First brew, taste is bitter

So, I brewed from a kit my first go around. Just an American style Ale. I love micro brews so the brew shop recommended an unhopped 2nd can of malt extract for more fermentables and not go with just plain corn sugar as it might add a cider type of flavor. The process went fine, bottled, carbed up fine, but maybe I was expecting a bit more flavor. The beers have the perfect carb for me, the bittering would be fine if there was more flavor in the brew. To me, it just tastes like a strong bittery beer and no flavor. Anything you guys would recommend me do differently for a more full flavored beer with the same bittering?

Yes, go with a kit that has steeping grains and real hops... Brewers best, Midwest, AHS, Northern Brewer, all sell such kits. You can't expect much out of a couple cans of prehopped extract mixed with water and a nondescript yeast sprinkled on top. My very first brew, I did exactly as you did.... that was the last one I did that way too. Now, I'm not saying that a couple cans of mixed extract is bad and you can't make drinkable beer (this is for all of you lurkers waiting to complain that I am bashing you), but in my experience, I had a much better product with at least using steeping grains and boiling the hops myself.

Try a mini-mash kit. Specialty grains add character and flavors.

I have minimal equipment and space to brew in, hence the kit. I am getting a turkey fryer and bigger pot hopefully for my birthday from the wife. But until then, with limited space/equipment, does anyone have any recommendations for kit brewing that could provide better yields regarding flavor? I do plan to go to grain brewing down the road or partial mashes at least. I'm just getting my feet wet and starting from the basics. Learning the process...sanitization....you know, coming up with what works for me.

Read this thead it may help.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/

You should be able to steep a few grains to get some flavor... Use the pot you're going to boil in, heat your wort up to 154 and steep the grains, pull them out and boil.

You don't need a full rig... Just be creative with what you have.

Most of the Northern Brewer kits are designed for partial boils (make 3 gallons, add 2 gallons of water) - y'know - until you get your turkey fryer set up. And most of those kits come with the extract and some kind of steeping grains, to add flavor and color. Many swear by them (and equally fine kits from Austin Homebrew, Midwest, etc). Partial mash and all grain are great, but you can do excellent, tasty beer with a kit.

You don't mention much above, but time is important, as is fermentation temperature. Give your beer 3 weeks in your primary fermenter (carboy or bucket) at around 65F and 3 weeks in the bottle at 70F...should be plenty tasty.

Inside the fermenter, yeast activity raises the temp from 5-10F, so account for that when fermenting. Also, visit the website for your yeast manufacturer and find out the range for the yeast strain you're using.

good luck!

I'd suggest the same as above with steeping grains.

Your kit beer that comes in a can is mainly made up of malt extract and prehopped. This means that you generally end up with beer that tastes bitter and thin.

steeping specialty grains adds unfermentable sugars, which add body and sweetness into your beer.

The only other way i've found around this is to add more liquid malt syrup, but then you end up with a stronger beer, which isn't always better.

Festa Brew kits or similar are easy to make and tasty.

By the way, how long did you keep the beer in the primary? Did you secondary? What temp did you ferment? How long did you bottle condition?

B

The instructions with the kit said to leave in the primary for only 4-5 days. I went for 2 weeks and made sure the FG was stable for 2-3 days. It fermented in a 68-70 degree environment. It has been in the bottle for 2 weeks. The beer I tried yesterday had improved a bit since the first one I tried after 4 days of bottling. I know they get better as they age in the bottle, but being my first brew, I wanted to taste the difference from early stages to aging longer. I'm sure some of this has to do with me still learning the process. I can't complain on the taste of this first brew as being my first time around, I thought it went fairly smoothly for all the possibilities for issues to come up.

Try waiting 2-4 weeks. I brewed an IPA that was so bitter I hated it after 2 weeks. After 2 months it's the best IPA I've ever made.

Bittering gets mellowed with age, unlike with people.

You sound like you're right on track. Congrats.

B

I agree with what the others have posted about steeping grains. My first batch was a True Brew Pale Ale kit that came with steeping grains. It was a very tasty beer and got lots of compliments from others.

Brewnoob1 said:

It has been in the bottle for 2 weeks. The beer I tried yesterday had improved a bit since the first one I tried after 4 days of bottling.

Click to expand...

I had this happen with an Amber this summer. After 2 weeks in the bottle, it was carbed up, but still had a yeasty bitterness to it. I chalked it up to the Nottingham yeast and swore never to use it again. I kept drinking through the batch and giving some away. After another 2 weeks, the bite went away and I had a nice, smooth very drinkable amber. Actually, I had 3 nice, smooth very drinkable ambers. My advice: wait a little longer.

As was mentioned, a better quality kit would really make a huge difference. You don't need any more equipment than you already have. I'd suggest looking at austinhomebrew.com and checking out their hundreds and hundreds of extract kits. They have good fresh ingredients, and great instructions.

Making a good beer out of those canned prehopped LME kits would be like making good spaghetti sauce out of a can of Hunt's Spaghetti Sauce. Probably possible in theory, but unlikely. It'd be better to start with good quality ingredients from the beginning.

Thanks for the advice all. I'll look at other places for a new kit until I get up the umph to try grain. For now, I'll just let the bottles age a bit longer. They are chillin in the garage which is pretty steady in the upper 60s. That should be fine for now. I'll try them here in a week or 2 and see what I have.