BeerBorg

Mr. Beer is offering a 4 pack of the Beer's of Summer - Oktoberfest, Cerveza, American Ale, and a light (can't tell from the dim picture) for only $41.88 or $10.47 per refill. Some have expiration dates coming up, but we all know that doesn't mean anything. Supplies are limited. See the deal here.

Also saw yesterday on FB that if you follow their page there is a coupon code for free shipping on purchases of $50.00 or more. But can't get to FB from here for all the info. Didn't pay much attn to it cause I have quite a bit of LME and Dme from Labelpeelers sale earlier this year.

Code is FBFREESHIPM14. Contiguous US, $50 or more order, expires midnight, May 12th.

Yum POR my favorite........


NOT!

Coopers ruined Mr. Beer for me, will not buy their products any more unless they stop using POR

Those extracts luckily are not POR laden (edit - at least to my POR threshold where it bugs me). You can actually make good beer out of those, with some hops and dme added. I made steam beer with the cerveza and some dme/crystal/northern brewer and it came out really good actually, and make good beer out of those other extracts too, IE the Oktoberfest and Lite can be combined and used to make a Belgian type beer with a Belgian yeast and some candi syrup and it will come out pretty good.

For me it would mostly depend on if I could add a coupon and get them even cheaper, so they are worth using as a "base/bittering" component to build on. I would not brew any of those straight up and I would not use the included yeast, so I would want enough of a deal to be able to buy better yeast.

mashani wrote:For me it would mostly depend on if I could add a coupon and get them even cheaper, so they are worth using as a "base/bittering" component to build on. I would not brew any of those straight up and I would not use the included yeast, so I would want enough of a deal to be able to buy better yeast.

Well, if you bought a yeast or two (or LME or DME or...) to bring the cost up to $50 the shipping is free so in effect you are getting some free yeast or whatever. I may just have to take them up on the offer since as you said they are very good bases. Especially if this summer turns out to be as hot as last since I wont want to be sitting outside with a propane burner blowing away on my cauldron for hours.

DaYooper wrote:

mashani wrote:For me it would mostly depend on if I could add a coupon and get them even cheaper, so they are worth using as a "base/bittering" component to build on. I would not brew any of those straight up and I would not use the included yeast, so I would want enough of a deal to be able to buy better yeast.

Well, if you bought a yeast or two (or LME or DME or...) to bring the cost up to $50 the shipping is free so in effect you are getting some free yeast or whatever. I may just have to take them up on the offer since as you said they are very good bases. Especially if this summer turns out to be as hot as last since I wont want to be sitting outside with a propane burner blowing away on my cauldron for hours.

FWIW, you can use a % off coupon (survey or one they mailed to you) and stack the free shipping once your order hits 50 and get it cheaper.

The thing that concerns me is that the sale implies that the extracts are possibly old... they might be retail-restocks from the original batches they made some years back or something. Old extracts get darker and possibly twangy if it's really old...

I will be passing on this one regardless as I've got a couple of sets of the seasonal ones on my shelf to play with as easy mode beer, and a bunch of grain and dme for other stuff... I got the seasonal beers for $10 and $12 a can with the yeast with coupons and sales... that was a deal for that much extract (none of which are PORey, the Belgian and Saison extracts are actually really good stuff) and good yeast.

mashani wrote: that was a deal for that much extract (none of which are PORey, the Belgian and Saison extracts are actually really good stuff) and good yeast.

Brewing the Saison tonite!

mashani,

I took advantage of the Beers of Summer deal and and bought the Belgian yeast and want to try your idea for a Belgian type beer. How much candi syrup did you use with the Octoberfest and Classic Lite HME's?

I'd add anywhere from 8oz to 12oz (up to 20% of your total bill is fine) of D-180L (or a mix of D-90 and D-180L) to those two cans and use WY3787 or WLP530, start it at around 68, and try to get my fermentation temperatures in the upper 70s about 3 days in letting it free rise. Then finish in the 60s. Even 80 at it's peak is ok. Just not more then that.

I'd add the D-180L as a sugar feeding about 4-5 days in, not up front. You can do it as a single feeding or as two. I'd do two if I was using more then 8oz.

If you are going for a stronger beer and adding some dme, you can add 1/2oz or so of some styrians, saaz, or any German noble hop at around 20-30 minutes. And then for sure do multiple sugar feedings.

If using other yeasts, ignore my temperature recommendation above and adjust to your yeast. Chimay yeast for example would make NASTY beer at that high of a temperature.

Mashani,

Thanks for all the particulars and I'll give this a shot in a couple of weeks. I purchased Lallemand Belle Saison dry yeast so I'll need to look up its recommended temperature range and make adjustments as needed.

It likes it best anywhere in the 70s, although it will work fine in the mid-upper 60s, or in the low 80s too. But Bella might not be the best yeast for that beer. It depends on what you want.

For one thing, it doesn't make the fruity esters you might want in a dubbel-like beer that has dark candi syrup in it.

It provides a tart/citrusy flavor with peppery spices. The tartness is mostly because it's going to take almost all the sugars out and ferment it down to 1.003 or even lower (even without any candi syrup/sugar). It will end up upwards of 10% lower FG then if you used a "normal" Belgian yeast.

It would be better in a saison then a "dubbel" like beer, and unless you really want a really dry high alcohol beer, you could just use one can of any of the light colored extracts, a pound or so of DME, and some hops and it would be a good beer that you could drink sooner and/or more readily. If I used candi syrup with it I'd use 45L or 5L or 1L. Those are all more "saisony". But it doesn't need it to ferment dry.