Coopers european lager

[tomlaw87]

Ello

Has anyone used this kit? If so what experiences have you had?

It says to leave it bottled for 13 weeks for best results, but at the moment all my bottles are full with my first batch . Can anything go wrong at all if I leave it in the fomenter for a prolonged period? Say a month maybe more?

Also, does lager need to be lower temps to ferment?
I think I'm hooked and my 1st batch isn't ready yet!!

Thanks

 

[Tall_Yotie]

No experience with the kits, but lagers do need colder temps to ferment. Lagers are tricky, to avoid weird flavors. Look up lagering to get more info. I haven't done a lager yet since I don't have a fridge to ferment in.

As far as letting it sit, once fermentation and conditioning is complete, the brew can sit in the fermenter for months without issue.

And as far as the 13 weeks in bottle, you can drink a brew once it is carbed up (2-3 weeks), but it will get better with age. Seems the 13 weeks is the ideal aging period for that brew, if that is what they are saying.

 

[S0meB0dy]

Leaving your lager in the fermenter for a month or more should be no issue. I would not be concerned with autolysis unless you were going to leave it in primary longterm, maybe 6+ months.

As far as fermentation temperatures for lagers, they are generally lower than the range for ale yeasts. Maybe 50-60F depending on the strain. Check your yeast pack to see if it indicates an optimum range.

 

[HopHeadGrady]

I have this kit in the fermenter now. I would probably rack to a secondary and add some hallertaur hops or saaz if you are going to let it sit. It's basically lagered in the bottle for the most part and the yeast that comes with the kit is true lager yeast.

Note: You will smell a slight egg smell when this ferments, totally normal from what I have been told. Im on day 7 of fermentation at 12C and there's still some slight bubbling. Once the OG levels off I will give it a couple more days then rack right to the bottle for 13 weeks (yeah right). I will certainly try.. lol

I created a small mash extract using vienna and pale malt. Then added the euro lager, 1.3 KG light LME and german hallertauer hops (45 - 15 - 5min intervals) to that and it smells fantastic in the fermenter already . Note I did not boil the coopers kit. I haven't tried that, but I don't think it's required. It just gets melted down with the required boiling water etc. The wort and hops gets mixed in to this. Yeah I know... probably taking this too far for what its worth.
Over all one of the best Coopers kits out there. Time is the only bad thing...