You've come a long way, baby

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bpgreen
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You've come a long way, baby

Post by bpgreen »

I started with Mr Beer and for a long time, never did anything but the standard refills. I remember when I first visited my LHBS and they told me about hour long hop boils (wait; you just bring the water to a boil, then empty the can, right?).

A while back, Brewdemon had a sale on expired cans. I bought a bunch, because even the HME came to less per lb than my already inexpensive LHBS.

These were great because they let me brew beers in a shortened brew day, with either no hop boil or a shortened one.

They were also great because I realized that I much prefer my own recipes, using my own malt bills and hop schedules, and especially using fresh malt and grains.

I've got two batches left from these. After that, I think I'm going to say good bye to canned extract.
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John Sand
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Re: You've come a long way, baby

Post by John Sand »

I did pretty much the same. I got a MrBeer for Christmas, and used the HME. Most of my first 20 batches were HME, with a couple of extract kits and a couple of BIAB. Even after that, I tried a few HMEs, but I never really got what I wanted. I then spent a couple of years brewing and upgrading BIAB. First stovetop, then on a burner, bigger kettles and a cooler with a bag to mash. Recently I have enjoyed the speed and convenience of partial mashes, using discounted extract+grain kits and adding more grain.
I'm very happy that I started with MrBeer HME, but I prefer my current method and product.
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Re: You've come a long way, baby

Post by TonyKZ1 »

I also started with Mr. Beer and BrewDemon but I actually was given a BIAB All Grain 1G recipe kit first (thanks youngest daughter) but thought it was too hard so I bought the Mr. Beer & BrewDemon kits & refills. After making several 2G/2.5G refill recipes, and reading their forum and here, I tried that all grain kit, had no problems and made several more 1G AG and Extract recipes.

I then moved on to 5G Extract w/steeping grains due to the fact that I could buy Midwest Supplies simply beer recipes and now the Palmer series recipes for $20, less than the price of the Mr. Beer refills. Even the $30-40+ 5G recipes end up being less than the Mr. Beer refills. I still occasionally buy BrewDemon refills though, in fact just recently brewed their two newest recipes due to my youngest daughter giving me a gift card from BrewDemon.

However, the 2-2.5G recipes are a little easier to move around and quicker to make and then later bottle.
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Re: You've come a long way, baby

Post by brewnewb »

I always like these posts. How we all got started.

I kind of went "half" full circle. (Never made it to AG thus the "half") I started with MB on the stove top, moved up to the 5G Brewers Best kits with some steeping grains in a dedicated brewing area in the basement. Now I'm back to the 2 Gs of MB and BD on the stove.

No longer having a dedicated brewing area is really a PITA.

Side note:
A few weeks ago I brewed the MB Oktoberfest and the BD Hellfire Red the same day. I let them ferment for 3 weeks using a 1/2 pouch of US 05 each. Just for kicks I decided to blend them in a 5 G keg last weekend and named it the Hunt For Red Oktoberfest.

I have no idea what this will taste like. I hope I did not waste 33 bucks .....
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Re: You've come a long way, baby

Post by TonyKZ1 »

^^ Sounds interesting. Let us know how it turns out.
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Re: You've come a long way, baby

Post by FedoraDave »

These "Origin Stories" are interesting, I agree. We all have followed our own path.

Me, I got a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas one year, and made the mistake of adding adjuncts like sugars and fruits before I realized that I was going too far too fast, and needed to slow down and learn some things before I went Mad Scientist on my beers.

Eventually, with the help of the Mr. Beer Borg, I moved to original extract recipes, and eventually to All Grain. Even so, I still ordered the Mr. Beer kits, for convenience, quick brew days, and variety in the pipeline. Once Mr. Beer started getting weird, I stopped getting their kits, and now I do mostly AG batches, whether 5g or 2.5g. Most of them are tried-and-true recipes, again, for variety in the pipeline. But I try to push myself every year to try something new with some of the smaller batches. This year I'm investigating styles and techniques that are new to me.
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Re: You've come a long way, baby

Post by berryman »

