First Brew

[Moltenink]

Just completed my first ever brew!!! Coopers English Bitter kit, 1.3kg of Light LME and some Hallertau Hops for flavour.
Filled to 19L in my coopers DIY stater kit

Brewing went well, OG was 1043 (calculator estimated 1045)

Pitched yeast at 24℃ now fingers crossed that everything went well

 

[dbreienrk1]

Congrats...don't want to burst your bubble but 24 degrees Celsius is pretty high...

 

[msujack]

keep us posted on the SG (specific gravity) readings in a couple weeks!

Congrats on the success!

 

[Moltenink]

Yup i know that 24° is a little high, but i have a 16° basement and for my first fill up, i think it was pretty close. I didn't have to leave the wort lying around though. It registered 24° a minute after I finished filling it. I had it at 22° and then my last little dump of water was just a TINY bit to warm. C'est la vie...

I plan on keeping it just under 20° for this brew to "follow the instructions" for now.

This one is my baseline brew.

 

[Moltenink]

Checked on my FV before work... Its showing 18° and no sign of fermentation yet.... Sigh. Its only been < 9 hours tho.

But still this is the part where I spend all day worrying about whether or not i botched something right?

 

[unionrdr]

A little FYI,Cooper's kits are intended to be 23L,or 6.072 US gallons. 19L is 5.016 USG. So 1.043 for 5G is a little low. Maybe you just didn't mix the wort & top off water real well? Not to worry,the swirling action of the fermenting yeast will take care of that. But the Haulertaur hops is an excellent choice. Smooth spiciness is good in their pale ales.
The OS lager using ale yeast makes it a light pale ale. 18C is a good temp for their yeast in my experiences. And re-hydrating the yeast will cut lag time. Just give it a day or to for the yeast being pitched dry to reproduce enough to visually ferment. As soon as you see the airlock centerpiece peg the cap,you'll know when this is beginning to happen. Baring leaks or other little things.

 

[Moltenink]

Yeah i intentionally did 19L cause i wanted a more concentrated brew. I calculated that i could have raised the OG with a pound of dextrose... But in the end i decided against it.

I didn't particularly want a 5.5 beer... I felt like going with this mix so i can see if i get off flavours with other adjuncts later.

I mixed it like the dickens tho... Really aerated it as much as I could before the pitch

One of the reasons I'm "worrying" is because this version of the kit has no airlock... I kinda wish it did. But I've seen a lot of people have great success with it...

 

[unionrdr]

I forgot you had the English bitter kit,didn't go back & re-read the whole thing. But as I said,the German hops will taste good,that smooth spicy thing they have always seems to work well. Perle & Saaz are another good combo.
I got an OG of 1.038 on my EB,with 1 box of Cooper's plain light DME,.5kg I think. You'll like it if you like browns & such. I love this one with pit bbq,even as a base for moppin sauce. You gotta try that! Good session beer for beef/ribs sort of pit bbq. I'm gunna make more for warm weather just for that purpose. I was told that 2 boxes of the Cooper's plain light DME & an ounce of EKG makes a nice Fuller's clone. And I have the Cooper's micro brew FV kit. It's the one sold before the DIY version you have. Both great FV's I think. The new one has the loose lid & krausen collar to do the same job. The co2 escapes from the lid. They also come with clamps for the lid,I guess for clamping the lid down after initial fermentation is done,& not much co2 will be escaping.

 

[Moltenink]

Oh crap, am i not supposed to clamp it a t first? It didnt specify that

 

[unionrdr]

No worries,m8. I was watching craigtube when he reviewed the then new DIY kit. He showed them,but dosen't use them either. I just figured they were for when co2 production slows way down to keep the gas layer more intact...

 

[Moltenink]

No I was worried cause i already had the clips ON... Sokay, called my wife and she detached them for me... Better to let the gas escape

 

[unionrdr]

Ok,gotcha. Yeah leave them off for now. You may not even need to put them back on later. I don't think many use them. The krausen collar can be removed when the krausen drops back down. Then put the lid back on.

 

[Moltenink]

So got home and saw the brew was sitting at 16&#8451; with the barest hint of foam on top. So i decided to put the FV in my 50L tupperware, filled it 1/3 up with water and put my aquarium heater in, set for 21&#8451;. A couple hours later i had a good couple of inches of foam. Am a happy camper