OK,  so I’ve just finished off the last bottle of my first batch of IPA. It was alright,  although allowing my 5 year old to help add the sugar at the bottling stage resulted in some being a bit ‘lively’.
I’ve been bought a complete lager kit to try next.  It’s the standard 4%abv type (not Pilsner unfortunately) and I’m worried the result will taste like Gnatt’s piss. Or even worse,  like Fosters.
I’m going to make some bottles as per the instructions, but I’m wondering if there’s anything I can add at the bottling stage to try and experiment a bit. I was thinking maybe honey instead of the sugar?  or maybe some additional flavours. Any ideas? I know a lager kit probably isn’t de rigueur for STW, but I thought the question worth asking.
Cheers.

Muscovy sugar is good for lager brewkits I’ve found.

Just need to use it for priming.

You could boil 5-10g of Hersbrucker, Saaz or Tetnang hops in a large saucepanful (2-3L?) of the wort for 15 minutes for a bit of extra hop flavour, then maybe another 5g for the last 5 minutes of that boil for a bit of extra aroma.
pour this into the rest of the wort and check the temperature is between 15 & 18degC before adding the yeast. Speaking of which, replacing the kit yeast with a genuine lager yeast wouldn’t hurt e.g. Saflager

if the instructions say to use “sugar”, use “brewer’s sugar” rather than granulated; priming drops make for a more measured approach to priming. Or you could batch prime before bottling, use 80-130g of said brewer’s sugar in the fermenter an hour or two before bottling. the more sugar, the more the fizz

Thanks, I’ll look into that.

Dry hop it to death once initial fermentation is complete, use some nice punchy American hops, Chinook, Citra, Amarillo, Cascade etc.

Dry hopped lagers are lush, look for William Bros Ceaser Augustus for an example of the style.

http://www.williamsbrosbrew.com/beerboard/bottles/caesar-augustus

beware just adding a whole load more sugar, especially simple refined sugar like granulated. Unless you know how to do an attenuation limit test you wont know how much potential fermentaion is left in the wort, so might be making glass schrapnel bombs.

If you want more flavour then add an oz or 2 of pellet hops to the fermentation once its down to 1010′ and has been cooled to 9 – 8 ‘C . Leave these for a week to steep prior to bottling .

Depending on what you want to produce you could use summit or cascade for fruityness. Topaz would give exotic fruits like passion fruit or kiwi flavours. Bavaria Mandariana should give an orangy like finish .
Ze Germans would probably add Saaz, Premiant, Tettnang or Hersbrucker.

Going mad with American fruity hops will turn your Lager into a IPA or Hop Bomb beer like Torpedo if you go abit mad and the subtle malt flavours will be overwhelmed

Honey is 80 something percent sugar so unless you want something really strong be careful!

I guess until you add the yeast it’s just the wort for a blonde ale, so perhaps use some citra and cascade hops and substitute the yeast with US05/Chico/West Coast yeast. 20g of each hop boiled in some of the wort for 10 mins then same again dry hopped after fermentation.
Hmm. I have an American Amber kit lying around and some nice hops in the freezer, got me thinking now …

Thanks. I sure there’s some really good advice above, I’m a total beginner at this so I’ll have to consult Google first to work out how to follow it.
I’m pretty sure the kit I’ve got is one of those ones you just add warm water,a bag of dextrose, the brown gooey stuff (technical term) and yeast. Then stir and leave for two weeks before bottling with a bit more sugar.
I should probably ask some pertinent questions:
I’ll start with what does ‘dry hopping’ mean? 😳

Dry hopping is adding hops to the beer as it sits in the fermenting vessel – adds extra hop flavour and aroma. A small amount of care is needed as you’re introducing non-sterile items into the brew, but as long as you’re not scraping the hops up off the floor it’s always OK.

Paradox of homebrewing is that any beginner can brew a full-bodied, hoppy IPA, but it takes a Master to homebrew a carling black label. It’s very hard indeed for the amateur brewer to get that tastes-of-fk-all non-flavour profile of clean lagers. So adding stuff to make it interesting is in fact just homebrewers admitting their limitations – if we could brew up a fosters that would in fact be a triumph of technique.

Dry hopping is adding hops during/after fermentation. So if it takes 2 weeks, then add them arround say 9 or 10.

Too early and the co2 will deive out all the flavours, and the hop will leave a grassy/vegetable taste, but they need about 4 days to infuse.

If your lagering it then its trickier as it could be weeks in secondary, but if you are just bottling it at 2-3 weeks then just stick with 4-5 days before bottling but after the hydrometer has stopped falling.

Lads, he’s on a simple brewkit, 2nd kit in – you are all misreading the Q.

At the bottling/priming stage muscovy sugar works well to give some deeper flavour and colour.

Once you get familiar with brewing start to dry hop (although it’s too easy to go too far with too much hops imo, less it better because at least it’ll still be drinkable).

Then you can move on to the next 2 levels or so.

Linking in to post consuming extract proper job at the mo, finings when do you add them, how much, what happens. Do they actually clear all of the brew, even that last 20 mills in bottle?

Do they actually clear all of the brew, even that last 20 mills in bottle?

No. They just clear more of the stuff in suspension so the bottom 20ml is even more cloudy!

What I do, which works for me but others may use different methods: when fermentation is finished, siphon into a clean second fermenter. Isinglass finings is added at this point, 10ml per 5l of beer.
Leave 3 days. Siphon again. Add 80-130g dextrose for a 23l brew to the fermenter, depending how much carbonation you want, and stir. Leave 1 hour then bottle. No other priming sugars required

Gobuchul the brew was/is clear in the bottle no finings if I add them next time will it clear all of the bottle contents. Same question to John drummer I also siphon to second container for priming only because I don’t know another way of easily adding priming solution. This batch is only my second extract attempt, very pleased with results and taste.

If your method works for you, don’t change it. “It’s not broken, don’t fix it”

Never brewed at home , let alone with malt extract so not sure exactly what you have to do.
Commercial Bottle Conditioned beers usually are not fined. All the yeast, trub and bacteria are filtered out via sterile filtration . A few grms of fresh yeast are then added to the bottling tank, and roused in with inert gas.
These drop to the bottom of the bottle, and as no isinglass is used tend to stick better and stay stuck during the pour.
Takes a few weeks to clear and condition mind.
Approx 1gm per brewers Barrel ( 36 galls ) is enough to condition bottled ales.