I received a Mr. Beer kit as a gift as I'd been wanting to try my hand at some different beers. It came with the standard Pale Ale beer kit and I wanted to try my hand at it first before I screwed up something I really wanted
The initial smell on the beer is that of honey and a bit alcoholy/hot. The front end is very bready/malty, followed up by that alcoholy/hot taste, and a bit of bitterness. It's fairly low in carbonation, but I'm not sure what the head on this beer should be any way. I could probably put a bit more sugar in it next time. Overall, it's not HORRIBLE but just barely drinkable.
Things I think I did right:
- Fermented for over 3 weeks.
- Bottle conditioned/carbed for about 3 weeks.
- Cold conditioned for about 1.5 weeks.
- Sanitized pretty well.
- Didn't fret too much on how the beer would turn out as I figured it'd be bad any way!
Things I think I did wrong:
- I think I didn't control the fermenting temp as well as I should have. I left it a day at room temp, then into a cooler with a few ice packs. Unfortunately, I forgot a day or two and the air temps ranged from 80ish-75ish.
- Didn't cool the wort or pour it into COLD water (just room temp water). Next time, I'll put the pot into an ice bath and bring the temp down before putting it in the fermenter.
- Used tap water to put into the fermenter first; I'll make sure I have bottle water on hand (and in the fridge!) next time.
- Didn't prime the yeast. This may not have made a difference, but I still will do it next time.
- Used a low end beer kit. Though this was on purpose, I'm going to get a higher quality, all LME kit next time.
Anyone have any comments or suggestions? I'm trying to stay with extract kits my first few times to continue to improve my process.
The initial smell on the beer is that of honey and a bit alcoholy/hot. The front end is very bready/malty, followed up by that alcoholy/hot taste, and a bit of bitterness. It's fairly low in carbonation, but I'm not sure what the head on this beer should be any way. I could probably put a bit more sugar in it next time. Overall, it's not HORRIBLE but just barely drinkable.
Things I think I did right:
- Fermented for over 3 weeks.
- Bottle conditioned/carbed for about 3 weeks.
- Cold conditioned for about 1.5 weeks.
- Sanitized pretty well.
- Didn't fret too much on how the beer would turn out as I figured it'd be bad any way!
Things I think I did wrong:
- I think I didn't control the fermenting temp as well as I should have. I left it a day at room temp, then into a cooler with a few ice packs. Unfortunately, I forgot a day or two and the air temps ranged from 80ish-75ish.
- Didn't cool the wort or pour it into COLD water (just room temp water). Next time, I'll put the pot into an ice bath and bring the temp down before putting it in the fermenter.
- Used tap water to put into the fermenter first; I'll make sure I have bottle water on hand (and in the fridge!) next time.
- Didn't prime the yeast. This may not have made a difference, but I still will do it next time.
- Used a low end beer kit. Though this was on purpose, I'm going to get a higher quality, all LME kit next time.
Anyone have any comments or suggestions? I'm trying to stay with extract kits my first few times to continue to improve my process.