Brew it yourself beer?

[JesseM]

So this guy on my floor came back from Guelph with 3 two-litre pop bottles, filled with wort, and they came with yeast packets to put in the wort. You leave the bottles closed for 10 days, then lager them in a fridge for 12 hours. You make your own beer. It's like the children's science experiment equivalent to home brew.

This isn't home made wort either. Its from some sort of do-it-yourself beer business. I think its called "Mr. Beer" or something like that. He claims to have bought it at "some corner store".

I looked around today at about a million corner stores, and even some grocery stores, and I came across absolutely NOTHING like this product. First of all, is this product technically legal outside the boundaries of the LCBO of TBS? I guess since it's technically not alcoholic when you purchase it, it's barely legal?

Even if it tastes aweful, I still want to buy some of this stuff! It's such a cool idea. He got a pilsener, amber lager, and a corona rip off. The yeast is suppose to settle at the bottom of the bottle once fermentation has finished, so you can pour it without it (but the instructions encourage you to drink the sediment!), so in my view, if I left the yeast in it to make it cloudy, the pilsener would actually end up being a Kellerbier of sorts! I think it's probably more of a Zwicklbier though because I doubt this stuff would qualify as a legitimate pilsener. Either way it's still REALLy cool in my opinion.

Has anyone ever heard of this before? Can anyone help me out in finding some? Can anyone explain the legality of this to me? It just seems so bizarre.........

[Tapsucker]

There have been many variations on brewing kits over the years. You might be surprised ot find out how many great brewmasters had their first brewing experience with these. that's not an endorsement for the quality, but it does say enough that they were not all so bad as to turn some notable individuals off future brewing!

The legality will have nothing to do with alchohol, since these are just ingredients. However, as a processed 'food product' there may be some food safety laws that come into play.

As for finding these kits, I suggest a quick search of home brew suppliers or brew on premises shop in your area. They can probablyt fix you up with something like this. They could probably even guide you to better ingredients and results.

Your friend in the dorm may end up being a brewer some day, so keep in touch.

[lister]

Um, there's a home brewing forum here on bartowel. It's perfectly legal for private consumption. There's lots of beer brewing books with recipes out there. There are also home brew stores that you can brew at.

I've brewed with friends a handful of beers, some of which sucked ass, some were interesting experiments and one actually turned out pretty decent.

[grub]

probably better posted in the homebrew forum...

mr beer is a horrible abomination. the kits are usually terrible and about half sugar. really not worth the money or effort. in order to get something decent out of them you basically need to treat it as a mini-homebrew setup and purchase the proper ingredients from a homebrew shop. even then, it's as much work as doing a full batch of beer, so why bother with mrbeer?

save yourself the time and effort and find someone local to brew with. if not, it's a good excuse to get out of the dorm next year and get a house/apt with more room to start your own brewing operation

[JesseM]

Thanks for the info guys. I didn't post this in the homebrew topic area because I didn't think this actually qualified as home brew. I'm also aware that home brewing is quite legal and common. I was just confused over why he was able to purchase this at "some corner store", when you generally can't buy beer or beer-related products at corner stores (.5% beverages don't count).

[Magni]

I've got a stupidly complicated 5 gallons of Dunkelweizen, sitting in a nice big carboy that is slowly ticking away, slowy aging and hopefully becoming a delicious, strong bitter wheaty beer. mmmmmm. Brew it yourself can either be freakishly easy or brutally hard, but there are some great rewards.

[JesseM]

Oh I also meant to ask if this "Mr. Beer" stuff is commonly available, or something vaguely unique that's hard to find at corner stores? It just seems weird to me what with Ontario's puritan view of anything that could even ever become alcoholic.

[Magni]

I've NEVER heard of Mr.Beer but beer kits are cheap and easily available from any local brew store. You'll need a carboy but I dont know why you couldn't do it in pop bottles provided they are thoroughly sterilized.

[Derek]

I read a ton of books & started out with malted grain (rather than extracts), right from the start. My first brew day was 12 hrs for 5 Gallons though. It is work.

