Bottles or Keg

[rob9900]

Hi guys, new to this, just got a Coopers lager starter kit for crimbo and can't wait to get started. A few quick questions, sorry in advance if they seem silly but i don't want to mess this up.....

1. The kit comes with PET bottles. In the instructional DVD that comes with he kit it explains how once bottled because of sediment in the bottle you must not drink out of the bottle, but pour into a glass so not to disturb the sediment and make the lager cloudy. My question is to stop this would it not be better to transfer to a secondary fermentation bin and then transfer to bottles or would this loose the co2.

2. Rather than bottles should i use a keg??

3. Could i use my kit to make cider. I have read that you should not use beer making equipment to make wine because you could cross contaminate, does the same apply for beer and cider??

 

[tubby_shaw]

Hi rob9900, welcome to the forum :
I've moved this to a more relevant section :thumb:

1. The kit comes with PET bottles. In the instructional DVD that comes with he kit it explains how once bottled because of sediment in the bottle you must not drink out of the bottle, but pour into a glass so not to disturb the sediment and make the lager cloudy. My question is to stop this would it not be better to transfer to a secondary fermentation bin and then transfer to bottles or would this loose the co2.

Firstly why would you want to drink out of the bottle ?
Pouring beer into a glass is the civilised thing to do :lol:
You can reduce the amount of sediment that you wil get in the bottle by leaving your lager in the fermentation vessel for up to a week after fermentation has finished. This will allow a lot of yeast to drop out of suspension :thumb:

2. Rather than bottles should i use a keg??

Unless you buy a cornelius keg you will not be able to achieve a high enough level of carbonation in a plastic keg

3. Could i use my kit to make cider. I have read that you should not use beer making equipment to make wine because you could cross contaminate, does the same apply for beer and cider??

So long as you thoroughly clean and sanitise your brewing equipment you can ferment and store what you like in it :thumb:

 

[Moley]

1. The kit comes with PET bottles. In the instructional DVD that comes with he kit it explains how once bottled because of sediment in the bottle you must not drink out of the bottle, but pour into a glass so not to disturb the sediment and make the lager cloudy.

Hi Rob, and welcome to the forum. :

As tubby_shaw says, don't be in too much of a hurry to bottle, give your beer a few days longer than the instructions might suggest to allow it to drop most of its sediment.

When you have bottled, I know it's not easy but don't be too impatient to sample your brew, it really needs a week in the warm and then one or two months somewhere cool.

The longer you give it, the better it will get, and Cooper's yeasts form a nice firm sediment in the bottles.

If you are using 1 litre PETs you should pour to a 2 litre jug. Tilt your bottle slightly and unscrew the cap gently, then pour slowly and steadily down the side of the jug, watch for the sediment creeping towards the neck and stop just before it gets there. Do this in one smooth movement. The longer you have left your beer, the more you will be able to pour and with practice you should be able to pour almost the entire bottle.

If you do disturb and transfer some of the sediment, it's not going to do you any harm.

 

[Moley]

3. Could i use my kit to make cider. I have read that you should not use beer making equipment to make wine because you could cross contaminate, does the same apply for beer and cider??

If you are just experimenting with one or two different brews, clean it thoroughly and use the same equipment.

If you get serious about it, one fermenter won't be enough and you will probably want to keep things separate. My beer bucket and my wine fermenters are dedicated to purpose. I can't think of any logical reason for that, but it is considered “best practice”.

 

[rob9900]

Thanks Moley,

Brill, that makes perfect sense. Does the same apply for wine i.e. leave it a few extra days after first fermentation??

 

[rob9900]

Thanks tubby_shaw, much appreciated.....

 

[Moley]

Does the same apply for wine i.e. leave it a few extra days after first fermentation??

You wouldn't usually talk about “first fermentation” with winemaking as there should hardly ever be a secondary fermentation unless you were intentionally making a sparkling wine. Fermentation might switch from a lidded bucket to a sealed fermenter after the first few days but it's all part of the same process.

How long you leave things after fermentation appears to have finished would rather depend upon what you were making but would usually be in the range of 2 weeks to 2 months, and then you have several choices over how to proceed.

 

[rob9900]

Great thanks. I'll give it a go and let you know how i get on.... :

 

[chiefstoker]

All good advice on here for me too thanks :thumb:

 

[rickthebrew]

I`ve brewed a couple of coopers lager and mexican cerveza - with great results, I upped the sugar to about 1.5kg on the lager kit which gave me a great 6%ish lager.
Even though it`s hard to leave your finished brew the coopers kits need at least 5-6 weeks to condition so be patient for the best results - not easy!! :

 

[chiefstoker]

Is that ok then to up the sugar content by 50%? doesnt that affect the balance with the yeast that is supplied?

 

[stig1963]

Much better to cut down to36/32 pints worth than up the sugar levels for a stronger brew,these kits are designed to finish as it says on the tin and all the gubbins are retrospective to a 40 pinter.
Never done a lager as im not a lover,but im sure the same applies throughout the kit range?

 

[Bribie]

Of course here in Aus the Coopers kits are about 80 percent of the kits market at least. For a stronger lager I've made some crackers using, typically:

Kit
750g dextrose (glucose)
750g light spray malt

20g of any 'lager hop' pellets (not flowers) such as Saaz just chucked into the fv after 4 days. Some extra hops balances out the slightly sweeter brew caused by the extra fermentables. The hop crud just sinks to the bottom eventually.

Nottingham Ale yeast fermented at 16 degrees if you can manage that temperature

:drink: