Coopers International Mexican Cerveza

antodeco

Hi all,
Just picked this kit up along with the BE2 and drops. Is this a straight forward one fermenter kit? I read on another site that they needed a second fermenter before bottling, but I havent been able to confim officially if its 1 or 2 fermenters required.

Seperatley, has anyone ever tried this? The OH likes a Corona and Im partial to a bottle or two, and I believe this is similar (if not a little darker/richer).

Thanks

BeerNut

antodeco wrote: »

Is this a straight forward one fermenter kit?

The method should be exactly the same as any other kit.

antodeco wrote: »

has anyone ever tried this?

I've tasted it made by someone else.

antodeco wrote: »

I believe this is similar

Sometimes I wonder how the Coopers people sleep at night. There is not a chance that this will end up anything like Corona, or any pale lager really. Serve the finished product extremely cold from frozen glassware is my advice.

If pale lager is what you like to drink, you're better off buying it rather than trying to make it from a kit.

antodeco

Thanks for that! Ive tried a few of the Coopers kits before and I know they can be a million miles away from how they describe it! (Not all the time though!)

I prefer Weiss beers and stouts to pale ales, but herself spends too much of my money on booze, so if I can make some and shut her up, all the better.

Can you recommend any straight forward kits? I love different 'beers' but once shes happy and has a stock, I can make the ones that I really want!

BeerNut

antodeco wrote: »

any straight forward kits?

All kits are pretty much the same method. The only difference is the two-can (3kg) kits which contain all the fermentables you need, and the one-can (1.7kg) kits need an extra kilo or so of fermentables.

Pale beers are tough to get right from kits. The best thing, as I say, is to serve the finished beer as cold as possible to help hide the flaws. I've had good results with the basic white-label Coopers Lager kit, and adding 30g of whole-leaf Cascade hops a week before bottling.

tteknulp

Ye as beernut rightly said 1 can kit are hard to get right ,the 2 can ones muntons/woodfordes are good if you give enough condition time in bottles

antodeco

BeerNut wrote: »

Pale beers are tough to get right from kits. The best thing, as I say, is to serve the finished beer as cold as possible to help hide the flaws. I've had good results with the basic white-label Coopers Lager kit, and adding 30g of whole-leaf Cascade hops a week before bottling.

I had an issue with the sugar with the last ones I made. It looked all fine and dissolved, but after a day or two it started building up along the bottom. Obviously I didnt want to reopen it, as that would have stopped the fermentation (or so I am led to believe?).

BeerNut

antodeco wrote: »

I had an issue with the sugar with the last ones I made. It looked all fine and dissolved, but after a day or two it started building up along the bottom.

You sure that wasn't just dead yeast? That's normal.

antodeco wrote: »

Obviously I didnt want to reopen it, as that would have stopped the fermentation (or so I am led to believe?).

Opening the fermenter would cause fermentation to stop? Time to quit believing whoever is leading you to believe things. The invention of beer pre-dates the invention of the lid by some years.

antodeco

BeerNut wrote: »

You sure that wasn't just dead yeast? That's normal.

Potentially, but it was pure white. It looked like sugar but I could have been wrong!

BeerNut wrote: »

Opening the fermenter would cause fermentation to stop? Time to quit believing whoever is leading you to believe things. The invention of beer pre-dates the invention of the lid by some years.

AH balls! Thats what the guide told me. IT said to not let air get into it, as it can taint the taste. So, based on what you said, its ok for me to remove the lid and give it a stir? WOuld that affect the process/taste at all?

Thanks for all the help by the way!

BeerNut

antodeco wrote: »

Thats what the guide told me.

Straight to the recycle bin with that, assuming it's paper.

antodeco wrote: »

IT said to not let air get into it, as it can taint the taste

It will, true. But a) it won't stop fermentation and b) simply opening the lid won't let air in as there's a blanket of CO2 on top of the liquid.

antodeco wrote: »

its ok for me to remove the lid

Yes...

antodeco wrote: »

and give it a stir?

NO! This is how oxygen gets in and spoils your beer. Once fermentation has started leave it the hell alone.

Why do you want to stir it?

antodeco

BeerNut wrote: »

NO! This is how oxygen gets in and spoils your beer. Once fermentation has started leave it the hell alone.

Why do you want to stir it?

My thinking was that if it was sugar that had not dissolved correctly, a stir would allow it to "re-dissolve"?

BeerNut

Yeast has been munching sugar without your help for billions of years

I'm not at all convinced that it is sugar, but if it is, it'll get eaten anyway. It's just that your OG reading will be untrustworthy.

Either way, leave the beer alone to ferment.

Richie71

antodeco wrote: »

Hi all,
Just picked this kit up along with the BE2 and drops. Is this a straight forward one fermenter kit?

Made this with BE2, added the juice and grated peel of 4 limes boiled for 10 mins in a small pot of water. All thrown into 1 fermenter for a couple of weeks before bottling for 4.

Tasted nothing like Corona according to the OH and I ended up drinking most of it myself!

Probably overdid the limes a bit. If I was doing it again I'd try it with 2 or 3.

antodeco

Richie71 wrote: »

Made this with BE2, added the juice and grated peel of 4 limes boiled for 10 mins in a small pot of water. All thrown into 1 fermenter for a couple of weeks before bottling for 4.

Tasted nothing like Corona according to the OH and I ended up drinking most of it myself!

Probably overdid the limes a bit. If I was doing it again I'd try it with 2 or 3.

How much water did you boil them in? I might use 2 limes and take it from there!

sharingan

antodeco wrote: »

Can you recommend any straight forward kits? I love different 'beers' but once shes happy and has a stock, I can make the ones that I really want!

Advice taken straight from my personal playbook.

I 'bribe' herself with mildly hopped, malty ginger beers and house wines. Hope to start making wheat beers, Hoegarden clones and the like, as she loves that kind of stuff too.

Hoppy Summery Pale Ales, Strong brown ales, IPAs, and stouts and porters of all kinds are more my cop of joe

Richie71

antodeco wrote: »

How much water did you boil them in? I might use 2 limes and take it from there!

Only about 500mls. 2 limes should be plenty. Enjoy!

tteknulp

sharingan wrote: »

If want to do wheat beer clone ,try add coriander seeds crushed in pestal + mortar and curacao peel/or rind grated from 3 large oranges ,for hoegarden clone

sharingan

I have all of those ingredients around the house, and even some wheat malt ... might do an mini-extract this weekend ...