My first brew tastes, well watery !

[Mr.Everready]

My first ever brew was a Coopers Aussie lager. It was made with 500g light spray malt and 500g brewing sugar. 1040-1008 iirc. Primed with 7/8g in litre bottles.

I had my first taste 3 weeks ago after about 10 days in the bottle, it had slight apple/pear taste/aroma and had a slight bitter aftertaste. I had another last week after a further 2 weeks in the garage, the aroma and bitterness had declined slightly.
So I left in another week, the bitterness and apple taste is now almost gone but I'm quite dissapointed with the overall flavour. I can only describe it as ( guess here ! ) tasting like supermarket value lager. It looks the part in the glass, not too much of a head but you wouldn't complain if a pub pint looked like it.

This being my first brew I didn't know what to expect but I was expecting better than this. Going by the reviews of this Coopers kit I must have done something wrong somewhere, any ideas what I could have done wrong ?

 

[gtfreight]

I too have done a Cooper's lager and It's 9 weeks old now. Like yours it looks very good but the taste is very bland, I would say that it tastes a little like soda water. The kit instructions state that It's best after 12 weeks so I shall see what it tastes like in April.

 

[nuggitmv]

hi there i started on coopers kits and found useing two cans and no sugar makes for a lot better beer, bit more cost but worth it in long run.i find that the sugar give the beer sugar tang this is why some say that you can always tell homebrew hope this helps :thumb:

 

[Mr.Everready]

I too have done a Cooper's lager and It's 9 weeks old now. Like yours it looks very good but the taste is very bland, I would say that it tastes a little like soda water. The kit instructions state that It's best after 12 weeks so I shall see what it tastes like in April.

Strange. :wha:

Going by the reviews, the standard kit (with sugar/spray malt) is equivelent or better than pub lager. I'll leave it for another couple of weeks before I try again.

 

[prolix]

Some people do not tell the truth in reviews.

Sugar will always leave beer weaker tasting and watery compared to malt.

 

[Mr.Everready]

The thing is, I've not seen any bad reviews at all concering Coppers Aussie lager.

I've had a Geordies lager in the garage for a few weeks and an Aussie PA ready to go down. Both made with sugar/LSM hopefully they all won't taste the same.

On the brighter side, I've got 2, 2 can kits on the thay along with a Coopers sparkling ale and a tin of light extract.

 

[Fender Precision]

I found my coopers kits to be **** for weeks and just as it was nearly all gone, BANG! suddenly it was delicious. This was the same with heritage lager and canadian blonde. Now ive got a blonde and a mexican in the attic and i wont be tasting it for at least 2 months. I think coopers kits are developed to work in warmer climate than europe and so they take longer to mature over this side of the world. I find these kits are good quality and will use them again but patience is the key. The instructions supplied are **** and should be ignored.

 

[nickmcmechan]

I too have done a Cooper's lager and It's 9 weeks old now. Like yours it looks very good but the taste is very bland, I would say that it tastes a little like soda water. The kit instructions state that It's best after 12 weeks so I shall see what it tastes like in April.

Strange. :wha:

Going by the reviews, the standard kit (with sugar/spray malt) is equivelent or better than pub lager. I'll leave it for another couple of weeks before I try again.

right at this minute i'm guzzling a coopers aussie

after my coopers mexican cerveca went flat (and i then worked my way thorugh 40 pints of shandy...) i did a lot of research and came to a conclusion of 2 - 2- 2, i.e 2 weeks in FV (used the recommended malt/sugar stuff), 2 weeks bottled conditioning at 20C and 2 weeks in fridge...and OMG it is really really nice - pub and branded lagers cannot touch this stuff!

 

[Mr.Everready]

All I can hope is that it will improve in time. :pray:

 

[Mr.Everready]

Hi again, thought I'd bring this up again rather than start a new thread.

Tried a couple of bottles last night. The Aussie lager still has that "twang" about it, I also tried my Aussie PA ( used Coopers enhancer 2 ) at it has the same "twang" about it. What am I doing wrong ???? :cry:

My next plan was to try another Aussie lager ( before i try the 2 can ale kits ) using light malt extract and maybe some Saflager, fermenting at a lower temp. Would this work ok ? Also should I need to add any sugar/spray malt too ?

 

[philip5660]

Your plan sounds ok. One thing I will say , I started brewing along with two mates, we all did different cooprs kits then compared results, Aussie lager scored the lowest, Canadian blonde the highest.
Nothing wrong with it but it just tastes like cheap beer. Fine for chucking down your neck and getting ******

 

[The Ginger Ninja]

Was just scanning through and my eyes caught on this:

ive got a blonde and a mexican in the attic and i wont be tasting it for at least 2 months

For a second I was getting worried, very worried, sounds like some cultish gimp thing

Glad you just talking about beer!

 

[marshbrewer]

Tried a couple of bottles last night. The Aussie lager still has that "twang" about it, I also tried my Aussie PA ( used Coopers enhancer 2 ) at it has the same "twang" about it. What am I doing wrong ???? :cry:

Are you de-chlorinating your water with half a campden tablet? I found that if I didn't do that I would get a bit of a twang to my brews.

 

[Mr.Everready]

No I havn't been. I'll do that with the next brew.

 

[luckyeddie]

Was just scanning through and my eyes caught on this:
[quote="Fender Precision":1fik7vw0]ive got a blonde and a mexican in the attic and i wont be tasting it for at least 2 months

For a second I was getting worried, very worried, sounds like some cultish gimp thing

Glad you just talking about beer![/quote:1fik7vw0]

I thought the same thing - "Brewing, Austrian-style"

 

[Mr.Everready]

Just made up the batch. 21l @ 1.043. Just put on 2 sachets of Saflager yeast, does it need to be stirred in or just leave it on top ?

 

[luckyeddie]

Just made up the batch. 21l @ 1.043. Just put on 2 sachets of Saflager yeast, does it need to be stirred in or just leave it on top ?

Rehydrate with (for 2 packets) 200 mls of boiled, cooled water at 23C

Linky is to the Fermentis website:

http://www.fermentis.com/FO/60-Beer/60- ... angeHB.asp

Towards the bottom of the page are the PDF downloads giving the specific yeast instructions. They definitely require rehydration because the yeast packs contain a rehydrating agent.

 

[Fender Precision]

Was just scanning through and my eyes caught on this:
[quote="Fender Precision":27hh4j4l]ive got a blonde and a mexican in the attic and i wont be tasting it for at least 2 months

For a second I was getting worried, very worried, sounds like some cultish gimp thing

Glad you just talking about beer!

I thought the same thing - "Brewing, Austrian-style"[/quote:27hh4j4l]
Haha !! Im glad someone gets it !!! Anyway "the Gimps sleeping" !!

 

[Mr.Everready]

Just made up the batch. 21l @ 1.043. Just put on 2 sachets of Saflager yeast, does it need to be stirred in or just leave it on top ?

9 days on and the gravity is about 1.016. I've had it between 10-15c and it's done its fermenting. Will Saflager at this temp take a bit longer than normal or should I give it a wee stir and see what it is in another few days ?

PS I used a tin or LME along with the aussie lager, dunno if it makes a difference or not.

 

[Runwell-Steve]

I would leave it a bit longer, at 1016 it hasn't finished fermenting.

I usually leave lager in the fermenter for 3 weeks, warming it up to 20C over the last couple of days to make sure it is completely finished prior to bottling, or kegging for lagering.