Coopers European Lager - getting it right every time

[Pensive]

Hi Everyone

I'm not a first time brewer but since I've only brewed a demi-john of "mali-brew" back when I was 17 (almost 20 years ago), it's fair to say I am a noob.


My intent is to brew my own, good lager, easily and cheaply. For this reason I am not going to try many different brews at first, I am simply going to refine one recipe to make it really good - which is where I would appreciate a little advice. Of course I may experient in the future but not yet.

I've chosen to go with Coopers European Lager; I've also done a fair bit of reading, and learned that to get a good brew you need to control the environment. I'll be doing 25 litre batches, and I have an Electrim TE25 heatpad and an STC-1000 controller. I'll be bottling entirely into Grolsch bottles which I've very much enjoyed collecting.

I'm in the UK so that should be enough for the recommended 13 degree brew until the spring, but in the spring I intend to modify a fridge as a brewbox, and since this will all take place in my garage I think these will be necessary for the required controlled environment year round. I don't want to be planning my brewing around the seasons!

So I'm going for Coopers European Lager, Brew Enhancer 2 as the dextrose additive, and I've also ordered a kilo of pure dextrose to be used (in part) for priming.

I need three bits of advice please.

1) Any basic recommendations to improve the recipe? additional dextrose?
2) Priming. How much should i prime with? preferred method when bottling?
3) If i wanted to try and get a flavour of Peetermans Artois (which was brewed with coriander, and delicious but sadly discontinued), how much coriander should i attempt with and should it be dried, fresh, pre-boiled etc?
4) should a brewbox be ventilated with fresh air?

I wont ask any more as I have a million questions but you have to start somewhere :)



Thanks All

jon

 

[Rwilts]

You said you would be brewing to 25 L , most kits are designed to be brewed to 23 L. I have taken advice here and always brew kits to 20 L to imprive flavour. Good Luck and enjoy :thumb:

 

[GavH]

Can't help you with 3 & 4, but answers to 1 & 2 are simple. Add hops to it: Saaz, Hallertau, Tettnang etc will all add to this kit significantly. I found it to lacked a bit in the aroma department and will definitely be adding hops to my next one. As for priming, 1 level tspn per 500ml bottle will be sufficient.

 

[Pensive]

Thank you guys

I will take your advice and fill to 20L. I'll do my first batch without hops, and my second with. That will take some research as I'm sure there are many different types of hops to choose from.

Re: Yeast, which type of yeast is the most failsafe, and effective for brewing lager? If I'm going to the effort, I figure if you put rubbish in you get rubbish out.

I'll still save money over buying beer so cost is not really an issue.

 

[Markdon]

The yeast that comes in the kit is a true lager yeast.

Ive just bottled mine.

Did mine with 1kg extra light spray malt, 1kg brew enhancer, saaz hop tea and saaz dry hop. 6.6% hopfest. Cant wait for a sample.

 

[JonnyD]

1) Any basic recommendations to improve the recipe? additional dextrose?

Brew to 20L as suggested, don't add any more dextrose as it will thin the beer

2) Priming. How much should i prime with? preferred method when bottling?

I would batch prime oppose to prime each bottle, that way you get standardised fizz. Batch priming is where you dissolve the desired amount of sugar in a pan with a small amount of water, leave it to cool and pour it in another Fermenting Vessel (FV), then rack (transfer from one vessel to another) the beer onto the dissolved sugar solution and give it a quick stir then bottle. For largers i prime dissolve 200g

3) If i wanted to try and get a flavour of Peetermans Artois (which was brewed with coriander, and delicious but sadly discontinued), how much coriander should i attempt with and should it be dried, fresh, pre-boiled etc?

Pittsy is the person to answer this question, i remember reading that more is better as tastes are easily masked in brewing. maybe you could send him a quick pm if he doesn't see it.

4) should a brewbox be ventilated with fresh air?

Brew box doesn't need to be ventilated as you are forcing CO2 out of your beer in the fermentation process. Make sure when you do mix up your beer with the water at the start you mix vigorously and her as much oxygen in the mix as possible

Hope this helps. Don't be scared to ask questions, we were all new once and thats what we are here for

JD

 

[Pensive]

Thanks guys!

Having read the how to's in the stickies, and with all these more specific words of advice I'm feeling a lot more confident :)

I think i'll do batch priming as it sounds less fiddly than bottle priming and it reduces the chance of an accidental over-prime and an exploding bottle. Although I think with grolsch bottle's they'd just leak a bit.

I will ask Pittsy politely via PM - thanks for the tip

 

[IOMMick]

Brew to 20L as suggested, don't add any more dextrose as it will thin the beer

Will additional dextrose (on top of beer-kit enhancer he's using) actually thin the beer, or just not add anything extra to the body?

I just added additional dextrose to the Coops Euro Lager I started yesterday :shock:

 

[JonnyD]

Will additional dextrose (on top of beer-kit enhancer he's using) actually thin the beer, or just not add anything extra to the body?

I just added additional dextrose to the Coops Euro Lager I started yesterday :shock:

It won't add anything to the beer but could thin it depending on how much you have used. all additional dextrose is doing is adding extra alcohol to the brew with no subsistence (i.e. it will get thinner and thinner the more you add). I used cane sugar to my first wherry and i couldn't tell the difference between the two but that, i suppose was to the untrained pallet, i probably will be able to tell the difference now.

I am helping my best mate with his first brew tomorrow which will be a wherry kit and ill brew short with spray malt and may dry hop.

