Coopers Lager, Smells Funny and Tastes Vile

[NoobieToTheBrew]

Hello Everyone,

I'm new to HB so i bought a kit that contained 3 DemiJohns, Keg, 2 5 gallon buckets and a few extras like heat mats, airlocks etc.

It came with a lager kit. This one: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391442088572?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

After getting everything cleaned and ready i dropped my thermometer and it broke on the floor (ooopsy) so had to basically do a dip test with my finger.

However, eventually i get it all moving, mixed the can content, topped up with water (cold and hot) took a reading which i think was about 1044, added the yeast and gave it a little stir. Stuck the lid on and moved it upstairs to ferment.

Few days in, its going nicely, airlock isn't working but it's fermenting so it must be escaping from somewhere. Brew temp is around the 22c/24c mark has we have had a few hot days since it was pitched.

After 7 days i took a reading it was 1014 , 8th and 9th day was 1012 so i syphon it out and take a taste.

Not only did it smell a lil funky, the after taste is really really bitter.
I added 1 tspn of sweetener to 500ml to see if it would help improve the taste and it did. I've now racked it all off into 40 500ml bottles, added sweetener to 20 and kept 20 has normal as well as 1 carbonating drop to each bottle.

Is that how Coopers lagers are suppose to taste and would adding a sweetener to combat the bitterness effect my lager while its in the bottle?

Any suggestions or comments welcome

Regards
Karl

 

[giraffe]

Well im not sure whats in the kit, but many beers taste a bit funky right after fermentation. Especially if its still cloudy with yeast, your sample may have tasted of yeast. Which is a taste youll identify with practice, but it can taste bitter. And smell a bit unpleasant. Im going to be optimisitc and assume you just got a yeasty sample.

After a few weeks in the bottle, it will hopefully clean up and the yeast will fall out to the bottom of the bottles.

I dont know what "sweetener" is, im not familiar with coopers kits, so cant advise you there.

(dont do a dip test with a finger, its an infection risk. The beer could also be infected, but youll find out soon enough if it is.)

 

[NoobieToTheBrew]

Thanks for the reply bud,
I had no other way of testing to see if the temp was too high or too low. My hands we're clean has i was in and out of a container that had all my equipment sterilizing.

I went and bought an LED thermometer couple of days after and checked fermenting temp and it was hovering around 24c.

With regards to sweetener, i added splenda to 20 bottles. Chances are its gonna wreck the lager but i can only experiment. All you get with the kit is a Malt/Barley sludge in a can type thing, yeast and carb drops.

To be honest i got the kit with it so if it turns out to be a disaster not all is lost.

As the saying goes, Practice makes perfect.
Its the time scales that are a PITA lol

 

[RedlegEd]

@NoobieToTheBrew. If you were careful with your cleanliness & sanitation, your beer should come out fine. Be patient and give your beer a full two weeks to condition in the bottle at about 20°C. If you are using PET bottles, they should feel very firm to hard. Put a few in the fridge and wait until chilled, then check it out. It's always best to pour into a glass and leave the little bit of yeast behind. You may find they came out all right, or even very good. If you stay with the hobby/obsession, you'll soon grow tired of the limitations of the kits/extracts and move to all grain, where you have more control. Welcome to HBT!

 

[giraffe]

Splenda wont ferment, so it will just be sweeter. Usually in homebrew the problem for many beginners is getting the beer dry enough. In the future, remember that carbonation will change the balance of the beer too; you should always taste your batch before bottling, but it will take a few batches to be able to relate that to the final flavor. And remember bitterness, harshness, some harsh alcohol, green apple, sometimes buttery, and sulfury flavors usually will fade with aging in the bottle. Dont worry too much if you taste those in the sample, but if you do, make sure you give them an extra week or two in the bottle before throwing them in the fridge.

 

[BobBailey]

Lagers typically are fermented at about 50C and then are lagered(stored cold) at just above freezing for several weeks. They take quite a bit longer than ales to ferment and condition at those temperatures. If you allow yours to carbonate and then store in the fridge for a couple of months they may be drinkable, but I doubt they will be much more than that.

We're all in a hurry to get that first batch going. After it fails we usually do some research and try again with more knowledge. Don't despair. It is a good hobby and you will learn to produce great beer if you are patient and stick with it.

There's a book by John Palmer you can find on line at howtobrew.com. A great guide for new and intermediate brewers, and it's free.

Bob

 

[Yooper]

In my experience, your results with the Cooper "lagers" is typical. I never once made a drinkable beer with one of those kits, or with their yeast. I quit brewing a long time because I thought that I was hopeless and beer was "too hard".

I threw out the Coopers junk and got a kit with extract, hops, and quality yeast and made a good beer right out of the gate and have been making good beer for the 12-15 years or so since.

