2can Going Nuts!

[davidsmith]

Tribalfish, I always keep 4litres of cold water in the fridge just in case i need to reduce the heat of the wort before pitching yeast.

 

[quantocks]

came home from work and my twocan coopers lager had also gone berserk and frothed right out the airlock and allover the lid.

replaced airlock and its still going crazy, this should hopefully be a good drop!

 

[flattop]

I' had this problem years ago when i brewed on a hot day and put about 50% too much sugar in to boost the alc content.
Since i have resumed brewing i have taken to wrapping old towels around my fermenter...
the reasons are threefold
1) soaks up any overflow from the airlock (just toss in the washing machine later).
2) blocks light from as i brew on my bar in the living room which is a fairly light area (planning to move to laundry after i renovate it)
3) will help keep the temperature more stable as it's a bit like a blanket.

 

[Bribie G]

I have done several Coopers Lager toucans, love the stuff as a cheap and dead easy beer but every single one has frothed through the airlock as described but has ended up just fine. I only use one yeast.

I wonder if they add foaming agent or 'heading agent' to their kits on the quiet? I know that Brigalow definitely used to with their kits and given the massive showy head on pouring I reckon they still do. You could actually buy vials of Brigalow 'heading agent' at the LHBS so it wasn't a dirty secret by any means.

Muntons are quite proud of theirs:

http://www.beer-wine.com/product_info.asp?...amp;sectionID=1



Hey flattop doesn't the blooping annoy you when your'e watching TV? Or I take it you're single. I actually put a fermenter of wort out on the patio to cool during a winters evening and the Mrs, when she saw it, ordered it back in the garage immediately! She drew a line in the sand early on in the piece.
<_<

 

[flattop]

The Italian missus is reasonably tolerant of what i do, as i do most of the cooking (imagine an Italian that cant cook!), so the kitchen is my domain therefore i brew in the kitchen and carry the fermenter to the bar afterwards, i have 2 ferementers sitting behind the bar and a racking fermenter on the floor. Perhaps i will post a pic later.
I also have a crate of bottled cerveza sitting in front of the bar fridge at the moment stabilizing in temp before cellaring.
The plan is to move the fermenters into the laundry but i have no benches in there atm, thinking about renovating it next year and i will consider brewing when i do it.
The temp in the laundry is much more constant and cooler so better for lagers etc.
As for the bubbling i have a really big tv with a really loud 5.1 surround sound system, so you only hear the bubbling when the tv is on very low.
Anyhow with my fermenters leaking air a bit you don't get a whole lot of activity (except the dark ale which is going nuts) and the current temps are about 22* so the fermentation is relatively fast (although i would prefer to slow it a little).

As for the tucans vs dex malt frothing issue, i'm no chemist but i bet the fermenting profile of the different sugars is the kicker, perhaps DME ferments slower therefore less frothy of course the tucan kits would be a mix of fermentables.

 

[quantocks]

mine hit 26 degrees yesterday at its peak, but it was freezing in the house, so I guess it was because it was going crazy with activity?

anyway, today it's not even bubbling, I'm guessing it's done or very close to. That was a very fast ferment, 3 days?.... hmm..i did use two kit yeasts though

 

[Bribie G]

At temperatures like that, they can finish very quickly but don't be in too much of a hurry to bottle. Even though the kit is labelled 'Lager', The Coopers is an ale yeast and is fairly fast and furious. Another bonus of this recipe is that it tastes good fairly soon after bottling. In fact I found that it's very nice after only a couple of weeks in the bottle, being all malt I suppose. I kept a bottle for two months and it didn't taste much different, maybe a bit drier.

 

[achy02]

At temperatures like that, they can finish very quickly but don't be in too much of a hurry to bottle. Even though the kit is labelled 'Lager', The Coopers is an ale yeast and is fairly fast and furious. Another bonus of this recipe is that it tastes good fairly soon after bottling. In fact I found that it's very nice after only a couple of weeks in the bottle, being all malt I suppose. I kept a bottle for two months and it didn't taste much different, maybe a bit drier.

Mine seems to have finished too after only four days. I am thinking of leaving it until wed and then racking to a cube with gelatine to clear it up a bit (first time for this). Planning to bulk prime and bottle on Friday. Does this sound reasonable in terms of timing?

 

[buttersd70]

Mine seems to have finished too after only four days. I am thinking of leaving it until wed and then racking to a cube with gelatine to clear it up a bit (first time for this). Planning to bulk prime and bottle on Friday. Does this sound reasonable in terms of timing?

As long as the fg is stable, it should be fine. If its racked with gelatin on wednesday, you might want/need to leave it a bit longer than friday to clear. Depends on how quickly the yeast drops. If its cold, it may well drop bright in 2 days, but sometimes it takes longer. There aren't any hard or fast rules on this.

 

[achy02]

As long as the fg is stable, it should be fine. If its racked with gelatin on wednesday, you might want/need to leave it a bit longer than friday to clear. Depends on how quickly the yeast drops. If its cold, it may well drop bright in 2 days, but sometimes it takes longer. There aren't any hard or fast rules on this.

