First Home Brew Attempt

First time brewer here... just looking for some info.... im doing coopers european larger.... All mixed up I took OG and in was around 1.030 is this normal...? Everything went to plan and its been brewing for 4 days now at around 21C.... What can I expect....?

Cheers for any info!!!

Do they tell you what the OG is supposed to be? That seems low, but with extract kits, if you add the correct amount of water it is hard to mess up.

That going to be a very light brew re abv , way less than 3%. If that really was your OG and it's had four days at 21C I would expect it to be almost done, take a reading in order to build your brew knowledge.
Could you have used too much water ?

Hi, that dosent sound good is there anything I could do to improve this...? Thanks

Reading may have been more 1.035... im sure it stated us 23 liters in total. Please help any advice would be great!

1.030 OG does seem low for the kit. A poor mix of water and fermentables could account for this, sample was from a part of the wort low in sugars.

Did the instructions mention adding a kilo of brew enhancer as an option for a higher ABV and added body?

It might have been higher and you just didn't mix well. If you used all of the kit and the correct water, I wouldn't worry.

Can I do anything to improve strength of beer....?

If you used the lager yeast in the can's false lid, 21C (69.8F) would be too high a temp to ferment at.

If you're using extract only you're going to get the right OG every time, regardless of what your reading is; the only time you'll have to take a reading for OG is when using specialty grains or brewing all-grain, since your gravity reading will depend on your efficiency. But with extract, the efficiency is already determined by the maker of the extract.

And as uniondr said, fermentation temp was too high, especially if you're reporting ambient temperature instead of fermenter/beer temperature. You'll want to keep the beer in the lower 60s with most any ale yeast to make sure you avoid any possible off flavors and fusel alcohols.

Seems to me Cooper's lager yeast was supposed to be 13C, or 55.4F.

Hmm, missed that "lager" part. Ambitious for a first brew, though I doubt their instructions go through the whole lagering process?

Idk. I haven't brewed the real lagers or pilsners from Cooper's. A lot of the other ones though. But their lager yeast definitely needs to be cooler.

I'm fairly sure they use an ale yeast for that "lager" hence the instruction to ferment at 21c
The heritage lager and another one tell you to ferment at 13/15c so they're using lager strain...
If it was kit and sugar only it should be around 1.040 ish. So around 4.3% when bottled. Don't mess with it now, just leave it for a total of 3 WEEKS before bottling then leave it for 3 WEEKS In the bottle and you'll have an acceptable beer to drink.... DONT RUSH IT
Edit: it is a lager strain for that kit.....(original lager is ale yeast)
The instructions say 21-27c...on further investigation ther forum talks about making a steam beer using that kit at that temp and people seem to love it....enjoy

So long as you mixed the correct amount of water then the gravity will be fine. It's a very common apprehension on this board for new kit brewers to get a very low OG reading - seems that it's nearly impossible to get a good mix. But the yeast will find the fermentables, and come bottling time everything will be well enough mixed.

Relax and let the beer do its thing. You'll be fine -- or more than fine... you'll be turned on to the love of homebrewing.

Daddyfoxuk said:

Hi, that dosent sound good is there anything I could do to improve this...? Thanks

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According to info on the Coopers site, any of their beers can be improved, in body and ABV, by brewing as 19 liters instead of 23 liters.

daddyfoxuk, take and post a reading ! That will give you some clues, even a taste, if for instance the reading now was 1.020 that would suggest that it was higher than 1.030 four days ago at your temp and that would support a poor mix when your took your reading, even if it wasn't mixed well the yeast will still do it's job. If the reading is now after four days less than 1.010 it suggests to me that your original reading may have been correct. In any event it may be a beer to just drink freely as quick as possible so as to free the gear up for the next brew.

Cheers to all of you that have commented and given advice... ill take a reading on day 6 and repost. Think im happier now after all the advice!!! should I lower my tempreture for the remaining time...? Thanks again.

If , if, if, the temp was doing damage, it's done, some raise the temp toward the end of fermentation, in your case, you can do whatever you want to, whatever you do it will give you some experience of your kit and set up, I don't think it will matter to this particular brew.

One possible cause for the low gravity I didn't see mentioned was hydrometer calibration. If you take your reading at a temp other than what the hydrometer is designed for than the reading will be off. You need to take a temp reading on your sample then use the instructions to calculate the actual OG.

