Easy way too improve light extract kit

There are plenty of ways to improve upon kits. What do they include and what types of beers do you like to drink?

 

A few ideas...

Grains. Some grains can be steeped. Steep dark grains like chocolate and roast barley and you have a stout. Steep some crystal malts and you can have an amber or a base for an IPA

Hops. Add some different hops and turn your beer into an IPA or Pale Ale.

 

I'm not sure what that is exactly. Could be a Blonde Ale...could be a Cream Ale...could be a Pale Ale...but I doubt it's a light American Lager as that is a fairly advanced style to brew right out the gate. I would just make sure they gave you an ale yeast (not a lager yeast) and then maybe cut down the volume a little (instead of a 5 gal batch, make 4 or instead of 1 gal, make 3/4 gal). Maybe read...How To Brew, by Palmer cheers and welcome to the addiction

 

@Treycat if you can provide more details (e.g., list of ingredients) for your kit that would be helpful.

I did a quick web search and found: https://www.homebrewing.org/Brewers-Best-American-Light_p_205.html

That kit comes with a sachet of ale yeast but I am unsure which strain they provide. This kit is very lightly hopped (e.g., less than 20 IBUs).

If you are looking to 'kick it up a notch', then @scottakelly made some good general suggestions of using some specialty malts that you can steep to 'up' the malt flavor profile a bit. Also adding some additional hops for all three phases (e.g., bittering, flavor and aroma) will provide a more complex hop profile.

Cheers!

 

Definitely tell us styles or commercial examples of what you like to drink and then what’s in the kit and we can tweak the kit to make something you want to drink.

 

Not telling you want to hear but Mr. Beer is notoriously stale and the recipes are lacking. It's meant to produce something like beer at the end and though it can be an enjoyable experience to brew with Mr. Beer, the system is sorely lacking. There are plenty of opinions on this but in general it isn't a very good starting point for good beer. It is an OK starting point for learning to brew.

So make the kit, learn along the way. If you like it then we can help in many ways.

Also, the Mr. Beer packet of yeast is stale and of questionable value. It has been in the box sitting in a warehouse or at Bed Bath and Beyond for perhaps years. Same with the other ingredients.

• Spend $4 on a package of US-05 dry yeast. Probably the single best thing you can do to make better beer. Honest.
• Toss the hops and get 1 ounce of Cascade, 1 ounce of Columbus or 1 ounce of Centennial hops in pellet. Use the 1 ounce in place of the Mr. Beer hops. You wont get a Classic American Light. But you weren't going to get that anyway.

Cheers

 

Do Mr Beer kits even come with hops? I thought they had pre hopped extract.

I agree with the suggestion or purchasing some US05. Split one pack between your two kits, or pick up a bucket and airlock and "brew" both at once ignoring the mr beer fermentation vessel.

Advice to a true newbie:
After you boil your wort, get the temp down to below 70 before pitching yeast.

If you want more flavor, slightly reduce the amount of water in the recipe, like 3-10 percent less.

If you want more hops, pick up a one ounce pack of a hop you know you like and add 1/8 to 1/4 of it about the time you pitch your yeast.

Mr beer is a strange animal..... for the cost of a few of their kits you can get everything you need to start making much better beer.

Www.homebrewtalk.com

 

My advice... if the malt extract is unhopped, it might be okay to use. If it's hopped, I'd throw it away. And the yeast hasn't been stored properly, so I wouldn't use that. Life is too short to brew with bad ingredients. Also, adding ingredients won't turn bad beer into good beer, even if it does change the style.

 

@Treycat, I would recommend that you watch this video:

 

So the video basically says replace everything except the hopped LME with other stuff. Seems like a long way to go to use what's still going to be a stale ingredient (two stale ingredients really, the LME and the hops embedded in it).

I think the video should have been titled "Throw good money after bad." Sometimes appropriate in business, but a lousy idea if you want to make good beer.

 

Lots of good advice here. The mr beer fermenter is a fine beginner vessel for small batches. The downfall is the ingredients. A friend of mine who is a new brewer was in the same situation as you with a gifted mr beer. He goes to the lhbs and they put together an extract plus steeping grain recipe sized to that fermenter in the style he wants to make. It works great for him.

 

I think the best way to adapt this kit to another would be to make a stout with it. If it is 2.5 gallon kit (I think that's what Mr Beer is?) I would add 8 oz of roasted barley as a steeping grain. If you like you want to add a little complexity, you could mix the roasted barley with chocolate malt, but I would keep it to a total of 8 oz of these two. You might consider adding some crystal malt, too. I'll suggest 0 to 4 oz of a crystal malt in the 40-80 lovibond range. If you can ascertain that the yeast with the kit was manufactured within the last year, feel free to try it. If not, but a packet of Nottingham yeast.

I do worry a bit about what vikeman said about wasting time and money on bad ingredients, so this is a bit of a compromise. You'll spend about 2 dollars on the grains, and if necessary, about 4 dollars on the yeast. More if you have to pay shipping.

Strongly recommend you read something other than the Mr Beer instructions before making this or any beer. John Palmer's How to Brew can be found online. Read up to and including the section on brewing with extract and steeping grains. The Mr. Beer instructions could be better than the kit instructions I suffered through 30 years ago, but Palmer won't steer you wrong.

 

First post here

If it were my first kit I would brew it as is... if you want to up the ABV put in 1lb of dextrose, that will be good for 1% increase for 5 gallon batch. It's a simple way to stretch the kit without mixing ingredients you haven't even learned how to utilize yet. I found that 1lb extra dextrose doesn't alter flavor or body noticeably. The second as already mentioned is steeping grains... maybe something for a little color or some flaked rye to add a little body.

 

Like dextrose? (corn sugar)

 

"How To Brew," either the hard copy (and up to date) book, or the original (and free) version at www.howtobrew.com.

 

Agree with How To Brew but I'd go ahead and follow the kit instructions and brew once before reading the book. It's a lot more clear when reading if you have gone through the steps once. I read before brewing and it sounded way more complicated then it really turned out to be.

If you know someone that brews ask them if you could sit in on a brew session. Not everyone brews the same but you will get a basic idea of the steps that way and can make your adjustments based on your setup/ideas.

Lastly just keep brewing! As nothing will beat experience. Don't be surprised if your first batch is less than ideal (mine was terrible) but just keep asking lots of questions as you go along and keep trying to improve something each time you brew. If you do that you'll be making consistently good batches in no time!

PS Once you move to All-Grain you will feel truly enlightened about all the possibilities there are in brewing beer! But get some systems down with extract brews first