Questions from a noob

full_irish

Hi all,

So I've just started my first ever brew today using the Coopers all-in-one home brew kit (lager). I'm giving up the sauce 'til Christmas and this will (hopefully) be a delightful treat when I'm back drinking again, and if it goes well - some very cheap Christmas presents

However, I have already made a slight error and I'm wondering how much its going to affect the final taste. I clearly wasn't paying any attention to the fact it contained everything I needed and just added plain 'ol sugar as oppose to the flavour enhancer that come with it - I only noticed there was a spare unopened packet after sealing up the container!

I've got it wrapped in a duvet in the far corner of my bedroom at the moment as its the probably one of the spots in the house with least amount of temp variations (and the housemates can't accidentally kick it over etc.. when drunk after a night out). How much of an aroma comes off it as its brews, will it be an issue in the bedroom?

What temperature do I ideally want to have it at for the first week - the upper or lower end of the 21-27C range? Or is it that important?

Thanks in advance for any advice - ye seem like a very knowledgeable and extremely good-looking* bunch of lads/lasses.

*shameless flattery

testaccount123

Tbh a Coopers lager kit brewed with table sugar is not going to be brilliant, your first kit is more about understanding the very basics of the process and its a bonus if you produce drinkable beer.

There wont be any perceptible odour from the fermenter. Your beer should ideally ferment roughly between 18-22 degrees, anything above 24/25 and you are going to introduce off-flavours.

full_irish

Ah balls!

Thanks for the advice, would I better off chucking this lot and doing it again with beer enhancer as opposed to sugar or crack on and put it down to experience?

neoanto

Dont chuck it out. It will probably be fine.
You will learn more by going through the whole process of bottling and waiting for it to carb etc.

Buona Fortuna

Definately crack, you'll learn far more that way.

Probably be grand so.

Good Luck

full_irish

Lovin' the optimism and thanks again.

Have moved it to a different location as it was around the 24C mark and i don't even have the heating on in the house. Its oddly warm for November at the moment - have it now brewing away at ~21C at the moment.

Any final wise words?

Keedowah

Don't get too obsessed with the temperature at the moment, as long as it is in a room in the house you should be fine. And don't chuck it - this first batch is a learning experience, hopefully it comes out decent enough to drink!

Don't get too despondent if your friends don't think it tastes exactly like Heineken when its finished!

full_irish

If it tastes like Heineken, I'll be disappointed - never mind my friends!

Donadea Leo

It is lager so it might remind you of Heineken. i m not sure how much sugar you added but you could try adding the enhancer at this point, it might just add a little body to your final beer. However if you ve already put in a lot of sugar, you re going to end up with a very alcoholy beer, might be worth holding onto it for your next brew.

To be honest i found the kits a bit disappointing but are a good building block on the brewing journey. You ll probably find you ll drink it out of the sheet thrill of making beer.

full_irish

I put in 1kg of sugar, it will probably be pure rocket fuel if I add the enhancer. That is if my basic grasp of brewing is right.

BeerNut

Donadea Leo wrote: »

It is lager

It's not. Kit "lagers" are blonde ales.

Donadea Leo

BeerNut wrote: »

It's not. Kit "lagers" are blonde ales.

fair point.

blueshed

from my experience with kits is the darker beers turned out better, maybe try the Stout, English bitter or Dark ale http://www.homebrewwest.ie/17-kg-coopers-40-pint-beer-kits-at-less-than-uk-prices-56-c.asp

plus go with a can of LME or kilo of DME instead of sugar or enhancer .

Where are you based, there might be a homebrew club close to you http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/forum/index.php?board=49.0

full_irish

Ooh the stout sounds like a great shout - that's definitely going to be next shout, thanks for the heads up.

I'm actually living over in Manchester so don't think I'll find one in my neck of the woods and it may be just too far to commute

full_irish

So taking hydrometer reading today and it seems as if it is buoyant, but the reading is below the top of the graduated cylinder thing. What does this mean?

Buona Fortuna

Humm not sure.

Does this help? Craig is quite waffly and video is quite long but a kinda like his general attitude.

There's probably better, more sucinct videos on UTube.

Carawaystick

One point about fermenting at high temps (>22 degrees) is that you can get fiery alcohols from the yeast which might hide other flaws
I aim for 17 degrees or so


Most importantly is to get a hardback notebook and keep notes of your brewing.
So when something tastes different you can see why. The sugar will make your beer thin this time, where the high temp will give it yeast flavours

full_irish

Update: just bottled the brew in the last hour or so. Had a sample of it the brew so far and it doesn't seem to have any 'off' taste/flavour so fingers crossed it stays this way as is actually drinkable when it comes to it!

