New brewer - advise need.

[jake]

Hi all, Im new to the forum and indeed the world of home brewing. I bought my first ever home brew, the coopers diy kit with the Lager. So far im on day 4 and today removed the krausen collar after the foam had subsided and everything looks to be going to plan so far. But Im worried about the bottling process coming up soon as in the instruction dvds etc it doesnt say how far to fill them. do i go right to the top? or do i leave a gap? bottles are coopers pet 500ml and using the coopers carbonation drops. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks:smile:

 

[BruinTuns]

Hi jake and welcome aboard
I'm new as well but I've learned loads in a short time and one thing for certain is not to 'brim' your bottles. I like to leave about a 4 cm gap.
Also I've read several posts that strongly advise newbies to ignore the carbonation drops (there seems to be a question mark over their effectiveness) and add a teaspoonful of ordinary sugar instead per 500ml bottle (just use a funnel).
I like to gently squeeze plastic bottles to get the air out before capping, the carbonation process will round them out again.
No doubt more experienced members will add to this.
Good luck.

 

[AJT]

Hi Jake

Welcome!

So I agree that carb drops aren't the best but for your first go I would recommend just using them. Use 1 per bottle. As for filling the bottle, when you use the bottle filler that comes with the coopers kit, fill to the top of the bottle and when you pull the bottle away there will be the required gap.

I recommend batch priming instead of using carb drops. That involves heat/simmer the total required sugar for all bottles in a pot with around 250ml of water. You then cool it to the temp of your beer. If you have a 2nd fermenter you can add the sugar water to it and syphon the beer from your first fermenter to your second and bottle from there. A lot easier as you will leave alot of the trub in the bottom of the first fermenter and all bottles with have same carbonation.

Hope that helps.

 

[jake]

Thanks guys, much appreciated. think for the first time I will use the drops, just to get more comfortable with everything and get my first brew done. regards the drops, the bottles are 500ml instead of the 750 you get with the kit outside the uk, so it tells me 1 drop is enough but add 2 if i want more fizz. Is 2 safe in 500 ml bottles? dont want bombs going off lol but at the same time I have heard people say 1 drop is under carbed.

 

[AJT]

I would say use 1 per bottle is enough.

 

[MyQul]

I also bought the coopers starter kit when I first started brewing. Coopers have been really clever/helpful about how much to fill your bottles. The kit comes with a bottle wand. To make it work to have to push the bottom of the bottle against the wand to make the beer come out and fill the bottle. If you fill the bottle to the brim with the wand still in then remove the wand, the displacement amount of the wand is the perfect amount for the beer to be about one inche from the top of the bottle - ingenious

 

[jake]

Thanks. hopefully when its all done and ready i can come on here and tell you how it went. Glad I found this forum, looks a great place to start building up some knowledge for brewing :

 

[AJT]

Yeah the forum is great and I have learned a lot in the last 4-6 months. Everyone is happy to help so if you can't find the answer from existing posts always ask and you will get an answer.

The coopers lager kit is ok but its not great. Its a good one to start with but other kits you do will be better IMHO. Not sure if you are doing it as per the instructions but coopers kits always quote quick timescales from kit to bottle. I suggest leaving it in the fermenter for 2 weeks as this will allow the yeast to clean up after fermenting and will give you a better result. I always use a hydrometer on day 13 to check the reading and then again on day 14.

Hope this helps.

 

[weenie]

My first brew was with the Coopers DIY Kit. For bottling (500ml bottles), I experimented by using Coopers drops (1 drop) for half the bottles and half a teaspoon of table sugar (granulated) for the other bottles. Both carbonated ok but the ones with normal sugar carbonated better, gave the beer a bit more fizz.

The bottling wand that came with my kit didn't work properly (just leaked at the bottom even when you didn't press the end) but I was ok filling from the FV tap.

Good luck!

 

[Fil]

hiya,

you removed the krausen ring?? imho your better off leaving the FV covered and undisturbed, the kraussen is just the byproduct of yeast activity, nothing bad, useful if you want to harvest the yeast, but going in to remove it will involve a lot of sanitation and work removal wont improve the beer .

Any entry into the FV could be a route for something unwanted, if you Need to check on things, just crack the lid and peer in from the side without breathing into the crack

 

[jake]

hiya,

you removed the krausen ring?? imho your better off leaving the FV covered and undisturbed, the kraussen is just the byproduct of yeast activity, nothing bad, useful if you want to harvest the yeast, but going in to remove it will involve a lot of sanitation and work removal wont improve the beer .

Any entry into the FV could be a route for something unwanted, if you Need to check on things, just crack the lid and peer in from the side without breathing into the crack

Hi, the coopers vessel has a plastic krausen collar that collects the gunk, and on day 4 you just lift this plastic collar out, and refit the main lid. Part of the way they do their kit.

