Input appreciated

[schmidtwit]

Hey guys. Long time lurker here, was hoping to take advantage of the vast wisdom. I could us some input on my most recent batch. I made a wheat beer from an old mr. beer kit i had laying around, swapped out the booster with a pound of wheat dme. Bottled it on oct 28th, bottle primed with brewers best tabs (6 per 16oz pet bottle). Cracked open the first one this evening. While not terrible, there is for sure some cidery flavors, tastes a little on the sweet side, and the carb levels are quite low. Hoping it just needs some more time in the bottles. Thoughts? I have been using mr beer kits, as they were a gift, would like to move up to 5 gal, but this is my third batch, and cant quite seem to get it right. First one was a total failure, but learned from it. 2nd tasted like fermented celery, this one is better but not what i would call good. Afraid to move away from the mr beer until i get it down pat.

 

[Friedclutch]

Hi, I am not familiar with Mr beer kits but..... One time I had a really fruity beer. My fermentation temps got pretty high. If you allowed the fermenter to get too hot you will get fruity beer. What was your final gravity?

 

[schmidtwit]

I dont know the gravity on this one, only just recently got myself a hydrometer. I dont think it's a temp thing though, i kept the fermenter in a cooler, swapping out frozen water bottles, and managed to keep the temp ib the mid 60s through fermentation.

 

[frazier]

Other possibilities: Old LME in the MrBeer can; also their yeast is probably not great. I would suggest looking around here and find a recipe that looks good; cut it in half, and order the ingredients from one of the many reputable suppliers here, or from your LHBS. Use a decent yeast that suits the recipe.

Cheers,

 

[Jayhem]

I started my brewing career with Brewer's Best 5gal kits. I made 4 kits before I started buying ingredients from the brew store to make my own "kit".

I never made a bad beer with brewer's best kits. The first one was a bit "green" but that's only because I had no idea that beer improved so much by leaving it in the fermenter for 21 days before bottling and then aging 3-6 weeks in the bottle.

 

[jerrodm]

Haven't used the Mr. Beer kits before, so I can't say, but it could easily be old ingredients/yeast. When you feel comfortable with it, moving away from the pre-packaged kits is I think an easy way to increase the freshness of your ingredients and your control over the process. Of course, if that package of DME has been sitting on the LHBS's shelf for 18 months then you might not be doing yourself any favors, but my sense is that on average the raw ingredients probably get turned over more frequently than the prepackaged kits, unless you're only doing very popular styles like stouts or IPAs.

 

[schmidtwit]

Thanks for the input guys, maybe the beer is just "green". Will ride it out and see how it progresses. Also, i never thought about splitting a 5 gal kit, so thanks for the suggestion. I like the small size batches of the mr beer fermenter, as i am the only one in my home who drinks beer. Splitting a 5 gal kit would allow me to try some different things with the same base ingredients, before gaining the confidence to go to 5 gal batches (thats a lot of beer for just me to choke down if they dont turn out well). Thanks again, this board is great. Happy brewing!!!