Coopers European Lager Review

[itbrvilla]

Made this with 1kg DME and 500g dextrose, dry hopped with 24g Hallertau. Had one last night. Very grassy taste, but not unpleasant. Could definately do with more time.

 

[Markdon]

Been in the bottle 3 weeks, opened the PET bottle as it felt as carb'd as it was getting.

Tastes pretty good but not very lagerish. Assume thats the amount of fermentables i used and hops. Bloody tasty tho.

 

[GavH]

I found the same thing. The instructions recommend 12 weeks bottle conditioning but I'd say 8 was more appropriate. I'd say you'll definately notice the difference in 5 weeks time.

 

[Markdon]

Will hold out for it. Fingers crossed!

 

[Monkeybrew75]

I've brewed one of these to Coopers Green Neck recipe, and found that it was quite nice and light after about 8 weeks in the bottle, but was just lacking a hoppy edge.

I am currently brewing my own tweaked recipe as follows-

20L Brewlength
1.7kg can of Coopers European Lager
1.0kg of Light DME
250g of Dextrose
150g of Munich Malt
25g of Tettnang Whole Hops 5.8% AA boiled for 20mins
25g of Tettnang Whole Hops 5.8% AA steeped for 30mins
2L WLP830 German Lager Yeast starter pitched @11C
OG 1.048

Hopefully this will have a bit more character!

Cheers

MB

 

[1morebru]

Started drinking mine a bit early (couldn't resist a try out), got to say I'm well impressed
I've recently finished drinking canned Becks and rate this as good if not better. Which after my first disastrous attempt at a wilko cerveza 'lager' has got me keen to brew more of this.
Brewed as per instructions with coopers brew enhancer 2 on 19/11/13
OG1040 , final OG 1006
Batch primed using 160g tatle & lyle (I like plenty of gas in a lager) on 21/12/13
2 weeks indoors for second fermentation then out in the garden shed.
Might try adding some finishing hops next to add aroma, pic below after a couple of nice slurps.

 

[Markdon]

My 6.6% Saaz hopped lager after a month in the bottle. Quite nice, almost got a fruity hint to it, doesnt taste as strong as it is. If i did it again id do it the same. Perhaps more/different hops, more citrus'y and would leave it in shed longer. Started 19/12/13, bottled 19/01/14.

 

[jphil123]

This is my 3rd attempt at a lager, trying to benefit from a 'cold room' that was still comfortably below 16*C. Sadly, I ran out of Saflager W34/70 yeast, but apparently this kit comes with a true lager yeast so I used the Coopers yeast.

Here is what I did:
02/02 - 1kg of Amber DME (didn't have light DME), kit and topped up to 20 Litres. Temperature dropped 22*C. OG was 1.050, a little higher than planned, so I added 1 more litre of water. Didn't take another gravity reading, just assumed OG to be 1.048. Then pitched dry yeast. Took to cold room and fermented at approx 15*C. Fermentation took about 12 hours to start and was very steady.
08/02 - Dry hopped with approx 40g Saaz and 30g Wakatu in muslin bag. Took a gravity reading (room temp): down to 1.018
24/02 - Brought the FV to room temp (20*C) for a couple of days. Nice and clear when bottling. FG came to 1.008. Primed with 135g cane sugar, so ABV should be in th 5%+ range. Sample tasted a little flat with a bitter kick to the end. Could imagine (or hope for) when this is cold and carbonated this turns out to be very refreshing, pilsener style beer.

So, now for the most difficult part of brewing: patience. Will keep you posted.

 

[jphil123]

This is my 3rd attempt at a lager, trying to benefit from a 'cold room' that was still comfortably below 16*C. Sadly, I ran out of Saflager W34/70 yeast, but apparently this kit comes with a true lager yeast so I used the Coopers yeast.

Here is what I did:
02/02 - 1kg of Amber DME (didn't have light DME), kit and topped up to 20 Litres. Temperature dropped 22*C. OG was 1.050, a little higher than planned, so I added 1 more litre of water. Didn't take another gravity reading, just assumed OG to be 1.048. Then pitched dry yeast. Took to cold room and fermented at approx 15*C. Fermentation took about 12 hours to start and was very steady.
08/02 - Dry hopped with approx 40g Saaz and 30g Wakatu in muslin bag. Took a gravity reading (room temp): down to 1.018
24/02 - Brought the FV to room temp (20*C) for a couple of days. Nice and clear when bottling. FG came to 1.008. Primed with 135g cane sugar, so ABV should be in th 5%+ range. Sample tasted a little flat with a bitter kick to the end. Could imagine (or hope for) when this is cold and carbonated this turns out to be very refreshing, pilsener style beer.

So, now for the most difficult part of brewing: patience. Will keep you posted.

Update #1 (17/03/14): 3 weeks in the bottle now. Must admit to have 'sampled' quite a few bottles over the past week because it just tasted pretty nice after 2 weeks already. The bottle I just opened indicated where this may be heading to as it is noticeably more dry and crisp, tastes like a good 'hoppy' lager. I enjoy the Wakatu-hops note in the aroma, which I fear will fade out over time, so may want to set some bottles apart to see what happens after the full 12 weeks, and enjoy the way it is now for the remainder.

Yeast sediment compacts really nicely! Easy to pour a pretty clear pint at this stage already (3 weeks).

 

[acott]

I started this on the 17th of December, I racked it about 6 weeks later and it has been sitting there since. Would you say its still ok to bottle? or should it be flushed, it doesn't smell bad or have any oddities floating in it.

