Beer Tastes a little sweet and a bit like caramel

So I brewed my first beer about four weeks ago.. I used a hopped lager malt extract and 2 different kinda of hops.. I thought I was pretty diligent about stirring it to not burn it. I let it ferment for two weeks. When I bottled it I added about a half a cup of corn sugar, and it's been sitting in a dark corner for two weeks.. I tried it the other day and it tastes a bit like Carmel and its sweet , also there's not alot of carbonation.. Did I burn the malt or does it need longer to sit in the bottle

Not familiar with any hopped extract brews, but I would say this:

1) After bottling, it is best to leave the brew at room temperature for 3 weeks. I've never had one fail to carb up.

2) Did you take a gravity reading?

3) What kind of beer . . . it could be that the caramel flavor is desired.

It probably is your particular canned kit. Where in the world are you? If you are in North America, you can get some high quality kits from vendors here like Midwest, Northern Brewer or Austin, that will probably solve your problem.

masterfool101 said:

Not familiar with any hopped extract brews, but I would say this:

1) After bottling, it is best to leave the brew at room temperature for 3 weeks. I've never had one fail to carb up.

2) Did you take a gravity reading?

3) What kind of beer . . . it could be that the caramel flavor is desired.

Click to expand...

I did not take a gravity in fortunately, and I'm not exactly to sure what kind of beer it was I just specifically remember it being a lager, and I thought I added enough hops to give a but of a punch.. I let the one with the higher AA boil for about 20 min, and the lower for about 5... The beer doesn't taste horrible but I'm gonna try to make a blackberry flavored beer on sat and if I'm burning it it would probably be better to avoid that.

Pappers_ said:

It probably is your particular canned kit. Where in the world are you? If you are in North America, you can get some high quality kits from vendors here like Midwest, Northern Brewer or Austin, that will probably solve your problem.

Click to expand...

Yes I'm in North America... I believe my malt was coopers maybe but I'm not 100 % sure

Sure sounds like a successful brew....4 weeks is pretty dog-gone young. The sweet caramel flavor is desired for some... probably the intended result since hop boil is just 20 minutes. It will change some over the next few weeks. Even if it stays sweet and caramel, someone will like it.....send it to me.

Might be under attenuated. If you did not take a gravity reading, we don't know for certain. What yeast did you use?

As someone stated, there are some really good kits available from the online stores. Try one of those......It will change your life.

jmacohhnoo said:

Yes I'm in North America... I believe my malt was coopers maybe but I'm not 100 % sure

Click to expand...

Honestly, Coopers is not good (ducks to avoid those who disagree). The underattenuation and caramelly flavor is probably due to the kit. Try a top flight kit and see if you get better results.

unionrdr said:

It's not the fact that it's mearly Cooper's it's the fact that it likely was used incorrectly. Or others with high ferment temps & less than healthy yeast pitch. I worked that stuff out & can make a pretty good ale with Cooper's cans.
Gunna take their Heritage lager can & make a German-esc black lager out of it with a lil rauchmalt.

Click to expand...

Fair enough. Just as people can make good beer from Mr. Beer, so I'm sure that some (including you) do make good beer from Coopers kits. I could have posted more thoughtfully.

jethro55 said:

Sure sounds like a successful brew....4 weeks is pretty dog-gone young. The sweet caramel flavor is desired for some... probably the intended result since hop boil is just 20 minutes. It will change some over the next few weeks. Even if it stays sweet and caramel, someone will like it.....send it to me.

Click to expand...

Hahaha yah it's not bad... Just unexpected

planetscott said:

Might be under attenuated. If you did not take a gravity reading, we don't know for certain. What yeast did you use?

As someone stated, there are some really good kits available from the online stores. Try one of those......It will change your life.

Click to expand...

I think it's kind of thick... I used the yeast that came packaged on the top of the can... I haven't checked online yet... I live near a place called beers of the world that have a lot of different kits so ill just have to look a little more carefully

I noticed you said it was a lager. What was the temp during fermentation?

GeorgiaTiger said:

I noticed you said it was a lager. What was the temp during fermentation?

Click to expand...

hovered somewhere between 57-63

Thank you for all the comments you've all given me a bunch to think about