Coopers Mexican Cerveza, First Time Brew :)

[brobins]

Hi there..

I have today bottled my very first attempt of home brewing.. I think everything went according to plan apart from the time suggested for primary fermentation. Coopers recommended 5/6 days or until the hydrometer readings were consistent over 2 days. Even though I was confident that the readings were consistent after 6 days I left it until 14 days before bottling (today).

My question is, will this affect the brew at all? Can you leave it for too long at the primary fermentation? I tasted the brew whilst I was bottling and I have to say I was very impressed with the flavor. Tasted very light just as you would expect a Mexican Light beer to taste.

I have bottled it using Coopers Carbonation drops and cant wait for it to be ready..

But as this is my first time and I have no experience I just wanted some piece of mind that by leaving it for 2 weeks in primary rather than the 1 recommended I haven't done anything stupid that could have an effect on the secondary fermentation in the bottles?

Many Thanks

 

[jmick]

yes it will affect the beer... It will make it better.

Most directions in kits say 7 days and then bottle. A lot of people, including myself, leave the beer in the primary for 3-4 weeks or more.

By leaving the beer in contact with the yeast after fermentation is complete, you give the yeast a chance to clean up some of the by-products of fermentation.

No worries.

 

[brobins]

That's great news.. Thank you for allowing me to rest easy tonight

 

[lady_brewer]

A lot of those kits come with instructions that result in making the beer "quickly" Leaving everything longer than they suggest is recommended here. All of my Coopers kits have been in primary (and because I choose to, secondary) for a min of 3 weeks before I bottle. And then at least 3 (5 is better) weeks in the bottles. There are people here who have bottles beers after months in the fermenter. No worries!

I would be curious to know how the kit comes out It is one of the ones I haven't tried yet.

 

[brobins]

Thanks for the heads up

Can I just ask what you mean by secondary fermentation before you bottle?

I literally just left mine in primary for 2 weeks then bottled straight from there. Is this a no no?

I will be sure to report back with how the beer turns out but I have high hopes

Cheers

 

[lady_brewer]

What you did is fine...

I put my beer in a second container... mostly to give it some more time to clear. There are a lot of opinions on doing this (for and against). I basically do it because I want to leave my beer at least 3 weeks before bottling it, and moving it to a glass carboy frees up a bucket to put more beer on. (I got free carboys from former brewers.)

It isn't going to hurt your beer that you bottled after two weeks, but you may want to consider leaving it an extra week or so before bottling. This is true for any beer that is a higher ABV (sometimes called "bigger" beers). I find that people I know that made kit beers before I did who try mine are surprised by how clear they are and how little there is at the bottom of the bottles.

There is also some talk that when the yeast are done their party (and god bless them for making beer while they party where we drink it ) they need some time to clean up. Waiting a little longer to bottle lets them "clean up" more and settle out further.

If you keep hanging out here and reading stuff you can decide what you want to do yourself! In the meantime get a new batch on if you haven't already! You will be surprised how fast the first one goes!

 

[kwaidonjin]

Please let us know how it turns out, I would like to try the cerveza

 

[shagger]

made some a while back beautiful on a hot day with lemon or prefferably lime

 

[loxnar]

Thanks for the heads up

Can I just ask what you mean by secondary fermentation before you bottle?

I literally just left mine in primary for 2 weeks then bottled straight from there. Is this a no no?

I will be sure to report back with how the beer turns out but I have high hopes

Cheers

up to 4 weeks is fine anything after that for most beer styles you can start getting some off flavors from the trub (sediment at the bottom of your bucket) but yea i would say 14 days is the earliest you really wanna move the beer from the primary