 

[Bjorn Toulouse]

This is the best lager beer kit out there IMHO. Since 2010 its pretty much all I make after mid october. I make at least one of these kits every 4 weeks during the winter.

I make it 4 different ways.
1. with 1kg brew enhancer #2 good original lager
2. with 1kg extra dark malt extract when I want a real change
3. with 500g extra dark spray malt 500g suger lighter than 2
4. brew enhancer #1 and made to yeald 25 l sesion beer

The key to this beer I feel is brew as cool as possible for more than 12 days. And leave alone for 12 weeks.

 

[Bjorn Toulouse]

Mine started at 1038 and went down to 1004. Next time I do this kit, I'll be doing a hop addition of some sort. Took a couple of bottles of the Euro lager round to a family get together yesterday and it was compared by one lager drinker to Tennents. Whilst I'll take that as an endorsement of its 'commercial quality', it's hardly a favourable review of something which aspires to be a European lager.

mmm

I have made a ton of this stuff and I have drank more than my fare share of tennants in my time (since the girlys were on the can). Its not like tennants. Now if tennants made a home brew kit. Memo to self draft a letter to wellpark.

 

[GavH]

Agreed. I didn't think it was like Tennents either and being Scottish, I practically grew up on Tennents! :drunk: That said, it does taste like a macro-beer and not at all continental IMO.

I'd do it again, but hop addition definately and maybe even swap out the Coopers Lager yeast for something a bit different; Saflager or maybe even a Wyeast offering perhaps. A brew fridge and STC 1000 is on my 'to-buy' list over the summer which ought to be a game changer in respect of my lager brewing activities, perhaps more so than hop additions and yeast swaps.

 

[Bjorn Toulouse]

yeast does make a difference as does brewing temp, I tried a few of the dried yeasts that glenbrew stock does change the taste, still don't brew lager once "may be oot".

I think the key is the temprature and yeast.

 

[Ragnar]

I'm finally gonna give this a spin today.

I decided to use a proper proper lager yeast instead of what comes with the kit; after browsing around on brewUK for a while, I decided on WYEAST Budvar Lager yeast - works around 9-13 degrees celsius.

And instead of sugar, I'm going to use 500g of light Spraymalt, 500g of light hopped Spraymalt and 500g of wheat Spraymalt. Now, 1,5kg of fermentables might be a bit too much so maybe I'll just use 250g of the wheat Spraymalt - what do you guys think? I do want it to be a tiny bit "stronger" than the kit usually is. And also wheat spraymalt for better head retention, from what I've read.

And then a few days before transferring it to a keg, I'm gonna dry hop it with some Saaz and Hallertauer (say, about 30g each) and then leave it to "lager" for a month or so. After that bottle it for priming for, well, as long as I can wait and until it lasts.

Does that sound like a solid plan to you?

Also, in terms of lagering temperatures - how cool is cool? If I stick it in the fridge - it goes up to 8 degrees - would that be fine? I would have more control over temperature with my brewing fridge but I would ideally keep that one for getting something else going in the meanwhile. And once I've bottled them - should I still keep them at the same temperatures (8c)? Would they develop enough carbonation?

Here's a photo of all the stuff for it:

 

[Smileysmiles]

Waiting for Jack Frost to do mine

 

[Ragnar]

Hmm, pitched the yeast (Wyeast 2000 Budvar Lager, check my post above) at room temperature (I think it was around 25° - 26° - couldn't get it down enough, miscalculation with cold water) ~18h ago and no activity yet. Should I be worried?

Of course I then put the FV in the fermentation fridge and started cooling it down to fermentation temperatures - set the controller to 10°, so the temperature in the fridge sways between 11° and 9.8° ish, but wort temperature should be consistently around 10°.

EDIT: I did a bit of reading on the webs and realized that maybe I used too little yeast? Maybe one package of the Wyeast isn't enough? Then again, being the ***** I am and reading the package, if it says it's meant to be used for up to 5 gallons and up to OG 1.060 (mine was 1.052 btw, with ~1.3kg fermentables) at these temperatures (9° - 13°), I would assume that's what it does.

 

[Smileysmiles]

Give it time. If it does not start in 12-24h re-pitch.

 

[jphil123]

Update #1 (17/03/14): 3 weeks in the bottle now. Must admit to have 'sampled' quite a few bottles over the past week because it just tasted pretty nice after 2 weeks already. The bottle I just opened indicated where this may be heading to as it is noticeably more dry and crisp, tastes like a good 'hoppy' lager. I enjoy the Wakatu-hops note in the aroma, which I fear will fade out over time, so may want to set some bottles apart to see what happens after the full 12 weeks, and enjoy the way it is now for the remainder.

Yeast sediment compacts really nicely! Easy to pour a pretty clear pint at this stage already (3 weeks).

With the caveat of the not entirely fair comparison, I thought it may be useful to share the final comparison tasting between the Brewferm, BlackRock and Coopers (not entirely the same). After 6 months, the Blackrock is no longer in the lead, the Coopers is by now the richest tasting beer. Nothing wrong with the Blackrock, just tasting a little more plain.

Having said that, I think it tasted better about 2 months ago, at least as good at the Coopers tastes today (but that is always difficult to compare). This one really takes time to get there, it seems.

 

[chrispurvis]

Ive only just started brewing and wouldnt dream of questionning you. I bottled mine just 3 days ago and thought id try one. Cant get enough of the stuff. Think it tastes like singha. Only flat but im sure thats cos i opened within 3 days rather than months.