Coopers Cerveza Review

[Chippy_Tea]

I have a confession to make. I think that I like beer from cheap beer kits.

I made this with sugar, batch primed and bottled, and 2 weeks on it is a lovely beer.

Nothing wrong with keeping it cheap and simple and if you enjoy the finished beer great. :thumb:

.

 

[jamesw]

My batch just bottled with 170g priming sugar.
I used the zest and juice of 3 limes and BE2.
tastes promising (rtp and flat isnt the best tasting conditions, but a nice lime note)

 

[yeastinfection]

Just started mine with be1 been in the fv for 2 days now. .when and how did you do the lime please?

 

[jamesw]

at the beginning, just zested the limes and juiced, then BE2. topped up with boiling water then can kit.
If its only 2 days, you could probly add them now, but be careful of introducing non-sterile stuff. (i left whole limes in sanitiser before washing ans zesting.)

 

[jamesw]

Drank my first bottle last night, maybe a bit early having looked at the date on my picture post.
The beer tastes a bit thin.... maybe lack of maturing but the lime flavour is perfect! (sliiiiight undercarbonation also).

 

[glugaway]

I like the use of colour coded stickers on the caps James.
I may adopt that rather than use 'lassy bands and bits of paper!

 

[jamesw]

Yer, its quite a simple and easy system, I got the assorted pack from herehttp://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280-2-Packs-Sticky-Coloured-13mm-Dots-Round-Labels-Self-Adhesive-Stickers-/121611791140?

Though you'll have to remember what colour means what beer! (Mine was green for limed cerveza)

 

[Toffee]

I think I will go BE1 + 250g Light DME. I also saw some folk pimping with some extra cascade & amarillo hops for flavour so might as well do that too.

I did this today.

Coopers Cerveza Kit
Brew Enhancer 1
250g Light DME
25g cascade

Did a mini boil of 5L, bunged the 250g of DME and then 25g of Cascade for 15 mins.

Added everything else before transferring to the FV and topping up to 23L. OG was 1043 or thereabouts

In hindsight maybe I boiled the hops too long..........maybe it will just have more hop flavour. We will see how this one turns out.

 

[colliefish]

I'm thinking of doing this with a 1.5 kg of pale malt extract.
Would I need to add anything else?
Cheers
Mark

 

[jamesw]

I'm glad I used be2 not be1. Even now there's not much beer flavour. Using more me is a good idea, though I can't comment on the amount of fermentable as I'm not clued up on that sort of thing.
If you want a nice lime flavour, I really rec com end the zest and juice of 3 limes at the start!!

 

[colliefish]

Not sure if Im right but my way of thinking is that if I stick a can of malt extract in then it's sort of making a 2 can kit.

 

[clibit]

I think that's right - It's virtually the same thing as a two can kit.

 

[Geithals]

Drank my first bottle last night, maybe a bit early having looked at the date on my picture post.
The beer tastes a bit thin.... maybe lack of maturing but the lime flavour is perfect! (sliiiiight undercarbonation also).

It's a plain drink if you just go vanilla, the lime you added won't give it body.
I did 2 batches together and ended up using identical recipes, like the way I always end up making the same pizza sauce or the same potato soup even I start out with another intention
I added in 650gr of LME blonde and a 950gr can of Lyles GS. to each fv
2 weeks in FV
It quietly fermented all the way to below 1010.
Dry hopped 50gr fuggles in each fv, for the last 3 days.
Bottled, 8gr + a bit, of sugar per litre. Left for 2 weeks in 23C , some were pet bottled and were rock hard after 3 or 4 days.
Then cold storage < 4C for 2 weeks

It's very decent, the big difference to the stock brew is made by the intervention of dry hops. That lovely dry hopped taste just lingers in the mouth for ages and fills out the the vacant space in the body of the finished brew.
Consequently I drink far too much of it, my belly pushes out a bit more and I have to pedal my bike a bit more to work it all off.

 

[Slid]

Not sure if Im right but my way of thinking is that if I stick a can of malt extract in then it's sort of making a 2 can kit.

Sounds OK to me. The can of malt extract I put in mine was a Wilko Cerveza and it came out very good indeed. I did use Belle Saison yeast, which gives a very distinctive taste, but that does fade after a few months to leave a very solid beer.

 

[colliefish]

So besides the 1.5 kg of lme and the yeast should I add some additional sugar?
Cheers

 

[Toffee]

is the yeast in this kit one of those "half ale/half lager" jobbies? If so does that explain the very small krausen I am seeing? every other brew I have done has given a nice foamy layer within a day. 3 days in now and only a very small layer..

anyone else see this with this kit? its at 21c, pitched at 23c

 

[yeastinfection]

is the yeast in this kit one of those "half ale/half lager" jobbies? If so does that explain the very small krausen I am seeing? every other brew I have done has given a nice foamy layer within a day. 3 days in now and only a very small layer..

anyone else see this with this kit? its at 21c, pitched at 23c

same here. Very small krausen. I've got the coopers fv so no airlock to look at either .

 

[Toffee]

same here. Very small krausen. I've got the coopers fv so no airlock to look at either .

coopers fv here too. I removed the krausen collar today and it smells very different to every ale I have brewed. More cidery...

krausen all gone and its clearing a little.

i'll measure the gravity over the weekend, see how it is doing.

 

[yeastinfection]

Mines got another week to go. Im going to split it and batch prime it.i plan to add and boil some lime juice in one half just see if it makes a difference.

 

[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!