Coopers european lager advice.

[cliftywabom]

Hello all,
I have just bought this kit as my second brew and am looking for some advice on the use of brew enhancer 2 with this (recommended on the can) In my newbie brewer excitement and needing to return to the car park before the warden got me, I picked up 1kg of brewing sugar instead of the brew enhancer 2.
My question is this, Could I get away with just using the brewing sugar, or should I really get myself the recommended brew enhancer?

Thanks all.

 

[springtime]

I've brewed this kit twice and used Muntons light DME.
Very successful outcome :

 

[cliftywabom]

Thanks for your reply, Did you brew with 1kg of the muntons light or did you do a 50/50 with brewing sugar?

 

[springtime]

I kilo of Muntons light dme no sugar :thumb:

 

[ScottM]

I brewed this with 1KG of brewing sugar and 500g of pre-hopped DME.

Came out great with LOADS of body.

One of the aspects of this brew that's lacking a little is flavour/bitterness. Adding in 500g of pre-hopped DME made all the difference IMO. Took a bit of time to properly condition though.

I actually over-primed it due to the amount of body it had. I normally add 180-200g of sugar per 40 pints but this has a lot more body than previous lagers I have made. I'm actually surprised BE2 is being recommended, as that will make up a fair amount of body.

My lager came in around 5.2%, lovely for a euro-brew

 

[Kinleycat]

Bought a few of these off tesco, so I am going to do some experimentation with the fermentables.
I've got some BE and some extra light spray malt for a couple and also bought some strawberry lowicz so that'll be going in one too.

 

[pdennehy]

hi I did this kit last with mutton brew kit enhancer. brewed it at a low temp in my cellar and legged it for 3 months as per the instructions. it turned out excellent if you got a pint of it in the pub you wouldn't know it was home brew!

oh forgot to say only brewed to 21 litres

excellent

 

[Zedilly]

hi I did this kit last with mutton brew kit enhancer.

OMG this is almost as bad as the horse meat scandal.

 

[pdennehy]

I don't think a little horse or sheep has ever hurt anyone! hehe

 

[bottler]

hi I did this kit last with mutton brew kit enhancer.

OMG this is almost as bad as the horse meat scandal.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

 

[cliftywabom]

Ive searched high and low for some mutton brew enhancer :lol: , but couldn't find any anywhere!! so have settled for some muntons brew enhancer (purchased from ballihoo) I'm planning a brew day on sunday to get this bad boy on the go!!

Can anyone recommend the best fermentation temp for this coopers kit?
Ive brewed my coopers draught kit at 24-26 degrees on a heat tray, The instructions for my latest kit say to brew around 21 degrees, although will still ferment down to 13 degrees.

I'm thinking of just leaving this one in the fermenter in my living room which stays around 16 degrees when the heating is off, and goes to 22 degrees when the heating comes on. Does this sound ok?

Or should I just put it somewhere consistently cooler?

Many thanks. :

 

[bottler]

I'd leave it in an unheated room for a couple of weeks and it will do fine. I mistakenly brewed mine at 18-20 c and still was a great pint. :thumb:

 

[chips1971]

I have an unheated conservatory, think it should get down to about 15-18 degrees, how's that for suitable to do a coopers european for my next brew?


or its back to the wardrobe and do another Australian lager or a Mexican cerveza