Hi everyone,

I'm finalizing the recipe for my next batch. Its based off of the Blonde ale refill kit from Mr. Beer with some extra ingredients/substitutions. My two batches so far have been low on the alcohol content so I want to bump it up a notch. Here is what I'm thinking about:

1 can Blonde ale. HME
2 lbs Munton's plain amber DME
0.5 Oz Cascade hops @ 6min
Munton's premium gold active yeast

Primary fermentation: one week
Secondary fermentation: two weeks

From reading the Mr. Beer literature and searching the forum I cam up with this estimate for alcohol content:
1 can HME = 2.3%
2 lbs DME = 4.0%
Total: 6.3%

Questions:

Will two lbs DME be too much? Should I use one lb DME and one package of booster instead?

I've never used hops before. Will my current amount/boil time be ok? I picked cascade because I like Sierra Nevada pale ale, but I can always switch. I also read that fuggles work well in a blonde ale.

Is the yeast decent? I have always used the yeast that comes with the Mr. Beer kit. Someone suggested that I 'upgrade' to the Munton's but I am a little skeptical since it is also dry. There is a LHBS near me so I don't think it will be hard to get other types of yeast. I just don't know what would be appropriate for this brew.

Questions/comments welcome!

Sounds like it'll be more of a redhead than a blonde... I've always had a thing for redheads.

I think you'll be ok... I would just do the CABA and only one pound of DME, and add about .5 oz of cascades at flameout... Maybe with half a pouch of booster. But I've never been a fan of overdoing the ABV in a beer just for the sake of having a high ABV beer.

Oh yeah, and dry yeast is perfectly fine. I would go to the LHBS and get a packet of US-05 dry yeast... It's a nice neutral ale yeast, so the malt and hops will really come through. Use the whole 11.5 g packet... Rehydrate the yeast if you're feeling feisty.

I'm gonna say no. 3 lbs of extract makes a beer with good flavor, but a bit strong. Use 2.5 lbs extract next time if you agree.


I'd actually suggest boiling 1/4 cascade @20 and 1/4 @ 5 then tweak it as you like next time. (Do not boil the HME)

psuchunk03:
What does CABA stand for?

The_Professor:

3 lbs? Was it a two gallon batch?

Oh, yes. I enjoyed making Mr. Beer batches a few times with 3 lbs of extract.

CABA is the Mr. Beer extract - Classic American Blonde Ale. Because most of us are usually too lazy to type out the entire name :-)

[quote][/quote]

+10 on this. US-05 is awesome and rehydration is super easy and gets things kicked off quickly.

also, 2# DME with a can of extract is perfect in my opinion. The cascades are a good choice and I agree with the prof, do half the addition at 20 and the other half at 7. Good flavor and aroma. If you are feeling adventurous, you could also dry hop the last week of fermentation with cascade.

Thanks for the input everyone.

Here is what I'm going with:

1 can Blonde ale. HME
2 lbs Munton's plain amber DME
0.25 Oz Cascade hops @ 20min
0.25 Oz Cascade hops @ 5 min
11.5 g US-05 dry yeast

I'm planning on brewing this weekend. I will report back and let you know how it goes.

you gonna rehydrate the yeast?

Not sure. If it helps make better beer then I'm all for it. Is there a special way to do it or do I just mix the yeast with some warm water?

Rehydrating dry yeast:

http://www.mrbeerfans.com/ubbthreads/ubb...html#Post229126

Thanks psuchunk03, I will give this a try.

Although I'm curious. Isn't 100 F a little bit on the warm side for yeast?

not for rehydration...all the yeast are doing at this point is rebuilding the cell walls that were destroyed(or weakened) during the dehydration process..

although you want to make sure your thermometer is pretty accurate if you go to warm you do run the risk of just killing them...

So yesterday was the big day.

My LHBS was out of US05 so I used S-33 instead. The owner claims that the two yeasts are very similar. I hope he is right.

