Coopers Brewmaster Pilsner kit

This is a great little kit if you want to get in the neighborhood of a Pilsen Urquell. Comes with a good dry yeast that can be fermented as low as 13C for a true lager beer.

http://www.coopers.com.au/homebrew/hbrew.php?pid=1&id=122

I use my same basic forumla that seems to work: 1.5 lbs pale malt extract and 1 cup corn sugar added to the kits. For this pilsner, 2 weeks 15-17 C in primary, 1-2 weeks secondary at 21C.

Only complaint... the head retention on this kit doesn't hold up at all (not like the other Coopers kits). Would aging longer help (it's only been 4 weeks). What's that non-sugar stuff some folks add to the beer to help with head retention?

Any suggestions?

Cheers
Tony.

You can use gum arabic powder which gets added at bottling time. Or steep 1/2# of CaraPils for 30 minutes in 1 gallon of your boil water at 155 before proceeding as usual.

I was wondering about this kit. I usually do AG brews but got a new keezer fridge, and need stuff to fill it quickly. Sounds like it's worth a shot.

- Eric

Its a really good Kit, I've made it a couple of times - it always goes quickly.

elowe said:

You can use gum arabic powder which gets added at bottling time. Or steep 1/2# of CaraPils for 30 minutes in 1 gallon of your boil water at 155 before proceeding as usual.

I was wondering about this kit. I usually do AG brews but got a new keezer fridge, and need stuff to fill it quickly. Sounds like it's worth a shot.

- Eric

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It's a great kit for the money, if you can get a head on the thing for more than 30 seconds.

I'll look into your advice. Thanks.

Tony.

Mutilated1 said:

Its a really good Kit, I've made it a couple of times - it always goes quickly.

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How did you find the head retention with this kit? What did you use for sugars, aging, etc?


Tony.

Tony, I've made the kit with the Cooper's Brew Enhancer 1 and Brew Enhancer 2 and I've never noticed any problems with head retention. The time I made it and it turned out the best I made it with the Cooper's brewing Sugar. I haven't tried the recommened 500g Light Dry Malt and 300g Dextrose yet, but thats pretty close to what Brew Enhancer 2 is. I would guess that I let the beers carbonate for 3-4 weeks at room temperature and then another couple of weeks in the fridge before I started to drink them.

Probably not the best to advise you on the head retention because I drink those Cooper's Pilseners as fast as you can pour them practically.

If you really want a head to stand up on your Pilsener, give that 1/2# of CaraPils idea a try. The first All Grain Pilsener I made I used 10# contintental Pilsener and 1/2# CaraPils and that beer had a thick foamy head 2-1/2 inches tall on it. Really tasted good too. Actually I think 1/2# might be a bit much in an All Grain batch, but with a Cooper's Pilsener kit its probably a good place to start.

Have you thought about doing a mini-mash with a Coopers kit ? You know use the Pilsener Can from Cooper's but instead of adding a couple pounds of sugar, just mash 3-4 pounds of Pilsener Malt along with some Carapils and add your Coopers Can at the end of the boil. I did that before with some other Coopers kits and it was excellent - that should get you the head you're looking for and add something to your beer as well.

Mutilated1 said:

Probably not the best to advise you on the head retention because I drink those Cooper's Pilseners as fast as you can pour them practically.

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LOL! I hear ya there! So far this is the best pilsner beer kit I've tried. I guess I'm being a bit picky with the head not lasting as long.

If you really want a head to stand up on your Pilsener, give that 1/2# of CaraPils idea a try. The first All Grain Pilsener I made I used 10# contintental Pilsener and 1/2# CaraPils and that beer had a thick foamy head 2-1/2 inches tall on it. Really tasted good too. Actually I think 1/2# might be a bit much in an All Grain batch, but with a Cooper's Pilsener kit its probably a good place to start.

Have you thought about doing a mini-mash with a Coopers kit ? You know use the Pilsener Can from Cooper's but instead of adding a couple pounds of sugar, just mash 3-4 pounds of Pilsener Malt along with some Carapils and add your Coopers Can at the end of the boil. I did that before with some other Coopers kits and it was excellent - that should get you the head you're looking for and add something to your beer as well.

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Thanks. I will give this a try after the summer dies down and do some experimenting with this kit. Right now I can barely keep up with production, as my buddies come over and ravish my beer stock.


Tony.

I've made it and it's in the keg conditioning. I bottled a few and they should be ready to drink in the next week or so... I'll update this post when I pop one...

Yea I brew the cooopers kits too and have tonns of trouble keeping up - I have 2 carboys and they are constantly going with new brews. The pilsner is one of the only ones I havent tried - but this winter I will probley take a crack at it.

