese restaurant, health food store, or Dunkin Donuts for the first fermentation, a plastic bag secured over the top with an elastic band. I had a carboy with a wine fermentation lock for the second fermentation. I bought malt in bulk, 5 gallons at a time, and hops a pound at a time.

The kit is a little tidier than the illegal (at that time) brewing I did. Hops don't smell like roses when you're boiling them up.

The Mr. Beer website has a discussion group. I think you'll probably find a lot more product specific information there than non kit brewers can give you.

BTW, that layer of yeast in the bottom of the beer bottle is drinkable and some folks develop a taste for it. It's packed full of B vitamins and Europeans claim it prevents hangover, although the latter hasn't been the case in my experience.

[pscot]

2. I always thought Europeans had that backwards

:toast:

[TheMightyFavog]

3. Hmmm... Where does one get dextrose?

The Mr. Beer instructions said to use table sugar for the carbonation stage...

[Warpy]

4. Here's a place that sells by the pound

http://www.barryfarm.com/sugars.htm

You can also up the alcohol content of the beer slightly by adding a little per gallon before the first fermentation. Yeast dies at alcohol above 12% or so and you won't get carbonation, so take it very easy. There are recipes online to tell you how to do this.

[GoCubsGo]

5. Or look for a homebrew supplier

If you have a local homebrew supplier, go there and buy some corn sugar. It's dextrose, like what Warpy recommends. Dry malt extract will also work. Some homebrew suppliers sell "carbonation drops", which you drop in the bottle before filling it with your fermented beer. If you don't have a homebrew supplier nearby, here's a good mail order supplier: http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/brewing-ingredients/sugars/priming-sugars

While you are buying that corn sugar, be sure to pick up a copy of "The Joy of Homebrewing" by George Papazian. Many consider it to be the homebrewer's bible. Lots of good information.

[TheMightyFavog]

6. Now, I was talking to someone on a beermaking forums that said that table sugar was acceptible...

He said that cider flavors cider flavors are a sign that carbonation and conditioning are incomplete, and they can occur with any kind of priming material. And that it did not matter what kind of sugar you used to prime.

[Warpy]

7. I sure as hell noticed a difference in one batch

I substituted sucrose in part of because I ran out of dextrose.

Blech.

I'm a supertaster, though. Perhaps your friend is not and smokes three packs a day on top of it.

[GoCubsGo]

8. You might want to try honey instead.

It would take about a half cup per five gallons of beer. Boil that in a cup of water, like you would the dry sugar.

[Warpy]

9. That would increase the problem

of that cidery taste since honey is extremely high in fructose, something beer yeast can't digest well.

Honey works well in mead, where you want that cidery taste. It just doesn't work well with alcoholic hop tea, which is basically what beer is.

[GoCubsGo]

10. I have always had great results with it.

No cidery taste at all. I have used it both as a primer and in the brew itself. Never made a mead that tasted cidery, either. Not sure where you got the information about beer yeast being unable to digest honey, but from everything I have read, which is quite a bit, it ferments completely.