Coopers Australian Lager Review

I have one of these kits which has a BB date of 02/04/06! As the can looks in good nick and isn't rusty or bulging I am going to give it a go. Obviously I wont use the yeast and have opted to use a Mauribrew Lager 497 yeast, carrying on the Aussie theme. I intend to try and lager this in my garage with some bubble wrap to protect against extreme cold (although this is England not Canada so the worse is frost at this time of year!) and place it in an old wardrobe I have in there as I don't have a brew fridge and can't control the temp.

I am also going to use some Hallertauer Hersbrucker hops and boil about 25G of the pellets with my sugar and water and strain into the fermenter at the start to give it some extra flavour. I am only going to do this for 20 - 30 minutes as I am not after bitterness but just a bit more background flavours. As these have a low alpha rating (1.6%) does anyone think that 20-30 minutes will be enough or should I go for a bit longer?

I also intend to dry hop around the end of the second week (bearing in mind the yeast I am using) again using these hop pellets.

Sound ok?

Lesinge said:

I have one of these kits which has a BB date of 02/04/06! As the can looks in good nick and isn't rusty or bulging I am going to give it a go. Obviously I wont use the yeast and have opted to use a Mauribrew Lager 497 yeast, carrying on the Aussie theme. I intend to try and lager this in my garage with some bubble wrap to protect against extreme cold (although this is England not Canada so the worse is frost at this time of year!) and place it in an old wardrobe I have in there as I don't have a brew fridge and can't control the temp.

I am also going to use some Hallertauer Hersbrucker hops and boil about 25G of the pellets with my sugar and water and strain into the fermenter at the start to give it some extra flavour. I am only going to do this for 20 - 30 minutes as I am not after bitterness but just a bit more background flavours. As these have a low alpha rating (1.6%) does anyone think that 20-30 minutes will be enough or should I go for a bit longer?

I also intend to dry hop around the end of the second week (bearing in mind the yeast I am using) again using these hop pellets.

Sound ok?

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Sounds good to me. 20 mins boil should be fine and I would just add the lot to the FV, 500g Spray Malt in the boil might not go amiss either.

Never done a brew with lager yeast and would have no idea whether this changes how long the hops should be in the wort.

Hi Slid

Do you mean chuck it in without straining out?

Also, thought I wouldn't add spay malt as I am trying to do this as close to a lager as possible and using spray malt kind of turns these lager kits into light ales I have found

I have decided to have a go at this. I like a lager in the evening (when it is hot) so I thought I'd do this now and it'll be primed and ready for when the clocks go forward.

1kg of light dme and one small tin of Golden Syrup. Sound good?

So I opened the wort and it smelt fine considering its age and added this to the FV. Boiled 20g of Hersbruker hops for 20 minutes and chucked these in and added the necessary water. Had to rehydrate the lager yeast as per instructions and added these in and then moved it to a cupboard in the garage. I used the standard jubbly bubbly airlock but it showed no activity for a couple of days so had a look in and it actually was getting the yeast head quite nicely so the airlock thingy doesn't work on this FV it would seem. Anyway, the nights were getting colder so have brought it indoors to push it along and it is really going for it..I just hope I am not spoiling the yeast and flavours by brewing at too high a temp. May take it back out again but not sure - any ideas?

Well this was my first ever brew and I have to say I think it's very nice! Jus brewed to instructions but short to 20l.
Temperatures were all over the place and my final Gravity was 1014, tried to get it lower but no luck!
Only used 1.5 carb drops, next time will definitely use two. It's been bottled now 3 weeks, 2 warm, 1 cold and tastes very good! Very crisp, dry lager!

As with most, this is my first brew and came with the Coopers starter kit I brought.

As a complete newbie I read a fair bit on here and used the advice from the experts.

Brewed to 25L with Coopers BE1 (1k) and an additional 500g of light DME and 500g of granulated sugar, the OG was 1050.

Been in the FV for 12 days now at around 18c-20c with a current gravity of 1011/12 and yesterday I added an Saaz Hop tea for the final few days to give it a bit more taste and aroma. Plan to bottle on Sunday (15 days in the FV) with 2 carb drops and warm condition for 2 weeks, then cold for a further week before sticking them in the fridge for a good week or more.

I must say I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into this beer! With it likely to be around 5.7% mark it should really hit the spot as well!!

I'm not really a lager drinker, but having just eaten a pizza with plenty of chilli I really fancied a lager. So I had a search around my bottle stash and found a bottle of Coopers Australian I brewed last August, 7 months ago: looking at my notes I brewed it to 20L with beer enhancer, and a hop tea made up of 30g Hallertau hops steeped in a few litres of boiled water for 30 mins, then dry-hopped with a further 15g of Hallertau in the FV once the initial ferment had died down.

It's nothing short of incredible - clear as a bell, very hoppy without being over-the-top, a real winner :-D I've sampled this at various stages along the way (it was brewed as an emergency lager during the hot summer as it comes with an ale yeast, I normaly brew Coopers European in winter) but the long maturation period in the bottles has made it exceptional.

