Extract kit tastes weird

[scottishviking99]

My first and second extract kits were different flavors but they both taste the same. Tastes like soured sugar and bitter after taste. The recipe called for two tsp. of priming sugar. I put that, but by mistake I put two tsp also in my second batch but they were 12oz bottles. The first batch was 1 liter bottles. I followed the instructions but they just taste off. Are they salvageable? What could I have done wrong?

 

[Yooper]

What kind of kits were they?

There are several possibilities- too high fermentation temperature, poor quality of the ingredients, water, etc. If you can tell us some specifics, maybe we can figure out what's going wrong.

 

[scottishviking99]

Mr beer pale ale first batch and second was mr beer American classic both were given to me.

 

[Yooper]

Mr beer pale ale first batch and second was mr beer American classic both were given to me.

Ah. I think it's the limitation of those beer kits and the yeast it comes with.

 

[scottishviking99]

I used tap water but didn't treat for chlorine and I made sure I sanitized everything before use with no rinse that came with it yeast activated properly, I'm sure of this because I make yeast bread a lot. Fermented for a week until yeast was done. Next step on instructions was put in supplied bottles and add priming sugar. Waited another week then tried one. Tasted weird but I'm not a pale ale drinker so I didn't think anything of it. That was the first batch. The second I followed similar directions but I accidentally put two tsp of sugar in my 12 oz bottles after fermentation. I just opened the first from the second batch and they taste exactly like the first batch.

 

[scottishviking99]

My next batch is the Northern Brewer WH honey ale. This one actually cost me money and I would like to not screw this one.

 

[Yooper]

I used tap water but didn't treat for chlorine and I made sure I sanitized everything before use with no rinse that came with it yeast activated properly, I'm sure of this because I make yeast bread a lot. Fermented for a week until yeast was done. Next step on instructions was put in supplied bottles and add priming sugar. Waited another week then tried one. Tasted weird but I'm not a pale ale drinker so I didn't think anything of it. That was the first batch. The second I followed similar directions but I accidentally put two tsp of sugar in my 12 oz bottles after fermentation. I just opened the first from the second batch and they taste exactly like the first batch.

The tap water might make the beer have a slight "band-aid" or clove smell or taste. That comes from chlorine (called "chlorophenols" as the flavor).

My friend has a mr beer kit and she likes it. I don't hate her beer, but they do all taste the same for the most part. I think it's the kits' ingredients, and the yeast they have with it.

Many new brewers start with mr. beer and like it just fine. Others find that it's one-dimensional and the flavors are very similar in all the different beers. It's simply because there just isn't that much variation in a beer with malt extract and hops extract in it. freshness plays a huge part, too, so if it's fresher maybe it'd be a bit better tasting.

Give it a bit of time and see if you like it any better.

 

[scottishviking99]

Glad to know I'm not the only one that had this problem. Thanks for the quick responses. They don't have a bandwidth flavor. My friend says they taste just like a Budweiser. Perhaps you ate correct in the possibility of one dimensional beer. Although I did have a few bombs with the first batch bug that's because I ran out of 1 liter bottles so I used a 15oz swing top but didn't cut back priming sugar. That was interesting. I did cut back on the second batch but after reading some probably still had too much sugar.

 

[Yooper]

My next batch is the Northern Brewer WH honey ale. This one actually cost me money and I would like to not screw this one.

That's a good kit! Follow the directions, and maybe try bottled spring water if your tap water has chloramine or chlorine in it, and keep the fermentation temperature in the mid 60s. You should really like this one!

 

[scubastan]

Hmmm, its hard to narrow it down but we can try.

1. Can you give us the exact recipe?
2. Were there any odd smells, colors?
3. What yeast were you using, and at what temperature did you ferment at?
4. When you added the priming sugar, did you add it to the bottling bucket or did you put a little in each bottle?

My first guess would be you just needed to wait longer on both stages fermentation and carbonation.

but more info is always helpful

 

[scottishviking99]

That's a good kit! Follow the directions, and maybe try bottled spring water if your tap water has chloramine or chlorine in it, and keep the fermentation temperature in the mid 60s. You should really like this one!

I actually have water I got from a creek that has been tested by my chemist brother and no bad stuff in it. It's clean sand free and tastes great.

 

[Yooper]

I actually have water I got from a creek that has been tested by my chemist brother and no bad stuff in it. It's clean sand free and tastes great.

Ask him the bicarbonate level, and alkalinity, and calcium and chloride and sulfate. Then you'll really be all set!

 

[scottishviking99]

Hmmm, its hard to narrow it down but we can try.

1. Can you give us the exact recipe?
2. Were there any odd smells, colors?
3. What yeast were you using, and at what temperature did you ferment at?
4. When you added the priming sugar, did you add it to the bottling bucket or did you put a little in each bottle?

My first guess would be you just needed to wait longer on both stages fermentation and carbonation.

but more info is always helpful

I fermented at room temp. Until fermentation was not present. No odd smells to speak of and taste wise like I said previously just sour sugar flavor with a bitter after taste.
I used the yeast that came with the kit but I'm not sure exactly what it was. And I put the priming sugar in the bottles. I didn't have a bottling bucket at that time.

 

[trujunglist]

First, a disclaimer, because I have very little practice actually making beer, but have read a ton about it, especially Mr. Beer-related stuff, since that is what kind of kicked off the obsession for me. Perhaps Yooper or someone else can validate what I'm about to say...

Anyway, it looks like you followed the Mr. Beer instructions exactly. From everything I've read, it's best not to follow those directions precisely at all. You said you bottled after 1 week in the keg fermenter, which follows the instructions, but that will result in a not great beer. You should probably keep that beer in there for 2+ weeks. 3 would be better. 4 weeks is not unheard of. This gives the yeast time to clean up after itself and remove some of the not so great flavors.

If you did use the ingredients from the kit, you probably used the booster pack. That thing is basically a bunch of sugar, which is not great for a good beer. Instead, if you do get another Mr. Beer kit sometime, you might want to try adding some dry malt extract instead, or spruce up the kit otherwise by steeping some specialty grains. Mr. Beer goes for total simplicity, but honestly, if the basic Mr. Beer kit is at a 1 on the simplicity scale, than steeping and doing dry malt extract is a 3. It's really not hard; you just have to read about it and understand what is required. Also, the basic kit ingredients, like the yeast and extract, are probably not great quality, and might be pretty old. Using old liquid malt extract is bad.

Since Mr. Beer has you bottling directly from the keg (the primary), you may be getting more yeast than you'd like. It's not a terrible idea to get a little bit of extra equipment for racking it to a bottling bucket. This will also allow you to create uniform carbonation so if you run out of the 1 liter bottles again, you don't need to worry about adjusting for bottle size. By the way, if you do plan on simply adding sugar straight to the bottles, you should probably do it by weight. Mr. Beer just says add 2.5 teaspoons or something per 1 liter bottle, but you'll get better and more uniform results if you do it by weight instead using a priming calculator.

There is a large thread in the beginner forums that talks about Mr. Beer and probably has a ton of good advice for you on why your beers don't taste great, but given the basic kit ingredients, you will probably not ever be able to get a really nice beer with that kit alone, especially following the provided instructions. I haven't even bothered making my kit yet and I'm just using the keg fermenter for Graff right now.

 

[mttfrog13]

Mr beer pale ale first batch and second was mr beer American classic both were given to me.

As someone else said, it probably has most to do with the yeast that comes with the mr. beer kits. I started with mr. beer and honestly I don't really think it's worth it. If you love beer enough to take the time to brew it, then you might as well invest a little more time and effort to brew extract recipes with unhopped extract. I've read that a lot of people use the mr. beer fermentors but then buy their own ingredients. Really, I would recommend buying a couple 3 gallon fermentors and starting with 2 or 2.5 gallon extract recipes if you don't want to go with 5 gallon batches. I'm seriously considering switching to 2.5 gallon batches in the future. That way I can do full boils and have a much quicker bottling day.

My next batch is the Northern Brewer WH honey ale. This one actually cost me money and I would like to not screw this one.

Are you brewing this in the mr. beer fermentors, or using carboys?

 

[scottishviking99]

Ask him the bicarbonate level, and alkalinity, and calcium and chloride and sulfate. Then you'll really be all set!

I shall make it so. He is actually coming for a visit this weekend.

 

[scottishviking99]

First, a disclaimer, because I have very little practice actually making beer, but have read a ton about it, especially Mr. Beer-related stuff, since that is what kind of kicked off the obsession for me. Perhaps Yooper or someone else can validate what I'm about to say...

Anyway, it looks like you followed the Mr. Beer instructions exactly. From everything I've read, it's best not to follow those directions precisely at all. You said you bottled after 1 week in the keg fermenter, which follows the instructions, but that will result in a not great beer. You should probably keep that beer in there for 2+ weeks. 3 would be better. 4 weeks is not unheard of. This gives the yeast time to clean up after itself and remove some of the not so great flavors.

If you did use the ingredients from the kit, you probably used the booster pack. That thing is basically a bunch of sugar, which is not great for a good beer. Instead, if you do get another Mr. Beer kit sometime, you might want to try adding some dry malt extract instead, or spruce up the kit otherwise by steeping some specialty grains. Mr. Beer goes for total simplicity, but honestly, if the basic Mr. Beer kit is at a 1 on the simplicity scale, than steeping and doing dry malt extract is a 3. It's really not hard; you just have to read about it and understand what is required. Also, the basic kit ingredients, like the yeast and extract, are probably not great quality, and might be pretty old. Using old liquid malt extract is bad.

Since Mr. Beer has you bottling directly from the keg (the primary), you may be getting more yeast than you'd like. It's not a terrible idea to get a little bit of extra equipment for racking it to a bottling bucket. This will also allow you to create uniform carbonation so if you run out of the 1 liter bottles again, you don't need to worry about adjusting for bottle size. By the way, if you do plan on simply adding sugar straight to the bottles, you should probably do it by weight. Mr. Beer just says add 2.5 teaspoons or something per 1 liter bottle, but you'll get better and more uniform results if you do it by weight instead using a priming calculator.