You can get easier kits, and some of them don't even require a boil (some do to get the bitterness from the hops).

I've heard that going with a kit from an actual brewery is good, but never tried them myself. Look for:

http://www.coopers.com.au/homebrew/hbrew.php?pid=7
http://www.magnotta.com/Festabrew/

Find a good homebrew shop.

Another option is a good brew-on-premises. Some of them even use all-grain (rather than buying extracts).

I even saw kits at the real canadian superstore a while ago (never tried them, but did buy some supplies there)

[Bobbyok]

I suspect what you're talking about is the "Big & Easy Bottle Brew". Mr. Beer is a completely different thing as far as I know. I got a couple for Christmas. Comes in a 2 litre PET bottle with a capsule of dry yeast and a "pressure cap" which is essentially just a regular cap with a liner and a hole drilled in the top. As the beer ferments the pressure causes the liner to bubble up through the hole. When it bends to a certain amount it has no choice but let some pressure escape so the bottle doesn't explode.

It's surprisingly not that bad. I made the Pilsner, let it ferment for a couple weeks then gave it a couple days in the fridge. The first day, it smelled pretty nasty (sulfur, very green), but tasted all right. Aroma was better on day two, even better on three. By then the carbonation was pretty much gone though. For the most part these are made to be drunk all at once I suspect.

On the second one, here's what I plan, and what I'd recommend if you're going to someone who's drinking it all in one night. Ferment as the directions say (or use a real lager yeast and ferment cooler, but that's probably more trouble than it's worth) then stick it in the fridge for a day. Open it after the day in the fridge, but then reseal it and return it to the fridge. It will likely gush at this point, even with 24 hours in the fridge. Just let the extra foam escape before recapping. That will let some of the off aromas dissipate. Give it a couple days before you drink it. I wouldn't recommend getting too much sediment in it. The sediment from primary fermentation is typically less appetizing than what makes it into a bottled beer or cask. Pour it slowly into a pitcher if you're planning to drink it quickly to keep it a bit clearer. It still won't be spectacular, but the Pilsner I had was drinkable.

I suspect that for the most part, they'll only be available at homebrew shops. That's where mine were purchased. Corner stores and grocery stores wouldn't want to set aside the shelf space needed for this kind of product. As for why it's available at a corner store, it's got no alcohol in it. How would they police keeping that off the shelves? Are they going to prevent grocery stores from selling anything with sugar in it? Or yeast? And go to Utah or Iran before you start labelling Ontario puritan. It's not that bad.

[Bobbyok]

http://www.magnotta.com/Festabrew/

These are really good - so good that a number of local homebrewers here in Halifax rarely brew their own, instead just playing around with Festabrews by using different yeast, dry hopping, or even boiling soem extra malt extract or hops in a portion of the Festabrew wort to up the gravity or bitterness.

[Magni]

In the kit range I personally think Coopers is the best and they have FANTASTIC website with recipes for altering their kits, quite nice.

[JesseM]

I suspect what you're talking about is the "Big & Easy Bottle Brew". Mr. Beer is a completely different thing as far as I know. I got a couple for Christmas. Comes in a 2 litre PET bottle with a capsule of dry yeast and a "pressure cap" which is essentially just a regular cap with a liner and a hole drilled in the top. As the beer ferments the pressure causes the liner to bubble up through the hole. When it bends to a certain amount it has no choice but let some pressure escape so the bottle doesn't explode.

It's surprisingly not that bad. I made the Pilsner, let it ferment for a couple weeks then gave it a couple days in the fridge. The first day, it smelled pretty nasty (sulfur, very green), but tasted all right. Aroma was better on day two, even better on three. By then the carbonation was pretty much gone though. For the most part these are made to be drunk all at once I suspect.

