What do YOU do when the beer tastes blah?

My first ever batch (Mr. Beer Porter) came out looking OK, decent carbonation, but tastes kinda blah. It's drinkable, but lacks flavor. I know, it's Mr. Beer, but if it wasn't for Mr. Beer, I wouldn't have taken the leap into brewing (now brewing 5 gallons in "real" equipment). I've tried sprinkling a little nutmeg in the beer glass, a teaspoon of molasses in the bottom of the glass (needed to add a sprinkle of water and microwave for a few seconds so it would mix with the beer), a squirt of honey/water/microwave a few seconds, mixed in a little beer, then poured in the rest of the bottle (actually this is kinda tasty - a slight honey aroma and flavor). What do YOU do to save a beer that turned out drinkable but is nothing special?

I drink it.

^^ plus tweak recipe for next brew

drink it or make a beer to blend with it, or give it away to people

I dump it and brew something better to fill my keg (and belly) with.

Thunder_Chicken said:

I drink it.

Click to expand...

I'll expand on this.

I drink it, savor it, and dissect the experience. Then I try to piece together what I believe isn't quite right, and then I then spend hours on HBT trying to figure out a solution to what didn't go so hot.

But the beer would have to be pretty ****ing bad (i.e. scent kills horses at a distance of 50 paces) before I would consider tossing it. Forcing yourself to choke it down gives you great incentive to do better the next time around.

You could also cook with it to get rid of it. Since its a porter, you can use it in stews or even chili. Drink it with the food you used it in.

How long have they been in the bottles? I betcha dollars to donuts you're drinking green beer, and if you let it sit for a couple more weeks, you'll end up liking it.

Revvy's right, didn't occur to me - if these are young beers they are likely going to taste not quite as good as they could be. 3 weeks in the bottle is enough to carbonate, but bigger beers need more time. My first batch of ales was carbonated but uninspiring at 3 weeks, pretty nice at 4 weeks, and great at 5 weeks. I'm afraid I don't know what 6 weeks would have done for them . Maybe next batch.

Porters may need to ride out even longer to be really good.

Thunder_Chicken said:

Revvy's right, didn't occur to me - if these are young beers they are likely going to taste not quite as good as they could be. 3 weeks in the bottle is enough to carbonate, but bigger beers need more time. My first batch of ales was carbonated but uninspiring at 3 weeks, pretty nice at 4 weeks, and great at 5 weeks. I'm afraid I don't know what 6 weeks would have done for them . Maybe next batch.

Porters may need to ride out even longer to be really good.

Click to expand...

And if he's using the big Mr Beer Pet bottles that come with most Mr beer kits, it's longer than that.

Chug Chug Chug

You'll be proud of me Revvy - my latest batch has been 4 weeks in the bottle and I haven't cracked one yet. I'll see if I can hold out one more week.

You can do a quick forced dry hop with a coffee French press. (This also can make an IPA very epic)

Drink it. Take lots of notes on what you think about it. Keep drinking it. I'm drinking an infected pale ale right now. Hahaha.