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I have made about 5 brews in as many weeks, but still consider myself a brewing noob as I have yet to taste a brew down for 2-3 months.

The brews I have tried are around 3 weeks old, but there is a distinctive smell & cider flavour in them. Not as fizzy as a commercial beer either.

In a nut shell, I have made a beer yet that I would rave about & get my mates over to taste. yes they are drinkable, but not real good.

I have pretty much followed the recipe's of the Coopers kits & sometimes added another 300g of dextrose to the mash. I use BE1 & not brewing sugar.
Also only use the supplied kit yeast.

I generally leave in fermenter for 7 days. take a specific gravity reading on the 6th day & then one of the 7th. Always get the same SG reading, so I prime with measured dose of dextrose & bottle.

I would have thought after 3 weeks it would be an decent brew.

I have read threads here that say to throw out the supplied yeast & get a good one from a HBS.

Is this where I am going wrong?? I would have thought that Coopers would give you good ingredients so any noob can create a tasty beverage.

Any thoughts guys?

Is there something I am doing wrong?

It's my experience and opinion that kit yeasts should be used for otherthings and that a nice low consistent brewing temp will improve the beers no end. I have had only a little experience with liquid yeast and until I find one I like will end up sticking with the saf brand of dry yeasts.

Having said that, it's only my opinion and taking it seriously may not necessarily prove fruitful. It's your choice.

Try all malt instead of brew enhancers

Try some SAF yeast instead of the kit yeast

Try a bit of dried wheat malt for head retention

Try some extra hops (tea bag style to start with)

Cheers

Oscar, what temperature are you fermenting at? Even a Coopers kit yeast will make better beer at 20 degrees.

Yeh only ting i can think of is temps are too high. I had the same prob with my first batch (smell and taste were a little fruity), dropped the temps next time and had no troubles (then again that batch still hasnt cleared out after 6 months must be a bad one) lol.

Hrundi V Bakshi wrote:Oscar, what temperature are you fermenting at? Even a Coopers kit yeast will make better beer at 20 degrees.

Although I try to keep the fermenter @ 20-21degs C, the reality is that the house prob average 16-18 - I live in melb and it gets cold in winter.

I pitch the yeast @ 22 degs C.

Definitely followed what Beerpig said. I've only been brewing for 6 months and my best beer (only 1 month old too) I used Safale yeast, teabag style hops and only malt. First time I used non kit yeast and extra hops.

Oscar,

Firstly what beers have you brewed abd again what yeast did you use. Yests can affect the quality of the brew as can brewing temperatures.

Now that the temps, have dropped it is the perfect time to start brewing lagers witha Saflager yeast.

Another thing to look at is your choice of brewing fermentable. Coopers BE1 and BE2 are both good products and produce decent results. I prefer BE2 myself because it has more malt. You can go and make a pure malt brew by using 1kg of malt, but this is more expensive, but does produce a nice malty beer.

Another area you can investigate is the use of finishing hops, which are just like a teabage and you add them to a cup of boiling water , let it steep for 10 minutes and toss the mixture plus the teabag into your fermenter prior to pitching the yeast.

the main area that i can see you falling down in is drinking your beer "too young". Yes you can drink your beer after 3 weeks but it will taste like cats pee. Leave your brew a minimum of 6 weeks or do what I do and don't touch one for 3 months. You will be urprised at the difference that bottle age makes to a brew.

hope I have helped a bit.

Wassa

Oscar,

Check out this thread about simple ways to make homebrew better: http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... php?t=1966

Cheers,

Oliver