Newbie First attempt Coopers European Lager

[semperparatus72]

Hello,
Firstly im new to this Homebrewing lark, i always fancied giving it a go when they used to have Homebrew kits in Boots. Never got round to it until my bro in law suggested we try it. We went for the coopers European style Lager and got a starter kit with it. We seemed to get through the brewing process ok, although i did forget to take an O.G reading.After the 4/5 days of fermenting in the bucket We bottled the beer in PET bottles with the appropriate amount of white sugar added for carbonation. We then left to ferment for 3 weeks at first before sampling a wee bottle. This was pretty rank so we left for the total amount of 12 weeks before tasting.
As first attempts go i was initialy quite impressed it smelled like lager,looked like lager, had a better head than many commercial lagers, was fizzy enough and tasted crisp and fresh. But there is a bitter aftertaste . Not the sweet,fruity, taste you should get with lagers. Its just too bitter. Is there any remedy for this next time i try to brew. Could i have done something wrong.

 

[Sean_Mc]

Hi and welcome to the forum semperparatus72 :

For a lager I believe Coopers European is meant to be quite a good kit. Instead of using granulated sugar you can use spraymalt or brewing sugar which will help with the taste, but for a lager (which I don't drink often) sugar will do
When I do a kit I like it to be in the fermenting bucket for 10days, but also use a hydrometer to get readings.
When you bottle or keg instead of using sugar you can use glucose from the HB shop.
Then I secondary ferment in the warm for another 10 days and move out to the shed. Try and give the brews at least three week in the cool, but three months would be better.
The trick is to keep brewing, then the stocks don't run dry :grin:

Happy brewing Sean

 

[semperparatus72]

Thanks for that. Did use 1kg coopers dextrose when mixing up in the bin at first then just white sugar at bottling stage.
I have a bag of coopers carbonation drops so i will use them next time. Im trying the coopers mexican cerveza kit next.
Sean you said you left your brew in the fermenting bucket for 10 days before bottling, would this be ok for a lager or is it just for beer/ales.

 

[Sean_Mc]

I'm really not a lager drinker, but coopers dextrose will be better than granulated sugar.

With the fermenting bucket, best thing to do is use a hydrometer, get it to the desired specific gravity say 1010 and when its at that level for three days then bottle\keg.....its usually 10 days for me.

The best improvement you'll get out of any kit is to use a better yeast, in your case get a lager yeast and ferment at 15 Celsius....search the forum for lagering.

 

[loverlovell-08]

Hey, I'm pretty new to hbrewing too, but funny enough I used the coopers european lager for my first brew, coopers mexican creveza 2nd and thomas coopers hertiage lager most recently. The creveza kit was good, an extra light or light spray malt would go nice with this. The hertiage lager was a little more bitter as a lager for my taste but still very tasty.
7 days fermenting (at 18ish degrees), 7 secondary in bottles, as many weeks as needed in the shed lagering does the trick for me!
Alex
:drink:

 

[evanvine]

Welcome to the Forum Semp, great to have you.

 

[Cussword]

Coopers Canadian Blonde was my first & fifth, I still drink it, just set up a bucket today. It's very nice :party: :drunk: :drunk:

 

[andymat]

my first coopers lager does have a bitter taste but a lovely amber colour and very lively.
not sure how to reduce the bitterness?