Bit of advice on why my batch failed

[Davmcgoo]

Hey everyone,

New to the forum and very new to homebrewing. I took the plunge and bought a coopers starter kit along with a coopers lager. Didn't work out so well. I think my main problem was that I made it last June and the weather was quite warm so the temperature sat at about 26C which I have now learned might be too high for lager. Beer was weak, not even 3% and taste was not great. Beer was also flat. I purchased a beer belt too but didn't need it.

Looking to do a second attempt now and just want something simple that will give me drinkable beer. Anyone have recommendations for an easy kit?

So my next step is
- sterilise everything (will hot soapy water do or should I buy a specific cleaner?)
- buy a new beer kit along with more carbonation drops
- mix and pray

Any advice on what to buy/correct temperature/cleaning methods etc would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
David

[DEMPSEY]

Start with making everything physically clean so when you want to brew you then only need to sterilise all things that touch the wort. Kit yeast is designed for warmer temperature so read what the recommended temperature is for the yeast.

[Davmcgoo]

Thanks Dempsey. Have everything clean ready to go for another go at it, must get a steriliser.

Recommended temp for the coopers lager was 21-27, had it at 26 but didn't seem to turn out right.

[Raxy]

I never liked the carb drops. I moved to batch priming using a 2nd bottling bucket.
It's hard to recommend kits without knowing what type of beer your after. I've made a few different kits, craft range IPA kits are very nice (there's 2 different versions & both 'were good). I made the craft range larger but didn't like it at all.
I also had good results with muntons wheat using wheat dme instead of sugar. Woodfords wherry is a very good kit. There are also a lot of recommendations for festivals razorback ipa but I've never made that kit myself.

[Davmcgoo]

Thanks Raxy. Batch priming is something I'm not familiar with so I'll look into that.

Not picky on what kind of beer I make. Cheers for the recommendations. Currently browsing the homebrew centre website.

[Davmcgoo]

Going to purchase the coopers European lager and give that a go. Would people recommend using the coopers brew enhancer 3 or a LME brew enhancer with it?

[Jonnycheech]

I think it would be very worthwhile for you to join your local club and bring some of your beer with you for analysis. They'll be able to tell you where you went wrong and what you can do to improve you beer. It'll save you so much potentially wasted time on future batches and you'll be amazed by how much your beer will improve.

[Davmcgoo]

Good advice, thanks for that! Ordered a new kit today so will have some new beer in a few weeks to analyse!

[Damofto]

The Coopers European Lager kit comes with Lager yeast so that will have to be fermented much lower. Between 8 and 11 degrees I think is optimal.

[Davmcgoo]

The Coopers European Lager kit comes with Lager yeast so that will have to be fermented much lower. Between 8 and 11 degrees I think is optimal.

Oh wow that's cooler than I thought. I was going to aim for about 15-18 but I'll try to keep it lower. Thanks.