Enhancing Mr. Beer Recipes

[Jones4412]

I just put this batch in the fermenter. Seemed to go pretty well for my first time steeping grains. I got the water up to 170 then took it off the heat and added 1/2 cup of brown sugar and then steeped the grains for 30 mins like wings fan in kc said... The only difference was the water ended up dropping to about 145 halfway through...is that due to the small amount of water? Also I poured it into the fermenter and added cold water and whisked the Shit out of it until started frothing up on top and then I pitched the yeast and gave it one more quick stir. Put it away and was around 70 degrees when I left it. Plan on bottling it after 3 weeks ill let you all know how it turns out. Thanks again for the help

[mashani]

Yes temps will drop fast due to low amounts of water. Adding the grains drops the temps right up front too. If you want to maintain temps the easiest way is to heat your oven to 170, then turn it off, and put your pot in there. That will help hold the temps better.

Note, if you steep grains you really probably should boil the resulting liquid for at least 5 minutes. Grains are full of wild things. They may or may not have been pasteurized by the steep depending on how warm it stayed and how long. If you end up with wonky beer, this might be why. But hopefully you will not.

[RickBeer]

Right. Mr. Beer instructions have you start with just boiled water too.

Was the pot covered during the steep? If you had a thermometer in there the whole time, then heat was coming out.

[Jones4412]

Yes temps will drop fast due to low amounts of water. Adding the grains drops the temps right up front too. If you want to maintain temps the easiest way is to heat your oven to 170, then turn it off, and put your pot in there. That will help hold the temps better.

Note, if you steep grains you really probably should boil the resulting liquid for at least 5 minutes. Grains are full of wild things. They may or may not have been pasteurized by the steep depending on how warm it stayed and how long. If you end up with wonky beer, this might be why. But hopefully you will not.

Dang, I turned the heat back on for a minute after steeping the grains, but didn't want to scorch the brown sugar which was already in the wort before I steeped, so I turned it back off after a minute. Hopefully it doesn't come out crappy. I guess we will know in a couple months.

[haerbob3]

use a hard shell beverage cooler for your steeps also you may add sugars to the water that you use to dilute your HME

[Yankeedag]

for steeping my flavor grains, I use a 3 gallon igloo style cooler.
it doesn't have to be name brand "igloo".
a cheapo will work as it will hold the temp for at least 30 min.
A 3 gallon will work quite well for the Mr. Beer sized "steeps" you'll do, and, if you decide to go into other partial grains later, it will handle those as well.
I just do AG brews now. I have a 10 gallon igloo style cooler I use to mash my grains, and a 3 gallon igloo style for my other grains in that brew.