Mr. Beer Kit questions/issues

Hello and welcome.

Can you describe what you mean by "turned out horrible"? Perhaps a quick summary of the recipe and process might help also.

 

Was the taste that you had before or after bottling and carbonation?

 

Their instructions call for ambient temp of up to 76F. What was yours?

 

Sweet could be bad attenuation. How did you mash? Did you take gravity readings before and after fermentation?

If it tastes sour, that could suggest an infection.

 

Could be any of several things. Perhaps the beer just needs to sit a bit longer to clean up some of those flavors. Or perhaps the hops weren't stored well, and they didn't add enough bitterness to the beer to offset the residual sweetness. Or the yeast could have been crappy.

 

From How to Brew www.howtobrew.com

Cidery
Cidery flavors can have several causes but are often the result of adding too much cane or corn sugar to a recipe. One component of a cidery flavor is acetaldehyde which has a green-apple character. It is a common fermentation byproduct and different yeasts will produce different levels of it depending on the recipe and temperature. Cidery flavors are encouraged by warmer than normal temperatures and can be decreased by lagering.

If it is caused by aceto bacteria, then there is nothing to be done about it. Keep the fruit flies away from the fermentor next time

Mr. Beer comes with sugar so that's one possible issue. But its more likely a temperature problem. The temp inside your fermenter can be a few degrees higher than the ambient. So your 78 could be 81F or so, which is way too high for a "lager"