Coopers Lager

[New2thebrew]

Hi all,

This is my first post after starting to home brew again (after a 10 year absence) having recently purchased a Coopers HB kit.

I put the Lager that came with the kit in the wort on Tuesday evening, along with the 1kg of brew sugar that was also included, and made it to 23L as per the instructions. According to the tin, should take 4 days at temp between 21c - 27c (average temp has been 26c over the 4 days). Checked it this morning (after 4 days), the airlock still bubbling (albeit infrequently).

4 days fermentation seems a short amount of time, given a lot of the threads I have read on this site.

Just wondering what the FG should be (approx) for the Coopers Lager before bottling, and whether I should leave it in the fermenter longer (i.e. until airlock stops bubbling altogether) before checking the FG.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[moonshine]

Coopers Lager is actually an ale (comes with an ale yeast anyhow) -- as do all coopers kits apart from the euro lager premium kit which apparently comes with a lager yeast

at 26c it should be done in about 4 or 5 days but it wouldn't hurt to leave it a few days longer

you don't have to wait till the airlock stops bubbling once every two or three seconds as a rough gesstemate of when to take a sg reading (which should end up around the 1005 mark from memory)

there are lots of ways to fix a kit, i would advise searching these forum for some recipes as the coopers lager kit is pretty bland in and of itself (i wold at least ad some more malt to it instead of the brew sugar and probably some more hops Hallertau or Saaz and probably a different yeast fermentis saflager s23 is a good cheep one but you have to keep the temp below 18c [9-10 is best] and at that temp fermentation takes about 3weeks in the primary)

a much better kit to make from the instructions imho would be the red one (real ale), although i don't make kits without f#(|< ing with them anymore.




cheers, good luck

 

[kelbygreen]

also with ale yeast you should have temps below 20c, 26c is to high and will produce some unwanted flavours. The first few steps to make good beer is ferment between 18-20 ale yeast 10-12 lager yeast and use a good quality yeast. Also if you use a lager yeast like S-23 pitch 2 packs so pitch 22g or yeast instead of 11g for ale (or 7g that kits come with).

 

[New2thebrew]

Thanks for the advice, will leave it a few more days to see if FG drops to 1005 before bottling.