My first brew - Coopers Lager

[THE_Liam]

Hi,

Well, this is my first brew, Coopers Australian Lager with a Coopers Brew Kit :)

Been fermenting 3 days, the foam is starting to recede and it's left a nice scum ring on the krausen collar. OG was 1.038, and it's sitting at a steady 24c...

It's my first brew EVER, so I'm not expecting much to be fair :whistle:

 

[Andy.H]

Same kit as me :)

Quite impressed with it, seems like a very quick and easy way in to homebrewing. I bottled mine yesterday after a full week in the fermenter, I have to say I'm impressed at how quickly they seem to be clearing... considering its only been a day, I can already read newspaper print through them. I've already got another one in there brewing, the general concensus seems to be to get a chain of events going... so I am :lol:

Good luck with it :)

 

[THE_Liam]

Cheers pal, you too :

I'm just glad it seems to be working so far...

 

[Davybarman]

From A fellow newbie welcome to the club :

I found the Coopers Wheat Beer well worth a go at. Very tasty for a second attempt at home brew. So much so got in in the FV for another go around!! :

 

[mmaguy41]

+1 for the coopers wheat beer its a great one if you want a refreshing tasty beer quickly. It tastes good as soon as its ready to drink

 

[THE_Liam]

Pulled out the collar today and checked the beer with a hydrometer, it's at 1.1% and it smells pretty good, very fizzy too...

 

[PD]

er gravity of 1.1 ???? have you been adding sugar ?

 

[Wendy1971]

Well done on your 1st brew it looks great :thumb:

 

[THE_Liam]

er gravity of 1.1 ???? have you been adding sugar ?

Other than the 1kg brew enhancer that was in the kit, no. Why? Is something wrong?!?!

:shock:

 

[THE_Liam]

Well done on your 1st brew it looks great :thumb:

Thanks :mrgreen:

 

[BigYin]

er gravity of 1.1 ???? have you been adding sugar ?

Other than the 1kg brew enhancer that was in the kit, no. Why? Is something wrong?!?!

:shock:

probably just the way you're reading the specific gravity :thumb:

1.1 is 1.100 - and a normal finishing gravity is 1.010 - in terms of dissolved sugars, that's an ENORMOUS difference!

A normal kit would probably start out at around 1.045 and finish at say 1.012 - put that into the calculator http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/calculators.php (above, top left of page) and the brew comes out at 4.5%

if that's not clear, there's a much better explanation here : http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=3326 :thumb:

 

[THE_Liam]

Oh wait, I've figured this out. I didn't say it was at 1.100 gravity, I said it was 1.1% ABV :lol:

It started at 1.038 and after 3 days was 1.020, which having used that calculator is 2.4%...

 

[BigYin]

ah! Cool, that clears any confusion up :mrgreen:

at 1.020 it's still got a good 10 points or so to drop still before it's ready for the bottle/keg :thumb:

 

[THE_Liam]

Just done another reading, it's at 1.013 which I reckon is 3.4%, I think it might be ready for bottling tomorrow. Only thing is it looks very pale? Tasted it, and it tastes like beer, albeit warm, flat beer :lol:

 

[Vossy1]

Tasted it, and it tastes like beer, albeit warm, flat beer :lol:

:lol: I'd leave it a little longer, maybe 1.010 before bottling. If you get 2 hydrometer readings the same over 24hours it's usually finished :thumb:
Bet you can't wait to try it..........again :lol: :drink:

 

[THE_Liam]

Can't wait for it to be ready mate, I've got a week off work in 3 weeks :)

 

[maevans]

Can't wait for it to be ready mate, I've got a week off work in 3 weeks :)

Lovely stuff, if you're bottling soon it'll have carbed up a bit by then.

The carbonation definitely improves the longer you leave it - over the first weeks or so the gas is definitely there but the bubbles in the beer are still quite big and after initially seeming fizzy, it goes flat pretty quickly. The longer you leave it the smaller the bubbles seem to get and the better it holds its fizz.

Assuming you are able to leave it that long without drinking it all!

On which topic - the biggest lesson I've learnt is to brew alot when you first start brewing - a) it's good for practise and nailing down your technique, and b) it allows you to build up a bit of a stash of beers available so you're less tempted to drink new ones you brew before they're really ready - it's a lot easier to leave a new beer to condition for a month or two if you've got 80 other bottles of ready to drink beer stashed away in the house somewhere!

 

[THE_Liam]

That's my plan to be honest. The only thing holding me back was bottles so I went to Asda last night and bought 20 bottles of smart price lemonade at 18p a bottle, that's £3.60 for enough bottles for 40 litres of beer

 

[THE_Liam]

Right, I tried a bottle last night and I'm pretty happy with it. Tasted a little bit plain and didn't keep it's head for more than a couple of minutes, but I only bottled it last weekend so I assume it'll improve with age :)

 

[THE_Liam]

Looks like its a bit flat because I didn't use enough sugar when I primed it, but otherwise it's good - I know what I did wrong and what to do next time :)