Made the impromptu decision for some further experimentation re: carbonation. Have put single carbonation drop in half the bottles and doubled up on the other half just to see the difference it makes - may as well go for the trial and error approach with this brew being more of a learning experience as ye have pointed out. The bottles are 500mL, so it may result in v. gassy beer?

Have already learnt a lot even just a week in, and have identified a lot of things which I would do a bit differently next time which is good to know.

Now to play the waiting game and see what level of patience I have!

How long would you recommend leaving bottled before sampling. Is 3 months the gold standard?

BeerNut

full_irish wrote: »

How long would you recommend leaving bottled before sampling. Is 3 months the gold standard?

Three weeks should be enough for it to be fully carbonated but it will continue to change (improve, usually) after that.

Carawaystick

Have you plastic or glass bottles?
Plastic will get hard when it carbonates so you know when it's fizzy, but 3 weeks to condition is good advice

full_irish

I've got plastic bottles so should be no issue on that front. So at 3 weeks, its drinkable. And any time left longer than that will result in better flavour.

Whats the sort of expiry on home brew beers?

BeerNut

full_irish wrote: »

So at 3 weeks, its drinkable. And any time left longer than that will result in better flavour.

Pretty much.

full_irish wrote: »

Whats the sort of expiry on home brew beers?

Never found one. Hop forward beers will start to lose their freshness after about three months, but that's not something to worry about with a kit lager.

muppet_man

Thanks full_irish for starting this thread. Your about week ahead of me, I just started my first brew Tuesday so your thread is well timed. I'm also using the Coopers kit but using an IPA.

Could others please advise me how long to leave my brew in the fermentation bucket before bottling. The leaflet says to measure after 6 days and wait for 2 days of consistent measurements while in this forum I've read leave for 2 weeks I have it in my hotpress sitting at a consistent 22C if it makes a difference.

BeerNut

muppet_man wrote: »

Could others please advise me how long to leave my brew in the fermentation bucket before bottling. The leaflet says to measure after 6 days and wait for 2 days of consistent measurements while in this forum I've read leave for 2 weeks

Totally up to yourself whether to believe this forum or the kit instructions. But in fairness it is a wee bit weird to be asking here whether we regard ourselves as trustworthy or not.




By which I mean: bin your instructions, they're wrong. Trust actual homebrewers not people who make their money off of homebrewers. And get your fermenter out of the hotpress unless you live in 1970 and really want to make undrinkable beer.

MadsL

BeerNut wrote: »

get your fermenter out of the hotpress unless you live in 1970 and really want to make undrinkable beer.

Cracking me up here...

Carawaystick

full_irish wrote: »

Whats the sort of expiry on home brew beers?

Apart from witbier styles, nothing goes off. Hoppy beers fade
Witbiers ( well the 3 times I made them) started to get bad tastes around 2-3 months after bottling.

Hingo

Carawaystick wrote: »

Hoppy beers fade Witbiers ( well the 3 times I made them) started to get bad tastes around 2-3 months after bottling.

I best get moving on that Hoppy Wit I just bottled. . . :P

full_irish

So I've officially caught the bug and am itching to get going on the next batch and rectify the errors I made first time (i.e actually taking an OG so I can work alc % of what I'm making) and more importantly... I really want to have some home brewed stout.

So on that note, would anyone have recommendations on a nice stout?

BeerNut

I've always found the standard Coopers one to be decent:

full_irish

BeerNut wrote: »

I've always found the standard Coopers one to be decent:

Did you add in anything to the mix or just as is on the simple recipe?

I'm probably getting ahead of myself now by thinking of adding weird and wonderful just yet

BeerNut

I've done it straight and also with chillies. It finishes with a fair bit of residual sugar, presumably because I'm topping up with spraymalt, and that chocolate sweetness works brilliantly with the chillies.

Buona Fortuna

BeerNut wrote: »

I've done it straight and also with chillies. It finishes with a fair bit of residual sugar, presumably because I'm topping up with spraymalt, and that chocolate sweetness works brilliantly with the chillies.

Wow - brilliant I must give it a go.

So the Chillies are they fresh or dried? In at the start or added later?

BeerNut

Buona Fortuna wrote: »

So the Chillies are they fresh or dried? In at the start or added later?

Fresh, but frozen, quartered, boiled in a minimal amount of water to sanitise and then pitched in with the yeast.

Buona Fortuna

BeerNut - as ever - thanks very much

Hingo

I just made a RIS with Ancho Chillies (among other additions) in it, Anchos are mild enough but still pack a lot of flavour - just right for a beer. Would recommend them to go in during conditioning stage in the fermenter.

this also might help http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/wordpress/how-to-kit-hack-intermediate/

Lovely Bloke

be careful boiling chillies! I hacked that very kit with chillies back in the day, and it was like tear gas in my kitchen.

BeerNut

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

I hacked that very kit with chillies back in the day, and it was like tear gas in my kitchen.

Well, if you can't stand the heat...