New to brewing looking for some advice

I am very new to brewing. I just tried my first beer. it was bsg beginners kit wheat beer. I am very unhappy with the results. I followed the directions they were easy to follow. Primed it and sanitized it. Has a good amount of carbonation. It tastes like nothing but hops. I was told when I bought it, it would be one of the lower hop brews. i do like hops but not a ton. The kind of beer I’m going for would be a Belgian Wheat. I love blue moon, boulivard wheat, Dinky wheat ect… That isn’t even close tot he flavor or color I got. I’m not going to make that kit again. I started my second kit before trying the first my second kit is a brewers best Belgian wheat. I steeped the grains which gave it a much better smell I followed the directions added all the ingrediants and followed the directions. My question is are all the kits that hoppy? Are most home brew recipes that hoppy? Would it hurt the alcohol content of fermentation if just added half the hops? Any other advice would be welcome here. Keep in mind I don’t have the supplies to make my own mash right now. I want to get a few good solid brews under my belt before I invest in that.

One of the best things about making your own beer is you can adjust it any way you like. You just have to understand how and what it will do. Your question is about IBUs or the bitterness of the beer. I use calculators like this one.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/ibu-calculator/

Once you have your IBUs you have a good starting point and make better adjustments in the future.
You can add hops at any time. If you add the same amount of hops at half of the boil you get less bitterness and a different flavor then hopping at the start of the boil.

But a simple answer to your question is sure you can use any amount of hops and it should not affect your fermentation or alcohol content.

I can’t get my brain to fathom bsg this morning. Doesn’t matter though. The flavor and aroma of your beer may have more to do with the brewing directions than the ingredients. A lot of kit directions are just plain terrible.
Can you post a link to the directions?

Artimisent, sounds like we have similar tastes. I am brewing NB’s american wheat as I write this. I am taking 1/4 of the 60 min hops and putting them in at 15 min to reduce bitterness and maybe add a little aroma. This is probably my 4th 5 gallon batch of this kit(extract), and I have loved it every time. I was also a big fan of Blue Moon until I made this beer. This beer has much more flavor. I usually add orange zest at 15 min and a pound of honey at 0 min. This beer has kept me from buying any commercial wheat beers, except for the occasional bavarian hefeweizen. You should give this kit a try, it is quite easy to tweak and add flavors to. I’ll also add about 2 oz. of apricot extract in the bottling bucket. Really tasty.

Cheers,
Ron

Thank you. The kit I used the second time is Brewers best belgian wheat beer kit. It was more in depth and added the hops a lot later then the first on. The first kit added hops in the beginning. What is NB? I’m new and don’t know the brands well yet.

NB is Northern Brewer, our host site here. Just click the “Shop” button on top of the page and you have a ton of kits to choose from. Each one has a pretty good bit of info with it, and if you find one you think you might like, just ask about it on the forum here. Chances are some or many of us have some experience with that kit.

Welcome to the forum.

Ron

[quote=“Frenchie”]NB is Northern Brewer, our host site here. Just click the “Shop” button on top of the page and you have a ton of kits to choose from. Each one has a pretty good bit of info with it, and if you find one you think you might like, just ask about it on the forum here. Chances are some or many of us have some experience with that kit.

Welcome to the forum.

Ron[/quote]
…and when you look at a certain brew the recipe and instructions are at the additional tab. Good instructions even though each contains reference to using a secondary vessel. A secondary is usually optional to most. Covered in the forum also.