Room Temp

Hi guys,

I am in the process of brewing my first homebrew. I am using a Coopers Lager kit that came with my supplies from the homebrew shop. I used corn sugar with it. It started fermenting about 8 hours after pitching the yeast. That was on Saturday evening. It is being stored in my closet and the house temp stays between mid 60s at night to 72 during the day (I live in TX so it dosent get to cold that often aroud here). I have not taken any temp readings during the brewing process. It is now Wednesday and I am still seeing activity in the airlock about once every 5-10 seconds. After reading the boards I am a little concerned about the temprature. I understand that lagers need to be cooler. The guys at my local brew store recommended the Coppers Lager for the first one since it is a average type beer that will please most people.

Any feedback would be appreciated. Will the beer be Ok at the above temps?

Dont worry it will end up being a Steam Style Beer which is probably my fav style of beer, Also You said you added corn sugar...How Much? Those cooper kits need at least 1 lbs DME or Equ... Or the final product will be a smaller beer what was your O.g.?

I don't think that coopers kit is a true lager, I think it's a "lager style" beer kit. A true lager kit would have lager yeast and be cold fermented. It sounds like you made a good start to your brewing!

For your next kit, I'd suggest buying an extract kit from austinhomebrew. Those are really great and don't use corn sugar.

RICLARK said:

Dont worry it will end up being a Steam Style Beer which is probably my fav style of beer, Also You said you added corn sugar...How Much? Those cooper kits need at least 1 lbs DME or Equ... Or the final product will be a smaller beer what was your O.g.?

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I believe the corn sugar was in a 2.5lb bag and I saved about 3/4 a cup for bottling. I did not take an O.G as my kit did not come with a hydrometer but I have since gone out and bought one so I can at least tell when fermenting has stopped. I am then planning on moving it to a carboy (its in a bucket now) for the second stage.

+1 to what Yooper said on both counts. The beer should turn out just fine as long as you stay in the 60s. Next time I would definitely recommend getting an extract kit from somewhere like Austin Homebrew, Midwest, or Northern Brewer and stick with ale kits until you have means for lagering (34-45 degrees). These kits will use malt extract and specialty grains for steeping to make up the body of the beer instead of relying on corn sugar which will add alcohol, but nothing else.

Zappa42 said:

Hi guys,

I am in the process of brewing my first homebrew. I am using a Coopers Lager kit that came with my supplies from the homebrew shop. I used corn sugar with it. It started fermenting about 8 hours after pitching the yeast. That was on Saturday evening. It is being stored in my closet and the house temp stays between mid 60s at night to 72 during the day (I live in TX so it dosent get to cold that often aroud here). I have not taken any temp readings during the brewing process. It is now Wednesday and I am still seeing activity in the airlock about once every 5-10 seconds. After reading the boards I am a little concerned about the temprature. I understand that lagers need to be cooler. The guys at my local brew store recommended the Coppers Lager for the first one since it is a average type beer that will please most people.

Any feedback would be appreciated. Will the beer be Ok at the above temps?

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I think it will be fine. I made the same beer a few times when I was starting out, mostly with similar temperature conditions to what you describe. All but one time it turned out excellent, the other time it had a bit of a sour bite to it that others have suggested to me might have been infection of some kind.

I do think that it would probably be better if it were fermented at a lower temperature, but I do not know this for a fact because I have sense moved on to brewing mostly all grains.

I have over the past few months tried almost all of the Cooper's canned beer kits, and my general impression of them is that the Ale style kits are much more satisfying than the Lager or Draught style kits.

One hint I can give you about the Lager is if you follow the instructions from the Cooper's kit you will be ok, the only thing that I would recommend different is the kits instructions mention you can bottle after 5-7 days, I think you'll be happier if you go ahead and wait 10-14 days before you try to bottle it. You don't really need to do a secondary with Cooper's kits, one good thing about them is that the beer finishes really clear and pretty on its own without needing a secondary ferment/condition.

Once you get it bottled, give it a few weeks in the fridge before you really tear into it if you can wait that long. It really does make a good beer, you just won't realize what a good beer it is until its almost gone.

Oh by the way, I've made the Cooper's Lager with the Cooper's Dextrose, the Cooper's Brewing Sugar, and with both the Cooper's Brew Enhancer #1 and #2. In my opinion the Cooper's Dextrose tasted the best - Dextrose is basically Corn Sugar, so I am confident you will have a beer you'll enjoy.

Mutilated1 said:

you just won't realize what a good beer it is until its almost gone.

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+1 Mutilated you're a philosopher...:rockin:

Mutilated1 said:

It really does make a good beer, you just won't realize what a good beer it is until its almost gone.

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So true! Spoken like a true alcoholic...I mean brewmaster!