first batch first beer disappointment

[nvr2low]

so i tried my first beer out of my MrBeer kit. in the fermenter for 12 days, bottled for 8. i followed the directions that came with the kit to a T. so what gives? it looked like beer, a little flat which i somewhat expected, but its just not good. my wife thinks it has a yeast smell to it, i was thinking a little cidery. it tasted like a bad beer with some rotten cider taste. cant really describe it.

as it was fermenting the house temp was in the mid to upper 60's 90% of the time and in the mid 70's once in a while when the house felt cold and drafty. pretty much the same thing with bottling. does the carbonation help take out that strange taste? the only thing i can think is because of my temps it needs some more time to carb and age.

 

[Coastarine]

It doesn't sound like you did anything terribly wrong, but your beer needs more time to taste good. It's green. Give it another two weeks in the bottle.

Also, I haven't actually used a mr beer kit but I'd bet that the ingredients might not be top notch. For your next beer you might try a kit from AHS or something that you know is quality.

 

[nvr2low]

ya, not expecting great things, but was hoping for better than what i got! i was hoping that its a little green and thats the issue but being my first batch i wasnt sure. i have 8 bottles so i figure im going to try one every weekend from 1 week until week 8 to see how it ages.

i have a true brew american wheat fermenting now. i plan to leave it in primary for 3 weeks then go to bottles for 2. hopefully i will have better results with that one! the mrbeer was a pale ale, not that it matters.

 

[mr jones]

i did the same thing my first recipe was alright, a little flat, but just alright. The best thing i found is use about a pound of base grain and 1/2 pound of specialty grain steep in a gallon of water for about an hour then take the grain out and boil for about 15 minutes. add aroma hops if you like but don't go much longer than that because of the hopped malt extract. doing that will give you a much better product. then add cold water to the 8.5 liter line and ferment as normal. i would also suggest buy yeast from a home brew shop that will go with the style of beer you are making. the fresher, and healthier, the yeast the better and faster the fermentation. another thing would be getting a 3 gallon carboy for a secondary. it gives the beer time to clear and develop flavor. just a few things i did to make my mr beer a little more beer like. cheers

-nick

 

[Revvy]

Bottled for 8 days????

The biggest problem is you are still drinking green beer...You really shouldn't judge how you beer tastes until it's been over 3 weeks in the bottle...

The "instructions" are written for a quick turnover so you buy more kits, NOT so you consume good beer....

You beer will improve with time.

Just put them back in the closet for a couple weeks...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/558191-post101.html

Just relax...Read that ^^^, and hold off your disappointment for a few more weeks...

and read these stpries as well. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ne...virtue-time-heals-all-things-even-beer-73254/

 

[Flattop]

Revvy's right, your beer is green.
Also you didn't mention what kind of sugar you used, Cane sugar will give a cidery taste, Dextrose will give it a cleaner edge.

 

[maltMonkey]

I had the same experience with my first mr. Beer kit. I let some of the bottles sit for 3 months, but there was always the cidery taste. After learning more about beer making, it becomes pretty obvious that the mr beer kits are complete and total crap. ... But if you are like me you will decide to perservere and start making good stuff...sans mr beer

 

[TheFlatline]

If it's Mr. Beer, he used table sugar like it says.

Too much table sugar will give a cider taste. In 2 or 3 weeks that might work it's way out in the aging. Plus, it'll actually be carbonated. Best suggestion is, if you want to stay with Mr. Beer, to find your local homebrew store, and purchase dextrose, which is corn sugar. It does ferment out cleaner, but you'll still have a hint of cider flavor.

The ultimate solution is to take your plunge on a full homebrew kit, but that's opening pandora's box.

As far as the yeast flavor, there's a couple of things it could be. One, it could be part of the flavor of the beer, due to the yeast used. Two, it could be that your wife emptied the entire bottle of beer, and got the sediment at the bottom, or even some of the sediment. Slow pours, and pay attention to when that milky "oil slick" on the top of the beer is getting close to being poured is the ticket here. You'll get the hang of it, but if you drink the sludge at the bottom it *will* taste like yeast. Also, if you drink at 8 days, the yeasties are still running around, gobbling up sugar, and creating CO2 to carb your beer. In other words, they're still active. Give them time to do their job, go dormant, and settle. The flavor will improve in every way imaginable.

