Ideal Temp for Coopers Mexican Cerveza

[lang]

Hey there,

    Decided to throw this brew on for the other half.  She hasn't liked any of my brews to date (which means more for me  ).  She is currently off the beer until at least mid-August so last Friday I put on a Coopers Mexican Cerveza.  Did it with 1kg DME and 200g Brewing Sugar and used the Kit yeast.  Popped the yeast in at about 21C and it's currently sitting at about 18c.

Question is:  What is the ideal temp for this brew given the above info?  Should I look to get the temp down to 12-14C?? Or will it happily tip away at 18C-ish??  How long should Primary take if temp reduced?  (Took an OG reading and now that fermentation is finsihed when two consec days of same FG)  Just wanting to know a timeline as a guide.  I have the facility to lager it once I transfer to secondary.  Think I'll give it a month in secondary and then bottle for a month also.

[Ciderhead]

Thats a great beer and you will love it, it was the third kit beer I brewed. I cant remember the temps, I believe it was 18 as its not a true lager yeast if memory serves.
Just checked my notes, 2009!
I fermented at 18-20, I secondaried for a couple of weeks and bottled.
I drank it 4 months later, a lot fell out of it but i was afraid i wasnt going to have enough yeast to carb, 1 drop per bottle, it was fizzy enough
Let us know how you get on
welcome to the forum btw.

[lang]

Thanks for the welcome and thanks for the info.  I do like the odd 'light' beer so am looking forward to it myself.  Think it'll all be drank by the end of September if comes good it'll be shared with family and friends at a celebration.  Will let you know what the deal with the brew is.

[LordEoin]

I normally brew this at 18C, it's a mix of lager and ale yeast so it's pretty flexible.
There's no need to lager it or even put it in secondary (unless you want to dryhop the hell out of it)
Provided you hit expected FG, you'd probably be fine to bottle about 2 weeks after pitching.
It's a pretty simple beer, so extended aging won't really benefit it either, drink when it's clear (clears pretty fast) and carbonated.
If i remember right, I barely noticed any difference about a month in the bottle.
I should have a couple left from my last brew about 12 months ago, I'll try one in the morning and let you know

[lang]

It's a pretty simple beer, so extended aging won't really benefit it either, drink when it's clear (clears pretty fast) and carbonated.
If i remember right, I barely noticed any difference about a month in the bottle.
I should have a couple left from my last brew about 12 months ago, I'll try one in the morning and let you know

I've racked brews to secondary since day one and think I'll continue on doing it.  Never had issues with it and think that it clears out a bit better once racked.  Might do a slight Hop addition... any suggestions (Cascade, EKG, Saaz, and Tettnanger to hand)  Or none of the above... as already mentioned it's for the other half and she's not as hop mad as me.  There has to be a happy medium, right  ?

I'm in no rush to bottle this brew as I know it won't be drank until mid-August at earliest.  Think i'm going to need to get some more bottles cos don't think I'll have enough spare when bottling time comes around for this.  This may delay me bottling it, but sure as I say I'm in no real rush.

[LordEoin]

If you're making it with the kit yeast, here's really no need to move it to secondary.
In my opinion it's just an extra step for this beer.
But if you're a creature of habit, no harm. Might aswell dryhop it while you're there 

I tried 2 that i had in the cupboard:

Brew #5 (one of my first, so still following instructions)
13 months in bottle
kit+1kg Brew Enhancer 2, to 23L - Kit yeast
fermented at 24C for 1 week (as per the Coopers' Destructions)
crystal clear - head thin and gone quickly - first taste slightly cidery (temp+BE2) - rest of the pint thin and refreshing

Brew #19
7 months in bottle
kit+500g Light DME, to 20 L - Kit yeast
Fermented at 14C for 2 weeks
Crystal Clear - better head but still fairly poor, gone after a few minutes - better mouthfeel - slight oat/wheat taste - much nicer, very refreshing pint

Next time I make one (the first pint had me swearing I never will, but the second pint made me thirsty)
2 or 3 months in bottle
Kit+500g wheat DME +500g extra light DME + 300g carapils + S23 yeast
fermented at 12C til ready (probably about 2 weeks), then cold crashed for a week, lager bottles
dryhop (25g Amarillo + 25G Cascade) or (40g saaz) or (60g bramling X)

[lang]

Next time I make one (the first pint had me swearing I never will, but the second pint made me thirsty)
2 or 3 months in bottle
Kit+500g wheat DME +500g extra light DME + 300g carapils + S23 yeast
fermented at 12C til ready (probably about 2 weeks), then cold crashed for a week, lager bottles
dryhop (25g Amarillo + 25G Cascade) or (40g saaz) or (60g bramling X)

Just did a Gravity Reading (1.016) with a SG of 1.048.  That gives me a beer of about 4.5%(ish).  Think I'll put a small amount of hops in it for secondary (prob try the Saaz pellets I have.  My OH doesn't really like the hoppy flavours too much so will prob only do about 10g or so.  Had a sample of it today and it's tasting good.  Think it'll come good.  Even the OH said it was very drinkable.  Think it'll do for a bit of lime in it too.

[LordEoin]

OH = Old Hag?

That SG sounds a bit high.maybe bump the temperature by about 2 degrees for a couple of days and see if it kicks back to life.
Which yeast did you use by the way, and what temp?

I've never put lime directly into the brew, only into the glass.
If you're thinking of adding it directly to the brew, it might be a good idea to do it to individual bottles or half the batch, just in case it isn't as nice as you expected.

[lang]

OH = Old Hag?

That SG sounds a bit high.maybe bump the temperature by about 2 degrees for a couple of days and see if it kicks back to life.
Which yeast did you use by the way, and what temp?

I've never put lime directly into the brew, only into the glass.
If you're thinking of adding it directly to the brew, it might be a good idea to do it to individual bottles or half the batch, just in case it isn't as nice as you expected.

I certainly would (be allowed) call her that  .  I used the kit yeast and from memory i pitched it at about 22C.  I had put 1kg of DME plus 200g Brewing Sugar so that would account for some of the increased OG. Brew's down to about 13C now.  I'll stick the hot water bottle on it this evening.  I've generally had a Final Gravity reading (on any brew) of between 1.010-1.020. 

[LordEoin]

any time i've used that kit with kit yeast (and similar ingredients) it ended up at 1.010

[lang]

Hmmmm.  I'll try bump up the temp and see if it kicks it off again.