As some of y'all know, I started getting into home brewing just after Christmas when I got my Mr. Beer Home brew kit. It's a small 2 gallon kit that makes enough beer to fit a 12 pack but, a great way to start getting into the hobby. Not long after starting my first batch though, I started to upgrade to making 5 gallons instead. Here is my newest and last Mr. Beer brew I've made:

Mr. Beer Oktober Fest Lager



My first actual beer I created that was a success. Technically my first batch was a Classic American Lager but I'll talk about that later. This flavor that you can buy from the website (www.mrbeer.com) was really easy to make and not bad for a first beginners. I fermented for 2 weeks, bottled and carbonated for 2 more weeks. After the carbonation process was done, I put it in the fridge to let it condition for 1 week. The pic above I took out only 4 days during the conditioning process. The reason for prematurely testing was to see how much of a difference a couple days of conditioning will make. That way I can learn what flavors to look for (or I guess taste for).

The beer has a good flavor. A little on the sweet side but that could be due to 2 factors. First being that I did remove the beer before the complete week was done with conditioning and second being the type of yeast they provide with the kit (many brewer reviewers say that the yeast that comes with Mr. Beer adds a little sweetness to the beer which can off set the true flavors you want). Not to say the sweetness ruined the beer at all though. The beer had a great head and the color was what I expected from an Oktoberfest lager which I have a pic of below:



Overall pretty good for a 'first' batch. My true first batch was what came with the kit called Classic American Lager.



I made the mistake of rushing this first batch. Again, reason for doing so was to see what would happen. Needless to say, was a complete disaster. I did manager to get 1 beer out of the whole batch because I left it to condition a little longer but, needless to say, I wasn't proud of myself. Came out smelling like wine, was way to sweet, not enough carbonation which made the beer flat, and the taste was like Lone Star Beer. For a home brew, I expect to make something with more body and better flavor. So I scrapped that one down the sink real fast and learned not to ever rush beer brewing. So now that this batch is over with what am I making now? After buying all the necessary equipment to make 5 gallons possible, I started making my favorite type of beer. I'm currently making a Pecan Porter.

Austin Home Brew Pecan Porter


I bought the ingredients at the local home brew store here in Austin (off of Metric near North 183, close to burnet). This brew is their house brew. I not only bought the malt extract needed for the brew but I bought the grains and the hopes needed. Took me a total of 6 hours to brew.

Here is me soaking the grains. This what will give you your color and flavor of what your beer is going to be.

I had to soak the grains in 155 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes. After this I had to add the malt, prevent it from boiling over, maintain a rolling bowl, then add the hops and let sit for 1 hour (first batch of hops absorbs the wort to bring out some of the bitterness needed). 15 minutes left in the hour I put another batch of hops in (flavor). Finally at the last 5 minutes one more batch of hops (aroma). When this was all said and done, I stored the beer for fermentation process for 1 week. After 1 week was up, I needed to move my beer to a secondary fermenter because this brew has 2 stages to it. The second stage requires me to add Oak chips for more aroma and flavor. This is what it looks like now:



I got 1 more week with this fermentation process then I can bottle for carbonation for 2 weeks then conditioning for 2 more weeks. I'm going to be starting another brew in a couple of days, I'll try to get more pics up as well.

thats pretty awesome. i have a mr beer kit that i opened up last night and honey told me to put it away because i have enough projects going on.. haha.. Pretty neat, hope it turns out really well.

Im trying to grow grapes, blackberrys and strawberrys.. I have this grand idea of doing a moonshine and or wine.. but that all depends if i get fruits or not.

edit with that said..

If I can get them to live and I more then I know what to do with.. instead of me doing a moonshine /wine.. if you feel confident, I'd give you strawberrys and blackberrys to do some sort of beer thing for a batch later in the summer.. that might come out pretty cool? I dunno.

had a random idea for a ghost chili beer.. might be terrible.. but what the hell.. why not right?



(post modified: 02/05/13 16:02:17)

Lol a ghost chili beer, sounds like it will burn all the way out. If you're thinking about making wine, the Austin home brew store has everything you need to make wines, beers, spirits AND cheese (customer brought in some organic goat cheese that he made from his goats and tasted reaaaaaally good). The employees there are encyclopedias of knowledge when it comes to anything.

A fruit beer sounds great for a summer brew. What I need to figure out soon though is how to keep my fermentation cool for the hot summer months. You want to maintain a temp of around 60 - 65 degrees height Fahrenheit. We all know that's hard to do here in Texas if you are trying to save on the electric bill. I'm sure I can find something when I get my tax return this year.

i saw some videos on youtube, and read a few notes on ghost chili beer.. it would be a novelty.. didn't know about keeping the beer cold, but I would think a cheap small fridge large enough from craigslist would do the job perfectly.

How large is the giant glass thing that you have and whats it called?


(post modified: 02/05/13 18:11:16)

It's called a glass carboy. It holds 5 gallons. So same size as a water cooler but glass not plastic. I bought that and other equipment in a kit from Amazon. It costs $75 before shipping but I paid less thanks to getting a gift card for Christmas.

Yeah I thought you had to keep the fermentation process warm or at least room temperature but if you don't want to jeopardize the flavors you need to keep it at a cool temp, 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit. There is a way to maintain it easily and only costs $100 but I need to do more research into it. There is a home brew website that has been helping me with great advice.

Trying to come up with a name for my brewing. Idk. Ideas I've come up with are

Xeno-Ale
Xeno Brewery
High Steele Bridge Brewery


(post modified: 02/05/13 21:20:54)

carboy, got it.

for keeping it cold.. here..

http://austin.craigslist.org/search/?areaID=15&subAreaID=&query=small+fridge&catAbb=sss

lots of deals to be had.

honestly, anything xeno, is lame. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/xeno-

Spin your name.. JT.. or Just True Beers.. or something.

I thought of High Steele Bridge Brewery because my last name is High and my moms maiden name is Steele. JT brewery isn't bad either.

High Steele Bridge is pretty cool now that you explained it. Definitly would make mom and dad proud.

i like the high steele bridge name idea...and ghost chili beer....id have to get me some

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(post modified: 02/06/13 19:35:35)

joel, i will definitily have ghost chilis.... more then i know what to do with. ill give you some of those, and the trinidata butch t scorpion peppers which are hotter then the ghost chilis..

Hmm, I'll have to see if I can find my old recipe for making pepper spray.

I made some pepper spray from Habanero peppers years ago, and that was pretty ... nasty.

I'll look up some recipes for a Ghost Pepper brew. Maybe I can get Strata to help me. We'll have a Ghost Pepper keg party titled "Fire in the brew!!!" Lol

Ok Kurt, your mission if you choose to accept it, to make a ghost pepper brew, you create and Ale if your favorite type then add the ghost peppers post fermentation (when its time to bottle). Your mission is to create a ghost pepper extract that can be add. Recommend using no more than 1/4 of a pepper to 5 gallons. Or you can just add hot sauce to your favorite beer. same effect.

I made my mr beer "american ale" on thursday. Its definitly fermenting right now. No pics, will post them later. Smells ok tho.

Honey gave me a dehydrator from christmas. I dunno if it would work, but put ground ghost chili powered in a small cheese cloth bag and drop it in? I don't know much about the process but wouldn't it make more sense to just drop them into the carboy during that stage?

hows your current batch of beer btw?

I might have ruined my batch of beer.. I opened up the brew keg to see if the yeast was alive.. and damn.. it was alive.. then i read the instructions and it says in a big bold box... do not open the brew keg for anyreason as it might cause spoilage.

whoops.

Yeah you're not suppose to open it at all after you put the yeast in. You were also suppose to put the pepper in at the END of fermentation. It's ok, my first batch was ruined from not being patient. If you need to check on how the fermentation process is going, shine a flash light on it next time. Wont hurt the fermentation process and you can see what's going on as well. My fermentation bucket is solid white so I can't see what's going on inside but I do have this air lock on top:



I can watch the air bubbles plop out and over time, they slow down.

tomorrow for my beer will be 7 days. ill taste it, and if it tastes sweet, ill let it go longer, flat beer, its ready to bottle, fucked up? then i'll dump it in my garden as fertilizer.

There you go. Here is an update on my brew.

Last night I transferred my brew from my carboy back to my fermentation bucket so I can bottle.


Had exactly 5 gallons of beer and started bottling. While I was bottling I got a call from a young girl asking me if I can DJ for their prom coming up in a couple of months. I stepped away for a minute to get the number she needed. Once I got back, about a bottles worth of beer got spilled on the floor because I didn't cap the valve all the way. I was mad at first but then I finished bottling all my beer, still had a half gallon left. I filled all 12 of my 24oz swing top bottles, all 8 of Mr. Beer 1 liter plastic bottles, AND my 1/2 gallon growler and I still had to get another bottle. I had to run to the corner store and get a soda bottle to put the rest of the brew in. This is what I used.



That's completely full of beer. Seemed appropriate. Always did want Root Beer without the Root. LOL

lol.

how'd it taste? or your not supposed to taste it?

I tasted mine, it still tasted like beer that was still sweet. I think tonight I'll bottle it and see what happens.

I did this last night.

Bottling my beer from my mr beer kit. I tasted it before I bottled it and it tasted OK I guess. The mr beer kit is a good way to see if you like doing this sort of stuff. It has everything you need to try it out and keeps it simple. Its still a fair amount of work, more then I thought it would be so I'm not sure if I will pick this hobby up. I have a lot of hobbies going right now and I dunno if this one is the right one for me. I might try to make another batch of something in a few months. But right now I'll see how this one turns out.

These were mostly taken for Honeys mom.





My only fear is if its spoiled, or worse gives me botchulism or something. wish me luck.

Brewing up a new batch with my friend Sarah today. Got 32 quarts of water boiling in the pot for 1 hour.


Since I'm using an Aluminum pot and not a stainless steel pot, I have to create oxidation before I brew so I don't get any metallic taste in my beer. If I had a stainless steel pot I would just have to sanitize it and start brewing right away. I'm going to keep taking photos and I'll update as I go along the rest of the day.

Mmm, science.

Delicious science.