New to brewing....using coopers kit

Hi all, just starting to home brew. I have seen alot of posts about people who started with Mr. Beer kits, but none about Coopers (maybe I have not looked in the right areas?) I have a couple of questions and maybe some can help me out.

1) Coopers says you can bottle after 4-7 days, but I have read in other posts to let it be in the primary fermenter for 2 weeks before bottling. Any advice?

2) Coopers also says when bottling to leave 2 inches of head space, using a filling tube how much space should I leave? when removing the the bottle from the tube give me the 2 inches?

Any help or advice would be great, my first batch is brewing now and all seems to be going fine so far!

Thanks VTBREW

I have not used coopers kits. If you go on Youtube and do a search for Craigtube. He has tons of brewing videos and he mainly used Coopers kits.

That being said...

1. I wait 2-3 weeks before bottling.

2. If you have a bottling wand if you fill it to the top once you pull out the wand it leaves the perfect amount of head space. I think tubing to the bottom would be about the same.

+1 to maxamuuses answers

+1 more. bottling wand til it overflows and you'll have the perfect amount of headspace.

let it sit for at least 2 weeks before thinking of bottling. you may be sorry if you try it sooner.

I started out watching craigtube and did my first batch with the coopers kit. comes with everything you need to make a decent batch of beer, but let it ferment a week longer than the instructions say. fill the bottles to the top just before they overflow than pull out, leaves about an inch of headspace. The kit came with an austrailian lager, taste like a bud or miller and I won't drink it so I save it for friends who like that style of beer.

RAKBREW, I've brewed a couple of Coopers kits. I let it sit for 3 weeks (no secondary), bottled, then sit for another three weeks. I filled it 2" from the bottom of the cap and it turned out fine. All the Coopers kits come with the lager. Since you'll have to put some water in the fermentor to check for leaks, experiment with the bottling wand. I disagree with superjunior, I wouldn't say it tasted anything like Bud or Miller, it was much better.

I brewed many beers using coopers gear/kits in the near past. Couple of things:

1- I was never lucky with the dry ale yeast packet that comes with their kits. I could tell fermentation was going on by the SG readings and presence of small bubbles in the airlock liquid, but there was never active bubbling. Although the SG after the recommended fermentation time was stable (1 week), I got much better results in terms of taste by leaving it fermenting for 2 weeks.
2- Absolutely do not let it fermenter in temperatures too high, like higher than 75F. Their kits give a very peculiar after taste that I'm almost positive it is created by fermenting in to high temperatures based on my results. Probably it has to do with the quality of their yeast.
3- Prolonged time in the bottle (2 months) also helps considerably with the flavor but that is probably true with any kind of beer making style.
4- The beers from coopers kit do not taste like commercial American lagers like bud at all!

Thanks to all for the helpful hints........very new to this and still have alot to learn!

The waiting is the hardest part.........but I think I'll try bottling after 3 weeks, and let condition for 3 more weeks, then give it a taste!

Skole

I haven't used a Cooper's kit, but when I started my first batch I read and then ignored the instructions that came with my ingredients and followed John Palmer's instructions.

RAKBREW said:

Thanks to all for the helpful hints........very new to this and still have alot to learn!

The waiting is the hardest part.........but I think I'll try bottling after 3 weeks, and let condition for 3 more weeks, then give it a taste!

Skole

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I was naive and thinking same thing - ended up bottling my first batch after 10 days and drinking week later - it still was great beer!

for Cooper's kits, in my opinion, 2 weeks in primary is enough for most simple beers (like lager+brew enhancer1) if you ferment at 22-24C and everything goes smoothly, I have noticed that fermentation is 80% done in week, and letting it sit there for week more will clear beer and compact the yeast on the bottom. I hit 3 week mark in primary fermenter only once when I had rather heavy brew - OG 1.057 (still went down to 1.010 in week!) and did some dryhopping during second week.

