Done my first brew, where now

[simonp]

I have just tried a bottle of my first home brew and want to know where to go from here.

I have brewed a Muntons Continental Pilsner kit, which was bottled 3 weeks ago using Coopers drops for priming, and is now pretty clear.
Tried the first bottle today to make sure it is OK and worth keeping/resting. Not bad at all, carbonated well, head OK, and no off tastes. Criticisms would be that it doesn't quite taste like lager, but is certainy not an ale. I'm guessing this is down to the kit yeast and the highish fermenting temp which woul have been 20-22C. Also I would prefer it to be a little stronger in flavour, partcilarly hops.
I have just picked up an old fridge so will put the rest in there to lager.

The question is where do I go from here to improve flavour? Fermenting at lower temps will be a problem as my permentation bin will not fit in the fridge. To get a stronger more hoppy flavour is it worth adding to the kit, or better to go back a step using extract and add the hops myself. How much better results come from using the extract method?
I have wondered about just brewing a 20 pint batch in a smaller vessel which may well fit in the fridge.

Are wheat beers any easier to get good results with?

 

[tubby_shaw]

The world is your mollusc, as they say
It all really depends on how much money, time and effort you want to put into your beer.
If, as you say the kits that you have made are ok except for the hop profile, buy some good hops and add a hop tea to improve the aroma, or boil some hops with a little of the made up kit before fermentation to improve the flavour :thumb:
From your posts I think that you would like to be making pilsner style beers and to be honest it is a very difficult style go get right, even with shiny all grain breweries and NASA style temperature control
But don't let me put you off from trying :thumb:
I have made some acceptable pilsner type lagers using light dried malt extract and Saaz hops and it is fairly simple if you have access to a large stockpot or a boiler :)

 

[jamesb]

The world is your mollusc, as they say

ITYM Lobster. HTH HAND.