No Probs I will give it a couple more days, anything to delay bottling. Any suggestions on which hops to dry hop with. I have fuggles, cascade, goldings and saaz? I noticed that BribieG recommended fuggles to make an upmarket VB, the only problem with that is that I am not a big VB fan to start with. Any ideas, not sure what would compliment the brew???

 

[buttersd70]

No Probs I will give it a couple more days, anything to delay bottling. Any suggestions on which hops to dry hop with. I have fuggles, cascade, goldings and saaz? I noticed that BribieG recommended fuggles to make an upmarket VB, the only problem with that is that I am not a big VB fan to start with. Any ideas, not sure what would compliment the brew???

the hops to use would be a matter of taste as much as anything. The coopers lager isn't very lager-like...its more a neutral innofensive light ale imo, so I'd probably not use saaz (although I'm not a saaz fan anyway). Given that it was brewed with us05, I would probably use cascade, myself. If it had been brewed with nottingham or s04, then I'd use EKG. If it was done with a true lager yeast, then I probably go with the saaz.

Fuggle is a bit of a funny hop. You either love it or hate it. so unless you know that you like it as a late addition, probably best to go with something else. (personally I have no problem using fuggle in late additions. I like it. But many don't. But if I had EKG adn fuggle, and had to dry hop with one, I'd go with the EKG.)

2c only.

 

[Bribie G]

No, I think you have been reading my stout comments: I have used Fuggles with a toucan Coopers Stout, to try and make it more Guinness - like. With a toucan Lager if trying to make it taste more like an Australian mainstream beer, as a finishing hop I would actually go more for Cluster (as used by Lion Nathan) or maybe Pride of Ringwood (Fosters Group) or if going Euro then try Hallertau, Tettnang, Saaz or New Zealand SaazB

 

[achy02]

No, I think you have been reading my stout comments: I have used Fuggles with a toucan Coopers Stout, to try and make it more Guinness - like. With a toucan Lager if trying to make it taste more like an Australian mainstream beer, as a finishing hop I would actually go more for Cluster (as used by Lion Nathan) or maybe Pride of Ringwood (Fosters Group) or if going Euro then definitely Saaz or New Zealand SaazB

Sorry Bribie, my bad. I must have been a bit cross eyed when I read the thread. I know it sounds stupid but I have been giving the hop bags a sniff test and I think Cascade has won. I am not going to over do it though, I imagine the cans were already hopped to a degree. Thanks for the help and info

 

[Bribie G]

No worries achy, actually I have never extra-hopped a lager toucan because, to my taste, it has almost the same hop "profile" as my beloved 9% ABV Skol Superstrength lager (UK) that I occasionally allow myself to get from 1st Choice Liquor.

At least I can have a few glasses of the toucan without crawling around on the floor muttering 'rehab, rehab...' :lol: :lol:

 

[buttersd70]

my beloved 9% ABV Skol Superstrength lager (UK) that I occasionally allow myself to get from 1st Choice Liquor.

Where is the "shaking your head from side to side whilst muttering about Geordies and their strange drinking habits" smiley when you need it?

This one will need to do - :lol:

 

[mwd]

It was Carlsberg Special Brew for me but I am not from the North East

They used to do a Heineken Premium too that warmed the cockles.

Now I am from the North East and it was Cairns Bitter, no wonder we started brewing.

 

[Jase71]

..... crawling around on the floor muttering 'rehab, rehab...' :lol: :lol:

Sounds like the same words that eminate from my house each & every Saturday morning

As to the twocan frothing issue... Ive been thinking of doing one down the track, but as my beer gets brewed ina carpeted room, the risk of mess is no fun, especially considering I can seem to maintain temps of around 23/24c.

So how about doing away with the airlock entirely, as using a tube into a glass jar (term for this? ) THEN stick the jar into a big empty bucket. Then if it foams over, it's a peice of cake to clean up.

 

[achy02]

Sounds like the same words that eminate from my house each & every Saturday morning

As to the twocan frothing issue... Ive been thinking of doing one down the track, but as my beer gets brewed ina carpeted room, the risk of mess is no fun, especially considering I can seem to maintain temps of around 23/24c.

So how about doing away with the airlock entirely, as using a tube into a glass jar (term for this? ) THEN stick the jar into a big empty bucket. Then if it foams over, it's a peice of cake to clean up.

Jase after my toucan ran amok last week I resorted to running a clean piece of hose into the clear container of water I had my brew sitting in (for temp control). At first nothing happened and then enough pressure built up for the brew to blow bubbles that would make Bargearse proud. It went on all night. Not only did I get endless amusement watching it, it saved me cleaning up the airlock every 20mins.

 

[flattop]

Treat it like a murder scene and carpet the room with plastic
I usually wrap the fermenter in an old towel, soaks up any mess, stops the light and acts like a thermal blanket (a little).
You could always run a long tube to a bottle out the window!

 

[mwd]

Stand your fermenter in one of those big plastic storage crates which you can get very cheap at most stores. Half fill with water add frozen water bottles and the wet towel draped around will help with temperature control. Lots of others use a blow off tube also. A bit of a search here will even reveal pictures of blow off tubes in action.

Low temperatures never a problem here high temps are most of the time.