Coopers Lager Kit

[clarky81]

As a lager drinker new to home brewing I opted for the Coopers Lager for my first kit after reading various reviews and watching youtube videos.

I bought my starters kit, which came with a Coopers Lager tin with hops sachet (no instructions), 1kg of unnamed brew enhancer and the usual items needed to get a newbie like myself started.

I followed the instructions picked from various sites and started my brew on the 02 June 2016, I also added Irish Moss to assist with getting a clear lager.

I joined this forum and found that it was best to leave in primary fermentation for at least two weeks, which I did. I also read on this forum that a secondary bucket as well as a bottling wand was a good idea for bottling day so I purchased those (good advice IMHO), made bottling so much easier. My temperatures during fermentation averaged around 20C in a cupboard, which is dark and has very little temperature fluctuation.

I bottled the brew on the 19 June 2016 with priming solution (101g granulated sugar) added to bottling bucket, which went fairly smoothly and placed the bottles in the same cupboard as fermentation, which provided the same steady temperature for the two weeks of conditioning.

I have tried very hard to avoid trying a bottle but this forum kept me strong until today (03 July 2016) when I gave in and tried my first bottle. I only left it in the fridge for a few hours so it wasn't as cold as I hoped it would be.

It opened with a nice gentle fizzy sound but no foaming, the smell was of lager but with a slight home brew smell that I remember from my youth. The lager was very clear and there was a small head on pouring, which quickly disappeared. Flavour was better than I expected and after the second mouthful it tasted even better but with room for improvement, which will hopefully come with a bit more time.

My OG reading was 1.045, which may have been wrong as there was a lot of foam and I was inexperienced. My final reading was 1.000 giving me 5.9% ABV, this may be wrong. I can confirm my first bottle did give me a nice buzz.

I now have a Coopers Mexican Cerveza brewing and plan to try a few kits with standard ingredients and then try them again with some adjustments to see if they can be improved on. I plan to try Coopers Lager again but with dry hops added the next time but not sure which hops to use or where best to buy them (online is the only option where I live) so any advice is welcome.

Thanks to everyone who's advice I followed on this forum.

Regards.

John.

 

[strange-steve]

Well done on your first brew and your patience, I still try all my beers after a week in the bottle "just to make sure they are carbonating"!
One thing that caught my eye is your final gravity reading of 1.000, is that a typo? It's very rare for a beer to ferment that low unless it's a sour or wild beer. Somewhere around 1.010-1.012 is much more typical. If that's actually what your hydrometer read then put in in some water at 20° to check it's accuracy, it should read 1.000.

 

[IainM]

Congrats of your first beer. You'll be hooked before you know it. Your beer should continue to improve in the next month or so, possibly longer. Strange-steve is right, 1.000 seems low. Personally, I would put a bit more priming sugar in for that extra fizz, but that is just my personal taste for this style. The hops that best fit with the style include Hallertauer, Hersbrucker, Perle, Saaz, Spalt and Tettnanger. However, if you like them a bit more modern/fruitier, like Adnams Dry-Hopped Lager, then New World ones like Galaxy, Citra, Mosaic or Cascade, would be a good choice. I used an American hop blend in a Coopers Canadian Blonde, and it came out very nice. As for online stores, this thread might be of interest. I've used TheHomeBrewShop, TheHomeBrewCompany and TheMaltMiller and have been happy with all three.

 

[clarky81]

I bottled adding more sugar due to exploding bottle stories and over fizzy brews so went for the lower end of the scale Strange-Steve. Will check out Hydrometer as you suggest, it tends to lean to the side a bit so may be a dud. I have pet bottles so new some carbonation is taking place as bottles were firm when squeezed so no need for test unfortunately.

 

[clarky81]

Thanks for the hop suggestions IainM, will definitely check them out. Keen to try kits as company have intended and then try adding hops and brew enhancement variations to see what improvements can be made. It's all good fun and with some tweaks you can hopefully make something unique.