There is a large thread in the beginner forums that talks about Mr. Beer and probably has a ton of good advice for you on why your beers don't taste great, but given the basic kit ingredients, you will probably not ever be able to get a really nice beer with that kit alone, especially following the provided instructions. I haven't even bothered making my kit yet and I'm just using the keg fermenter for Graff right now.

I have acquired better brew gear since that first batch. I have two glass carboys and two 6gallon bottling buckets. Not to mention auto siphon, hydrometer, airlocks, a 5 gallon brew kettle, bottle capper and some other things as well. Well pretty much a starter kit like the ones northern brewer offers. I added a few things and was given the buckets. As far as priming goes I'm going to try the fizz drops.

Also as far as the mr beer kits go, they were given to me and were a great way to get my feet wet. However I do see the error of my ways and have progressed to the NB recipes, hopefully they are better.

My only issue now is space to set it all up.

Thanks for the advice and I will check out the threads about mr beer.

The one time I actually followed directions, I shouldn't have. Oh well, time to slip on down to the store and get some Abita beer.

Cheers.

 

[scottishviking99]

As someone else said, it probably has most to do with the yeast that comes with the mr. beer kits. I started with mr. beer and honestly I don't really think it's worth it. If you love beer enough to take the time to brew it, then you might as well invest a little more time and effort to brew extract recipes with unhopped extract. I've read that a lot of people use the mr. beer fermentors but then buy their own ingredients. Really, I would recommend buying a couple 3 gallon fermentors and starting with 2 or 2.5 gallon extract recipes if you don't want to go with 5 gallon batches. I'm seriously considering switching to 2.5 gallon batches in the future. That way I can do full boils and have a much quicker bottling day.

Are you brewing this in the mr. beer fermentors, or using carboys?

I just posted about my gear. I will be brewing from now on in glass carboys. After reading up a little, I think the mr beer kits are a joke. Bug there wasn't any money lost on them.

 

[scottishviking99]

I would like to thank everyone for their responses and advice. I am very new to brewing and this forum. I was surprised with everyone offering up help so quickly and hopefully one day I can return the favor once I gain experience.

 

[scottishviking99]

Now could I return all the beer to a bucket and try to pitch more yeast? Would that do any good?

 

[petey_c]

Mr. Beer is like those cheap goldfish your kids win at a fair or carnival. It starts with a trip to the pet store for fish food. Pretty soon "Mr. Fishy" needs a tank and some gravel. Isn't he lonely all by himself? I bet he'd like some company! More fish... they need a filter to keep the water clean. Maybe a light and heater. The most expensive fish I ever had and didn't get to eat.
Mr. Beer - 5 gal. extract kit - more fermentation vessels - more bottles - partial mashes - bigger pots - sanitizers - all grain - Lauter tuns - bulk grain buys... pretty soon you're injecting the wort directly into your veins...

 

[Yooper]

Now could I return all the beer to a bucket and try to pitch more yeast? Would that do any good?

No- it's done. The fermentable sugars have been consumed, and there isn't anything left for fresh yeast to ferment.

 

[hightechlofi]

One tip that solved off flavors in my extract kits: use distilled water for brewing. The extract already has all of the minerals in it from the water used by the maltster in the production process. If you use spring or tap water, you are basically doubling up on the mineral content which can contribute off flavors. If my light beers, it produced a harsh, almost astringent bitterness. In my dark beers it resulted in an almost "soy sauce" off-flavor. Since using distilled, I have not had any more issues.

 

[scottishviking99]

Mr. Beer is like those cheap goldfish your kids win at a fair or carnival. It starts with a trip to the pet store for fish food. Pretty soon "Mr. Fishy" needs a tank and some gravel. Isn't he lonely all by himself? I bet he'd like some company! More fish... they need a filter to keep the water clean. Maybe a light and heater. The most expensive fish I ever had and didn't get to eat.
Mr. Beer - 5 gal. extract kit - more fermentation vessels - more bottles - partial mashes - bigger pots - sanitizers - all grain - Lauter tuns - bulk grain buys... pretty soon you're injecting the wort directly into your veins...

I understand. My nephew caught a bunch of tiny catfish by hand in a creek and wanted to keep them. I went to get some food and wound up buying a bunch of stuff and even bought an Oscar to put in with them didn't have a clue about oscars. A few days later it was the only one left but he had a badass tank. Now I know EVERYTHING about oscars. With all that money tied up in it I am doing whatever it takes to keep the fish alive.

I will do whatever it takes to make a good beer also. Even spend more money for a better kit and eventually move into the all grain brewing. I've already started and it will be hard to stop me from brewing now. Perhaps one day I will have my own distillery and brewery.

 

[scottishviking99]

Well after leaving it to age for a while, the beer seems to have leveled out and tasted great. Very similar to a Coors light. No weird tastes anymore just plain ol beer.