New batches of beer

In my effort to spend more time doing things that I enjoy, I brewed 2 batches of beer last weekend. I brewed a batch of Vienna Lager with dry malt extract and a batch of West Coast Pale Ale with "booster (maltodextrin - increases "body" and alcohol content of beer). Both of these are Mr Beer mixes. My first batch of beer was the West Coast Pale Ale with booster and it was good. My second batch was West Coast Pale Ale with dry malt extract and it was not so good. Not undrinkable (only about 1.5 bottles left out of an 8 bottle batch [1 liter bottles]) but I haven't and won't offer it to guests. I'm not sure what the problem with the second batch was - I used less sugar when bottling because we thought the first batch had too much carbonation. The excess carbonation turned out to be a temporary thing so using less sugar in the second batch was a mistake. I also used the dry malt extract for the first time and I wasn't sure how to dissolve it so I may have "cooked" it. In any event the second batch of beer had some off flavors. I'll see how the Vienna Lager is. The 2 batches will stay in the fermenters for another week and then have to be bottled and sit in the bottles for 2 weeks to carbonate. I also ordered 3 more mixes from Mr Beer (using my birthday gift certificate) - I just received the Czech Pilsner, a Cherry Wheat, and a Pale Ale with Mr Beer Unhopped liquid malt extract (very hard to purchase liquid malt extract in a size I can use with the Mr Beer kit which was why I tried the dry malt extract.)