Beer in bottles

[bramley4600]

Hi everybody.
Semi-Newbie here. Started brewing again after having a go about 30 years ago without too much success.
Now I have the time, decided I would revisit the hobby.Made my first batch of Coopers English Ale several weeks ago, followed all the instructions exactly and bottled it on 7th April. About 2 days later I saw a sediment appear in the bottom of the bottles and was not sure if this was undissolved sugar or gunge after the second fermentation had started.
So 2 weeks later I opened a bottle to try and was a bit disappointed. Slight fizz when I opened it, nice smell, slight head when poured but tastes 'watery' with not much of a body.
So the question is.... does it need to be left a lot longer and if so will it improve or is this just a consequence of using a brew kit? Or should I just throw it away???
Would love to succeed after all the expense and time.

Have since started another Coopers brew, the Stout. Smells wonderful and tastes very good so far, am about to keg it.

Thanks for any help.

 

[tippseyTony]

Some kits you need to brew short like 21 lt too get the body ,
And using spray malt say 500g with 500g sugar Oslo

 

[tippseyTony]

Some kits you need to brew short like 21 lt too get the body ,
And using spray malt say 500g with 500g sugar .

 

[bramley4600]

Yes I did that with the Coopers Stout, maybe that's why it smells and tastes better.
Thanks.

 

[proost]

Hi everybody.
Semi-Newbie here. Started brewing again after having a go about 30 years ago without too much success.
Now I have the time, decided I would revisit the hobby.Made my first batch of Coopers English Ale several weeks ago, followed all the instructions exactly and bottled it on 7th April. About 2 days later I saw a sediment appear in the bottom of the bottles and was not sure if this was undissolved sugar or gunge after the second fermentation had started.
So 2 weeks later I opened a bottle to try and was a bit disappointed. Slight fizz when I opened it, nice smell, slight head when poured but tastes 'watery' with not much of a body.
So the question is.... does it need to be left a lot longer and if so will it improve or is this just a consequence of using a brew kit? Or should I just throw it away???
Would love to succeed after all the expense and time.

Have since started another Coopers brew, the Stout. Smells wonderful and tastes very good so far, am about to keg it.

Thanks for any help.

DON'T THROW IT!
The sediment is a natural by product of the yeast fermenting. Just leave the last 1/2" in the bottle.
It will get better the longer you leave it. I leave my Coopers English Ale for at least 4 weeks before I start drinking it but its better after 8. What I have found is, the longer the better (yea I know its hard not to try it) How much sugar did you prime with?

As to the Coopers Stout, this my favourite and Iv'e done 3 so far. I used the kit plus 1kg Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 and a tin of 454g Black Treacle, 20L water, came out to 5%. After 3 weeks in the bottle it was quite sweet, after 4/5 weeks it mellowed. After 12 weeks this is really nice, lost the sweetness and tastes just like a stout should.

I nearly always brew short to 20L.

Good luck

 

[bramley4600]

Thanks proost.
I'll keep it tucked away in the garage then.
I thought I had made a mistake by leaving too much space in the tops of the PET bottles. I left about 2 inches as I was worried about the stuff exploding but I guess they are designed to withstand a lot of pressure. I put in the recommended amount of brewing sugar 0.5 of a teaspoon. Should I have put more in? Should I put more in the bottles now or just leave it?
I was going to brew the Coopers Stout short to 20 L but I mistakenly put in warm/hot water instead of cold in the FV and had to put some extra cold water to get to the required temperature range. It came out to about 21 L.
Am going to keg the Coopers Stout, really looking forward to it. Just bought a King Keg thingy so that will be another first for me and a new adventure.
Thanks for the help.

 

[Lampie]

The priming also depends on the temp the filled bottles ate stored in. After botteling i keep my bottles at fermenting temperature for two weeks so you get some fermentation in the bottle, this fermentation gives the bubbles in the bottle. I give my beer about 3 months to fully develop. All the instructions say that you can drink in 3 weeks and you can but i find that most of the beer tastes like heineken, weak taste and to much water :-P

 

[clibit]

Are you making kits? My beers don't taste weak, watery or Heineken-like after 3 weeks. A lot of AG brews are great after 2 weeks in the bottle, in my experience. But usually better after 4.

 

[jonnymorris]

The sediment is a natural by product of the yeast fermenting.

The sediment is the yeast that has fermented in the bottle and dropped out of suspension.

 

[proost]

The sediment is the yeast that has fermented in the bottle and dropped out of suspension.

Oops. Yea your right.

 

[bramley4600]

Thanks guys for the info.
I started off with a Beaverdale Merlot kit before Christmas, again followed all the instructions very carefully but from the outset it had a horrible sherry-like aftertaste, there was no hint of fruit at all. Took a sample to my local brew shop and he agreed. However, he also gave a sample to the Beaverdale rep and he reported that it tasted OK, so not sure what to make of that.
I realised that there would be sediment in the bottles but I was surprised that it appeared so quickly after priming with sugar, that's why I was unsure whether it was undissolved sugar or yeast ferment or maybe a combination of both.
My King keg should be arriving today so I will put the Coopers Stout in there and as I said previously this batch tastes much better. Maybe the trick is to add Treacle and some extract.
No doubt I will try some more kits in the near future and see what happens.

 

[serum]

In my experience kits can taste watery until about 4 weeks after bottling and they often continue to develop body after that. Some reach their best after 3 months or more.

I've heard it's something you get from using extract but I've no idea if that's true or not. I'm planning to do my first AG brew at the weekend so I'll see if that's true.