Brewing virgin - Coopers English Bitter Kit

[BigJC]

New to brewing, new to this forum.

Last week I took a spontaneous leap into the world of home brewing a bought a Coopers English Bitter kit. It's been fermenting away for the last week and all looks ok at the moment. Having read a few threads on this forum I've decided to leave it in the fermenter for another week before bottling rather than after six days that the instructions call for.

I'm having a bit of difficulty in reading the hydrometer as the beer is still quite cloudy and there is a bit of a frothy head in the tube, any advice?

I'd also like to increase the hoppiness of the beer but have no idea of how to do it. I've looked at one of the homebrew sites and found vacuum sealed hops and hop pellets for sale, what's the difference and how do I use them?

If I wanted to increase the ABV what should I do?

Many thanks in anticipation......

 

[Joeyriles]

Strange, this was my very first brew (back in 2012) so I can only offer you advice based on mistakes I've made and of (more) decent brews I've done since.

To boost the ABV you will need more fermentables for the yeast to munch on. When mixing up the tinned extract with sugar, it can pay to add some spraymalt (dried malt extract) too. This usually yields better 'mouthfeel' as opposed to the thin tasting stuff that occurs when you've only used sugar and the stuff in the tin.

For hops, I would say that pellets are easier to use for a kit beer (others may prefer whole hops) but if you throw these into the fermenting vessel they'll add some extra aroma to your beer. For a beer like this you may want to consider East Kent Goldings or Fuggles.

As for the cloudiness: I always rack my brews from one vessel to another once fermentation is complete. This is to get the beer off of the trub (the sediment at the bottom of your fermenter) and to help it clear up. Beer finings can help with this if you're so inclined.

FINALLY: Bottling is a bit of a laborious process but I enjoy it, and I enjoy keeping beers to see how they mature. A few tips that I wish I'd known.

1) Bottles: If using clear glass/plastic bottles, keep them out of direct sunlight. The British weather will likely sort this out for you as we enter the Autumnal portion of the year, but just keep it in mind. Brown or green glass is more desirable.

2) Sugar: Just one teaspooon per bottle. No more! It can be tempting to over-prime but this is just a way to get overly fizzy slop.

3) Keep the bottles at room-temperature for a week or two before you then put them in a cooler place, such as a shed. Leave the blighters for at least a month before you try them, it'll be worth it.



Best of luck, bud. Welcome to the world of brewing!

 

[Noah]

Right - where to start?

The first thing I would say is leave it in the fermentor and ignore the over ambitious instructions, I've not brewed a beer which hasn't taken longer than the kit stated even in perfect temperatures. This kit was the first one I did when I returned to home brew after a break of 17 years. I't was OK but with the second one I dry hopped with 100g of Cascade hops and what a difference it made. Stunning!

There are several ways of increasing the ABV, the one I prefer is to brew 'short' which means adding less water which gives the beer a more fuller flavour.
Adding more sugar will up the alcohol but not add much to the taste. You can use dried malt extract (DME) in place of or in addition to sugar which will give a better body to the beer and the more you add the higher the alc % will be.

Hydrometer readings - don't be tempted to overdo it, at the end or when you think fermentation is near the end is fine, not every day. Get a hydrometer jar if you haven't got one already and fill it almost to the top with the beer, add the hydrometer and the foam should spill over. If not give it a little blow to remove the froth, take the reading and drink the contents.

I'm not too sure about the hops, I've tried both dried and pellets with mixed results, I'm sure someone else can help. Good luck.

 

[Roadrunner]

New to brewing, new to this forum.

(...)
I'm having a bit of difficulty in reading the hydrometer as the beer is still quite cloudy and there is a bit of a frothy head in the tube, any advice?

(...).

To take a correct reading on your hydrometer you need to degass the beer. Fill the trial jar to about 2/3 or thereabout then insert the hydrometer and move it up and down( pushing it all the way down to the bottom) the trial jar several times (like a piston) to knock out the gas bubbles, then leave to settle for a couple of minutes to let the foam subside.
Its important to do it because if you didnt the co2 that sits in the liquid wil push the hydrometer up slightly giving you a false reading. Also look carefuly at the scale as the liquid in the trial jar tends to climb up by about one point at the point where it touches the hydrometer. I add .1 to my reading to compensate for that. (if the reading say for example 1.006 I take it it really is 1.007)Finally if the beer is that much cloudy its far too early to be taking any readings anyway Start taking your readings at about day 10 (at this time the beer will have settled enough for an easy reading)No point exposing the precious liquid to the risk of contamination by taking too many samples when the beer is not ready anyway) Hope it helps, the advise kindly provided to me by another member of the brewing community, helped me when I started out couple of months back.
RR
Addendum: Use the Hydrometer Temperature Correction Calculator that you can find here: http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/calculators.php
for even more accurate reading.

 

[Cwrw666]

I've never made this kit, but all the other one can kits I've ever made took a good 10 days to really finish fermenting. Leave it for another week so that it clears. It doesn't have to be kept warm for the clearing.
When bottling - 1 pint or 500ml bottles need 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar. Bigger bottles would need more. Put them somewhere warm for a few days then a couple of weeks at room temperature. Different beers require different lengths of time in the bottle to reach their best but I'm afraid I'm a bit impatient and often my brews are only starting to reach their best when I'm down to the last few bottles.
Oh, and I know some people rack off into a second FV for the clearing stage but others myself included prefer to leave it alone in the original bin as if there's no bugs present your beer will be safe from accidentally introducing some, and your beer will still have only CO2 above it. Put it into another FV and you'll have oxygen over it too which is not a good thing.

 

[BigJC]

Thanks for the replies.

Am I too late to add anything to boost the ABV? I'm going to bottle on Friday using the Coopers 500ml PET bottles that came with the kit and one of their carbonation drops per bottle, will these up the alcohol content much?

I've got a Young's American IPA kit lined up next, I would like to have them both going at the same time but I simply don't have the space.

 

[dave0w]

the only input i would have is batch prime if you can, if you have a second frementer/bucket add 100g of sugar to that then bottle, or if your going to keg just put the sugar into the keg.

The part of the hydromitor you need to read is the bit sticking out so just fill your jar to the very top so the foam spills out.

i did this kit one time and added a Challenger hop bag, you just throw it in for the last 5(ish) days. it was drinkable but dont have a base to say if it made it better.

adding AVB, boil 500g of sugar in about 0.5l of water and let it cool to room temp then add to the brew but you need to give it extra time to ferment