FedoraDave wrote:These "Origin Stories" are interesting, I agree. We all have followed our own path.
100% agree with Dave and brewnewb , I like hearing these stories on how folks started out and where they are at now with this hobby/obsession. MB for me all the way for a couple years and longer then a lot on here, and I gave that company a lot of money back then. My wife picked me up a never used complete Nu-Brew kit with everything in it to do 5 gal extract at a yard sale. I did a lot of extract with steep, started leaning more towards partial BIAB and just this spring bought some new equipment and doing AG now after about 8 years of making beer. But I would have no problem making a extract with a steep and made some great ones, but having too much fun with the AG for now. I most likely won't ever use a can HME beer anymore unless helping someone that is just starting out and I do that once and a while.
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swenocha
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Re: You've come a long way, baby

Post by swenocha »

OK. I started the same Christmas that the Hat did in 2009. The wife bought a Mr. B kit for me... a decision she regrets to this day. A few of us on here joined the Mr. B board around the same time. I did the first WCPA, but after that followed the sage advice of a few of the vets there and was steeping grains and adding hops by the 2nd batch. Moved on to DME/grains, partial mash, and then full mash pretty quickly from there. After winning a Mr. B contest for one of everything they sell, I went back to HME brewing for a bit, but now on the occasional times I brew, it's generally AG.
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Re: You've come a long way, baby

Post by RandyG »

Hey All, my MIL got me a Mr. B kit for X-mas 1995. A 1 liter plastic fermenter w/airlock (Pilot Brewer). I was hooked!. Kept up making the little cans with little true success. In 1996, I jumped into larger batches,buying 2 Mr. B (6) gallon kits. Never did use them both at the same time.Duh! With those I used the Mr.B 3.75 lb. cans for 5 gallons,also with little to no great success(you could drink it,but it wasn't good.) I also used some other 3.75 lb. kits from other companies.Finally I mothballed all my equipment,and drank storebought.My next step was "Self-imposed Prohibition" For 8 yrs I quit drinking altogether. Life wasn't any different,drinking or not,so at age 60, I dragged the equipment back out and started with Mr.B again,but also created my own recipes with Dme and hops. Turned out some nice brews. Today, I still use Mr.B B/D products and create my own recipes with 3.3 LME cans and hops,or DME and hops along with steeping grains. I find that since I'm the only imbiber, that most of my brews are good and I enjoy brewing and drinking them. Cheers :D
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Re: You've come a long way, baby

Post by ScrewyBrewer »

At the height of my Mr. Beer extract brewing days I had 6 LBKs fermenting at the same. After 88 batches I built my first Igloo cooler mash tun and moved to all grain. Over the past 6 years the most extract I used was for making yeast starters, but not much else.
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Kealia
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Re: You've come a long way, baby

Post by Kealia »

I think most of "old timers" that have "known" each other for a while here started about the same time with MrBeer.

I do occasionally do a DME or LME batch as a "15-minute" beer. It helps fill the pipeline and are basically SMaSH beers that turn out great and age very well (partially I think because of the hop-stands used).
IN any case, about 2 years ago I moved away from doing BIAB to a "standard" AG process using a mash tun I bought online and have been loving that process ever since. I can't say my beers are any better since switching from BIAB to "standard" AG as I can't taste a difference nor has anybody that I've shared beers with said anything - it was just a process change.

So Brian, best of luck as you change your process. For me, it was great to have to learn something new and change things up.
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Re: You've come a long way, baby

Post by bpgreen »

Kealia wrote: So Brian, best of luck as you change your process. For me, it was great to have to learn something new and change things up.
I'm not really changing my process, just going back to what had been my usual process before I bought a bunch of canned extract on sale.

Before that, I mostly did partial mashes with really fresh LME from my LHBS. They sell it in bulk and seem to go through a barrel in a week (or even less sometimes). I'll buy it in bulk because it's cheaper that way, and I store it in the freezer until a few days before brew day. So I'll be going back to that after I use up the last couple of cans of Brew Demon extract.
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Re: You've come a long way, baby

Post by Kealia »

bpgreen wrote:
Kealia wrote: So Brian, best of luck as you change your process. For me, it was great to have to learn something new and change things up.
I'm not really changing my process, just going back to what had been my usual process before I bought a bunch of canned extract on sale.