 

[jake]

Just out of interest, how clear does the beer go in the FV at bottling time? I take it that its still cloudy? Excuse my newbie questions lol. I just did a gravity reading and a little taste test. ( Day 6 ) My OG was 1040, and the reading I took there was 1015. I dont know what to expect with the taste test, can only describe it as quite sharp, but deffinatley not unpleasent, which has encouraged me. Its difficult not knowing what it should taste like at this stage. Smells nice enough though with no offensive odour or anything like that. Stressfull game this brewing, lol, hoping that i havent ruined anything and make it to bottling stage ok.

 

[AJT]

HiJake

It sounds good to me. I think I got down to 1014 and with the cold weather now its probably unlikely you will drop much further. I now have 2 temperature controlled brew fridges as my first few brews fluctuated with high and low temps. You can't really do much wrong with brewing as long as you make sure your sanitation is spot on and you can control and stabilise the temperature of the fv.

If it was me I would leave it for another 5 days, and the take another reading. It won't go much lower and then think about bottling day 12-14.

 

[Cwrw666]

Leaving it a bit longer, say 2 weeks overall, in the FV will allow fermentation to fully stop and the beer to clear a bit so you won't have so much sediment in the bottles.
Some beers (stout for example) taste pretty good at the bottling stage, but others (bitter) usually taste quite disapointing but improve loads after a few weeks in the bottle. I don't know about lager but there again the few times I've tried to make kit lager, although the end product was pretty nice, it didn't taste much like lager! :lol:

 

[MyQul]

I don't know about lager but there again the few times I've tried to make kit lager, although the end product was pretty nice, it didn't taste much like lager! :lol:

There's a reason for this:

1. Some of the kit lagers (I definatley know coopers dont) don't put lager yeast in the kit, they put ale yeast.

2. Lagering is a specific process. I've never made lager as I don't like it the basic process is as follows: the temperaure of fermentation are a lot lower than making ale the temp is raised for two weeks and then gradually lowered stage by stage during conditioning. You'll need a brew fridge to do this. None of this is on the instructions of kit lager they just give you the basic ale making instructions

 

[jake]

HiJake

It sounds good to me. I think I got down to 1014 and with the cold weather now its probably unlikely you will drop much further. I now have 2 temperature controlled brew fridges as my first few brews fluctuated with high and low temps. You can't really do much wrong with brewing as long as you make sure your sanitation is spot on and you can control and stabilise the temperature of the fv.

If it was me I would leave it for another 5 days, and the take another reading. It won't go much lower and then think about bottling day 12-14.

Thanks. First 3-4 days i had good temp of about 22 degrees, but with the drop in temp outside and the heating in the house on more than usual, my brew in the FV has still dropped to about 19 - 20. ive resorted to putting a few hot bottles and a sleeping bag round it just to keep it cosy lol. will probably buy a belt or plate for next one. Thanks again for all your help guys.

 

[MyQul]

Thanks. First 3-4 days i had good temp of about 22 degrees, but with the drop in temp outside and the heating in the house on more than usual, my brew in the FV has still dropped to about 19 - 20. ive resorted to putting a few hot bottles and a sleeping bag round it just to keep it cosy lol. will probably buy a belt or plate for next one. Thanks again for all your help guys.

Dont worry about 19C-20C thats actually a perfect temp for brewing ale. I try to never let my fermentation temps get above 20C. They usually range from about 16/17-20

 

[Fil]

Hi, the coopers vessel has a plastic krausen collar that collects the gunk, and on day 4 you just lift this plastic collar out, and refit the main lid. Part of the way they do their kit.

well u live n learn personally it sounds like something extra and redundant to clean and sanitise, but if it works for you, thats the main thing..
:thumb:

just my opinion,but it sounds like a solution to a problem that doesent exist??
The only problems possible from a bit of kraussen on the beer is the odd yeast island that fails to sink due to the liquids surface tension, and a single sharp wrap to the bucket side with a wooden spoon generally creates the shock neccessary to break that

If its home to any nasties they are nasties that have been in there since day1 so have probably already wreaked their havoc??

and cleaning off the crud ring is as easy as a soak with a scoop of laundry oxi.

IF you ferment uncovered then the kraussen is forming a protective layer from airborne nasties, but the easiest solution to that is to cover with a lid.

 

[jake]

Whats peoples opinions on what it should taste like just before bottling. Coopers kit says to sample it which i have but dont know what to expect.

 

[beerhunter]

Whats peoples opinions on what it should taste like just before bottling. Coopers kit says to sample it which i have but dont know what to expect.

don't worry mate, you`ll know if it`s not right.:shock: