Doing a Coopers Lager from Wilko

[Madferret]

As the title says I've got coopers lager kit from wilko, and looking at the instructions it says to make to 23L.

I'm wondering if I should brew it short to improve the flavour, as the youngs one was awful at 23L.

What I basically want is to get the best quality out of this for a decent Xmas brew. Will 8 weeks be pushing it?

 

[oldstout]

If you make it with 1kg of spraymalt to 23ltrs it'll be fine and drinkable by Christmas.

I prefer to bottle age my lagers for at least three months - it does make a big difference, but this will be drinkable by Chrimbo

Good luck

:

 

[Madferret]

If you make it with 1kg of spraymalt to 23ltrs it'll be fine and drinkable by Christmas.

I prefer to bottle age my lagers for at least three months - it does make a big difference, but this will be drinkable by Chrimbo

Good luck

:

Presumably that's instead of sugar?

Will that reduce the alcohol content?

I've never used spray malt how does it effect flavour?

 

[mmaguy41]

It will reduce the abv slightly as its around 75-80% fermentable, but it will imporve the body, flavour and head on your beer. If you want a high alchohol beer then you could use 1kg of spraymalt and 250-500g of sugar but i wouldnt bother.

 

[Madferret]

How about brown sugars such as muscavdo light & dark or honey?

I've got some laying around so will it add anything to the flavours?

 

[oldstout]

How about brown sugars such as muscavdo light & dark or honey?

I've got some laying around so will it add anything to the flavours?

Forget what you have lying around :lol: Just ge it made wih what it requires :thumb:

 

[Madferret]

How about brown sugars such as muscavdo light & dark or honey?

I've got some laying around so will it add anything to the flavours?

Forget what you have lying around :lol: Just ge it made wih what it requires :thumb:

Fairy Nuff :)

 

[Archtronics]

Just bear in mind your never going to get a true lager style unless you use a lager yeast which requires some form of temperature control.

 

[Crappa T]

is that instead of the yeast included with the kit?

 

[Archtronics]

Vast majority of lager kits come with ale yeast which ferments at 18-22ish degrees. You can buy lager yeast from most HBS but bear in mind you need away of keeping it at 12 degrees to ferment then at 2-4 degrees to lager over several weeks.

 

[Madferret]

I just tried my 'sample' bottle after only 2 weeks, and I must say I'm impressed. It cleared out far better than any I'd previously tried and although it needs a bit of age. It's easily drinkable already.

Looses gas easily though, presumably because it's only been sat for for 2 weeks.

 

[LeedsBrewer]

how did you end up making the kit?

 

[Madferret]

I had to make it with regular sugar in the end (transport issues). I also ended up with about a litre of extra water (at least according to the marking on the barrel).

The rest was to the letter.

At least it gives me a benchmark, but I'll try the spray malt with next one for sure.

 

[Clint Eastwood]

I started this kit last week with 1kilo brew enhancer and 500g of brewing sugar. OG 1060.
I am using Muntons gold yeast and was planning to dry hop in an SF (Yes I've seen the arguments :grin: )
I'm hoping the Muntons gold will help with clearing and improve the flavour over the Coopers yeast.
I will be bottling it in glass bottles.
Does anyone have a guesstimate of the FG ?
I'll let you all know how it goes in a month or so.

 

[fbsf]

With that much sugar (brew enhancer is 50% sugar) I'd expect quite a low FG, even given the highish OG as brewing sugar is 100% fermentable. Probably something like 1.008 or even 1.006 isn't unrealistic.

But it will probably be quite thin as well - it may need a good couple of months to mature to give its best.

 

[ScottM]

I started this kit last week with 1kilo brew enhancer and 500g of brewing sugar. OG 1060.
I am using Muntons gold yeast and was planning to dry hop in an SF (Yes I've seen the arguments :grin: )
I'm hoping the Muntons gold will help with clearing and improve the flavour over the Coopers yeast.
I will be bottling it in glass bottles.
Does anyone have a guesstimate of the FG ?
I'll let you all know how it goes in a month or so.

That OG is almost certainly wrong based on your ingredients. With 1KG of sugar those kits hit 4% (4.5% absolute tops) which would be an approx OG of 1.040. Chucking in an additional 500g of sugar would get you to around 1.049, let's call it 1.050 to round it off. 1.060 would require an additional 700g of sugar on top of what you have put in. Unless of course you have held the volume back to 19L?

That's with 100% fermentable, high yield, sugar as well. Brew enhancer is 50% DME which has a yield of 95% and a fermentable quantity of 80% so it's actually going to give a lower OG and a higher FG.

Most likely not stirred properly but it could be down to a misread on the hydrometer :)

Anyway, for the FG I would estimate between 1.006 and 1.008. It could go lower but it depends on how good the yeast is. I would be surprised if it went below 1.005 though.

 

[marksa222]

I brewed this one a little short to 21l and added 1kg of muntons brew enhancer. My og was 1043 and the gravity was 1009 after a week. Leaving it another week so it might not have finished just yet but probably has.

It's still cloudy and I don't have a sf, would anyone recommend keeping it in the cold for another few days to clear it up before bottling, and if so how cold is cold?

Thanks