I ended up not re-hydrating the yeast due to some bad timing on my part. I boiled my keg water a little too late in the day so it did not get time to cool down properly. I ended up waiting forever for the wort to cool, so somewhere around 2 AM I pitched the yeast. It was at about 90 degrees at this point so I didn't think re-hydrating would be necessary.

I checked the keg this morning and was surprised to find that the foam (I don't remember the technical term) had built up and came out of the vent in the lid. I've never had a buildup like that before!

I will keep everyone posted with the progress.

ummm...I think the owner is a bit off. while I'm sure it is "fine" for your beer, I am 99% sure that S-33 is geared more toward Belgian styles...whereas 05 is for the "crisp classic american ales".

you are definitely going to get a beer out of it though!

another question: were you letting the wort just cool naturally? or did you put it in an ice bath in your sink? it shouldn't take THAT long (or how long is "long" exactly?).

I'll be the first to say that you pitched CRAZY high! the esters that are going to be thrown off will be incredible. you should definitely make an effor to at least get the temperature of the keg down to the 70s as quickly as you can. if you can't really, well, let's just say I am very curious as to how this beer will taste in the end!

natural320:

I had a feeling that he may have been wrong but oh well, I like Belgian styles too.

And yes I was letting the wort cool naturally. In the future, I will boil my water a day in advance so it can cool down to the proper temp. I would have used an ice bath but I really didn't have much ice at the time.

I boiled one gallon of water earlier in the day and once it was cooled I transfered it to the Mr. Beer keg. I was going to immediately start boiling the second gallon, but I got distracted and didn't get to it till around 7-8 in the evening.

After boiling the wort, I transfered it to the keg (which by this time was room temp) and then filled the rest with the latest batch of boiled water (which was still pretty warm). Once I got it stirred up, I checked the temp and it was around 125 F (This is around 10 in the evening). I kept checking the temp. about every half hour, till around 2 AM when I decided I was tired and wanted sleep so I pitched the yeast. It was about 90 F at the time, which I figured would be ok since I didn't re-hydrate the yeast.

I am also interested as to how this beer will taste. So far the yeast is going crazy and the smell coming from the keg is incredible. If nothing else, this will be the best smelling beer I have made...

If you don't have ice, you can always just do a cold water bath. It's slower, but a lot faster (and better) than just waiting for the wort to cool naturally in the fermentor, which drastically increases the chance of infection.

Another technique you could use is to have some 65* or - distilled
water on hand to top up with. It "should" be free of any nasties.
Another tip for using an ice bath is to keep some frozen water
bottles in the freezer for that purpose. Put your pot of water
into your kitchen sink and have it filled to within a few inches
of wort level, after a few minutes drain the water and refill,
repeat a time or two depending on how hot and how much volume
of wort you have and then float the frozen water bottles
around the pot. Stirring will help it cool faster but make sure
whatever you touch the wort with, thermometer or spoon is sanitized.

Thanks for the input guys,

This was actually my first time pre-boiling the water. In my first two brews, I just added water directly from my Pur filter. I didn't have any problems with contamination but I figured it would be a good thing to start doing.

Hopefully this batch will turn out ok. If not oh well, I learned something in the process. At least now I have a game plan for the next brew.

so your first time you just mixed the "beer stuff" in tap water and then fermented it? maybe it is too early in the morning here, but I am having a hard time following your process and the "pre-boiling" etc. in the future, for a MB + DME and hops simply:

* in like 8-12 cups of water, start mixing in your DME as you bring the mixture to a boil.
* once boiling, add your 1st hop addition and begin your countdown...adding your other hops as you go
* at the end of the boiling time (let's say it was 20 minutes), turn off your flame and then mix your MB can into the wort at this point
* a tip to speed chill: put a layer of ice cubes and water (about 3 inches high) in your LBK...pour your wort on top of this mixture, and the temperature will undoubtedly drop to about 70 degrees immediately!
* top off your fermenter with the remaining needed water (try to have it be about the same temperature as your wort, so not cold at this point!)
* whisk your wort, pitch your yeast, let it rehydrate for a few minutes, then whisk again!

this whole process will take you about 35 minutes or so, start to finish

natural320:

Sorry about the confusion. When I said 'pre-boil' I was referring to the cold water that you add to the LBK directly, not the water (8-12 cups) used for mixing the booster and HME. That I always boiled (except when adding the HME).

