More and more often lately, fans of live beer, going to the website of the brewery.people ask me a question: “I have a mini brewery BeerMachine model 2000, 2006, 2007 or 2008, but I want to make wheat beer or Indian ale, but we don’t have such brews in stock. What do I do?”.
Indeed, many varieties of malt extracts from this brand are either often not available on sale or are not supplied to America at all. To correct this annoying defect we decided to look for a way out of the situation when you want to try new beers but they are not available.
For this we took a mini brewery model 2000 of BeerMachine brand and MrBeer Indian Ale beer blend. Yes, yes, do not be surprised, it is a mix from another manufacturer!!! These blends come to America in the form of a thick syrup and packaged in tin cans. Of course technologically the process of brewing beer with MrBeer blends is a bit different, but we took a chance and this is what came out of it.
1 day
The MrBeer mix set is different from the BeerMachine mixes the set has no cans of carbon dioxide and foaming disk, but there is a supply of cleaning agent on the basis of active oxygen which washes the brewery without any smell . This mix is designed for a volume of 8.5 liters, which is slightly less than the nominal volume of our brewery. Well, after assembling the keg I had to measure and mark on the wall the required volume.
We treat our brewery with the OneStep we pour half a packet into the brewery half-full of water, turn it several times from side to side so that the solution washes the entire internal volume, wait 10 minutes, pour the solution and wash the barrel under the water through the top hole
The MrBeer mixture requires preparation before placing it in the brewery, namely: we open the cans, pour 1 liter of water into a metal pot, dilute the contents of the cans in it and bring the mixture to the boil. If you use a set of malt extract with dextrose, we pour it there too.
We pour 4 liters of cold water into the barrel beforehand, the same water you are accustomed to brewing your beer with. After that, we add the malt solution brought to the boil to the barrel, and then bring the volume of the mixture in the barrel to 8.5 liters. We pour out the yeast that is included in the delivery, stir it well with a clean spoon and close the top lid of the skimmer.
Day 2
The pressure on the pressure gauge started to rise – so everything is going according to plan! By the way, despite our fears that without the foam catcher disk there would be a smell of fermentation in the air – strangely enough it did not happen.
Day 3 to 5
Pressure gauge needle is steadily in the red zone. The yeast is doing its job!
Day 6
The gauge arrow began to fall, apparently there are very few sugars in the mixture. We tried it and it already turns out something that looks like beer.
Day 7
MrBeer, the producer of the mixes, recommends we put the beer in separate bottles for fermentation – we did the same. We prepared eight plastic bottles with corks and rinsed them with the rest of the OneStep solution by diluting it in four liters of water and then rinsing the bottles under running water.
How does beer get carbonated, you might ask?. So herein lies one of the secrets of MrBeer mixes. This beer is carbonated without cans!!! All in all!!! Without!!! Corks!!! Before bottling the beer we add to each bottle 2,5 teaspoons of common sugar, it has to be converted into carbonic acid. Weird, but let’s try it that way…
Day 8-18
It turns out that we do not need a fridge either. Let the cucumbers and jam feel at ease in it, we won’t take them out. The bottles stay at room temperature in a dark place and get a little bit stiff. This is a sign that the process is underway. Now all we have to do is wait.
Day 19
The bottles are almost like stone. Put a few in the fridge. Let them gradually cool down before tasting.
20 days
There it is, the exciting moment that happens in every experiment! What is waiting for us under this cork? Let’s check it now!
Open the bottle, you can hear the whistling of gases. Yeah, there’s enough carbon dioxide in there.
We pour the beer and it turns out that if you fill the glass carelessly, you get too much foam!
For the BeerMachine mix, I got this result only after using a few bottles at the same time. We continue to pour the beer carefully and admire the steady foam cap on the glass. The beer also tastes amazing!
In the end we realized that no matter what kind of brewery you have, MrBeer blends can be brewed in any keg. And you don’t need carbon dioxide bottles or a fridge. We hope that this little discovery of ours will give you many amazing moments with new beers that you have not yet tried.
How did Mr. Beer get started in brewing homebrews and what types of recipes does he offer to cater to different tastes and preferences?