[jth138]

about 6 or so years ago my sister bought be a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas.  being a young kid and looking to get drunk i made the beer with the highest alcohol content. 

Blue Lightning
MAKES APPROX. 2 GALLONS OF BEER IN ABOUT 3 WEEKS TIME.
Suggested lager time is 2 to 4 weeks.

Blueberries are one of the best fruits to brew with because of their light, crisp and refreshing character. This blueberry dominated beer is extremely refreshing and won’t weigh you down.

RECIPE INCLUDES:
1 Can High Country Canadian Draft HME
1 Pouch Booster™
1 Packet Dry Brewing Yeast (under lid of HME)
1 Can Blueberries in Light Syrup
1 Packet One-Step™ Sanitizing Cleanser

YOU PR0VIDE:
1 Cup Honey


now after i made the beer and bottled it, when i drank the beer it tasted like a champagne more than a beer.   kind of like Miller High Life. 

A fellow co-worker also had the same type of results when he made a beer from a similar kit last year. 

my question is what would make the "beer" taste more like a champagne?  is it the yeast?


thanks

[Wheat_Brewer]

I experienced the "champagne" like affect and it's been from a couple different reasons.  Fruit has a tendency to add that sweet aroma and taste you like, but because of the water in the fruit it can look and feel a little more watery than a standard non-fruit beer.  The sugar from the fruit can also dry the beer out leading to a wine or champagne like dryness.  Honey will also have the same dry and added water effect, pair honey with fruit and your almost guaranteed (in my opinion) to have a light color, dry, watery mouth feel, and overall wine/champagne like beer. 

The other factor you have going for that's a big impact on your beer is exactly what you included in your ingredients, the yeast.  Without knowing exactly what the yeast was I'm just going to guess that the yeast dried your beer out.

I also just did a quick search on what the Pouch Booster was, and according the forums, if you add the booster it has a "drying" effect on your beer.  It seems to be more sugar of some kind, perhaps something like corn sugar. 

Add all this together and I'd believe you'd have a champagne like beer. 

[glitterbug]

It was probably carbed too much (causing prickly on the tongue) and fermented too warm (causing harsh alcohol flavors)

[beerocd]

If you add a pound of DME or LME to the batch, it starts tasting a lot more like beer.
Or use at least two cans of the Mr.Beer stuff per batch.
Changing your yeast too. Mr.Beer yeast leaves your beer fruity.

[bonjour]

That takes me back a ways.
If you filled the fermenter to the line/mark I calculate a 4.92%abv with 13 IBUs.

The Canadian malt you added is similar to a macro that claims "The champagne of beers".
Booster is a mix of sugars and maltoDEXTRINES, read non-fermentable sugars.

For future brews buy a Brewers Best kit that has 2 cans of extract then add half of the kit to each following the Brewers Best Instructions.  And pick up an extra packet of yeast for the second batch.  That will have you brewing much better beer.

[jth138]

thanks everyone.  like i said that was years ago and i don't plan on making any more beer from Mr. Beer.  we were just curious because both of our beers had that champagne after taste to it.