Thanks for the awesome reply. I actually don't need to make anymore than what the LBK makes so maybe I'll stick with it for longer. Basically when I say they were bad I just mean they didn't really have much flavor, tasted like they didn't have much alcohol, and too watery.
Ok. From that description, my first piece of advice is one I've given many times. Don't chase alcohol. Chase flavor. You may well find that alcohol follows, but don't focus on that. I don't do kits now, and when I create a recipe, I start with a general idea of what I want, then figure out what ingredients I need to get the flavors I want. Most of my beers end up in the 5-6% ABV range, but some are more like 7-8% and one recent brew was over 10% (but that's where it belonged).
There are a couple of things you can do to improve flavor. The first is to add more malt. You can use LME (does Mr Beer still use the HME/UME terms?) or DME. DME is similar to LME, but stores a little better and takes a little more space. I generally use LME because I get it in bulk from my LHBS for a great price, but if you're buying online, DME will probably cost less because you get more fermentable for less bulk/weight. You can add about 1 pound of DME (or 1.2-1.25 lbs of LME) to a Mr Beer batch to improve the flavor. That will also improve the body and mouthfeel (make it less watery). Since malt includes fermentable and unfermentable sugars, that will also make the final product somewhat sweeter.
If you don't want to make it any sweeter or if you want to add more malt than that, you can do a hop boil. Boil hops in wort that is about 1.040 gravity (about 1 lb of DME in a gallon of water). You get the most bitterness in about an hour. You get the most flavor in about 20 minutes. shorter times give you more aroma. When I brew from scratch, I usually do three hop additions: 1 for 60 minutes, one for 20 minutes and one for 7 minutes. If I'm doing an all extract batch, I'll sometimes take a shortcut and do a 30 minute bitterness/flavor boil and a 15 minute flavor/aroma boil. That takes more hops, but is faster.
Obviously, hops also add flavor (and bitterness). Hops add a different flavor to beer than malt, so it helps to be able to identify what flavors you like.
One thing that can improve an extract batch is to add steeping grains. Get some steeping grains from you LHBS. Something like Carapils will add body and head retention without affecting flavor or color much. Crystal malts will add flavor and body (and may also boost ABV a bit). They will also impact color, depending on which one you choose (the higher the number, the darker the malt). I use C-60 in APAs and I use C-80 in brown ales. These need to be steeped in hot water for a period of time (I can't remember the timing off hand).
Depending on how comfortable you are in trying different techniques, you could also do a partial mash, using a base malt and mashing it for about 60 minutes at around 150F (you can combine a steep and a malt, which is what I do).
When you ask if I'm using simple sugars... Do you mean to bottle? I normally drop the amount mr beer tells you to in the bottles beforehand. Also, should I not use brown sugar like the recipe calls for before fermentation?
The sugar used for priming is a drop in the bucket compared with the total fermentable and unfermentable sugar in the beer. The only reason not to use plain white sugar for priming is if you want to follow the reinheitsgebot purity approach and use malt for priming (completely unnecessary, in my opinion)..
If the recipe calls for brown sugar, go ahead and use it. But be aware that brown sugar will ferment pretty completely and will thin the beer. I think you also mentioned that this uses fruit of some sort. The fruit sugars will also likely be very fermentable, so you'll probably end up with a thin beer.
I think if I were you, I'd go ahead and brew this batch as is, but think about what you want for your next batch.
I do have the stick on thermometer but it was fairly difficult to keep consistent temps at my old apartment.
And what temperatures were you seeing? Temperature control is one of the most important things in brewing good beer. Figure out a way to keep the temperature constant, find that temperature and pick a yeast.
[quote
You mentioned a couple of other yeasts... Do you suggest getting one or are those just some options if I really wanted to try a different one?
[/quote]
The yeast you use is also an important factor in creating a good beer. My brother never uses dry yeast. I've never used liquid yeast (unless you count harvested yeast as liquid yeast). The yeasts I listed are the ones I like to use. But what you want to do is select a yeast based on what you want out of your beer and based on your fermentation conditions. I ferment in my basement. In the winter, it stays in the mid 50s pretty consistently. So something like Nottingham is a great choice (also good because I like to let the malts and hops determine the flavors and the yeast take a back seat). In summer, I'm too cheap to keep the house cold, so my fermentation temperatures tend to be higher. But I still want the yeast to take a back seat. So I use yeasts that will ferment fairly cleanly at higher temperatures.
If you don't know what you want from the yeast, and/or you don't have good temperature control, you're probably best using a yeast that is "forgiving" of a wide range of temperatures. Some examples are Cooper's ale yeast (probable current Mr Beer yeast), Munton's ale yeast, Fermentis S-33 (probable old Mr Beer yeast), Mangrove Jack M10.
This is starting to sound like a Monty Python skit. The single most important thing is the malt. And the malt/sugar ratio. Bugger. The two most important things are the malt and the malt/sugar ratio. And temperature control. Wait. Let's start over, shall we? Three things that are important, are malt, the malt/sugar ratio and temperature control. And, of course, hops. Oh, God. Among the most important things . . .
And yeast.
Don't give up hope. It sounds like you're ready to take the step of creating your own recipes (with or without steeping/mashing). Do you have a LHBS? Before your next brew, ask for some help coming up with a recipe. You can give a style you're trying to match or a beer that you like and we can try to help. I'm not big on creating clones. My my theory is that if you like X beer, buy X beer, but if that's an example of a style you like, let's try to come up with something in that style. As an example, I like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I brew a lot of APAs, and they're SNPA inspired, but I don't really try to clone it (this approach also makes it easier to declare success, because it doesn't have to taste like SNPA, it just has to taste good).
![Craft A Brew - Safale BE-256 Yeast - Fermentis - Belgian Ale Dry Yeast - For Belgian & Strong Ales - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [3 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51bcKEwQmWL._SL500_.jpg)
(
