Cooper's Bavarian Lager

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Mutilated1

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Unfortunately I don't think Cooper's makes this kit anymore, unless they just changed the name to "European Lager".

I bought one of the kits at my local homebrew store back about the first week of July.

Brought it home and made it with 3.6# of Light LME that I had left over in the fridge. Fermented it in my refridgerator at 50F for 3 weeks, 2 days diacetyl rest at room temp, no secondary.

I just bottled it last weekend, and opened the first one for a taste a few minutes ago. Not quite carbonated well enough yet, but I gotta tell you this is probably the best extract beer I've ever made so far, and its better than some All Grain recipes I've tried. Its a shame they don't make this kit anymore - if you can find one somewhere I strongly recommend you try it.

For those that don't know which kit I'm talking about here is a link:
Coopers Bavarian Lager

I don't know if Cooper's just renamed the Bavarian Lager to be the European Lager or what, but if you can find one of these kits I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I think its the best Cooper's kit I've tasted so far, and I'm doing my best to make them all eventually.
 
I brewed this one as well in early July and bottled it on 8/2.
I also added a few leftovers as well: 1# light DME, 3/4# amber DME, 1/2oz Spalt Select hop pellets and 1/2 cup corn sugar for good measure. OG was 1.044.
Last night I tried a sample and based on that, I would agree with your assessment -- this is a fine extract kit. Definitely looking forward to seeing how this one is in another month or two.

Seems this one has been discontinued:
Homebrew, Coopers homebrew beers and ales. Mix, brew, bottle.

As you mentioned, probably replaced by the European Lager.
 
Don't know if you've tried the Australian Pale Ale yet, but that's another one that I think would be worth doing again. This was excellent beer even though I was still using the simple kit+corn sugar approach back then.
 
I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to try it soon. I'll have to order it because the LHBS doesn't stock that one.

Also, it just occured to that there was more to how I made the beer than just mix in 3.6# Light LME.

I made an All Grain IPA the same day, and still had some gravity in the runnings after I had reached 8 gallons of boil volume. I didn't really want to keep sparging and try to boil it down, so I sparged an extra 2 gallons of the last remnants of my large mash of American 2 row, and used it to boil with the 3.6# LME. Then I added the can from the kit once I was done with the boil and poured it over a couple bags of ice in the fermenter to cool it down.

This kit comes with a true lager yeast, not a lager/ale hybrd yeast like many of the other Cooper's kits. It fermented out nice and dry - crisp and clean like a Lager should be.

Going to let it sit and carbonate for at least another week, and then put 2 cases back in the fridge for later in the football season. I've got plenty of other beers that aren't nearly so good to finish up first.
 
Ive made the Bavarian Lager a couple of times, and really liked it.
I haven't tried the Austrailian Pale Ale yet, but I do have some in a secondary right now.
Another one that is good to make is the Irish Stout. I mix it with 3# extra dark DME, and it always turns out exellent.
 
I think I'm going to make it again, maybe this afternoon.

Only this time, I don;'t want to add the 3.6# Light LME. I think that Light LME would probably be better for an Ale Type beer even though it did turn out really well. After I've had a chance to drink most of them, I'm noticing its leaning a bit to the Amber/Pale Ale type color and while its got a good malty flavor - it doesn't seem the right type of malt for a Lager.

I'm thinking maybe trying a two can version, like 1 can Bavarian or Europen Lager plus 1 can Cooper's regular Lager or Munton's Premium Light Lager. Or possibly doing a Partial Mash with some Continental Pilsener and a bit of Carapils to make up the extra gravity that way.

The last batch sure went fast, I think have 8 12oz bottles left, and that will probably be gone by early afternoon.
 
I think I'm going to make it again, maybe this afternoon.

Only this time, I don;'t want to add the 3.6# Light LME. I think that Light LME would probably be better for an Ale Type beer even though it did turn out really well. After I've had a chance to drink most of them, I'm noticing its leaning a bit to the Amber/Pale Ale type color and while its got a good malty flavor - it doesn't seem the right type of malt for a Lager.

I'm thinking maybe trying a two can version, like 1 can Bavarian or Europen Lager plus 1 can Cooper's regular Lager or Munton's Premium Light Lager. Or possibly doing a Partial Mash with some Continental Pilsener and a bit of Carapils to make up the extra gravity that way.

The last batch sure went fast, I think have 8 12oz bottles left, and that will probably be gone by early afternoon.

Just wondering how this beer kit is, compared to the Brewmaster Pilsner (Urquell). Is the European Lager kit more in the neighborhood of a Becks or Stella?

Tony.
 
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