Had mine brewing for 8 days now hasn't shown any more activity and at 1.004 sounds like time to bottle. OG was only 1.032 so should be quite light. Taste is nicely sharp so looking forward to this. Just got to find some bottles now. Obviously not drinking my last brew quick enough!

Started a Coopers Lager last night, used 1kg of BE1 plus 200g of ordinary sugar. Also boiler up a nice Saaz hop tea and added to the mix.

Replaced the pack yeast with Safale 05. Would rather use a saflager yeast but summer temps mean this isn't possible.

FV now under the stairs where it should sit pretty steady at 18-20 degrees.

Intend to bottle this one on Sunday 6th September (if ready) meaning about 16 days in the FV, and will dry hop with more Saaz once fermentation has finished, hopefully about 3-4 days before bottling.

I will be trying mine in a minute!,2 weeks in the FV,cold crashed,bottled 9-10 days ago using a tsp of granulated per 500ml Coopers PET bottles,conditioned at 20 C.Now have a couple chilling in the fridge....I will leave the rest for another week.First brew for 30 years!.

DrTerror said:

I will be trying mine in a minute!,2 weeks in the FV,cold crashed,bottled 9-10 days ago using a tsp of granulated per 500ml Coopers PET bottles,conditioned at 20 C.Now have a couple chilling in the fridge....I will leave the rest for another week.First brew for 30 years!.

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What's the verdict?

wheazy_joe said:

What's the verdict?

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Not bad!,not bad at all!,I have to admit,I ended up drinking about 10,which I said I wouldn't do!.Then I started on them again a couple of days later...:lol:Still have about 20 left,which I WILL give another week,before finishing them off!.All in all,compared to my attempts in the 80's,actually very drinkable!.Doesn't taste quite like proper lager (didn't expect it to),but as good as dammit!.Fizzy too!,even after just 10 days of conditioning!.I have (just) one in the fridge now....Think I may 'test' it LOL!.(It is unbelievably clear too,which surprised me)
All in all,very pleased for a first brew,glad I got back into this after 30 years!,looking forward to brewing my next kit.....

Here you go!



Would I brew it again?,the answer is probably!,because,it actually tastes nice!,

Pretty high tolerance level you got there DrTerror! Looks like a decent beer you got there, what you planning next?

My Australian lager is bubbling away nicely, has changed from quite a dark colour to a proper golden lager colour now. Will leave it in the FV until a week on saturday and then bottle.

Fortunately I have a pretty decent collection of beer at the moment (20+ hammer of thor which i'm not too keen on, 35+ European Lagers which are fantastic, a full batch of Youngs AIPA which I'm yet to try and some more random stuff), which means I can give the new stuff a good two-three weeks after bottling before I am tempted to try it.

Hope this one works well as I need a good "lager" for the brewing in the warmer months.

Woodfordes Wherry with Safeale S-05,is up next,going to brew it short and add a bag of Youngs Brew Enhancer to raise the ABV,then put it in a barrel,should be brewing that tomorrow,when the wife+little one are out!.After that,I have not quite made my mind up,another 'quicky' lager probably!.

How can I put it....I certainly 'knew' I had 10 ;-)....'Sufficiently lubricated' would be my description :-D.

Anyone know a rough target final SG for the coopers Australian Lager?

Mine has been in the FV for 11 days and is currently sitting about 1.016, which I reckon is a tad high. Not planning on bottling until the weekend but it seems to be pretty dormant. I ditched the kit yeast and used Safale 05.

Unfortunately didn't take an orignal SG reading (bad me!).

Anyway, am not worried, just wondered if anyone else had done the kit and what their final SG was.

Mine slowed down about there. .. left untill 1.010..... another week to 10 days depending on temperature

It's sitting about 20-22℃, was planning on bottling this weekend but happy to leave it another week if needed. Really just wanna get my dry hop timing right.

Hi guys

I just wanted to drop in on this thread and say that I have brewed the Australian Cooper's Lager kit, and after 3 weeks bottle conditioning the flavour is still not good!

It was maybe a little warm when I did it, so probably something like 23 degrees in the room I fermented in. But that aside fermentation went really well. Lots of activity for a week and slowed down after 7 days. I left in the FV for around 17-18 days before bottling. I used 1kg of Tate & Lyle sugar with the kit, then primed each individual bottle with 5g of the same sugar.

I couldn't believe how quick the beer cleared - only 2 days and looking at the clear-glass bottles I used the beer was crystal clear. There is also lots of fizz, which is great for this style of beer. The only problem is the flavour which is still not really drinkable after conditioning for 3 weeks. I guess it is getting better, but by now should it be pretty good, or do I just need to be more patient? I am sort of regretting using basic sugar now rather than beer enhancer. But to be honest I figured that the whole point of this kit is that it is so cheap and easy. Adding enhancer brings up the cost to more like £20, and I guess I'd rather just brew an AG kit for that sort of money (not that I am really that tight!!).

Do I just need to wait it out?

mine is only really coming good now, and t is pretty drinkable :drink: