Should I Dump It?

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hurlydaddy

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Newbie brewer here. I did a Mr Beer Ocktoberfest and even though they are "dummy proof" I messed it up. On brew day I noticed that this LME gave only 3.7%ABV which I found unacceptable. Since it was after closing of my LHBS I searched for fermentables in my house and came up with dark brown sugar. Unfortunately, I added way too much, 1.5 lbs. I did not check an opening gravity and fermented for 10 days at 71*F. I did check a final gravity at 1.015. Bottle conditioned using Mr Beer recommendation using table sugar. Did some additional reading and realized how bad I messed this up so I cracked one open at 7 days in the bottle to satisfy my curiosity. Yep, tastes like flat cider. Crap! Waited 2 more weeks and last night cracked another one. Tastes more like beer but is very sweet, much better carbonation. Is the sweetness typical for Octoberfest or did I produce some weird chemical compounds with all that sucrose? Acetyl's maybe? Will it improve if I sit on it for a month or two? Should I be aging it at 71 degrees or my basement which is about 60? Should I just dump it? Thanks for any help.
 
First, it should have fermented at the cooler temperatures, maybe not 60, but 65 would have been better. The warmer temp could have created some off flavors because the temp in the beer itself will have been hotter than the room. Conditioning and carbonating do help the flavors to improve. Being that it was a kit, and from what I found, you should have gotten an ABV closer to 4.7%. You should of had a bag of DME and the can of HME that went into the boil, did you not do that? Sounds like you hit a decent FG though, but you should always check it twice a few days apart to make sure it stops fermenting.

EDIT: Oh yeah, NEVER DUMP IT! :tank:
 
Newbie brewer here. I did a Mr Beer Ocktoberfest and even though they are "dummy proof" I messed it up. On brew day I noticed that this LME gave only 3.7%ABV which I found unacceptable. Since it was after closing of my LHBS I searched for fermentables in my house and came up with dark brown sugar. Unfortunately, I added way too much, 1.5 lbs. I did not check an opening gravity and fermented for 10 days at 71*F. I did check a final gravity at 1.015. Bottle conditioned using Mr Beer recommendation using table sugar. Did some additional reading and realized how bad I messed this up so I cracked one open at 7 days in the bottle to satisfy my curiosity. Yep, tastes like flat cider. Crap! Waited 2 more weeks and last night cracked another one. Tastes more like beer but is very sweet, much better carbonation. Is the sweetness typical for Octoberfest or did I produce some weird chemical compounds with all that sucrose? Acetyl's maybe? Will it improve if I sit on it for a month or two? Should I be aging it at 71 degrees or my basement which is about 60? Should I just dump it? Thanks for any help.

I tried to make a caribou slobber in my Mr Beer and it came out super sweet with an FG of 1022, I messed up the math when converting a 5 gal recipe to a 2.5 gal. After about 4 months in the bottle it was a whole different beer and very drinkable. I say leave it in the bottle at room temp and try one every month. Also next time add some light DME rather than brown sugar to up your ABV.
 
Checked the Mr Beer website. I got the Oktoberfest standard refill. It does not include a booster pack and does state that expected ABV of 3.7%. Their instructions say to ferment at room temperature so I assume that they use an ale yeast rather than a true lager yeast. Not true to type. I will store it away for a couple of months to see if it gets better. Thanks for your replies.
 
Newbie brewer here. I did a Mr Beer Ocktoberfest and even though they are "dummy proof" I messed it up. On brew day I noticed that this LME gave only 3.7%ABV which I found unacceptable. Since it was after closing of my LHBS I searched for fermentables in my house and came up with dark brown sugar. Unfortunately, I added way too much, 1.5 lbs. I did not check an opening gravity and fermented for 10 days at 71*F. I did check a final gravity at 1.015. Bottle conditioned using Mr Beer recommendation using table sugar. Did some additional reading and realized how bad I messed this up so I cracked one open at 7 days in the bottle to satisfy my curiosity. Yep, tastes like flat cider. Crap! Waited 2 more weeks and last night cracked another one. Tastes more like beer but is very sweet, much better carbonation. Is the sweetness typical for Octoberfest or did I produce some weird chemical compounds with all that sucrose? Acetyl's maybe? Will it improve if I sit on it for a month or two? Should I be aging it at 71 degrees or my basement which is about 60? Should I just dump it? Thanks for any help.

Give it some more time. At the least it will show you how it is not the greatest idea to tamper with a kit recipe until you have more experience. Look up swamp coolers for help in controlling fermentation temperatures. YeastCalc will give you more information on yeast pitch rate.
 
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