 

[aamcle]

Try here -

http://www.aussiehomebrewing.com/Custom ... opers.html

Aamcle

 

[Pensive]

I did a dry run with water as I will when I do start the brew;

I ended up with 20 litres @ 23.5 degrees.
I need to swiftly drop the temperature as close to 13 degrees as possible.

Adding 250g of ice dropped it by 2 degrees , so I _could_ drop a kilo or so of ice in (taking its volume into account when thawed) but it introduces the opportunity for infection. I would use a store bought 1 kilo bag of ice to do that.

Or

Ice bath - which would take longer and expose the wort to airborne infection for longer - but not introduce any thrid party liquids into the mix!

Which would you recommend? I'm leaning toward the ice straight into the wort because its quick and easy.

 

[IOMMick]

I did a dry run with water as I will when I do start the brew;

I ended up with 20 litres @ 23.5 degrees.
I need to swiftly drop the temperature as close to 13 degrees as possible.

Adding 250g of ice dropped it by 2 degrees , so I _could_ drop a kilo or so of ice in (taking its volume into account when thawed) but it introduces the opportunity for infection. I would use a store bought 1 kilo bag of ice to do that.

Or

Ice bath - which would take longer and expose the wort to airborne infection for longer - but not introduce any thrid party liquids into the mix!

Which would you recommend? I'm leaning toward the ice straight into the wort because its quick and easy.

Sounds like a bit of overkill to me - you don't have to add exactly 3l of boiling water to mix the can and sugars, you can add about 2l and it will all dissolve fine, especially as you start to top up with the cooler water (look at the instructions, it says you can get away with using hot [as in non boiling] water to mix the can). If you get to the 20l+ and the temperature is still a bit high just fix the lid on and let it sit for an hour, then pitch the yeast.

On the very same kit I pitched my yeast at about 16c on Wednesday and right now it's sitting there doing almost nothing. There is a bit of a sulphur smell but I gave into temptation tonight and did a gravity reading and it's only coming in about 1.040 from my SG of 1.046 after 3 days ago (by comparison the Wherry I pitched around the same time has went from 1041 to 1012). I think if I had of pitched at about 12c, like recommended in some places, it probably wouldn't have done anything. Anyway I added a bit of yeast nutrient, gave it a stir and it seems to be much more active tonight.

 

[Pensive]

Right - got 500g muntons extra light spray malt, to go with some saaz hops and muslins

so with my beer enhancer 2 (is 500g dextrose,250g maltodextrin,& 250g of light DME.)

Should turn out nice, and around 5% or more i hope.

Its about 4 degrees out in my garage at night at the moment.

If i pitch the yeast at 23 degrees then take it straight outside to cool will it work ok?

I want to do it the most reliable way possible - what temperature is the very best pitch temp for the supplied yeast?

 

[GavH]

Its about 4 degrees out in my garage at night at the moment.

If i pitch the yeast at 23 degrees then take it straight outside to cool will it work ok?

I want to do it the most reliable way possible - what temperature is the very best pitch temp for the supplied yeast?

No. You don't want the temperature to drop below 13C uf you are using the Coopers yeast that came with this as it will in likelihood STOP fermenting. Some alternative Lager yeasts can go as low as 9C and still ferment but pretty sure the Coopers strain, although a genuine lager yeast, is only considered viable down to 13C. By all means pitch at 23C and then let it drop. My last one went down to around 14/15C and was fine.

Only once you have fermented it and bottled it, left it somewhere warm for a week or two to kick off the secondary fermentation to carbonate it do you want to go colder. This is known as the Lagering process and helps clear it up further and give it a crisper, more lager-like taste.

 

[Pensive]

Sorry, forgot to mention, as per earlier post - I have an electrim TE25 heater plate and an STC-1000 which I just built up today - it will drop fairly swiftly to 13 degrees but not go any further than that :)

 

[Pensive]

So I can forget icing/cooling, pitch the pre-warmed yeast at 23 degrees then take it straight outside to the heater plate/stc-1000 and it should be ok?

 

[GavH]

So I can forget icing/cooling, pitch the pre-warmed yeast at 23 degrees then take it straight outside to the heater plate/stc-1000 and it should be ok?

What do you mean "pre-warmed yeast"? If you mean you are pitching rehydrated/sprinkling dried yeast into/onto the wort which is sat at 23C, then yes, that would be fine and is exactly what I have done with my Coopers Lager and Pilsner kits in the recent past.
If you are alluding to some other technique which warms yeast prior to pitching then I have no idea what that is! Sorry

 

[Pensive]

Sorry, I meant hydrated yeast :)

So I won't worry about the cooling and I'm ready to crack on - Friday night is brew night
:pray:

Thanks

 

[Mbarn]

I'm a bit behind clearly, but I think it's important to brew to 23L without additions or substitutions to start with, to know what base product you're working with. Then each batch adjust something. It won't take you long to fly through the batches, you'll be on version 5 - 10 before the end of the year.

 

[Rivvo]

Coriander - I used this in a wheat beer I bottled recently, I boiled it in a muslin bag with dried orange peel, then put it in with the dissolved sugar at primary, whilst the orange was clearly discernable the coriander wasn't.
I would suggest with hindsight that crushing the seeds and boiling them would extract more flavour, but someone posted on here recently about only adding spices after fermentation because they can easily be overdone.
How about boiling some up, sieving the water to get rid of the bits and then adding after fermentation, you could taste it prior to bottling and add some more if there wasn't the required level?