How is this brew going to turn out??

So I put my first batch of beer into my fermenter yesterday.

The kit that I bought was a 3.75lb can of malt extract (Australian Bitters BeerMakers brand) from Safeway which makes 23 L of beer. Instead of using the 1Kg of dextrose that the kit called for, I followed Charlie Papazian's advice and used a second can of extract. The SG was 1.050 when all mixed up, and it smelled fairly strong.

What do you guys think? Will I have a drinkable product when I'm done? Should I have used the Dextrose instead of the 2nd can of malt? This is a bit of an experiment and I'm early on the learning curve so if it doesn't work out, c'est la vie.

Thanks for your responses.
Randy

What was the SG supposed to be? The recipe called for adding dextrose to boil?

You did the right thing. Dextrose does nothing good for a canned kit. You will have a much better flavor and body in your beer by doubling the malt and hops.

That's a prehopped extract so all you really need is the extract and some yeast to make beer out of it.

Using a second can of extract instead of the dextrose will give you a fuller body and more flavor. Since the extra can gave you more extract and more hops, it should still be relatively balanced.

It'll certainly be drinkable. Probably not the best beer you ever had since all-extract beers are often a little lacking in depth, but it should be good.

There was no mention of the SG on the kit can other than to say to bottle when SG below 1.008. Does and SG of 1.050 seem like the right ballpark? Thanks guys!

I was also a little worried that the type of beer ie: a bitter which is a strong tasting beer to begin with, would have an overpowering flavor using 2 cans. I tasted the sample when I took the first SG reading and I must say it tasted rather poorly, not that I'm really expecting it to taste much like beer at this point.

Randy

Have faith that your yeast knows how to make beer. When you tasted it, it should taste like really sweet tea with a bitter bite. I will bet you a dollar that was just how it tasted.

Lots of folks use the two can method to make canned kits. I have done so myself and can assure you it makes beer.

Thank Nurmey.....now that you mention it, that is pretty much how it tasted.

You did the right thing. Might have been better off with a can of un-hopped LME as the second can will double the bittering hops. It's probably set up to give you around 25 IBUs, so you could end up with 50 IBUs. I generally don't brew many Pale Ales with much less than that (maybe down to 40), so it should be fine.

1.050 sounds about right. What yeast? I doubt you will get below 1.010, maybe only down to 1.013. Unless you used Windsor, which will leave it high, somewhere around 1.018.

Calder said:

You did the right thing. Might have been better off with a can of un-hopped LME as the second can will double the bittering hops.

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But he also doubled the malt, so it'll end up about the same. If he doubled the malt with increasing the hops to match then it would end up very sweet and malty. You don't want to increase one without increasing the other, unless your intent is to change the balance of the beer.

Hey Calder....not sure what yeast, it came in an unlabled foil packet. Sacchromyces (sp?) species of some sort.

Thanks all for the positive words. I can't wait to try it now.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the species of yeast used in brewing ales. Which domesticated mutation of that species you have should be on the package.