Coopers Cerveza Review

[SANGER_A2]

This is really strange. I bottled this after 2 weeks fermentation and waited a month before drinking. It was great. Weirdly, another month later I tried some more and it was not good. Tasted pretty off. It's been stored in the dark and I'm not sure why it started off great and then got worse later. I assumed it would only get better with time!

Actually it was just that bottle as I had another a week later and it was fine. Must have got contaminated somehow!

 

[stan]

got one of these ready to go was thinking of dry hopping with 50g of cascade in secondary,
any thoughts chaps

 

[Geithals]

got one of these ready to go was thinking of dry hopping with 50g of cascade in secondary,
any thoughts chaps

I haven't dry hopped this Cerveza brew (well not that I recall) but I dry hop most every brew kit I do now with about 30 -40 gr. This is the procedure Ï follow.
After the brew has stopped fermenting and around 1010 or less, I wait some days then chuck the FV out into the cold for 3 or 4 days, mostly between 0C and 4C, if the temp drops below freezing then I put the FV into a shed, about 2C there.
The fermentation definitely stops and it is an auspicious time to add the hops dry. I bring the FV indoors 22C and add the hops, leave it for 3 days or so, then bottle.
Lately I have been making a hop tea adding that liquid and also adding the tea hops and leaving it stew in the FV for just 24 h before bottling.

If you can't cold crash, you can just wait about 5 or 7 days after your FV has stopped fermenting, then add the hops. Dry hopping adds a delicious tangy fresh flavour to your brew regardless of cold crashing or not.
Happy brewing.

 

[LarryF]

I bottled my Coopers Cerveza today and it's looking very promising:

Batch: 23L 03/01/16 - 21/01/16 - 18-20c
Wilko Gervin Trub + 1tsp Yeast Nutrient
500g Youngs Beer Enhancer
400g table sugar
80g honey
30g Hallertau hops (7.1AA) 20m boil, tea and hop bag added to FV.
OG:1062 - FG:1011 6.8%

They'll now get 2 weeks in the warm and 2 weeks in the shed but in 12 days time I'll put one in the fridge for two days and have a first tester, can't wait. The colour looked good and what I tasted in the trial jar was very nice,

 

[Rickster]

Hi all, my first attempt at a cerveza kit, with some tweaks, any tips and comments appreciated.

Steep 15g sterling hops (in muslin bag) in 100ml water
500g dextrose/brewing sugar
Box Brew enhancer 2
250 Light malt extract
Add all to fv with boiling water
Top up to 21litres
Use saflager W34 yeast
Leave in shed in temp range of 13-6 ish to ferment for 3 weeks
Add finings 2 days from end?
Bottle directly into 500mls
Leave in same shed (note changing uk weather) to condition for a month.

Do you think this would work? Should I stick with kit yeast and ferment indoors instead either at 18, or 20-22? Any help appreciated!
Thanks

Removing this and creating a new thread.

 

[SANGER_A2]

Hi all, my first attempt at a cerveza kit, with some tweaks, any tips and comments appreciated.

Steep 15g sterling hops (in muslin bag) in 100ml water
500g dextrose/brewing sugar
Box Brew enhancer 2
250 Light malt extract
Add all to fv with boiling water
Top up to 21litres
Use saflager W34 yeast
Leave in shed in temp range of 13-6 ish to ferment for 3 weeks
Add finings 2 days from end?
Bottle directly into 500mls
Leave in same shed (note changing uk weather) to condition for a month.

Do you think this would work? Should I stick with kit yeast and ferment indoors instead either at 18, or 20-22? Any help appreciated!
Thanks

Removing this and creating a new thread.

All the Coopers kits apart from the European lager use an ale yeast so it will probably need to be 19c+ temperature.

UPDATE: Ignore this! I didn't notice your comment about the W34 yeast! :)

 

[Rickster]

It's in, with a head of yeast. Wrapped the fv in a blanket, so we're looking consistent at 10-12ish degrees, will check again in a week!

 

[mikeloretta]

well i messed up thought i had a european lager kit in the cupboard so bought 2 packs of saflager s23 yeast and 50g of hallertau hops to make the coopers craft lager, would these additions along with a box of be2 produce a good flavoursome lager or shall i put it down to experience and just brew as its supposed to be and keep the bits and bobs for another brew

 

[mikeloretta]

going to bite the bullet and get on with it, should be interesting! heres what i think i will do:
boil up 2l bottled water and steep 30gms of hallertau hop pellets for 15 mins
add a muntons beerkit enhancer instead of sugar
use the 2 packets of saflager 23 yeast and leave at hopefully 12-15deg
then after about 4 or 5 days fermenting add the remaining 20g of hops

 

[Frogbrew]

going to bite the bullet and get on with it, should be interesting! heres what i think i will do:
boil up 2l bottled water and steep 30gms of hallertau hop pellets for 15 mins
add a muntons beerkit enhancer instead of sugar
use the 2 packets of saflager 23 yeast and leave at hopefully 12-15deg
then after about 4 or 5 days fermenting add the remaining 20g of hops

Why would you use 2 packets of yeast???

