Coopers Real Ale Help

Hi Guys,

I need some advice from master brewers on this forum.

Brewing my 2nd Coopers kit..Real Ale (1st is in the bottle waiting to be tasted)
everything was fully sanitized
pitched at 27oC.
Airlock was very active for 1st 3days
then.....nothing.
I've had the wort holding at around 20-24oC for the last 21/2 weeks
no airlock activity and the hydrometer for the last 5 days
reads 1020.....whats going on?
It smells ok and tastes like flat sour beer.
what should I do.
dump it?....lol
thanks in advance
Newby Brewer
Steve

Bottle it.

Deltac

yeh...
should it be at 1006 ?

Spinquinn said:

yeh...
should it be at 1006 ?

Click to expand...

How many gallon of liquid did you make?

The coopers tub
5gals

Boy, 27C? That's pretty high. You should shoot for cooler temps in the future and disregard Cooper's temp range.

If it stopped bubbling chances are the fermentation kicked off fast and finished fast, especially at that warm a temperature. Why it's stuck at 1.020 I have no idea. That's kind high to bottle with if the yeast are actually still active. What was your original gravity reading?


Rev.

i didn't get a og......newby mistake.........lol
if i bottled at 1020 will i have any problems?

cooler temp ?
24oC

Spinquinn said:

cooler temp ?
24oC

Click to expand...

Emailed Coopers brewery.
I was told to dump the brew
they think it could be infected......
On to the next .

20 C (68 F) is usually a good medium temp. It depends on your yeast though.

I bet Coopers would like you to just dump it. They are only in it to sell you more kits. Don't get me wrong. They are a business and making money is their goal but, if it were me, I'd bottle it and hope for the best. At 2 1/2 weeks in primary I wouldn't be too afraid of bottle bombs however the 1.020 grav reading is way off. Perhaps make sure your hydrometer is on target.

I did several Coopers kits when I was living in Australia. Most of them stopped around 1020, seems to be lots of unfermentables in the tin of goo.

As far as temperature goes, Coopers claims to have developed a strain of yeast that works fine at higher temperatures, but in my experience, lower is still better. Adelaide does get hot in the summer, but I imagine they still control their fermentation temperatures. 20-24 is probably fine, though, if that's what you can manage.

And when you say it tastes like flat sour beer, hopefully you mean flat bitter beer. Flat is ok, but sour isn't

Go ahead and bottle it, maybe store the bottles in a bin with a lid just in case, but I wouldn't worry too much.

Thanks,
Yes, bitter is correct

Thank everybody for all your help
I'm going to bottle it anyway........ Xmas gifts if it's awful.......lol
My next beer..... British mild or brown ale .....not from a kit.

My 1st brew was the larger that comes with the kit.
Stopped at 1012 as well.
Just tasted it after 3 weeks in the bottle......not bad....tastes a bit like
Heinekin light but with a mild yeast aftertaste.
I think it needs a few more weeks in the bottle

The Coopers kits are actually based on a 6 gal (23 L) batch size, not 5 gal (19 L). If you only made 5 gal, your wort was a little denser. So your OG would have been higher than expected if you had measured it. Your FG would end up a little higher as well.

Even so, it sounds like you're fine. The beer is done and ready to be bottled, and I see nothing in your narrative that leads to the conclusion that it's infected. It's very common for extract kits to poop out at around 1.020. Do a search on 1.020 and you'll see tons of stuff about the phenomenon.

RDWHAHB!

I also recommend pitching at a lower temp than the Coopers instructions recommend. Shoot for 20°C if you can get it that low.

My first four brews were Coopers kits. I wasn't crazy about the lager but it did get better with age (a few months). I thought the real ale kit was their best one. Good luck and enjoy!

Spinquinn said:

My 1st brew was the larger that comes with the kit.
Stopped at 1012 as well.
Just tasted it after 3 weeks in the bottle......not bad....tastes a bit like
Heinekin light but with a mild yeast aftertaste.
I think it needs a few more weeks in the bottle

Click to expand...

Was your lager good & clear when you tasted it? Mines crystal clear already,with 1 more week to go before I refrigerate them for the 4th week.
Mine slowed to 1.016 by 9th or 10th day. I gave it 12 days to come down to that 1.012 FG. High end of what Cooper's suggested,but it's all good. I think as long as the lil bit of yeasties in the bottom of the bottle doesn't get stirred up,You should taste less of that bready/yeastie thing. I'll find out on the 13th. Damn,I can't wait to try it carbed & conditioned. Might just post a vid to my youtube channel.
Not to mention,future brews. Kinda like craigtube. He's been doin Cooper's kit's for a couple decades.

It was super clear with a slight yeast deposit on the bottom and the plastic bottle was very firm when squeezed.
I had it the fridge for 3 Days before drinking . At that point it became cloudy
(beer haze....thanks to this forum for
that info).
Last night I put a couple in the back of the fridge to sit for a few weeks to see if it clears up.
The only thing is, when I opened the bottles I don't get that hiss I hear on all the
YouTube beer reviews.
It's a very quiet hiss( if that's the correct term).
My problem now is that I want to start drinking it even though I know it needs
a couple of more weeks....lol

Update
3/22/11
Coppers Real Ale was bottled on 3/6/11
just opened a bottle and..........tastes.....GREAT.....lol
nice head and colour, tastes a bit like Bass Ale.
I'm glad I took the advice not to dump and bottle.

Thanks for all the help guys.....
On to the next brew.