Cooper's European Lager Review

[BitterPil]

I decided to try and brew a real larger because the weather is cold.
I am new to homebrewing and having lots of questions I just decided to go for it and address some of those along the way that may help others.

I bought this from HBC and was delivered the following day
I already had a 1KG box of brew enhancer 1 so decided to use that along with a 500kg bag of lighty spray malt.





I also ordered 20g of Saaz hops as I read elsewhere that the kit could do with a bit of extra hopping.

Having cleaned and sterilized everything I warmed up the can in a pot to get the extract runny.



I am using the 5 litre Ashbeck Spring water from Tesco in the brew.
I added the contents of the Tin along with 3 Litres of boiled water from the kettle and stirred until it was dissolved.
rinsing the tin with the boiling water to get all the extract out.
I then added the contents of the Malt extract and stirred until everything was dissolved.
Took a bit of stirring to get all the lumps out.
Topped up with cold water until I had the full 23 litres in the FV.




The temperature of the brew was at about 22 degrees so I pitched the yeast by sprinkling on top.

Tested the OG which was 1043.

My plan is to keep the temperature somewhere between 13 and 15 degrees so moved to the shed.

However this is fluctuating between 10 degrees and 4 degrees as the weather is so cold.



I tried a heatbelt but the FV did not get above 10 degrees.

Bought a bucket in woodies that the FV will fit into and added some water that covers the FV upto the 15 litre mark.
I have an old heater from a fish tank and dropped this into the bucket and have it plugged into a timer that I got when I bought the heating belt.
The heater was set to 18 degrees.
I reckon I can keep the brew at about 15 degrees by controlling the amount of water in the bucket and switching the heater on during the night which is the coldest part.

So far a week into brewing it seems to work. Temperature has remained at about a steady 15 degrees.

Nice eggy smell coming from the FV with plenty of activity.

I plan on leaving for about 3 weeks.

Will add the hops in a week and will post next gravity then.

[LordEoin]

Awesome, if you can keep the temperature stable it should be good. I like this kit and their Pilsner kit too.
I've added this to the Kit Reviews thread, make sure to let us know how you got in in the end

[BitterPil]

Gravity reading today is 1.010 so looking good.
Plan on bottling this weekend if FG is stable.

[LordEoin]

I'd leave it another week for the yeast to clean up

[BitterPil]

I'm too impatient  . I got stable final Gravity of 1008 for 3 days so bottled now. Looks pretty clear.
Not too sure if it should be left to condition in a cool spot being Lager yeast but moved to a cubboard at approx 18c.
Will leave for a week before moving to the shed.
Gonna be a long wait until Paddy's Day!

[oconn]

How about weekly tastings from start of  Feb. ...I'd be at it after 2 weeks tbh to " monitor it's progress"   great post by the way

[BitterPil]

Opened 1 bottle to test. Carbing up nicely but not fully clear yet and no off flavours which is great. Nice and light but I expected more hops coming through considering I added the extra Saaz but looking forward to leaving for a few more months.

[LordEoin]

mmmm beer 

[BitterPil]

Tried another bottle today.
Nicely carbed but as you can see little head retention.
Getting the hops coming through now which is great.
However I am getting that wheat beer taste which was unexpected.
Not at all unpleasant but for a Lager I did not expect it to taste like a Weisse Beer.
This may be to the cloudiness that is still evident.

[BitterPil]

Three Months since I started this kit.
Absolutely love it and very happy the way it turned out.
Slight yeast bite but definitely less now with age. No head retention but who cares as there is lots of
carbonation right to the last mouthful. Also getting lovely hops coming through.
As someone that loves a Pilsner this is very close so I am glad I added the Saaz hops at hthe start.

Will definitely be doing again.

[molc]

Made this as my first beer and had the same issue with head retention. Went extract soon after so not sure if it's a kit issue or just a Cooper issue.

[Davmcgoo]

Great guide. Currently making this one myself. Combined it with some LME and added some finishing hops to see if it makes a difference to taste. I've left it at about 15/16 degrees for 6 days now. OG was 1033, currently sitting at about 1004 which I'm worried is a bit low but to my untrained eye it looks fine and tastes ok. Hoping to leave it for about 3 weeks in total before bottling.

Any advice on bottling? I will be using PET bottles and carbonation drops. Unsure what temperature to put them at once bottled.

[Water_Wolf]

The general rule of thumb is to keep the beer at or just below the temperature it was fermented at for the first couple of weeks, after which you keep it at 'cellar' temperature.

[Davmcgoo]

Bottled after 19 days in the FV. Been bottled for 2 days now and the bottles don't seem to have stiffened up yet. Hopefully they do over the next few weeks.

[LordEoin]

2 days? You'll be waiting another while yet