So here is my situation (this may be a long read)
I started brewing in 1987, and back then you had very few choices as far as ingredients and no internet for info. Basically it was hopped kits and corn sugar, and not much else. I took about 16 years off from brewing, and started again a few months ago. I was pleased to see all of the new recipes and ingredients and kits, I had never heard of DME before, so life is good these days. Out of fear and habit, my first batch a few months ago was a Muntons Wheat kit (pre-hopped), I followed the instructions and added corn sugar and ended up with a very nice light tasty wheat beer, I was all excited about moving to the next level, especially when a friend at work heard me talking about it and gave me his unopened starter kit complete with fermenters and accessories and ingredients for a Coopers Amber. The stuff was in storage for over 2 years, and I figured the grain and hops were too old, but used them anyway. Long story short, it came out terrible, and I attributed my failure to old ingredients. So I ordered a few more kits from Midwest, and pressed on. The first was their Superior Strong Ale recipe kit, with specialty grains and hops etc., I also got a Muntons pre-hopped Stout (A friend of mine made it and it was delicious, using DME in place of sugar). The stout is in the primary, and the Superior strong ale is in the secondary. When I racked the ale after 8 days, I tasted it, just out of curiosity, and it was horrible. I cant even describe the flavor. I followed the recipe to the letter, so I just dont understand. I know that the way it tastes after 8 days wont be the way it tastes at the end, but I also know that you can get an idea of the final flavor by this point. Im betting my Stout will be delicious, so what about the unhopped kits am I doing wrong? I sterilize everything like its in a coma and Im about to do brain surgery on it, and if I was lacking in this area, the wheat would have shown it. I dont want to go in to every step of the brewing process unless you want me to, Im kind of hoping that you guys, with your experiences with recipe kits that involve steeping grains and adding hops, might have had a few batches go south and have some insight of what a beginner to these might be doing wrong. I can throw a few things out there (for the Superior Ale, lets not even count the stale ingredient kit) that I think might have contributed. First, I used gallon jugs of drinking water from Wal Mart (which I also used for the wheat and stout). Second, I used bag ice to cool the wort to 80 degrees for pitching. Third, I did not use a bag for the hops when I added them to the wort as Midwest suggests, I added them directly in to the wort. 2oz of Mt Hood, boiled for 55 minutes, then 1oz Sterling for the last 5 minutes, and when I poured the wort in to the primary, I did not strain it, I just poured it slow and left as much troob and hop debris in the kettle as possible
.a bunch did make it in to the primary, but was settled by the time it went to the secondary. So could one of these practices have caused my beer to be lousy? Could it have had too much hop debris for too long and it bittered the wort? I did not boil the grains, just steeped at 150 degrees. I am hoping that someone will throw a question or a comment out there to make me smack my forehead and say doh! Reply with any additional info you think you may need to make a educated guess. I really don't want to ruin too many more batches, and I don't want to be restricted to 20 minute boil kits (even though I think they work pretty well). Thanks in advance.