Home brewing kits ....

I think my first homebrew has failed miserably :(. Left it for 3 weeks in the pressure barrel and just had a taste now and it smells and tastes of cider, but not very nice cider. A quick google suggests that it's either an infection, or could be due to me using white table sugar instead of brewing sugar.

Thinking back I did have to leave the wort for an hour or more to cool down before pitching the yeast and in the 'common faults' section on this Coopers leaflet, that is listed as a reason why it could taste sour.


I'm really hoping this coopers kit I have just done turns out OK or I don't know if i'l do another. I used a brew enhancer instead of table sugar this time and pitched the yeast immediately, so hoping it will be fine.
 
White table sugar would get my vote for cidery/winey smell/taste.
Been there for our first two kits. Not again. Moved on to using brew enhancer kits and they made the beer not terrible, and some really pretty good.

Best of luck with your new brew, I'm sure the brew enhancer will make a huge difference.
 
you can get a battery powered water pump from a certain high street electronics shop for £10 (not sure if its allowed to link to them or not)

don't know if its of any use to you guys though :P but could be a fun way of bottling up or something
says its fine with beer , wine etc


This handy, easy to use cordless pump has a 101 uses around the house or garden
Ideal for emptying aquariums and ponds, washing machines, minor floods or spills and camping etc
Suitable for water, beer, wine or any non-corrosive fluid
One button operation
Pumps up to 240 litres/hour
Runs on 2 x D batteries (order code: L45AL)
D7UXXGI.jpg
 
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Mark A said:
Thinking back I did have to leave the wort for an hour or more to cool down before pitching the yeast and in the 'common faults' section on this Coopers leaflet, that is listed as a reason why it could taste sour.
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Why did you have to leave it to cool? What temp was it reading with 20L? I've never had any issues at all even in the summer with 2L of boiling water topped up to 20L.

I'm sure you will be fine with the BKE :)
 
well, i modified my FV to add a tap, well, my old man did as i'd probably bodge it but it seems to be leaking where the tap fits which isn't good. may need to fit an extra washer to stop the leak. otherwise, it's a new FV for me so i'd probably get the coopers one with a tap pre installed. have loads of kits to make up :(
 
So my first ever coopers mexican cerveza brew has now been in the FV for 10 days. Just taken a redaing with the hydrometer and its at 1.013 at the moment. It started at 1.048 so i work it out to be approx 4.6% at the moment! Going to leave it another 4 days then bottle! i also gave it a quick taste, tastes very light and drinkable!
 
Poppy said:
So my first ever coopers mexican cerveza brew has now been in the FV for 10 days. Just taken a redaing with the hydrometer and its at 1.013 at the moment. It started at 1.048 so i work it out to be approx 4.6% at the moment! Going to leave it another 4 days then bottle! i also gave it a quick taste, tastes very light and drinkable!
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I'm going to have to get a hydrometer, sounds very useful. Would love to know what alc% my lager is.

One thing I have noticed with my Coopers bottles is that the lids are loosening over time. I tightened them up as tight as they would go when bottling and about a week later a few had loosened off. So I went and tested every one and made sure they were ultra tight and within another few days a couple were loose again. Might be a good idea just to check a few every few days in case yours do the same.

Why did you have to leave it to cool? What temp was it reading with 20L?
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I think I boiled too much water up and underestimated the time it would take to cool down. I learnt from that mistake and followed seabiscuit's advice of putting some bottles of water in the freezer to cool down and managed to get it spot on this time.

Plus the instructions for the Tom caxtons ale didnt even mention that leaving the wort too long before adding the yeast could be a problem, so I only found that out when I bought the Coopers kit.


I'm thinking of buying another kit as I still have a while to wait before I can drink this Lager and really want to brew a dark ale as my other failed. Are the Woodforde's Real Ale Kits any good? I'm just thinking that with it already having the sugar added that it's one thing that I can't get wrong this time :D.
 
Bottled my Coopers European on Saturday

bottled_zps0cc3bd66.jpg


Took up more room than I expected so my keg (I brewed 15l due to FV size, 10 litres in bottles, 5 in the keg) is in a cold cupboard.

~4g of sugar per bottle, 4.8% ABV, 5 weeks of primary fermentation - 4 weeks at 13ºc, 1 week at 15-18ºc.

It's my 2nd brew, let's see how it turns out. Tempted to do an ale next time. I tried a friend's Coopers dark mild over Christmas which was gorgeous!

Thanks go to dannyjo for the advice on this one :)
 
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Interesting way of doing it, 5 weeks in the fermenter. Interested to see how you find it :)

I'd put a few bottles aside myself to try after a month then another month to see how you find it further conditions at room temp in the bottle :)

I really like mine, hope you do too :)
 
I just left it until it'd finished fermenting before transferring it out of the FV. Don't forget, I'm brewing it short so isn't it going to take longer?

It'd finished fermenting on Thursday, I transferred it to the bottles on Saturday (due to time mainly). Similar to what I did with my Canadian Blonde. Few days to settle after fermentation had finished before chilling. That came out ok but definitely got better with age.
 
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Mark A said:
Are the Woodforde's Real Ale Kits any good? I'm just thinking that with it already having the sugar added that it's one thing that I can't get wrong this time :D.
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We've done quite a few of the "premium" kits that have 2 cans of hopped extract. They've all been great. From Woodfordes we've only done Wherry, but it's been very nice each time. We've also done a few of the Brupaks "Pride of Yorkshire kits, which have been brilliant. They actually include a teabag of hops to tweak the kit to your liking too (their standard advice is to steep the hopbag in ho water for 20-30 mins to get more hop aroma for your beer. We particularly enjoyed their Birkby Bitter.
We've also been told by both our local brewshops that the new Festival range of beerkits are the best ones yet on the market, but we've not tried them yet.
 
So, getting close to bottling time and i'm already planning my next brew.

I love Old Crafty Hen (stronger version of Old Speckled Hen). Anyone know of a kit that would come close to strength/taste?
 
So bottled my Coopers Mexican Cerveza last night FG was 1.012 so at approx 4.7%, i'd hope that with the sugar pellets in it'll rise to 5% or so by the time its ready to drink.

Anyway, tonight i'll be putting my new brew on. Coopers Irish Stout, along with 1KG of dry Dark Malt Extract and 300grams of Demerera! :)
 
Started my first kit 11 days ago now (it's only a geordie lager kit), and it's been at 1.010 for 4 days now. Should I leave it a few more days as it states to leave until 0.006 before bottling or if showing 0.010 again today go ahead and bottle?
 
Yeah I will be using glass bottles which is why I don't know if I should chance it, just not sure how long to leave it if it stays at 0.010?
 
This isn't based on our own experience yet, we've only used PET bottles so far, but are looking at glass ones shortly. But this is what our brewing shop suggested...
If you can, maybe try and do half a dozen in plastic bottles. That way you stand a better chance of judging how much pressure is in the glass bottles too. If the plastic bottle feels like concrete with that much pressure it's worth cooling the glass bottles very low, taking the lid off and recapping them. Might cost an extra couple of pence per bottle in lids, but priceless in terms of bottles not exploding and taking your hand/eyes with it.
 
Poppy said:
So bottled my Coopers Mexican Cerveza last night FG was 1.012 so at approx 4.7%, i'd hope that with the sugar pellets in it'll rise to 5% or so by the time its ready to drink.

Anyway, tonight i'll be putting my new brew on. Coopers Irish Stout, along with 1KG of dry Dark Malt Extract and 300grams of Demerera! :)
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after 2 mths, mine was lovely, 3 mths was clear and superb. mine was about 5.3% and very light on the pallete
 
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