 

[Coastarine]

Revvy's right, your beer is green.
Also you didn't mention what kind of sugar you used, Cane sugar will give a cidery taste, Dextrose will give it a cleaner edge.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/ad...ot-going-make-taste-like-freakin-cider-90498/

It's debated I guess. For that many people to be claiming a cidery taste from sugar it must be based in truth in some way.

 

[maltMonkey]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/ad...ot-going-make-taste-like-freakin-cider-90498/

It's debated I guess. For that many people to be claiming a cidery taste from sugar it must be based in truth in some way.

If you add the amount of table sugar that the basic mr beerkit recommends, you end up with a strong cider flavor-- not debating whether or not sugar has it's place in beer or not -- a light beer with crappy ingredients as provided in these kits just can't overcome all the sugar.....IMHO...

 

[nvr2low]

honestly im not sure what sugar was used. i bought a starter kit from my lhbs a week later and it came with two packages of sugar, one with the kit and one with the beer mix kit. i hink it said dextrose on the pack but dont remember now. so i used that in the amount that mrbeer recommended.

im not really worried about the beer, i tried it at 8 days to see what beer tastes like as it ages, like i said above i was hoping its green but not sure what green beer tastes like.

my main thing was the cidery taste, i wasnt sure if that is a green thing or something else. for anyone who actually reads the posts i have moved on from the mrbeer kits to normal 5 gallon setups.

 

[Homercidal]

You should see a huge drop in cidery flavor by not adding sugar. Also, some claim that liquid extract can add a "twang" flavor. I know that I had an improvement when I went to DME, but I also changed more than that when I made that decision. I also started doing late extract additions and found a cleaner and fresher flavor (except that time I fermented at around 85 degrees, but that's a different story...)

 

[ifishsum]

My first Mr. Beer batch had a real cidery taste. Next time ditch the booster and use a pound of dry light extract instead, makes a world of difference.

 

[nvr2low]

thanks for the input, maybe i will have to switch to dme instead of lme.

 

[Fat Guy Brewing]

Bottled for 8 days????

The biggest problem is you are still drinking green beer...You really shouldn't judge how you beer tastes until it's been over 3 weeks in the bottle...

The "instructions" are written for a quick turnover so you buy more kits, NOT so you consume good beer....

You beer will improve with time.

There's nothing to diagnose here yet. You need 6 weeks from cooking to drinking, you are halfway there. You may not have to change a thing in the end. Give it 3 more weeks and you will probably like the result.

 

[Flattop]

Agreed, the beer is too young, and as for cane sugar vs dex, the point is that the sugars are different so the taste will be too, if you use 100% dme you may find the lighter styles too malty, consider a mix of dex and dme

 

[Grinder12000]

You really shouldn't judge how you beer tastes until it's been over 3 weeks in the bottle

Well - just to be devils advocate - I've had some really good tasting beer at 8 days and you CAN "judge" a beer after 8 days. You just have to remember that beer is a living creature and changes from week to week.

HOWEVER - with that said any beer should be much better and the MINIMUM time from bottle to mouth should be 3 weeks. I have to think when I taste good beer after 1 week in the bottle I'm suffering fresh beer dementia and my brain is telling me what it SHOULD taste like in the future.

YOUR problem is as many above have stated plus the facy it's a "Mr Beer". I've only had one cidery beer so far and I'm thinking I got the "mash" way to hot (before I figured out my stove).

Our local place has recipes and the instructions say drink after a very very short time. WHY do they say those lies ??????

 

[kornbread]

My first beer was a Mr Beer kit. But I didn't exactly follow the directions.

I did use the booster pack. (What is that stuff anyway?) I bought fresh yeast instead of the packet that came with the kit. And primed the bottles with Dextrose (Corn Sugar) instead of table sugar.

Mine came out great. Everyone who tried it loved it.

But, I did leave it in the bottles for about 4 weeks before trying it.

 

[Yooper]

I'm not going to slam Mr. Beer- my friend has had one for years and loves it. She makes beer in it often and is thrilled with the results. She does share, of course, and I've sampled.

None of them are terrible, but the best of them are "meh" to me. It's not a slam on her or her method- she likes it and that's the important thing. I just never really had one that I thought was very good. She's shared everything from Cowboy Lager to a Dopplebock.

It could be that you just don't like the product that it produces. Wait it out and see if it improves, and if it does that'll be great.