Intensifying flavor for a kit

[TenBeers]

Hello, new to home brew - been reading posts on the site for a couple weeks now, some great advice, thx to all the veteran brewers who post.

Just bottled my first B's Best Robust Porter after letting it sit in the primary for 3 weeks (per advice from here, glad I did). I took a taste of course, and it was good, no odd flavors, nothing unusual, tastes like a Porter. Only thing that I noticed was it was not as deep in flavor as some of the store bought Porter's I've had.

Is that because it still needs to bottle age? Or is that the limits of a kit? I wonder if my screening as well as using a filter funnel when going from the chilled brew pot to the primary, did I filter out too much of the stuff that adds flavor?

Appreciate your feedback. I'm getting ready to do another B's Best kit German Altbier, maybe there are ways to bump up the flavor?

Thx for any suggestions!

 

[Netflyer]

Well, a couple if things/ideas... for one the beer right out of the primary, if it tastes good you are in really good shape but it needs to condition for about 3 weeks after you bottle or keg it to be really right flavor wise... having said that some beers, a porter I brewed in particular can take much longer to develop certain flavors.

Ok, now the other things... one. What was the porter you have enjoyed that you are comparing the kit to? I'm assuming you did an extract kit right? Some of the things that will give your beer better flavor, body, mouthfeel, color, alcohol(some alcohol is not the good kind), etc. etc. are:

1. Get a wort chiller and chill your brew down quicker.
2. Get a kettle large enough to do full boil batches.
3. Control the temperature of your fermentation, at least make sure it is under 72F, under 70 even better.
4. Use a yeast starter if you use liquid yeast, rehydrate your yeast if you use dry.
5. Get some brewing software, I recommend BeerSmith but ProMash is good too.
6. If you like this sport, continue to partial mash and then onto all grain brewing and you will notice with each step your beer will improve and most likely by the time you get to all grain you will surpass the porter you enjoy with your own.

Brew on!

 

[david_42]

Carbonation helps bring out flavors, so check back in 2-3 weeks. Screening the wort didn't hurt it.

One way to enhance an all -extract kit, is to look at some recipes for the style and then check what each grain in the recipe is used for. Figure out what you'd like to add to the beer and buy some of that grain, steep it and add the the liquid to the batch.

As an example, most porters will have some caramel malt in it. 8 oz of C120L steeped in a quart of water at 155F will improve any porter kit.

 

[Revvy]

David is right, carbonation is going to be the biggest change to the body/mouthfeel of you beer. It's going to be a totally different beer when it's ready.

 

[TenBeers]

Thanks everyone.

@ Netflyer: "What was the porter you have enjoyed that you are comparing the kit to?"

I'm a fan of Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald, but there are a lot I like. It just felt like with this very early taste I was wondering if that was the drawback to kit beers - pretty easy but less flavor.

@ david_42 - thanks for the tip about the caramel malt and glad to hear I didn't strain out any flavor!

@ Revvy - I have to thank you for your earlier posts about "leave the primary alone, don't need a secondary."

Looking forward to what the next 3 weeks will do!