I have never had a head problems with my coopers kits - maybe if you let it age in the bottle a little longer the retention will be better - I know sometimes after 3-4 weeks the head is so -so but after 6-8 weeks its just fine.

Cheers

grasshopper1917 said:

Yea I brew the cooopers kits too and have tonns of trouble keeping up - I have 2 carboys and they are constantly going with new brews. The pilsner is one of the only ones I havent tried - but this winter I will probley take a crack at it.

I have never had a head problems with my coopers kits - maybe if you let it age in the bottle a little longer the retention will be better - I know sometimes after 3-4 weeks the head is so -so but after 6-8 weeks its just fine.

Cheers

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Hi Grasshopper. You're right... the head retention is getting better as it ages longer. If you like the bite of a pilsner you'l love this Coopers kit. Next one I want to try is the European lager, but can't find it at any Save-on-foods or other stores. I'd hate to order via mail, but looks like I have no choice to try it.

Do you use a basic forumla to make your Coopers kits? I use 1.5 lbs pale malt extract and 1 cup corn sugar for most of the kits now. 21 C for ales, 19 C for the Mexican cerveza, and 15 C for the Brewmaster Pilsner. Seems to work very well. And dry hopping sometimes.

Cheers
Tony.

I use a little bit of a different recipe for the different kits - generally i will add between 2-3 # of light malt extract (dark malt extract for the stout) and maybe #1 to 1.5# or dextrose (corn sugar). Also sometimes i add some hop pellets to give it a little extra hoppy flavor. My favorite so far I think is the coopers 'real ale' kit - very nice flavor out of that one.

As far as temps go I brew it at whatever the temp in my basement is. Usually about 18c or so when I can keep it cool - I will try the pilsner in the winter when it is a litle bit cooler. Looking forward to trying it.

OK I tried this kit with 2# of extra light LME. I added too much water so it ended up on the light side but it is quite good. Next time around I will try the WLP060 or WLP080 blend and pitch a gigantic starter instead of lagering it... I lagered it with Brewferm lager yeast at 52, and it ended up less clean than I would have gotten just using one of those lager/ale blends at 62.

Saccharomyces said:

OK I tried this kit with 2# of extra light LME. I added too much water so it ended up on the light side but it is quite good. Next time around I will try the WLP060 or WLP080 blend and pitch a gigantic starter instead of lagering it... I lagered it with Brewferm lager yeast at 52, and it ended up less clean than I would have gotten just using one of those lager/ale blends at 62.

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This is so far my favorite Coopers kit. I just used the lager yeast that came with the kit. No problems, though next time I will lower the temp to as low as it can go (13 C) and hopefully get a more clean, dry bite. Maybe some more Sazz hops in the secondary.

I just tried out this kit yesterday. I used 1lb of corn sugar, and 1lb of brown sugar. we'll see how it turns out

illnastyimpreza said:

I just tried out this kit yesterday. I used 1lb of corn sugar, and 1lb of brown sugar. we'll see how it turns out

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Interesting. What temperature are you brewing it at? I'd like to know how it turns out.

Tony.

brewNdrink said:

This is so far my favorite Coopers kit. I just used the lager yeast that came with the kit. No problems, though next time I will lower the temp to as low as it can go (13 C) and hopefully get a more clean, dry bite. Maybe some more Sazz hops in the secondary.

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Ugh, really? The yeast is 5g, which is nowhere near enough for pitching a lager. I pitched 15g of yeast and still had a horribly long lag time. I think the kit is solid, the yeast I used just stank. I just racked the Munich Helles AG I brewed on the same day I did this kit, I used a big starter of WLP830 on it and it is clean as could be, the WLP830 would be a fine yeast to use on this brew.

the WLP830 would be a fine yeast to use on this brew.

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yes it would

When I've made this kit, I didn't really have such a big lag time. For one thing, if you make the kit according to the directions the OG will end up about .038, you don't need a huge amount of yeast for a beer that small.

Last time I made it, I pitched the yeast when the wort was pretty cold ( 10C ), and well it did take maybe 20 hours to get going - I guess that was a bit of a lag, but I can live with it. Beer turned out very nice.

Oh and the yeast packet says 7g on it - not 5. Was the 5g packet the Brewfarm yeast you were mentioning ? The Cooper's yeast that comes with the kit is 7g.

brewNdrink said:

Interesting. What temperature are you brewing it at? I'd like to know how it turns out.

Tony.

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basement temp prolly around 66 degrees.....because thats what the fishtank thermo. says

I did leave the brew bucket on the cold floor to see if I could drop it down a few degrees though...