OK... So I got my premium kit monday, and made my first beer last night... Everything seemed to go very well and I only ran into 1 problem.. What do you guys do when using the booster.. It seemed to take forever for it to disolve!! :shock: I was using a wire whisk and cold spring water as the directions stated. Is there an easier way?? I made the West Coast Pale Ale which is a fairly simple recipe.. I also got an extra fermenter and am making the 1776 Ale tonight, and since that also uses the booster I wanted to see what others are doing... Also 1 other question.. I have some Coopers drops on the way.. Any opinions positive or negative on using them?? Hopefully this forum will take off.. I've been watching topix, but looking back through for specific information was time consuming.. Thankyou for making it Chug!

Booster can be a pain thats for sure. The only thing you can do is add small amounts of Booster to the water and be patient.

The only purpose in adding the booster is to increase the alcohol content.

In the Mr beer guide, There is a list of other things you can add to the wort to boost the alcohol content. In my humble opinion, adding honey or maple syrup is far superior to adding Booster.

Some Mr Beer brewers don't use Booster at all. Booster does tend to make your beer taste cidery.

I have not used Coopers sugar tabs before, I am still new to brewing myself. I too would like to know the pros and cons of using them.

Chug

I will have to try that suggestion Chug.. Any idea on ratio?? Like 1 Booster=?? Cups Honey... Also, I wonder if Mr Beer would want to put a link to your site on their site??

Hey Dubman, the booster is just corn sugar, which is used in mainstream homebrewing for carbonation instead of white sugar. The booster serves as an inexpensive and somewhat sweetening substitute for unhopped malt, whether dry or syrup. It isn't so much to "boost" alcohol, but actually to make alcohol at beer level. Without something to ferment, the syrup in the can would make your beer about 2% abv, hence not actual beer, and the yeast would be mostly pointless.

The Coopers drops are for carbonation in the bottle. If you want great Mr Beer, save the booster for carbonation, and buy some dry malt, about a pound for a normal Mr Beer mix. Bring the water to a boil, turn off the heat, stir in the syrup, then the malt, then reboil for 6-8.

I'm gonna post some recipes as I compile and experiment soon. Next up is a hopped-up wheat this weekend. I have heard of homebrewers using honey or syrup, but there is no formula as the fermentable level of it all varies from bottle to bottle. So you have to cross your fingers every time.

How much booster do we add to the bottle for carbonation?

Could you elaborate on the dry malt. Is there a certain type of dry malt we should use?

I am new to home brewing and can use all the help I can get.

Chug

Hey Chug, the universal formula for carbing is 3/4 cup corn sugar per 5 gallons - translating to 1/3 cup for a Mr Beer 2 gallon batch. The thing is, Mr Beer bottling instructions are based on old Prohibition methods, when homebrew stores and proper equip didn't exist. Tossing dry table sugar in the bottle is inaccurate and can add bacteria.

The perfect bottling is to boil the corn sugar in a cup of water (to sanitize), let cool, pour it and your fermented beer into another vessel, gently stir, then bottle that. No question then that you have the right combo in each bottle.

Using the booster for bottling is my own idea because I didn't want to throw it away. I haven't done it yet, since I stocked up on corn sugar recently. I'm gonna try it on the next bottling in a few weeks.

So, as far as malt goes, it's the main ingredient in beer besides water. With store bought and homebrewing, I tend to stick with the Reinheitsgebot (German Purity Law) which requires beer to be strictly barley, hops, and water, or it ain't beer. Of course, I plan on making a wheat this weekend, so I have to bend a little for that

Your basic Mr Beer can of syrup is just barley malt and hops. When you add the booster - corn sugar - to it, it's not much different that the rice syrup in Budweiser, properly called an "adjunct" (unmalted additive). Mr Beer's UME (unhopped malt extract) is just malt syrup. I use Munton's dry malt, because it's inexpensive to buy especially in bulk, and storable for like 2 years. Check out this site as an explanation of how it works: http://www.homebrewzone.com/maltextract.htm

You can buy it online from dozens of stores. I shop locally in Denver and get it here: http://www.stompthemgrapes.com. It's available from extra light to dark, depending on the final beer you want.

Dan.. Thankyou for your advise and links! I am looking forward to your report on the hopped up wheat!! Decided to wait on brewing the 1776 ale until I finish my current one.. Then hopefully I will be able to better judge recipe etc...

Darryl

Thanks Dan, great link and advice.

I was totally unaware that malt extract came in powdered form. Now I know what DME stands for.

Chug

"How much booster do we add to the bottle for carbonation? "

Booster is actually not just corn sugar. Corn sugar is dextrose. Booster is a mixture of dextrose and maltodextrins. I have been told before not to use booster for carbonation. I'm sure it would work to an extent since it is fermentable but I have been told to just use corn sugar. I just don't buy booster anymore.

Corn sugar is really cheap and works really good though.

Ok, Thanks for the info on the DME. I've been pondering the use of DME but, wasn't sure how much at add for a small 2Gal batch.

As far as the Coopers Drops, I have a batch cold conditioning right now that is my first batch bottled in glass and my first using the coopers drops. I'm shooting for a 2 week cold conditioning but, Tuesday marks the first week in cold conditioning and I think I'll pop open a bottle and see how well the coopers droops did on the carbonation.

Also to, I would like to try making a mocha porter, has anyone tried brewing a beer with chocolate? I'm actually planning on ordering some cocoa nibs and using right in the fermenter almost like dry hopping. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Cheers and Happy Brewing!

I am very interested to see how the Cooper Drops work for you.. Please post your results... I have them and am getting ready to bottle my first batch within the next few days.. I am going to use the 1 plastic bottles which came with my kit.. I am thinking 2 drops per bottle.

Mdigs, I came up with the idea and checked with an expert at a homebrewing shop. The official ingredients are corn syrup solids, which translates to sugar, but I agree that it's chancy. Where did you get the info to avoid it?

I plan to experiment with a Mr Beer batch just to see what it does. I hate to toss all the booster in the trash. The yeast I can let go of, but the booster has more money in it.

But I do use corn sugar with my 5 gallon brewing. The waste is less if only 2 gallons goes bad

It's fermenting like a sonofagun. I used Munton's Gold yeast, which seems to be damn potent. This one will sit until New Year's eve, so the official recipe will be posted after bottling.

Final status: as it turns out, I tried a little more Booster than I would corn sugar (1/2 cup vs 1/3 cup) and it ended up a little over-carbonated, but not enough to break any glass. I definitely will be using the rest of my booster for bottling.

As to the rest of the flavor, I will use Wheat DME next time. The added hops knocked out a little of the weak wheat flavor in the MB syrup. It tasted more like a commercial wheat like Leinies or JW Dundees than a micro. Needs more wheat in the malt, but otherwise tasted like beer!

....wtf??

(EDIT: Sorry Frosty. I deleted the SPAM you are saying WTF to. --The_Professor)

Hey, that's useful info! Booster for batch priming works!

I think she is related to brew_richard, who was also from zhongwhatever and selling some sort of brew device. But brewrichard never learned how to put a signature or profile pic.

Woah! The Prof is in my post!

Edit: Yeah, he can do that ^^^.... - D Rock

heh...
Funny, just realized that the thread that the spammer spammed was over two and a half years old....

But of course Jon was able to gleam some useful info from the 14th post in the forum...

Funny. Yeah, good one Jon but I would never use booster for priming. It's not just corn sugar, dang it!

It's corn sugar and maltodextrin, pretty much. So you might get some extra body, but with the tiny amount used in batch priming, I kinda doubt it.

This is like watching an episode of Are you Afraid of the Dark on Snixk when I was a lad.