Taste test my first Mr Beer batch

It has sat in the the fermenter for 7 days and I took about a 1oz sample. It was cloudy, almost milky looking. It smelled cidery and tasted very alcohlic and tart.

I was looking at a beer troubleshooting site and from what I gathered the beer sat too long on the spent yeast. Mr Beer said 7 days minimum for fermentation, but activity stopped after 2-3 days. Oh well....going to brew a "real" beer with my new brewers best kit, so I guess a lesson learned.

Those aren't the common symptoms of autolysis (dead yeast), which usually takes at least a month to be an issue anyway. I've never had that problem, butI think it's more of a rubbery, maybe sulphury off-taste.

If it's milky, it's likely there is still yeast in suspension (i.e. it's not done fermenting and clearing).

Cidery is often the result of adding a lot of table sugar - did you?

An alcoholic flavor might be the presence of fusel alcolols, which develop when the yeast is stressed - generally after fermenting at too high a temp. What temp has the beer beem fermenting at?

Not sure about Mr. Beer, but cloudy after seven days isn't uncommon. Nonetheless, you will like the real kit much better.

I didnt use any table sugar in the brew. Though I used that package of "booster" to do their VERY basic recipe. I suspect that booster is mostly sugar, so maybe that did it.

It fermented in my bedroom closet at room temp. Probably anywhere from 64-74 degrees for 7 days. Maybe it does just need more settling time.

My girlfriend got me about 4 other recipes with the kit, but they use a UME instead of booster, so maybe I can doctor them up. Even better, I got another Mr Beer keg from a buddy who stopped using it, so I can use it as a secondary now.

I've never used a Mr. Beer kit, but I suspect there's a good amount of plain, refined sugar in the basic recipe anyway. The booster is probably corn sugar, so that's probably the cider flavor. And, if you were fermenting at 74 for some of the time, that could account for the alcohol flavor. Temperature control is probably the most difficult aspect of homebrewing when you start out, but has the biggest impact on flavor.

Honestly, once you start brewing non-Mr. Beer beers, I doubt you'll go back to those kits.

Don't give up on it yet. 7 day old beer doesn't take anything like it will in another month or so. You're just tasting green beer. Leave it at least another week in the fermenter, and preferably two weeks before bottling. Then leave it in the bottles for another two or three weeks, and sample again. It should taste much better then.

-a.

Pugilist said:

It has sat in the the fermenter for 7 days and I took about a 1oz sample. It was cloudy, almost milky looking. It smelled cidery and tasted very alcohlic and tart.

I was looking at a beer troubleshooting site and from what I gathered the beer sat too long on the spent yeast. Mr Beer said 7 days minimum for fermentation, but activity stopped after 2-3 days. Oh well....going to brew a "real" beer with my new brewers best kit, so I guess a lesson learned.

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Bubbling may stop in 2 days, but fermentation may keep going at a slow rate. Besides, it will take a couple days more for most of stuff to settle down. Even after 7 days it will be cloudy.

That's why a secondary comes in handy, rack after 7 days and leave it there 2 more weeks before bottling.

Cidery: I think that the booster is a mix of sugar and DME, so that taste would be expected I guess.

A comment on Mr. Beer (I never used one though). The small fementor (2.5 gal I guess) is not the problem ~except that a case of finished beer is too few bottles haha~, the problem are the terrible directions and instructions that they give with the kit.

I have a friend that started with that and his beer has always been "not so good" (being geneorous here). When comparing our techniques I pointed him a couple of things and he is now into doing fine brews. some of the points where:
forget about mr. beer ingredients and kits, formulate your recipe, get quality ingredients from a serious LHBS, ferment and condition appropriately, improve priming/bottling... He is still fermenting in the mr beer toy keg, but doing much better.

good luck.

Pugilist

You didn't wait long enough. They tell you in the instructions to taste it before doing any bottling. If its not clear and tastes yeasty or sweet you're supposed to wait. You can wait up to a month without getting yeast bite.

I use a bright pen light to look for yeast sediment & bubble activity. If its clear, sediment at the bottom, no bubbles, waited the minimum days, I'll taste it, if not I'll wait.

I have never had to go past 2 weeks. This is with the mix & unhopped extract plus adjuncts, honey, fruit, etc.

FYI - The booster in your first batch is a blend of corn sugar (dextrose) and malto-dextrine. No table sugar in it at all.

I have made several descent batches with Mr Beer. You can get good beer with the kit, but the full blown boil kit is the way to go long term. The full blown kit will open up many new opportunities that don't exist with MRB

Several people in my homebrew club are astonished on the fact some of the beers are MRB. They were pretty good. Everybody loved the Octoberfest. - Vienna Lager Extract + Amber Extract, 1/4 oz of dry hopped Liberty.

If Mr Beer teaches you anything worthwhile it would have to be patience.

- Carb your beer at least 2-3 weeks before chilling - The instructions say 7 days, its not long enough!!

The all malt kits you got for xmas will make good beer if you let the yeast do its work. Just wait it out.

If you have questions with the future batches shoot a private message this way. I'm usually online everyday unless I travel for work. The reason I say private is so I'm sure to see it. I check general discussion section daily too.

Welcome to the new hobby.

Schlenkerla

If I remember correctly The Mr Beer Kit booster is sugar.

orfy said:

If I rember correctly The Mr Beer Kit booster is sugar.

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Definately - Dextrose & Malto-Dextrine. They use malto-dextrine for body, while still keeping it light. This non fermentable malto-drextrine requires more time to meld or blend during conditioning. My experience is the use of booster has a latent sweetness that disipates with more conditioning. The all malt batches were not this way.