I took first reading just before adding yeast which was 1030 Reading today (Day 3) is 1020... im just hoping things will be ok!?!?

Things will be fine...read your instructions again, it'll say what the og should have been. Seems with that reading that it started around 1.043 ish. You'll be fine, have a beer and forget about it

Here's a hydrometer correction program that comes in handy; http://www.brewheads.com/gravcorrect.php

Cool... thanks for the comments ill take another reading day 6. What is generally the best tempreture to brew larger...? Can anyone recommend a good larger to brew...? Cheers again.

Unless you have a way of keeping temps low lagers are hard to get right. If you can keep temps around 12/13c for the yeast strain then try looking up an extract recipe on here....but temp is very important with lagers...you could try doing a cream ale or something like that

I do have a perfect room for keeping this cool during fermentation but coopers info states 21 - 27C. Confused.com lol!

Those Cooper's instructions are pretty general & usually state the yeast's tolerance range. But Cooper's lager yeast seems to like about 13C, or 55.4F.

Daddyfoxuk said:

I do have a perfect room for keeping this cool during fermentation but coopers info states 21 - 27C. Confused.com lol!

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Let's help you out so...
THROW AWAY THE INSTRUCTIONS
You have the ability now to improve your beer. As unionrdr says the instructions are 'generally' speaking if you by another kit ask here for help and I guarantee you'll have better results )

Cool... Instructions have been thrown away lol! Just took a reading of 1018... Any thoughts? Original was about 1030 or just over... Thanks.

1.018 is still high, give it more time.

Give it at least 2 weeks from start to finish, then wait a few more days...

At what temperature did you take the SG? Your hydrometer is calibrated to take a reading at about 60 C if you took the reading when the wort was close to boiling then all bets are off. The heat will make any ready of the density (and that, after all is what your hydrometer is reading) much higher (closer to water which is 1.000). If you took a reading at 70 +/- degrees that would be close enough and that would suggest that your 1.030 is a little low (too much water to sugar ratio).
I just checked their "instructions" and they suggest that the OG should be around 1.042. Again, if you took a reading close to boiling temps your reading will be significantly lower but that won't necessarily mean that you have not enough fermentable sugar. If you took the reading minutes before you pitched the yeast then you are about 25% lower than you want to be.

Ok , so dadyfoxxup, foxedup but so did Bernard , do a quick edit Bernard.

fartinmartin said:

Ok , so dadyfoxxup, foxedup but so did Bernard , do a quick edit Bernard.

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eh?

Hi, I took the reading just before pitching the yeast... Temp was roughly 68.9 (21C ) I used correct amount of water and enhancer as per instructions. What can I do to improve my OG for next time...? Took another reading last night and it was 1016 so its still doing something Cheers guys.

Daddyfoxuk said:

Hi, I took the reading just before pitching the yeast... Temp was roughly 68.9 (21C ) I used correct amount of water and enhancer as per instructions. What can I do to improve my OG for next time...? Took another reading last night and it was 1016 so its still doing something Cheers guys.

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Don't look at your beer for another week, you will worry it to death.

You can improve the OG of your beer by brewing it at a volume of 19 liters, instead of 23 liters. This will give the beer more body and increase ABV. Good information in the Coopers site, does take a little creative digging to find it though.

19L to 20L is fairly popular down under at the Cooper's forums. But I found it fairly easy to use 1 Cooper's can, 1 BE2 or like amount of plain light DME (about a 3lb bag) & an ounce or two of hops & get a 1.046+ OG. But you do have to stir the wort & top off water roughly for like 5 minutes to mix the two. This gives a more accurate OG if top off got down to 65F or so.

Bernard , i was only chuckling about the hydrometer being calibrated at 60C, rest of info was fine with me, didn't mean any offence, I hope that I haven't .

Hi guys, just took another reading of 1012 orginal was 1030 and I can still see bubbles... Is this a good thing...? Lol! What would I want my FG to be....?

Daddyfoxuk said:

Hi guys, just took another reading of 1012 orginal was 1030 and I can still see bubbles... Is this a good thing...? Lol! What would I want my FG to be....?

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You don't want your FG to be anything. The yeast will decide FG, just give them the time to work. Don't hover, might make the worker yeasties nervous.