 

[Rickster]

Pungent eggy smell at present, temp is pretty consistent so hopefully nothing to worry about and it dissipates!!

 

[mikeloretta]

Why would you use 2 packets of yeast???

the coopers recipe suggests using 2 which i thought odd but giving it a go anyway!

 

[Rickster]

Eggy smell has now gone, and I've chucked the hop bag in. Tempted to bring indoors now as we've hit 1020, and a few points left to drop. As the main fermentation happens early, I don't think this should be an issue? I'll give it a few days, rack to a secondary FV, put back in the shed for a couple of days then bottle. Does that all sound ok? Cheers!

 

[AdeDunn]

Mine came out a bit weak and watery, and that's after been in the bottle for a while. Fresh it had an unpleasant flavour.

OG 1.040
FG 1.012

Made with 1kg Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 (recommended by the company I purchased the kit from). Bottled on the 2/09/17 (2 Crafty Fox carb drops per 500ml bottle) and still tastes weak and watery. We bottled 2 litres using refined sugar, and this was just outright nasty as it had that unpleasant cidery flavour from the sugar.

Pours with no head at all, even though carbonation levels are nice and fizzy.

My wife likes it though, and it is at least refreshing when served cold. If I make it again, I probably won't use Brew Enhancer 2 as I suspect it contains too many non-fermentables in it for this type of beer. I'd also be tempted to dry hop it, maybe with Saaz and Hallertau as this may give it more of a Dos Equis flavour rather than a weak Corona one.

 

[sdt7618]

Mine came out a bit weak and watery, and that's after been in the bottle for a while. Fresh it had an unpleasant flavour.

OG 1.040
FG 1.012

Made with 1kg Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 (recommended by the company I purchased the kit from). Bottled on the 2/09/17 (2 Crafty Fox carb drops per 500ml bottle) and still tastes weak and watery. We bottled 2 litres using refined sugar, and this was just outright nasty as it had that unpleasant cidery flavour from the sugar.

Pours with no head at all, even though carbonation levels are nice and fizzy.

My wife likes it though, and it is at least refreshing when served cold. If I make it again, I probably won't use Brew Enhancer 2 as I suspect it contains too many non-fermentables in it for this type of beer. I'd also be tempted to dry hop it, maybe with Saaz and Hallertau as this may give it more of a Dos Equis flavour rather than a weak Corona one.

Have done this kit for the second time, only as my wife liked it much like your own. However this time I put 40grams of Citra as a dry hop and to be honest I quite like it with a curry or spicy food served really cold. Other than that would still leave it if being able to brew something else.

I have the wilko equivalent still to brew and not sure what I am going to do with it.

 

[AdeDunn]

Have done this kit for the second time, only as my wife liked it much like your own. However this time I put 40grams of Citra as a dry hop and to be honest I quite like it with a curry or spicy food served really cold. Other than that would still leave it if being able to brew something else.

I have the wilko equivalent still to brew and not sure what I am going to do with it.

I have the Wilkos kit too. Bought 2 25g teabags to up the hoppiness with, 1 saaz and the other hallertauer. Both known to be hops used in mexican beers, so figured they should work. The other I could try would be cluster, but you could probably just use a twist of lemon.. :lol: These might improve the Coopers too, alongside additional fermentables to up the strength.

 

[LarryF]

Have done this kit for the second time, only as my wife liked it much like your own. However this time I put 40grams of Citra as a dry hop and to be honest I quite like it with a curry or spicy food served really cold. Other than that would still leave it if being able to brew something else.

I have the wilko equivalent still to brew and not sure what I am going to do with it.

I've got a Wilko Cerveza in the FV, I used 1kg BE,60g of dark brown sugar and I'm going to dry hop with 50g of UK Cascade for 5 days. I'm brewing it with re-pitched Windsor yeast. I'm hoping it gets my Beloved's seal of approval.

 

[AdeDunn]

A quick update to my review. A bit longer in the bottle, and a good week in the fridge, this isn't too bad at all. More of a Budweiser flavour though than any Mexican beer I've tasted, that could be the brew enhancer 2s fault though.. Definitely needs serving cold though, and I'd say needs more sugar to prime than I used for this style.

Misses the mark as a Mexican Cerveza, but does a convincing job of been a US lager... :whistle: