Paul’s Brewsletter

Hello - I have everything on hand except the liquid yeast to start the holiday cranberry wheat beer.  The liquid yeast should be arriving by next week. 

I’ve got a tall order in this time around: 6 batches of beer, which totals approximately 12 gallons!  This should last through several holiday parties including New Years!  I’ll keep you all posted as I start brewing.

This time, I will be calculating the cost of making these batches of homebrew beer.  To keep things simple, I’ll try and figure out the cost per ounce so I can show you what it would cost to make a six pack of 12 oz bottles of homebrew beer.

Speaking of cost, I was able to buy 6 beer mixes from Mr. Beer for the price of 5!  They throw the 6th one in free when you order online — check it out!  Happy brewing!

The Bewitched Red Ale was a success — the beer tastes great and everyone I gave it to so far has liked it.  I brought a 2-liter bottle to a rehearsal for a band I belong to and the bottle lasted about 5 minutes!
 
I’m gearing up now for the holiday beer.  I will make a fruit flavored beer using cranberries.  I’ve made this one over the years and it usually brings a great beer.  I use a variation of one of the Mr. Beer recipes for this.  I’ll upload the recipe to my recipes file on this blog in a few days.
 
In the meanwhile - a quick word about water.  Keep in mind; water can have a good or bad effect on your beer’s taste.  The rule of thumb is “if the water tastes good, the beer will taste good.”  My suggestion is go with bottled water that is available in your area.  Keep in mind; you’re going to need at least 2 1/2 gallons, so buy in larger bottles than your 12/16/32 oz variety.
 
I use Abita Spring Water, since I live in New Orleans and I try to support the local businesses here especially since Katrina.

I am hoping to make 6 batches of this holiday beer.  That’s 12 gallons!!!  Wish me luck.  I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

Well, the Bewitched Red Ale has been bottled. The alcohol content came out at 4.15% by volume, which is not bad (higher than your average Bud/Coors/Miller variety). Right now I’m just waiting for the beer to be ready to drink. I bottled the beer in plastic 2-liter bottles, since it is easier (less bottles) and I didn’t care to go through the mini-keg process. The beer should be ready this coming week.

We’re getting close to the holiday season, and I’m sure you’ll be starting your shopping for gifts for friends and family soon. A great gift for the guys or girls who are into beer out there is the Mr. Beer kits for homebrew beer. In fact, they are currently offering free shipping through Christmas with kit prices as Low As $39.99! If your guy or girl loves beer but isn’t as much into making their own, how about the Beer of the Month Club?

That’s all for now, next time I blog I’ll be making my holiday Cranberry Wheat specialty beer! Until then, happy brewing!

Paul  

I just started my first Post-Katrina batch of my beer into primary fermentation — for this I used the following ingredients from Mr. Beer:

Bewitched Red Ale
1 Pack of Booster
Mr. Beer Ale Yeast (liquid)

You can buy the above ingredients along with a pack (2 uses) of One-Step No Rinse Sanitizer on Mr. Beer’s website.

The beer was pretty straightforward to make, as they usually are from Mr. Beer.  The longest wait I had was for the sanitation process to complete.  One-Step requires a 10 minute soak in one gallon of hot water.  The steps I followed are like those mentioned in the basic steps section of the Mr. Beer manual:

1) Put one gallon of water in the refrigerator to chill it at least a day before you start.
2) If you are using liquid yeast in the “smack packs” from Mr. Beer, place the pack on a hard flat surface and with your hands feel for the little plastic pouch inside the smack pack.  Press on this pouch until it breaks.  Shake the package up and let it sit at room temperature.  In 24-48 hours, the package should begin to swell.  The yeast can be used once this happens.
3) Sanitize the beer barrel and all associated parts.  Make sure the barrel is fully assembled and empty of water.
4) Mix the pack of Booster in six cups of water.
5) Once the Booster is mixed in with the water, bring the water to a boil on the stove.
6) Once the water is boiling (rolling boil), turn off the burner.  I usually put the pot on a different burner so the pot can cool slightly.
7) Open the can of mix, pour into the pot of water and stir.
Pour the gallon of water you had in the refrigerator into the beer barrel.
9) Pour the mixture of the beer mix, water and booster (also known as the “Wort”) into the beer barrel.
10) Add water into the beer barrel so the water line comes up to the 8.5 quart mark.
11) Pour the yeast into the beer barrel.
12) Wait 5 minutes after putting the yeast in and then stir the mixture vigorously.
13) If desired, take your specific gravity reading at this point.
14) That’s it - until the beer is ready to be bottled!

The batch I made this morning has an initial specific gravity of 1.034.  Once the beer has completed fermenting I will take another reading and use those two numbers to get the estimated alcohol content of my beer.

I like Mr. Beer because they have a large variety of products to choose from, and they only seem to be expanding their product line.  This large selection along with the many additional items they sell (hops, fruit, etc) allow you to get custom beer without the lengthy process of brewing from the whole grains.

I highly recommend you give Mr. Beer a try - I’ll blog again when my batch is ready to be bottled (in about a week, give or take).  Until then…

Mr. Beer offers a collection of beer making kits, supplies, and merchandise. As Low As $29.99! - Makes A Great Gift!  

Happy brewing!
Paul

I just made an order this past weekend for my next beer creation.  I am going with the Bewitched Brew Pack from Mr. Beer.  I haven’t tried this particular recipe before, but I do like a good red ale and since Halloween is right around the corner, it should be the perfect time for this beer.  If I get the beer in fast enough I may get to unveil this at my friend Karen’s Autumn Party - I’ll let you know how it goes. 

If you make homebrew beer or wine, you probably at some point have been asked, “How much alcohol is in this?”  I used the same stock answer for years…I simply compared my beer to what I thought the most well known local equivalent would be and left it at that (”Oh it probably has about as much as [brand] does”). 

 There is a more scientific way to determine the alcohol content of your beer.  Of course, you’ll need a hydrometer, which I have available for sale.  You will need to take the specific gravity readings of your beer right after you have it ready to begin the primary fermentation (A), and then once your beer is finished the primary fermentation and is ready to be bottled (B).  After that, use these formulas for the type of alcohol content you want to determine: 

Alcohol Content by Weight = 76.08 x (A-B) / (1.775-A) 

Alcohol Content by Volume = (Alcohol Content By Weight) x (B / 0.794) 

Man, I never thought I’d be so much into math after I graduated college - of course this is for beer, so it’s a labor of love ;) 

Until next time - happy brewing! 

Paul

Mr. Beer offers a collection of beer making kits, supplies, and merchandise. As Low As $29.99! - Makes A Great Gift!

Hello there, this is my first blog entry for the homebrew beer brewsletter.  I will be posting things like updates on batches of beer I’m making, ideas for recipies or tips I come across now and then.  This is an audience participation blog, so feel free to share your experiences with the Mr. Beer kits or other homebrew beer systems.

You may have gathered by the title of this post I have been affected by Hurricane Katrina.  Well, I live in the Greater New Orleans Area and I lived there before the hurricane.  I was fortunate to not have much damage from the storm - my parents were not as lucky, as were many others.  We’re all in the long process of recovery and we’re getting there day by day.  To me, one sign of recovery is the resuming of pleasure activities.  Homebrewing beer is one of the best ways I can think to get back to a regular routine of hobbies and fun.

I hope you enjoy making beer like I do - please feel free to add a post to this blog!