On the second one, here's what I plan, and what I'd recommend if you're going to someone who's drinking it all in one night. Ferment as the directions say (or use a real lager yeast and ferment cooler, but that's probably more trouble than it's worth) then stick it in the fridge for a day. Open it after the day in the fridge, but then reseal it and return it to the fridge. It will likely gush at this point, even with 24 hours in the fridge. Just let the extra foam escape before recapping. That will let some of the off aromas dissipate. Give it a couple days before you drink it. I wouldn't recommend getting too much sediment in it. The sediment from primary fermentation is typically less appetizing than what makes it into a bottled beer or cask. Pour it slowly into a pitcher if you're planning to drink it quickly to keep it a bit clearer. It still won't be spectacular, but the Pilsner I had was drinkable.

I suspect that for the most part, they'll only be available at homebrew shops. That's where mine were purchased. Corner stores and grocery stores wouldn't want to set aside the shelf space needed for this kind of product. As for why it's available at a corner store, it's got no alcohol in it. How would they police keeping that off the shelves? Are they going to prevent grocery stores from selling anything with sugar in it? Or yeast? And go to Utah or Iran before you start labelling Ontario puritan. It's not that bad.

Okay I enjoyed your post right up until you got a little condescending at the end. Utah and Iran are extreme examples of puritan attitudes towards alcohol, where as Ontario has this quiet underlying theme of it (it's very slowly dying out though from what I can tell). When there is a government monopoly existing on the substance, I personally would call that a puritan attitude (or maybe that's just how Canada works). But I really don't want to get into an argument about this! Holy off-topic Batman!

Anyways, I think you're right about the name. What you described is exactly what he has. I'm glad to hear that you had decent results. He wants me to sample each of them when they're done because he knows I'm a beer-geek and he wants my opinion on them. You wouldn't happen to know what exact stores carry it would you? "Some local homebrew store" is sort of vague, and I can only think of a couple that exist in KW, and I'm fairly certain they just focus on helping you "home" brew, and not selling actual ingredients or equipment unfortunately .

I appreciate all the input and posts guys, seriously. But for me to get into homebrewing at THIS point in my life is a tad unrealistic . I just want to try out this 2-litre bottle thing because it's a neat and cheap little experiment that relates to something I love.

[grub]

I can only think of a couple that exist in KW, and I'm fairly certain they just focus on helping you "home" brew, and not selling actual ingredients or equipment unfortunately .

you do realize that you need ingredients and equipment to "home" brew, right? so that statement pretty much contradicts itself

But for me to get into homebrewing at THIS point in my life is a tad unrealistic.

it really isn't unrealistic. most brewers start off with extract-based brewing, which requires very little to get started and is fairly simple. $100 should get you all the equipment you'd need and ingredients for your first batch, and you can possibly even drop that down a little. all you need is a stove, a large pot (most folks have a 4+gal pasta pot around), a couple hours, and somewhere to store the fermenter. if you have any friends in an apartment, then you should start trying to win them over. tell them if they let you use the bottom of one of their closets and take over their kitchen for a few hours on an occasional saturday you'll share the beer with them. you'd be surprised how fast folks jump at that.

and if the startup cost is too much, keep your eye on things like craigslist and kajiji. there's always stuff on there cheap.

if you are curious but don't want to spend anything, do as i suggested and find a local homebrewer that will work with you. i know anytime i brew there's always at least a couple spectators hanging out and learning about the process. some of them have liked it so much they went out and got their own gear and are now brewing too.

even if you don't want to do any of the above, i'd only ask that you put a big disclaimer up for anyone drinking this "pop bottle brew". i'd hate to see someone turned off of beer or homebrewing because of a negative experience with this. if it turns out well that won't be necessary, but i suspect otherwise...

[Derek]

Some of the kits don't even require a boil. I think the Coopers Brewmaster select are even like that, and I've heard good things. I think they run around $30.

You could start with a 5 gallon igloo water cooler ($35):
link

Leave the lid ajar during fermentation & serve it directly from it (ala 'cask' conditioned). In the future, you could convert this to a bottling bucket, mash tun, or just use it for camping/sports.

Of course it'd be better to have a sealed carboy & air vent for the primary fermention... but if that gets ya started...

I think it'd be cool to have 5 Ga fermenting away in residence! (and if you start soon, it'd be ready for a party after finals).