Beer Feeds

DERMS:
Direct
Exchange
Recirculating
Mash
System

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Hello all. First, I’m new to homebrewing and this board. My girlfriend got me a Mr. Beer kit for christmas (We exchanged early as we’re going to have a crazy 2 days getting to all the various families’ functions). Anyway, I have the Mr. Beer kit that comes with already hopped extract, pack of dry yeast, 8 1 liter bottles, and a 2.5 gallon fermenter with tap to transfer directly to the bottles. The malt is labeled “West Coast Pale Ale.”

To the untrained eye, it looks like it should be OK. I have been reading a lot of old posts here and I found John Palmer’s “How to Brew” book online, and I am about halfway through Section 1 - “Brewing Your First Beer With Malt Extract.” I have noticed several posts (which I kind of expected) that said the kits including Mr. Beer tend to be too sweet or not very good. While I obvoiusly want to eventually make my own all-grain beers I realize that I have a lot of learning to go. First lesson seems to be “Cleanliness is the most important thing.”

Anyway, is there anything I can do with what I have to make a good beer? I like most anything that isn’t Budweiser’s pee water or derivatives, but I’m especially partial to English or Munich style Lagers.

I understand that the malt extract can is like a starter wurt, and I can ad stuff to it on the stove? Like if I wanter to add more flavoring hops or something? What about adding stuff to the ferment? It comes with some stuff dubiously labeled “Booster” that the book says isn’t just sugar, but has sugar in it. If I were to let it ferment for 2 to 3 weeks, could that help eliminate some of the sweetness? If I were to not use the booster I don’t know what else I could add instead.

Any kind of tips here would be good. I’ll plan on using the Mr. Beer equipment but I don’t know if I’ll get more ingrediants from them, I’ll see how this first batch goes.

Thanks!

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Guys, I brewed this recipe using all mt hood hops on 12/1/08, kegged it on 12/17/08, and pulled a glass(well I had 3) tonight and this is a good easy drinking beer. A friend stopped by and I gave him a glass and the BMC drinker liked it too. Its still young but its already a good beer. I will let Ken post his recipe or link to it here, but if your in the market for a red ale, take a long look at this one. Thanks again Ken, for sharing this one.

By the way, I kegged Ken’s bases loaded blonde ale tonight.

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