nvs-brew

Recipes 

Hey Guys
Been doing abit of reading around...need some things more clarified.

Well ive got 3 fermenters on the go at the moment, all pretty simple stuff..
baby steps and all that..

1st/ started on 25/9
Real Ale (coopers) LME
BE2
Bottled yesterday
looking about 4%

2nd started on 26/9
Candian blond (coopers) LME
BE1
bottling today (depending on if the hydrometer readings are stable)
last reading was about 2.8%

3rd started on 29/9
Dark ale (coopers) LME
500g brown sugar
500g castor sugar
last reading was about 3.2%

WELLLL
they are all coming about pretty damn weak imo..

what im thinking next is
2 x LME (not sure on types as yet)
1kg sugar (also depending on LME type)
and maybe try it around 20L instead of 23L

will i get a better/stronger result?

scottab

Recipes 

It's hard to tell without your specific recipes most likely you did not use the right mix of water to extract. Roughly about 1lb/ gallon will get you around the 4-5% range.

nvs-brew

Recipes 

1st batch i used 3L
2nd & 3rd i used 2L (to keep the wort temp down)

there has been a decrease of % with less hot/boiling water added...would u recommend using more than a Gallon?

Ogri

Recipes 

Are you just taking a reading on your hydrometer from the alcohol percentage scale??

If so, that won't be showing you the actual ABV of your beer. That is showing you the potential alcohol %ge if your brew were to ferment out completely all of the sugars in solution.

Better to calculate from the Specific Gravities. OG= Original Gravity, FG= Finish Gravity.

Have a quick read through the following;

http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/barcontrols/BeerandWineHydrometerScales.pdf

Sounds like you are hurrying these brews through and into bottling. You'll find that giving them at least a week to let the yeast "clean up", after having reached a stable FG, then bottling and conditioning for three weeks that you'll, generally, get a better end product.

scottab

Recipes 

What was your total batch size? If you did 2.5 gallons you should see about 5% abv with those cans.
if your batch is smaller the most likely your yeast isn't able to effectively consume the sugars due to a very high starting gravity.

You mentioned keeping the wort temp down so are you boiling the wort or just adding heated water? A good boil does a few things, in your case with a pre-hopped kit you are not boiling the hops to isomerize the alpha acids into bittering the beer. What you would boil for is to break down the proteins and sanitize the wort before putting into the fermenter. In your case you may wind up with a less clear brew and if not actually boiling you risk infection since the nasties are not killed off.

Have you tasted your beer yet? My bet is that since you are actually under diluting the wort concentrate your beer is under-attenuating due to the yeast getting stressed and will taste very sweet.

scottab

Recipes 

I didn't even think of that... def make sure you are reading the hydrometer correctly.

scottab

Recipes 

Did you use one of the coopers "brew enhancer" packs with each batch? These cans require additional fermentables for 5gallon batches.

Ogri

Recipes 

When I've used Coopers Extracts I generally do something like the following.

Cooper's IPA 1.7Kg can of LME
Cooper's light malt 1.5Kg can of LME
Brown sugar 500Gr

Partial boil 2.5 Gallon for 60 mins with a little of the light LME, sugar, 1 Oz of Nugget or Magnum in from the start and then 1 Oz Cascade or Centennial at 10-15 mins 'til flame out. Then add my the bulk of my extracts. Cool down wort a bit, add to fermenter and top off to 21 litres. Pitch yeast when cool enough and let ferment in primary for three weeks.

Have had some pretty good results like that with high 6-7.something %ers

There's a member on here with the username unionrdr who's got some good recipes and notes for using the Cooper's HMEs

Ogri

Recipes 

He wrote that he used a Brew enhancer 2 in the first brew, a brew enhancer 1 in the second and 500Gr each of castor and brown sugar in his third batch.

nvs-brew

Recipes 

ok cool, well i will start getting my bottles ready and leave them in the fermenter a while longer..
and yeah, im dead keen to get them in the bottles....cant wait to give my brews a try!