Before that, I mostly did partial mashes with really fresh LME from my LHBS. They sell it in bulk and seem to go through a barrel in a week (or even less sometimes). I'll buy it in bulk because it's cheaper that way, and I store it in the freezer until a few days before brew day. So I'll be going back to that after I use up the last couple of cans of Brew Demon extract.
Ah, that's right.....it's some type of Asian market if I remember correctly.

Disregard my ramblings.

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Re: You've come a long way, baby

Post by mashani »

I actually started as an "old timer" with a big white buckets, a big pot, a cooler mash tun, and a propane burner, and big glass carboys. And dry yeast was mostly crap then.

Then various bad things happened (glass carboy explosion, divorce, etc.) and all that stuff got sold and I didn't brew for 10 years.

Then I got me a Mr. Beer kit one day because it fit in my apartment and was easy, and it made beer... and then hooked up with lots of the "old timers" here.

I don't use the cans at all anymore to save time though, since I discovered I could make awesome beer with short boils/fresh extract/steeps, and I discovered that I could mash a bunch of stuff on a day I had more time, split it up, freeze it, and then have "instant partial mash" available to make beers with later. I bought a few one sale, but they are always old and not as nice as using fresh extract and some grains.

But back then I used a hell of a lot of cans, one reason because I "won" (actually tied with Swen... or at least I think it was Swen...) a Mr. Beer math contest and they gave me one of everything they made and something like 6 LBKs or something stupid like that. So I made pretty much at least one of everything, except doctored a bit.

I don't have any LBK's anymore, gave them all away, and my LBC's both cracked at the spigot hole after a couple years of use, so I'm currently using the small 3 gallon (~4 gallons with headspace) Coopers fermenters (one I found in a garage sale, I liked it, and then 2 others which I got for half price on sale), because they fit perfectly in my fermenting space, and are perfect for any batch size I do or split and they are way easier to clean then either LBKs or LBCs.

I do tent to stick with small batches, or when I do a bigger batch it's brewed like a more concentrated 3.5-3.75ish amount of wort split between 2 fermenters with a top up with water in the fermenter scenario, just due to lack of well... big pot... propane burner... etc.
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Re: You've come a long way, baby

Post by bpgreen »

Kealia wrote:
bpgreen wrote:
Kealia wrote: So Brian, best of luck as you change your process. For me, it was great to have to learn something new and change things up.
I'm not really changing my process, just going back to what had been my usual process before I bought a bunch of canned extract on sale.

Before that, I mostly did partial mashes with really fresh LME from my LHBS. They sell it in bulk and seem to go through a barrel in a week (or even less sometimes). I'll buy it in bulk because it's cheaper that way, and I store it in the freezer until a few days before brew day. So I'll be going back to that after I use up the last couple of cans of Brew Demon extract.
Ah, that's right.....it's some type of Asian market if I remember correctly.

Disregard my ramblings.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
I'd almost forgotten about the LME from the Asian market. I think that cost less than the LME I get from my LHBS. But it's not nearly as fresh and also not as fermentable. And also not really produced for brewing, but for cooking. I'm not really sure what it's used for in Asian cooking, but I'm guessing it's used in some sauces. I used to get it more as a curiosity and a cheap source of additional malt, but the results could be unpredictable, so after a while, I would only use it for starters and such, then just stopped buying it. But I may look for it the next time I go to the LAFS (Local Asian Food Store). I think Swen also made a few brews with the Asian LME.

My LHBS used to get Munton's Light in big barrels. A few years ago, they switched to Briess Extra Light (or maybe Pilsen). The last time I bought a LOT (like 60 lbs), they asked me if I worked at a bakery. Apparently, some of their bulk buyers use it for commercial baking.

Before I started going there, they sold a bunch of different LMEs in bulk, but they told me that sometimes, some of those would take longer to sell out (which led to LME that wasn't as fresh), so they made the decision to carry the lightest LME they could get at a good price and use steeping grains to get the desired results. That not only made sure the malt was always fresher, but also gave the brewer more control.
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