Anyway, take gravity readings - if you have Cooper's kit - you can take it directly from tap - slowly pouring into test tube. Have a taste after reading.
If beer looks crisp clear and you get same reading 3 days in a row, you can bottle it.

Just dont panic, Coopers make nice beer kits, its really hard to mess those up!

Coopers Kits will get you home-brewed beer, and that is about it. Don't expect a lager-style of beer, (even if the kit says its a lager) because you won't get it. Neither the instructions nor the yeast that come with the kit are appropriate for a lager.

Some of the other guidelines in the instructions are horribly out-dated as well. It is pretty well accepted these days you need to dedicate 2-3 weeks to fermentation, at least. Also, I would say 22-25C (72-77F) is too warm of a fermentation temperature, but this can vary based on the yeast.

These kits are what they are....good starting point for beginners (its how I started too). I'll just say that there is alot of room for improvement with some pretty minimal upgrades in equipment and procedure.

Good luck!

Most of the simple lower gravity beers do finish fermentation in 1 week but the second week in the fermenter helps the heavier yeast drop out of suspension and makes racking easier. I've tried to rush beers too fast a couple times. They're good and drinkable but when I get to the end of the batch 3+ weeks after bottling it's always been better. I think more happens in the bottles that just carbonation, the flavor seems to clear up and get (i'm no trained judge or anything so this term is the best i can come up with) crisper and more pronounced. I had an Irish Red that my friends and I really enjoyed it spent 2 weeks in the fermenter and 2 in the bottle. Then the next weekend it was even better. The hop flavor seemed sharper and you could pick out a mild roast flavor from the steeping grains I used. I don't know if there was some off flavor masking those flavors or what but it was an amazing difference with just one week. By all means try a few bottles after 2 weeks of conditioning but wait to really enjoy it the next weekend

I started with coopers kits 3+ years ago and am still making them. You seem to be on the right track im sure your beer will turn out just fine. Lots of good advice for you so far - then one thing i would stress to you is also the fermentation tempratures. Try no to let it get up in the 70's - brewed a batch one time and a surprise heat wave hit us. Fermented at 80+ F. Drink 6 of them before bed and wake up the next morning like you have been drinking heavy for a week straight - head ready to explode lol

Cheers

Hey there, I didn't want to start a new thread as this one is good to follow on from...

I have been using the coopers kit, as well as being a first time brewer. It's been fermenting for 7 days with some good healthy signs such as foam and scum build up inside the fermenter.

It started with an OG of 1040 as expected but I'm getting a reading of 1025 instead of 1008-1010 after 7 days and the foam has all gone so I'm worried that perhaps it's stuck.

My question is... Can I leave it for another week or so to continue fermenting or is the disappearance of the foam an indication that it has finished or stuck?

Many thanks,

Alex

Just a general rule of thumb that I go by is:

3 weeks primary fermentation
3 weeks in the bottle

Thanks for the speedy reply! So although there is no more foam and other such visible activity, it's still probably fermenting?

alexyeah said:

Hey there, I didn't want to start a new thread as this one is good to follow on from...

I have been using the coopers kit, as well as being a first time brewer. It's been fermenting for 7 days with some good healthy signs such as foam and scum build up inside the fermenter.

It started with an OG of 1040 as expected but I'm getting a reading of 1025 instead of 1008-1010 after 7 days and the foam has all gone so I'm worried that perhaps it's stuck.

My question is... Can I leave it for another week or so to continue fermenting or is the disappearance of the foam an indication that it has finished or stuck?

Many thanks,

Alex

Click to expand...

I brewed a few cooper's kits before. What kit are you using? Your SG seems right (especially if it is an English bitter kit), maybe a bit low but a false “too low reading” is not uncommon with kits because you add a lot of water to the fermenter and don't take a homogeneous sample for testing the OG. Your current gravity (FG) is higher than I would get after 7 days. What temperature are you fermenting? Any activity in the airlock? Don't worry about settling of the kraeusen (foam) because that is not a very reliable indicator of fermentation.

there is always a dissenter among the crowd isn't there?
This homebrewer has easily made over 200 canned kits. I've found that 6-7 days of fermentation time is plenty. Caveat here (I don't make Hi alcohol beer).

