Coopers Lager lookes like an ale?

brewed my first coopers lager the one that comes with the kit, followed instructions. left in the fermenter for 7 days, hydrometer read 1010 for two days, bottled in 750 ml bottles. left for 2 weeks and opened one to see how they were coming. poured it and it was amber! it was carbonated. tasted kinda malty not bitter or appley, not sure whats wrong but somehow it don't seem right haha. hopefully someone here can tell me whats up.

Amber?? Odd, did you by chance make the mistake of boiling the can? What did you use, just the can and the kilo of sugar or did you use any DME? Mine is golden like a typical lager, though I know it's not a lager technically of course. By the way, being a bit anal here but small correction - the bottles are actually 740ml.


Rev.

haha thats alright. it was the coopers beginners kit, i put the can in hot tap water and left it to thin the malt. waited 20 minutes poured the malt in then the water then the brewing sugar that comes with the kit, not sure if its dextros or not. mixed thoroughly. moved it to were it was going to stay to ferment, added the rest of the water to the 23 L mark sprinkled the yeast and left it. my original SG reading before the yeast was 1.046

The title of this thread made me think of the Aerosmith song:

that that, dude looks like a lady
that that, dude looks like a lady

Anyway, I got nothing to add. Never made a Coopers kit. But boiling extract always leads to darker color than expected, but since you didn't boil it seems strange.

Cooper's Lager kits are, well, not lagers. And not very good kits. They might make a drinkable beverage, but not a lager. Coopers is famous kit in Australia, but here in the US they are considered what they call a "kit and a kilo" type kits. No boil, no hops, and add some cheap corn sugar to boost the alcohol to make up for not enough malt. It'll be drinkable, but I don't think you'll get good beer, let alone a quality lager, out of it.

There are some quality beer kits out there, though. They involve malt extract, hops, and yeast and often some specialty grains. They can come close to a craft beer, if done well. I'd recommend those over those Cooper's kits.

hotdog6172 said:

i put the can in hot tap water and left it to thin the malt. waited 20 minutes poured the malt in then the water then the brewing sugar that comes with the kit

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In that case I'm not really sure why it turned out like that, as mentioned mine is nice and golden. Like Yooper said though, the kit's aren't all that great, and especially so if you follow the directions. If you skip the brewing sugar and use malt extract instead (dry or liquid, whatever) the beer will be much better. I've read, and am NOT sure if this is true, that all the Cooper's kits use Pride of Ringwood hops which would be rather awkward. I've emailed them actually just about 2 hours ago or so asking about this cause I can't honestly believe they'd use POR hops in all their different styles, just doesn't seem logical but who knows as those hops would likely be cheapest for them anyway being made in Australia.

Anyhow, the only other thing I can think of would be the date of expiration on the can. If you still have it check the expiration date on the bottom. If not, my noobness can't think of what else would cause it to come out amber. That's way darker than what I got. Can you take a pic?


Rev.

i took a picture but im havin trouble uploading it. says it has to be a url. not sure how to get it on a web address

Upload it to a free hosting site like Mediafire, Megaupload, or Flicker and post a link.


Rev.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=G79Y2ID8

that was easy haha

hotdog6172 said:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=G79Y2ID8

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Hmm, hard to really tell from that pic as to be honest... everything in that pic looks orange Probably from the flash, but there's the orange milk cart, pear slices, wood background, etc. Makes it hard to judge the color with no neutral contrast. Anyhow, here's a pic of mine I took when I opened one after two weeks. I will say, it's definitely better after three weeks, the tartness/citrusy taste subsides more:




Rev.

thats the exact colour it looks like when i poured it, that bottle was a little overcarbonated though. yeah this is only the 2 week mark, im gonna open the next one a month from now see if its any better. like i said the only strange part about the taste was it was malty, maybe under fermentation im not sure. only done a few batchs. and weres the pic!!

hotdog6172 said:

and weres the pic!!

