My Coopers English Bitter tastes really sweet

[TheGrindilow]

Hey chaps,

About a week ago, I bottled my first home brew, a coopers english bitter kit. I cracked a few open with my flatmates last night, and it's basically undrinkable. gravity wise, the reading was about 0.010 for a couple of days in a row which indicated the brew was finished. I primed with coopers carbonation drops (two in each)

Basically, the beer is quite clear now, but tastes really sweet, not like any beer i've ever had. It also smells pretty weird. It does resemble beer smell and taste wise, but it's pretty difficult to drink.

I'm wanting to start my second brew this evening (a coopers lager) but am worried as to what I did wrong with my first brew. I can't imagine the bitter is meant to taste like this, so i'm assuming I did something wrong!

 

[petep1980]

You need to let it sit in bottle a little longer. Give it two more weeks.

 

[TheGrindilow]

You need to let it sit in bottle a little longer. Give it two more weeks.

Thanks for your quick reply. You think this will work? it's VERY sweet (for beer)

My other mistake here was in my haste i only left the beer in the fermenter for around 6 days before bottling, from research, I will be leaving my Lager for much longer

 

[boscobeans]

Two drops in each bottle..? The 22-24 ounce bottles I hope.
If all goes well the sweetness will work its way out as the yeast eats it and carbonates the beer.
Give it another week at 70 or so and you should find a different beer in the bottles.

bosco

 

[TheGrindilow]

It's the bottles that come with the Coopers kit, I believe they are the 22 ounce ones. If not, I am an idiot

 

[boscobeans]

You're fine. After a few weeks you will be really happy with what's in the bottles. Give it time to carbonate and for the gas to work its way into the beer.. GOOD STUFF.
Those plastic bottles will get as hard as a rock.

bosco

 

[TheGrindilow]

Cheers Bosco,

Actually, I wanted to do a comparison so primed some of the bottles with a teaspoon of sugar instead of using the carbonation drops, and they are going much quicker!

Thanks for your help
Ben

 

[boscobeans]

My last extract was a Cooper's two can..

COOPERS ENGLISH BITTER 1 CAN
COOPERS AMBER MALT EXRACT 1 CAN
500 GRAMS BREW ENHANCER 2 ( 1/2 of the package )

I tried a few after only 3-4 weeks in the bottle... Fantastic..and getting better by the week.

bosco