How to Brew Beer Using Mr. Beer Making Kit
Posted by Ron on 10th Mar 2022
If you’re about to brew your first-ever batch and looking for Mr. Beer brewing kit instructions, you’ve come to the right place. Brewing beer at home is a fun way to deliver exceptionally fresh and tasty results.
If you haven’t got your kit yet and don’t know where to buy a Mr. Beer kit, be sure to check the selection on the Beverage Craft website. Meanwhile, let’s proceed to the main topic.
How to Choose and How Good Is Mr. Beer Kit?
Mr. Beer kits have long been known for their affordability, ease of use, and wide variety of original flavors. This all makes a typical homebrewing process both affordable and enjoyable.
Mr. Beer beer-making kits come in two main varieties:
- Starter kit (features bare essentials: fermenter, brewing extract, carbonation drops, and cleanser)
- Complete kit (features a full set of ingredients for quality homebrewing)
How does a Mr. Beer kit work? Well, it’s all the procedures you would normally see at a brewery, scaled down to a dozen bottles per batch. The process includes mashing, sparging, boiling, fermenting, and bottling.
How long are Mr. Beer kits good for? A standard Mr. Beer kit is designed to produce 2 gallons of beer per batch and is reusable. After proper cleaning and sanitizing, you can use it for as long as you need - just purchase new Mr. Beer refills.
You can find plenty of Mr. Beer kit recipes to keep surprising yourself with a new style of beer every month. Choose from American Lager, Northwest Pale Ale, Aztec Mexican Cerveza, and more. Follow the Mr. Beer home-brewing kit instructions - more on that below.
Preparing to Brew Beer with Mr. Beer Kit
A typical Mr. Beer starter kit system includes the following components:
- 2-gallon keg
- Fermenter
- Lid
- Spigot assembly
- Can of hopped malt extract
- Yeast
- Packet of no-rinse cleanser
- Carbonation drops
- Mr. Beer kit instructions and Mr. Beer kit recipes
Some kits also come with plastic bottles and caps. If your kit does not include bottles, you can collect enough bottles and caps to hold 256 ounces of beer. Any bottle that previously held a carbonated beverage will work great.
You'll also need a can opener, a 3-quart pot, a metal spoon, 2 gallons of refrigerated water, a measuring cup, measuring spoons, a plate, and some white granulated sugar. To make the brewing process even easier, you may also want a whisk, a rubber spatula, and a funnel.
Now that you have everything to start brewing, it's time to assemble your keg: put the washer on the spigot with the beveled edge facing out, insert it into the keg, and attach the nut from the inside.
Don’t forget to sanitize the keg first before using it - and not just the keg, but every piece of equipment you will be using. Sanitizing is important because it kills bacteria and wild yeast that can cause unwanted flavors in your beer.
Mr. Beer Craft Beer Kit: Step-By-Step Instructions
Brewing is the process of combining hopped malt extract with yeast and water. The yeast eats the sugars in the malt and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide - these are the basics. Now, let’s see how to use a Mr. Beer kit to achieve the best results, according to Mr. Beer kit instructions.
Boiling
Pour approximately 4 cups of water into the pot and bring it to a boil. Once it's boiling, turn off the heat, open the bottom of the can of hopped malt extract and slowly pour the malt into the pot, stirring constantly until the malt is fully dissolved, as recommended in the Mr. Beer brewing kit instructions.
Then, fill the keg to the 4-quart mark with refrigerated water and carefully pour your mixture of hot water and malt into the keg. Top off the keg to the 8.5-quart mark with more refrigerated water. Once the keg is full, stir vigorously to mix well.
Fermentation
The mixture of unfermented beer in the keg is known as wort. Sprinkle your yeast onto the surface of the wort and close the lid. Store the keg in a dark place with a steady temperature between 680F and 760F to begin fermentation.
It's crucial to ferment your beer at the correct temperature: if it’s too cold, the beer won't ferment; if it’s too hot, your yeast will make off flavors.
Mr. Beer kit - how to know when beer is done? It'll take about two weeks for your beer to completely ferment. Don't open the lid during that period! In about two weeks, taste the beer to be sure. Pour a tiny amount into a cup - if it tastes sweet, wait another day or two and then test it again. If this time it tastes like flat beer, you're ready to bottle.
Bottling
Before bottling, you need to sanitize your bottles. Dissolve the remainder of your no-rinse cleanser into one gallon of lukewarm water and shake it until it's fully dissolved. Then, fill each bottle about halfway, cap it, and shake it so that the solution coats the inside of the bottle. When you've sanitized all the bottles, just empty them into the sink.
To carbonate your beer, add two and a half teaspoons of sugar to each 1-liter bottle (refer to your Mr. Beer craft beer kit instructions for the exact amount of sugar). The yeast remaining in your beer will eat the sugar and create CO2. Once you've added sugar to each bottle, fill the bottles from the keg to about one and a half inches from the lip. Cap the bottles and then invert them a few times.
Be sure to store your bottles in a cool dark place. It'll take about a week to carbonate your beer, but we recommend two weeks to ensure full carbonation.
You'll be able to tell when your beer is ready by feeling the bottle: when the beer is fully carbonated, the plastic bottles will be firm to the touch.
How Much Beer Does a Mr. Beer Kit Make?
So how much beer does a Mr. Beer kit make? A standard kit is designed to produce 2 gallons of fresh beer per batch. The beer itself takes about 30 minutes to brew, 10-14 days to ferment, and another week or so to carbonate.
However, if you consider the fact that Mr. Beer kits are reusable, you can keep producing as much home-brewed beer as you want - you just have to buy new refills. Where? From Beverage Craft!
If you are looking to buy a Mr. Beer kit in Canada or the US, browse our selection or talk to our beer experts online if you need advice. In addition to Mr. Beer, we also offer Coopers and Brooklyn Brew Shop kits - learn more here.
