Slightly odd taste

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BeardyBrew

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Good day,

I'm new to the homebrewing game and like many other I started with a simple kit (cooper's lager)

I've have my brew fermenting for about two weeks. I've decided to bottle the beer and add priming sugar.

I had a little taste and it had a slight tart/sour note to it. Is this something that will mellow over time? How long shall I leave my brew bottled.

My gear and bottles had been sterilised.
 
Good day,

I'm new to the homebrewing game and like many other I started with a simple kit (cooper's lager)

I've have my brew fermenting for about two weeks. I've decided to bottle the beer and add priming sugar.

I had a little taste and it had a slight tart/sour note to it. Is this something that will mellow over time? How long shall I leave my brew bottled.

My gear and bottles had been sterilised.

1st of all welcome to the forum!

Beer at 2 weeks will be different from 6 week old beer. it's too early to panic yet.

As it's your 1st brew i'd strongly suggest trying a bottle each week so you can learn how it changes over time. if it improves you'll have a good idea of when to start tucking into them big-time! :grin: If it is getting worse e.g more sour - vinegary over over time then it could be an infection.
 
Welcome to the Forum. :thumb:

I second dad_of_jon above.

I always taste my brews before bottling on the basis that I will then know how much they have improved over the weeks.

Keep the bottles in the dark somewhere nice and warm to carbonate for a couple of weeks then move them to somewhere nice and cool for a couple more weeks and then taste one!

You will be amazed at the difference whether it be good or bad (but most probably good)! :thumb:

In the meantime, to stop yourself from even thinking about the current brew, I suggest that you get the next one underway! :whistle:
 
a single can kit is never going to be brilliant, however well you brew the thing ... sounds like kit beer to me, tart / sour. Try a dark beer when you do another, there are stronger flavours that will help cover up any flaws in the beer. You will also get better results with a two can kit. And most importantly, make sure that the temperature is stable during fermentation ... it's the single most important thing after sanitation.
Here you go
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d35Gfn6pXBw[/ame]
 
@BeardyBrew
Your lager will need some time to condition. Most beers straight out the of the FV taste nothing like the finished product. I have read that some folks on here leave their Coopers lager for weeks even months before it comes good. So my suggestion is you leave it two weeks in the warm to carb up, then find a cold place and leave it another four weeks or longer before you try a bottle.
Don't get sucked into the infected beer discussion. If you have been thorough with cleanliness and sterilising your kit, you have to be extremely unlucky to get an infected brew.
In the meantime why not start another brew. Although not a particular favourite of mine Woodefordes Wherry is a straight forward two-can that delivers a good malty beer but change the yeast to a Wilko Ale yeast or similar, since the kit yeast can result in a stuck fermentation (i.e. it finishes fermenting before it should).
Finally there nowt wrong with kits if you know what you are doing. That will come with practice and you can then decide to move on to AG or extract brewing or stay with kits.
 
I knew I'd seen that "T" shirt somewhere else ... :thumb:

... and thought that the message could be misconstrued! :whistle:

image001-1.jpg
 
Thanks for the info, I'm probably worrying too much as it's the first time.

I'm not a huge lager drinker so Id like to try a wheat beer next. Any recommendations for a starter.
 
Kits are kinda limiting in what you can expect them to be, look for 2 can kits at the very least as they tend to be a lot better from the get go. For a wheat beer try looking thru the beer kit reviews to see if anything catches your eye.
 
Thanks for the info, I'm probably worrying too much as it's the first time.



I'm not a huge lager drinker so Id like to try a wheat beer next. Any recommendations for a starter.



The coopers hefe wheat is a pretty good kit with a kilo of wheat spray malt. I used a Belgian wheat yeast instead of the kit yeast. Turned out good.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Sometimes I read where people say the beer tastes great when they try it at bottling stage.
I don't think I could say that of any of my beers.

As terrym says some people put their Coopers Lager away for a while. That's generally the European Lager though I think.
If you've got the ordinary lager that comes with the kit, it should be drinkable after a couple of weeks. Don't expect too much
of it though. It's OK, but not great.
 
It's starting to clear a look really quite good at the moment.

I've started a wheat beer using 500g spraymalt and 500g sugar, I've heard this 50/50 method is a good starting point.

How will this 50/50 mix effect the strength??
 
It's starting to clear a look really quite good at the moment.

I've started a wheat beer using 500g spraymalt and 500g sugar, I've heard this 50/50 method is a good starting point.

How will this 50/50 mix effect the strength??
How much have you made-ie litres?
I have done an extract wheat(5 litre brew) with 500 gms wheat spray malt,100 grms light spray malt and 40 gms carahell which should come out around 4.8% approx, has Saaz pellets and Coriander and Curacao peel added as well.
One i did a while ago along similar lines was very good:thumb:
Ahhhhhhhhhh, probably got the wrong end of the stick, You are doing a kit-yes?
sorry:doh:
half and half should be fine for a kit.
 
Yeh its just a kit, I haven't been brave enough to move on yet.

It's in a 23 litre brewing tub
 
with wheat beer you can buy dried wheat extract (DWE) rather than dried malt extract.

here's a simple recipe for a fruit salad(y) wheat beer.

2kg dwe
450g golden syrup
500g clear candi sugar
50g galaxy hops
mj's baverian wheat yeast. (m20)
og 1.050

dissolved candi sugar and golden syrup in 4 litres water brought to the boil.
chucked hops in a bag 5 mins after flame out into boiled wort and left for 15 mins.
meanwhile dissolved 2kg of dwe in 6 litres of room temp water in to the fv.

Then added the boiled wort and hops to the fv.
topped up to 21.5litres
pitched rehydrated yeast at 30 , room temp 22
1008 adjusted
5.51% abv

you can swap the 500g candi sugar with an additional 500g of dried wheat extract if you want a bit more body and a bit less abv :thumb:
 
Yeh its just a kit, I haven't been brave enough to move on yet.

It's in a 23 litre brewing tub

Hi there, welcome to the forum. My first brew was a Youngs lager kit that I did because my wife bought it for me. For the first two or three weeks after bottling I thought "can't wait to finish this rubbish off and get back to my cans of Kronenbourg" but then something magic happened. I open a bottle and found out I had made a real beer and it tasted better than the stuff I was getting out of the super market. You cannot believe how a beer can change over a few short weeks nor how the kit makers can make it happen! Anyway, don't worry about rushing into going into extract or beyond too quickly as you can learn loads from kits, especially learning about hops by dry hopping (just chucking them on top of four day old beer). It gives you time to practice and understand the process. I really recommend Coopers Australian Pale Ale which is always a great beer with or without extra hops. I made loads and loads of kits until I went into all grain and loved them for the ease of use and of course the fact that I had loads of beer on tap or rather bottles.
 
I'd like to give this a try. I think that'll be my next endeavour.

My current wheat beer kit is bubbling like mad at the moment, I was thinking of adding a hop tea just before bottling. I hear you can make it in a French coffee press and it'll give a nice aroma?
 

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