first brew - Coopers Australian Lager

[daddy day care]

I believe you

that's all good. good luck with it pal :)

Cheers Rob

 

[daddy day care]

Hi Andy,

This was also my first brew (purchased from same place, what a bargain eh £35.00!) I started it on 2nd July and its now all bottled, I made the mistake of only using one carb drop in the 500mm bottles when it should have been 1 1/2 so you will need to get the sugar out! I tried a bottle this week and it tastes something like lager so fingers crossed in a month or two it will be reasonable.

I moved straight to a two can kit "muntons imperial stout" and this is a different ball game altogether, I could actually drink it now and its only been in the fv since Saturday!

Good Luck

Thanks mate.

Yes it was a bargain. I was looking for a kit anyway and comparing online retailers. I had bought just the brewing bucket for around a fiver to start with but went into another Tesco and they had the kit in stock.

Good to hear your results from this kit are OK. I wasn't expecting miracles and actually prefer bitter but as long as it's drinkable I'll be happy.

Andy

 

[daddy day care]

Drew a sample off today.

Still very cloudy and a bit fizzy. Guess it's still fermenting then.

This is day 12 and temperatures have been a bit all over the place. Between 18 and about 25 degrees.

OG was 1037 at 25 degrees which comes out at 1039 according to the calculator for 20 degrees

Todays reading was 1031 at 20 degrees (as best as I could read through the beer). Giving me an ABV of a whopping 1.1 percent :rofl:

I did have a small sip and it tastes quite nice so there is some hope.

There has not been a huge reaction at any time. A small foam after about 3 or 4 days which soon settled, then just a surface coating of bubbles / scum

Has fermentation been slow due to the recent high temperatures? Will it do any harm to stay in the FV for another week?

Thanks for the help so far and I'm afraid there will be many more newbie questions before I've finished.

Andy

 

[TRXnMe]

Most Cooper's kits are drinkable if youu stick to the destructions, at least all the ones I've brewed have been

As to getting demi johns, for getting started go to the supermarket, buy a few 5 litre bottles of water (use the water in a beer brew ) and order some rubber grommets with an internal diameter of 9.5mm, then buy some bubblers (Wilkinsons are reasonably priced, also cheap ones on eBay) and make your own fermenting demi johns, I've made quite a few of these for not much over 2 quid a go, including the water to brew beer with.

Turbo cider and WOW are great fun and keep you out of mischiefe in between brewing the 5 gallon batches of ale, but beware, I've now got 11 gallons on the go and 5 DJ's waiting ingredients when I get paid

 

[daddy day care]

Thanks mate.

gravity has moved a fair bit in the last 2 days so looking good. Now sitting on 1017. I will keep testing over the next few days (back at work tomorrow) with a view to bottling next week.

Keepng me out of mischief may be a bit difficult :evil: I have got a couple of the 5 litre water bottles but I got 8 glass DJs in a job lot from the local paper as well.

Also built a boiler this afternoon, just need a tap. As soon as I get time there is a fridge from ebay, tube heater and temperature controller to wire up. Next job will be a mash tun

Andy

 

[THE_Liam]

Hi guys,

Just started my first brew which incidentally is Coopers Australian Lager with the Coopers kit as well. Got an SG of 1.038 myself, currently sitting at 24c. Only thing I'm concerned about is there's a thick layer of white sediment on the bottom which if I'm not mistaken is the brewing sugar, is that bad? It's fermenting like mad, put it on Friday night and now it's got a huge head of foam and a thick ring of scum on the collar...

Think I'm gonna nip to Wilko's in a bit and get some cider going :)

 

[Andy.H]

Mine did that. Don't worry, everything is fine so far :)

 

[PD]

the layer of sediment is likely to be dead yeasts and other detritus, perfectly normal, when its finished fermenting you can syphone it off the rubbish into another fv for a further week or go into your bottling/kegging routine.

 

[THE_Liam]

Cheers lads, I was a bit worried. Just got back from Wilko's with 5 litres of apple juice, a demijohn, an airlock and bung, brewing sugar, wine yeast and pectolase...

If you'll excuse me, I'm off to blow up my shed :lol:

 

[daddy day care]

Just finished bottling it

Settled out at 1014 so an ABV of 3 percent in the end. As long as it tastes OK I'm not bothered about that too much.

Also been to the not so local shop in Stockport to get some ingredients so that I can make the Geordie bitter kit taste better.

Also bought some cider yeast and a couple of wine kits while I was there :

Andy

 

[motomaniac]

nice one... mine was about 3.5% .... tastes nice too, which is the good thing.... slight smell, but i noticed the same smell when drinking a pint of fosters at the local... not as strong, but definitely there.... well, let it sit a while and enjoy....

 

[BlueMac]

Snap.......good 'ol Tesco. My first home brew kit.

Mines been in the FV for 8 days now and still going.

Original grav; 1.040
Day 6; 1.012
Day 8; 1.010

Have been worried about it 'not working' but have done well to leave it alone. Slightly relieved that my readings show its still fermenting.

Hoping it tastes good for my first attempt.

Regarding the priming on bottling......the kit says 1 drop per each
500ml bottle. But, have noticed others saying it should be 1 and a half per bottle.

What would you guys recommend for priming amounts for this brew and what affect does this have on taste and ABV?

Cheers,

Steve.

 

[Nero]

Made the same kit on the 14th. going to bottle it today OG 1035 FG1008 so around 3.7% ABV. Looks like Lager (maybe a bit dark) tastes like a mixture of Lager and Bitter but perfectly drinkable. The only thing I am worried about is that it is still cloudy and there is a very small amount of foam sitting on the top. If everybody thinks this is ok then its into the bottles. :

 

[PD]

give it another day or two or better still syphon into another vessel and leave it for a week to drop some more deposit before bottling it.

 

[maevans]

Snap.......good 'ol Tesco. My first home brew kit.


Regarding the priming on bottling......the kit says 1 drop per each
500ml bottle. But, have noticed others saying it should be 1 and a half per bottle.

What would you guys recommend for priming amounts for this brew and what affect does this have on taste and ABV?

Cheers,

Steve.

Feel free to leave it in the FV for two weeks - helps it drop a bit clearer, and let's the yeast clean up after itself. The instructions exaggerate slightly how quick you can bottle it, just so they can claim you can have drinkable beer in a month. Not a game changer I expect - just the same way that a sauce you cook might be nicer the longer you let it simmer gently away.

Re: priming if you've got the coopers carobnantion drops then for this kit they're 1 for 350ml bottles and 2 for 750ml bottles I think. Which is annoying as you'll probably be bottling in 500 ml bottles! I used 1.5 drops when I used them - they cleaved in half fairly easily using a knife and a chopping board.

If you're batch priming instead - think I used c.150g sugar in total for the whole 20-odd litre batch, but double check that. Google "priming sugar for lager" and you should get some hits - or someone might know here.

The level of priming will have a very minor effect on ABV - as you're ading more sugar for the yeast left in suspension to eat and convert into CO2 and alcohol. But its fairly insignificant - wil only add a fraction of a % onto the final ABV - if you think adding c 1kg of sugar at the start of the process gives you an ABV of just over 3%, then adding 150g at the end isn't going to add much extra.

Priming shouldn't effect taste too much - only the level of fizziness.

 

[Nero]

Thanks for that PD. i'll do as you say and leave it. No I won't, Im gonna put it in a second FV and then leave it for a week (that'll be three weeks in all??) By the way, what is WOW? sounds like my beer needs some

 

[mmaguy41]

I did this as my first beer, also using the coopers kit it took a month or so to get good but then it was quite drinkable. Definately leave it in the fv for longer than 6 days, the problem i found with the coopers setup is i got a lot of sediment settling in the tap which went straight into my bottles. I now use it as a primary then transfer to a bottling bucket or secondary.

 

[THE_Liam]

Well that's answered my question. I've just tasted mine after 3 weeks bottled, it's clear and tastes damn good but it's a bit flat. I used 1 tab per 500ml bottle

Will leaving it longer help or I it a lost cause? How about adding more sugar and re-bottling?

 

[PD]

no you can't re prime successfully now live with what you got and learn
Most folks like a fizzy lager and for priming that means the normal half tsp of sugar per 550ml bottle, then add a further quarter tsp. for beers and ales atay with the half tsp.
Give your brew a couple of weeks now in the bottle to help build up its carbonation and fizz.

 

[THE_Liam]

Oh well, it was only a small mistake and otherwise my first beer went well. Got a Tom Caxton Lager kit in the fermenter now so I'll see how that goes...