Advice required for making Coopers European as close to Becks as possible

[the_kitchen_brewer]

Having been pleasantly surprised by how well the Coopers Canadian Blonde turned out, I'm about to make one of their European Lager kits.

To be honest, I've never taken to Stella, but I do enjoy a chilled bottle of Becks now and again, so that's what I'm aiming for.

I've seen lots of tweaks involving Saaz hops and using liquid malt extract and saflager yeast which the posters say make it better, but I just want to make sure any tweaks I employ make it more like Becks and not like Stella

Anyone got any suggestions?

 

[Jonathan]

I think the yeast is an important bit, the one in the coopers kit will be quite generic. People say that S-23 is used in various European commercial brews, wouldn't be surprised if Becks is knew of them.
A quick Google might tell you what hops are used in Becks?

 

[Slid]

Do you have a brewing fridge that will control the temperature for the actual lager yeast that the European kit comes with? About 12C is best for lager brewing, I think - never attempted it myself, but there are many threads on the subject.

Canadian Blonde comes with Ale yeast and will be quite happy fermenting at 20-24C that is prevailent in houses at this time of year.

Lager yeast is quite different. If you have the temp control sorted:

Then - neither of the commercial drinks mentioned are actually aspirational, even for a kit brewer. Making your own gives you the invaluable ingredient of time (if you choose to add this!) to your brew and commercial brewers don't have this luxury.

If you want "light" then you could brew it with kit and kilo of sugar. If you want a little more body, then 500g DME and 700g sugar might be better.
You could even go for the "Brew Enhancers", which are half DME and half corn sugar (called "dextrose" to ease the pain of paying much more for it than for cane sugar).

Difficult to give specific advice on differentiating between the 2 commercial beers you mention - once you get the hang of sanitising everything, no way will you make anything as mediocre as either.

 

[pms67]

You could even go for the "Brew Enhancers", which are half DME and half corn sugar (called "dextrose" to ease the pain of paying much more for it than for cane sugar).
:hat: lol
Whatever you make will be miles better than Stella and probably better than Becks too.
Good luck.

 

[tippseyTony]

I love these kits . Done four now brew at 12c for three weeks . 1kg of sugar or spraymalt hop with saaz and hallertau 30g each and leave for as long possible .

 

[the_kitchen_brewer]

Do you have a brewing fridge that will control the temperature for the actual lager yeast that the European kit comes with? About 12C is best for lager brewing, I think - never attempted it myself, but there are many threads on the subject.

You might have spotted the fundamental flaw in my plans

Not got a brewing fridge nor the room to get one :-(

I had a look at the instructions and it says 13-21o - will it taste like **** in the 18-21o range?

Could maybe stick it in the shed and put a blanket around it to stop it from getting too cold overnight?

 

[Slid]

You might have spotted the fundamental flaw in my plans

Not got a brewing fridge nor the room to get one :-(

I had a look at the instructions and it says 13-21o - will it taste like **** in the 18-21o range?

Could maybe stick it in the shed and put a blanket around it to stop it from getting too cold overnight?

Just buy some ale yeast and do the kit with 500g DME and 700g sugar. You are not believing it only works with the kit yeast - that's just daft. :whistle:

Put the lager yeast in the fridge and do what I do I with stuff like that - keep for a few years, then chuck it.

 

[the_kitchen_brewer]

Just buy some ale yeast and do the kit with 500g DME and 700g sugar. You are not believing it only works with the kit yeast - that's just daft. :whistle:

Ha ha no, but won't it give a more Ale like profile? In which case I might be better sticking with one of the kits that use an Ale yeast.

Don't get me wrong, I like my Ales, and really enjoyed the better brew Czech Pilsner, but somtimes I enjoy a nice cold bog standard cooking lager (even Carlsberg sometimes, though I draw the line at Fosters

A few people on various forums have commented that this kit tastes like Becks so was just hoping that someone who had brewed it and thought it tasted like Becks could tell me what they did.

If I had a beer fridge I might go for it, but since I don't I might just buy some Becks for the odd occasion I fancy one and/or someone comes over who doesn't drink ale.

This thing looks cool: http://www.brewjacket.com/

But at $299 + delivery + import duty + VAT + step down transformer = EEEK! Could buy a lot of becks for that

Mind he's raised over $100K on kickstarter so obviously a lot of people like the idea. Hopefully the price will come down.

 

[Speccy]

I'd be interested to know this too.

I've got a Coopers European that I was planning to do over the winter so it's ready for my lager-loving friends in the spring. But I'm not sure whether to do it with beer enhancer or just plain sugar. Like the_kitchen_brewer I'd like to end up with something crisp, thirst-quenching and Becks-like rather than just a variation on the malty ales I normally come up with.

 

[Slid]

I'd be interested to know this too.

I've got a Coopers European that I was planning to do over the winter so it's ready for my lager-loving friends in the spring. But I'm not sure whether to do it with beer enhancer or just plain sugar. Like the_kitchen_brewer I'd like to end up with something crisp, thirst-quenching and Becks-like rather than just a variation on the malty ales I normally come up with.

Over winter is the best bet if you want to brew at lager temps, I would guess. in the absence of temp control.