This Is Scary .....

[maxashton]

Beer kits DO taste different to commercial beer, generally, and that's probably best attributed to the hops.
When an extract cannery makes a brew, they have to boil of the vast majority of the water under a vacuum to not caramelize the sugars and wreck it. Doing this will ruin the hop aroma and flavour for several reasons, so they use pre-isomerised hop extract.
This all adds up to a slightly different flavour to commercial brews. You can mitigate this to some degree by adding hops into the keg dry, or adding hop teas etc.

The best way to get around this though, is to not brew kits. You have full control over the brew if you switch to all grain or even extract.

Have a lot of fun.

[pantsmachine]

Agree with posts on AG. I did a few kits then a wee bit of extract then a minimash. Finally went AG and there is defo an improvement to the final product the further up the scale i went. In fact going back to a kit last month or so ago while waiting for grains 'n that to arrive brought into sharp relief just how big the difference is. Don't get me wrong they all get you pissed and taste OK but AG produces a beer thats WAY better than commercial and in lots of cases better than the microbrewery beers bought in the supermarkets. Plus theres the total satisfaction to the bloke genes in us all to making your own brewing kit, modifying it and then making your own beer from scratch. Beats the hell out of standing in line at the supermarket with a few bottles and just handing over the cash! Anyway my point is that i quite like doing this inc ase you couldn't guess!

I've not even went into the area where you are brewing a truly unique beer that cannot be bought or repeated every single time you brew

Come to the dark side my friend

I made a nice stout a while back. A mate and myself had 2 each at mine before going out for a few in the town. They tasted great and off we went but then something weird happened.

I've been a guiness drinker for 20 odd years so we go to the 1st bar which we like and know and order 2 pints of ExtraColdGuiness, wow totally watery tasteless pish. Now this is guiness we're talking about not bloody Kestrel lager. All the same, its not got a chance in the taste bud area. Our buds aclimatised after about 3 pints of it, anyway my point is that beer is just like food catering the bigger you scale up the more quality you are losing which is why we can produce a better beer and have damn good fun doing it.

[MartialAnt]

I'm happily in Seventh Heaven with my Coopers Irish Stout! 'Hit The Mark'? See above! This stuff's Ambrosia!:

Just make 1 AG and then try a pint of kit shit. You'd never sup another kit again. You'd be thinking someone had stuck pipe cleaner in it. Cant stomach kit shit now & thats after me moving onto extract. This AG old peculiar ive made tastes as sweet as drinking from a fit birds furry cup n its still 3 weeks away from being ready to sup.

[Piscator]

This AG old peculiar ive made tastes as sweet as drinking from a fit birds furry cup

I'm in stitches here trying to imagine Oz Clarke or similar using this particular description

[TC2642]

I'm happily in Seventh Heaven with my Coopers Irish Stout! 'Hit The Mark'? See above! This stuff's Ambrosia!:

Just make 1 AG and then try a pint of kit shit. You'd never sup another kit again. You'd be thinking someone had stuck pipe cleaner in it. Cant stomach kit shit now & thats after me moving onto extract. This AG old peculiar ive made tastes as sweet as drinking from a fit birds furry cup n its still 3 weeks away from being ready to sup.

But I'm not sure of how many pints of Furry Cup juice I could drink, even if it is from a fit bird.