Brewing newbie

[Snooky]

Hi everyone.

33 year old newbie brewer from Gosport (near Portsmouth) on the south coast.

Started my first ever brew 6 days ago. Got a coopers diy starter kit with a coopers lager. Will probably be mainly brewing lagers as well as the odd pale ale and bitter.

Been enjoying reading the posts and trying to digest all this great info. I'm after a little bit of advice / clarification.

So here goes... is it best to keep the brew in fv for 2 weeks before bottling? If you leave it longer can it negatively effect the brew? How cold does it have to be while cold conditioning (ie does it need refrigeratoring)?

Please add anything else you think I will find useful for the coopers kits etc.

Thanks people.

 

[DoctorMick]

Yes, 2 weeks in the FV is best as the yeast starts to clean up the nasty by products of fermentation once all the sugars have been converted. If you leave it for a long time, over a month, you can start to get off flavours but that won't happen in 2 weeks.

If it's a true lager you should cold condition at about 4c, for ales it isn't as important and somewhere dark and cool is perfectly fine.

 

[wheazy_joe]

Hi and welcome on board!

If you have the standard coopers lager (not the European Lager or Pilsner) then you have an ale yeast, not a true lager yeast. This means you want to be brewing at about 20degrees. Two weeks should be ample in the FV then bottle or keg. Keep it at room temp for two weeks after bottling to allow it to carb up. Are you going to use carb drops or just plain old sugar in the bottles? I'd suggest two carb drops or a tea spoon of sugar per 500ml bottle for lager.

When you get round to bottling make sure you have plenty time and space, it is defo the most labour intensive and time consuming part of beer making (with kits anyway). Give yourself a good two hours to sanitise the bottles and fill them up.

If you get a chance, move the FV to where you are filling the bottles, probably the kitchen, and leave in place for a couple of hours before starting to bottle, this will allow the yeast to re-settle as some may have been disturbed as you moved the FV.

Good luck and hope your beer turns out great.

 

[Spapro]

Welcome to the forum,

2 weeks in the fermenter at circa 20°C, then check with a sterilised hydrometer, then check again 2-3 days later. If you have a static reading over 2-3 days and its got down to 1010 - 1014 then its finished fermenting and is ready to bottle.

Once bottled leave somewhere around 20°C then move somewhere cooler/darker to condition for a further 2-4 weeks.

I cold condition in my garage - its dark and on the north face of our house so stays nice and cool but not cold - currently around 15-16°C.

The Coopers Lager you have brewed (unless its the European Lager Kit) uses an ale yeast and not a lager yeast (which means it can be fermented successfully by the typical home brewer at 20°) so will be fine conditioned somewhere cool rather than necessarily chilled.

 

[Snooky]

Thanks for all the info guys. I'll leave it in the fv for 2 weeks then I'm bottling with the coopers carbonation drops. It is just the standard coopers lager. Hopefully after a few successful standard brew kits I will start experimenting. It's all very exciting.