I figured it would be a good idea to boil all of the water, not just the 8-12 cups used for reconstituting the HME+booster(+DME+hops).

NOW I gotcha! haha

try the ice cube and water trick next time...wish I had thought of it sooner in my brewing "career" because it works like a charm

Since today is a week since I brewed, I decided to have a little taste to see whats happening in the keg.

Luckily there was no contamination. I was a little worried about that since I didn't cool the wort properly, but it seems I got lucky (so far).

As far as the taste, it was.....well..... not that bad. I'm no beer connoisseur, but it seemed almost like a pale ale, with a little bit of a citrus note. It almost reminded me of Bass pale ale.

It still needs more fermenting so I'm going to let it go to next Sunday and take another taste. I'm still debating if I want to try a secondary fermentation or not. I would like to clear up the beer but I don't want to over ferment it (if there is such a thing).

So today was bottling day.

After three weeks of fermentation, I gave it a taste. I'm not quite sure how to describe it. Pretty smooth yet it has a little bite to it (if that makes any sense). Smells great and has a great color (like a deep amber). I can't really think of anything to compare it to.

I pretty excited to try this one after carbing and conditioning.

A hop bite? Or... An alcohol (like the burn from vodka) bite?

Congrats on the beer!

Yay, beer!

I tried a couple bottles of this over the weekend. The results were mixed.

The good: It tastes good.

The bad: Its not fully carbonated.

Its been in the bottles for three weeks so I'm assuming that it should be fully carbonated

The only thing I can think of is that maybe I should have used more than 1/3 cup booster when I batch primed. Funny thing is that I used the same amount of booster for priming on my last batch and it carbonated fine. Anyone have any ideas?

Weeeeeeell, some beers take longer than others to carb. Sure, most will be fully carbed in 3 weeks...but not all. Some may even take months, if you're pushing the alcohol tolerance of the yeast, or there's not a lot of yeast in suspension when you bottle, or if your temps are a little too cool.

If 1/3 of a cup carbed your last batch fine, that's probably not the issue.

As I mentioned above, there can be lots of reasons for a beer to not carb fully, other than using insufficient priming sugar. I doubt you're anywhere close to the yeast's alcohol tolerance, so it could be a combination of temps and not a lot of yeast cells in the beer when you bottled it.

I'd suggest moving the bottles somewhere warm, and gently swirling them to re-suspend any yeast. Leave them there for two more weeks, and put one bottle in the fridge. After two days in the fridge, check the carb of that bottle. If it's good, fridge the rest of the batch. If it's not, wait another month and repeat. If it still hasn't worked then, report back and we'll give you some more suggestions.

Hmmm...

With my previous batch I bottled directly from the LBK, sucking up a bunch of crud from the bottom in the process. Everything carbed fine but I didn't like having all of that stuff at the bottom of the bottles so.....
With this batch I transfered to a secondary before bottling, which cut back on the sludge a lot (in fact there is hardly anything on the bottoms of the bottles).

I also fermented this batch for a week longer than my last batch (for a total of three weeks). Could that cause most of the yeast to drop out of suspension? The beer turned out pretty clear.

I will try your suggestions and report back in two weeks.

yes, longer fermentation times will cause the beer to be clearer.

you'll never completely be rid of the crud if you bottle carb. you always need some to carb and condition. doing a secondary helps but the beer should clear while it carbs.

Yup, both the three week fermentation time and racking before bottling will reduce the amount of yeasties in each bottle, which can easily extend carbing time.

Well tried a beer yesterday and the carbonation definitely improved. I think I may wait another week just to be on the safe side, but its probably good to go as is.

Thanks for all of the help. Its nice not drinking flat beer.