The issue is not you- it's the Cooper's products. The other thing is to really think about fermentation temperatures- you need one of those aquarium stick-on thermometers and keep the fermenting beer under 70 degrees F at all times.

 

[shortyz]

what yooper said, its also not hard to keep the ferm temps down if you put your bucket in a rubbermaid container with water in it.

 

[NoobieToTheBrew]

Thanks for the advice gents.

I have 1 of them black LED strip temp gauges on each of my fermenting buckets and DemiJohns. Temp is usually around the 22c mark but has I'm not around during the day its hard to tell if it increases to high 20s given the heatwave that's just hit us lol.

I've bottled them and gonna leave them at least 7 days, try one then if its still a little funky leave another 7 and so on.

I'll probably swerve buying another lager kit though and see if i can make it from scratch instead of a just add water job.
Was gonna try my hand at a fruit beer has the missis is a big fan of them since we visited Belguim.

I'm hosting a bonfire party so have about a month or so to get the right balance

 

[daksin]

You want to cool it down if you can- 20C would be better. Those temp strip gauges aren't bad. Folks are right about the cooper's kits, though. Do some more reading on here and get yourself a proper kit from northernbrewer.com or another good reputable site.

 

[unionrdr]

First of all, that's the relabeled Cooper's OS lager kit. It uses an ale yeast, so it's not a real lager. more like a light pale ale. It could use some finishing hops, like Czech saaz or other lager hop in a boil with some Extra light DME for 15 minutes to give a better flavor balance. Otherwise, it's not bad.
What you likely tasted was " green" beer. That is to say, immature. And a primary ferment temp of sub 20C would give fewer off-flavors. And give the beer as much time as it needs to finish fermenting, then clean up after itself as it settles out clear or slightly misty. Cooper's yeasts are high flocculation & will drop clear easily, given time. 3 weeks @ 70F is the normal time frame for bottled beers to carbonate/condition. Then 5-7 days fridge time to settle out any chill haze, get the Co2 between the head space & the beer equalized, & compact the trub/yeast on the bottom of the bottles. Cooper's kits aren't bad, they just need some care, proper temps & some hop additions, maybe a short boil with some plain DME for flavor/aroma hop additions. this greatly improves them. IDK why some people have so much trouble with them. I've even made other styles out of those Cooper's cans.
It could be, I suppose, some have more sensitive taste buds for off-flavors, esters, etc? I have some recipes listed that use Cooper's cans you could look at if you like...

 

[NoobieToTheBrew]

You want to cool it down if you can- 20C would be better. Those temp strip gauges aren't bad. Folks are right about the cooper's kits, though. Do some more reading on here and get yourself a proper kit from northernbrewer.com or another good reputable site.

Do you know any sites like that northernbrewer.com but in the UK? or can anyone else recommend any?

 

[NoobieToTheBrew]

First of all, that's the relabeled Cooper's OS lager kit. It uses an ale yeast, so it's not a real lager. more like a light pale ale. It could use some finishing hops, like Czech saaz or other lager hop in a boil with some Extra light DME for 15 minutes to give a better flavor balance. Otherwise, it's not bad.
What you likely tasted was " green" beer. That is to say, immature. And a primary ferment temp of sub 20C would give fewer off-flavors. And give the beer as much time as it needs to finish fermenting, then clean up after itself as it settles out clear or slightly misty. Cooper's yeasts are high flocculation & will drop clear easily, given time. 3 weeks @ 70F is the normal time frame for bottled beers to carbonate/condition. Then 5-7 days fridge time to settle out any chill haze, get the Co2 between the head space & the beer equalized, & compact the trub/yeast on the bottom of the bottles. Cooper's kits aren't bad, they just need some care, proper temps & some hop additions, maybe a short boil with some plain DME for flavor/aroma hop additions. this greatly improves them. IDK why some people have so much trouble with them. I've even made other styles out of those Cooper's cans.
It could be, I suppose, some have more sensitive taste buds for off-flavors, esters, etc? I have some recipes listed that use Cooper's cans you could look at if you like...

Hi union,

Thanks for the advice on adding hops etc to combat the off like taste. As i'm new to brewing i thought i;d just go buy the book as to what they say etc.
I'm all for trying different recipes, because lets face it if we didn't we'd get nowhere lol
If you want to inbox me that'd be great

 

[daksin]

Do you know any sites like that northernbrewer.com but in the UK? or can anyone else recommend any?

I can't really. I could do some googling, but since I've never used them I wouldn't be able to make a safe recommendation. NorthernBrewer benefits from being a large retailer with a huge warehouse- their stuff is consistently high quality and they have great customer service. I would start with the largest online retailer you can find in the UK and give them a shot.