No secondary used .... that is to say it's bottled directly from fermentation vessel. 10 days conditioning time in the bottle gets an excellent tasting clear beer but the last 10% is had after 3 weeks. My A/C is set at 80 .... the dry yeast packet included is fine. Bleach is used to sanitize. Any other rules I can bend or break? Oh ya I use 4 cups of table sugar in each kit!

I break most all the rules and my beer is way better than anything you can buy. As you can tell I'm not into zymurgy like some are, just into drinking the stuff.

PS for the price, Munton connoisseur are the best canned kits IMHO. Have made the more pricey Munton "gold" and there is no difference. Coopers kits are good but find most have a very slight sulphur smell.

alexyeah said:

Thanks for the speedy reply! So although there is no more foam and other such visible activity, it's still probably fermenting?

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It could be, but you should still notice some activity even after 7 days depending on the yeast. What did you use btw?

It's the Cooper's Australian lager kit. I used the whole 1kg of brewing sugar included and it's been kept at a temperature of around 21-24C throughout.

I've had no airlock activity at all during the 7 days but I heard it's not too important to identifying whether there's good fermentation going on or not?

Also, I used the yeast sachet provided with the kit so I'm not too sure which it was!

alexyeah said:

It's the Cooper's Australian lager kit. I used the whole 1kg of brewing sugar included and it's been kept at a temperature of around 21-24C throughout.

I've had no airlock activity at all during the 7 days but I heard it's not too important to identifying whether there's good fermentation going on or not?

Also, I used the yeast sachet provided with the kit so I'm not too sure which it was!

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I never got any airlock bubbling with the small yeast packet (7 g I think) that comes with the coopers kits. There would be small bubbles within the liquid but no actual active bubbling. Still, it always fermented down to 1.012-1.015 within 7 days.

My advice for you is to take 2-3 FG measures 24 hours apart. If the FG does not change a bit, then you're done with fermentation. If your OG is right, you will end up with a beer weak in alcohol contents with a sweet taste from unfermented sugars. It could be possible that your OG had a false low value, but the real value should not be much higher than 1.040 either with those kits in my experience.

If you are indeed stuck at 1.025, there is only one reason I can think of: the kit yeast was not quite good. You could pitch some rehydrated Safale S-04 (powerful dry ale yeast) to your wort and reseal the fermenter as an attempt to reinitiate fermentation and fix the beer. It should work.

RAKBREW said:

Thanks to all for the helpful hints........very new to this and still have alot to learn!

The waiting is the hardest part.........but I think I'll try bottling after 3 weeks, and let condition for 3 more weeks, then give it a taste!

Skole

Click to expand...

No way you're gonna have that kind of patience

Try a bottle a week after you bottle...it will probably be a bit flat, but it will acquaint you with "green" beer. Taste another bottle every 3-4 days after that and you will notice improvement. That's the fun part of this hobby, experiencing the magic of ageing.

NOTE: you might be a bit underwhelmed with your first batch (I started with Coopers lager too), but it gets much, much better. Try moving on to bulk extract (Midwest, Austin Homebrew, Rebel, Northern Brewer, Williams) and specialty grains and fresh yeast with your next batch. Brew your favorite ALE style. Leave lagers alone for now. Good luck.

Thanks for everyone's help and advice! I've had the same hydrometer reading the last 2 days so I'll do another tomorrow and if it's the same I'll either proceed to bottling or look into adding the suggested yeast.

Cheers!

To be honest I agree with 'Shipface'. I have brewed dozens of canned kits and 1 week usualy takes care of alot of the fermentation. Since you have had Krausen rise and fall - and are well within the fermenttation temp Im thinking that the 1025 reading you took may be off. Just to be on the safe side let it sit a few more days and try again. Coopers yeast under the lid has never done me wrong - good fermentations every time. Keep us posted - good luck!