Kit Brewing - Muntons Wheat

[StubbsPKS]

I'm currently brewing my second batch of beer from a Munton's Wheat beer kit.

While I was mixing it, the beer smelled amazing. I even snuck a taste while waiting for the SG to settle and it was pretty decent.

I let it ferment for 8-10 days (until the SG finally settle around 1008) and then stuck it into my pressure barrel.

It's been in the pressure barrel since 11/08, but the clarity is still not very great and the taste is not bad, but it is quite bland. It tastes more like a generic lager than a nice wheat beer.

I used 1kg of brewing sugar when mixing it in the beginning and 85g of the same before putting it into the barrel.

Could the taste be improved if I were to use a bit of spraymalt instead of just sugar, or am I just being too impatient?

I also didn't use a campden tablet because I didn't know of their existence until yesterday when I registered here, so I'll be doing that next time as well

 

[Dunfie]

I am no expert when it comes to kit beers but I have brewed a few wheat beers so I'll offer some answers.

The usual wheat beer characteristics (spicy, cloves and banana) come from the yeast and to produce these it needs to be fermented at a higher temperature (mid 20's C). So there are two things to question here:

What was the yeast that came with the kit? You might want to think about changing it for a reliable wheat beer yeast (Safbrew WB-06 is a dried yeast).

What temp did you ferment at?

The last thing to say is that you are not really wanting it to clear as you lose a lot of the flavour in this style which might also be contributing to the rather neutral flavours.