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Are you unable to see the pic I posted? I thought it could be viewable by all. Or am I misunderstanding your last line there


Rev.

no i couldn't see it, i only joined like 2 hours ago

hotdog6172 said:

no i couldn't see it, i only joined like 2 hours ago

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Oh, but it's not hosted on Homebrew. Can you still not see it?


Rev.

K, sorry about that... didn't realize the site I have it on doesn't allow cross linking. Here it is:

http://www.mediafire.com/i/?h6qn96d05rwojz5



Rev.

Coopers usually provides a yeast that is an Ale/lager kind of thing. Maybe like a cry havoc yeast. I contacted one of the Coopers people in Australia and he explained that if they did a real Lager too many people would fail at it and be lost to the hobby. So they design the kits to be a no fail brewing experience, which they usually are. Let it age a bit and enjoy it. Shame on those for knocking them, it is for new brewers getting feet wet. You never forget your first Coopers! LOL I have fond memories of my early brewing days.

samc said:

Shame on those for knocking them, it is for new brewers getting feet wet. You never forget your first Coopers! LOL I have fond memories of my early brewing days.

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Agreed I definitely wouldn't knock them with the amount of people they turn into homebrewers. A Cooper's kit (meaning the fermenter and such) even comes across as simpler for the starter - no bottling bucket and siphoning, no boiling the priming sugar, etc. Of course, we all come to realize these things are no big deal to begin with and actually have their advantages, but hey... sometimes people need to be eased into something.

That said, there are some very small things they could do to improve things. For one, ditch the damn brewing sugar and include DME. Sure it would cost a few dollars more, but it would impress more so it's a winning situation. Secondly, forget people that are impatient and stop telling people they can bottle in 6-7 days!! Just say two weeks for the included kit if the hydro reads fine. Then say 3 weeks bottle conditioning.

All in all the experience would turn out much better for new brewers if they adopted a more realistic ingredient list and time frame.


Rev.

now that looks like what a lager should be. and what mine looked like when i bottled it, being a new brewer i just had to try it a week out haha. anyways, i already have bought dme for my next brew after my pilsner, already 2 weeks in and it hasnt stopped bubbling. figured id try a stout, seein as how much i like guinness. thanks for all the help.

Im drinking Coopers Lager (with hop tea) now days, and it looks exacly like yours. Amber kind of colour, but i think that might have something to do with both the yeast and perhaps to high fermentation temps, lager yeast needs to work in a very cool place.

Anyways, the "Coopers Lager" im drinking is not a lager, its an ale. (A good one, very good actually. Not sure if its the hop tea or what but i like it very mutch)

My Cooper's Lager has finished (my first batch ever!) and it tastes pretty good! Definitely watery, though. Needs more body and needs more head! I already have plans on how to fix this for my next batch (e.g. mixing a Cooper's malt with another malt!).

You guys think it would taste better if I buy two of the same Coopers malt and toss them into the fermenter instead of one malt + sugar/dextrose?

the_Sliver said:

My Cooper's Lager has finished (my first batch ever!) and it tastes pretty good! Definitely watery, though. Needs more body and needs more head! I already have plans on how to fix this for my next batch (e.g. mixing a Cooper's malt with another malt!).

You guys think it would taste better if I buy two of the same Coopers malt and toss them into the fermenter instead of one malt + sugar/dextrose?

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Your beer is still very green. The head will improve over time. For best results wait at least 3 months.

2 cans of the beer kits would double your bitterness. If you are after an American style IPA 2 cans of the Lager beer kits with a small amount of dextrose would work. You would also want to add maybe 2 ounces of additional flavor/aroma hops appropriate to the style.

If you just want more malt I would use Brew Enhancer 2. You can also try a kilo of Dry Malt extract. I would still use a small amount of Dextrose, maybe 200 - 300 grams with dry malt extract.

tomheff said:

Your beer is still very green. The head will improve over time. For best results wait at least 3 months.

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Hahahaha yeah that's not gonna happen . There's some head just not as much as I'd like. It's been in the bottles 3 weeks after all!