Coopers Mexican Cerveza

[chemfish]

Just bottled a basic Coopers cerveza, 23 litre brew, cerveza tin, 750g dex, 250g of LDM and fermented at 17 degrees with Nottingham yeast. Hopefully it turns out nice and lightly flavoured as it is for my significant other who refuses anything with flavour. Just put on a "plain Jane" Canadian blonde as well, same recipe only with a blonde tin instead. When I brew my next cerveza I will try it with 750g LDM and 250 dex, will be interesting to see the difference.

 

[menoetes]

Vinegar? Sounds like an infection dude, it sucks but it has happened to almost all of us at some point. Take it as a learning experience and jump back on that horse and start brewing again. After this scare you'll probably be so careful with your next beer that it will turn it perfectly!

 

[wereprawn]

Had a second whiff of the bottled stuff and nearly spewed. All bottles tipped out and already and put down another batch after a thorough wash and sanitizer that I started last night with leaving "pink stuff" in the fermenter along with all the gear I used.

Fingers crossed the new batch goes way better!

So kit and kilo of Morgans Cerveza due the local not having the Coopers brand. Pitched yeast at 26 degrees and OG was at 1.032.

Never used it, but..... "that pink stuff" sounds suspiciously like a cleaner I have read about ( Could be wrong but don't think it sanitises ). For a a good sanitiser try sodium percarbonate . There are obviously many types of sanitiser and they have there place but the S P cleans and sanitises.

 

[yum beer]

No good fuseo....vinegar certainly sounds like an infection...aceto bacter beer ******, or some such thing.........the pink wash may not be enough to sanitize on its own.
I like to soak all my gear in the fermenter filled with nappy san (no name nappy treatment to be exact)and hot water for at least 12 hours, rinse with hot tap water then spray with Iodophor and allow to drain dry for 15 minutes before using. If you cant get Iodophor or Starsan, the nappy san will do the job on its own, spray is just for extra's.
Don't touch your brew with anything that hasn't been thoroughly cleaned and sanitised.
Boiling water works well too.

Better luck with this batch. It happens to all of us....I lost 6 batches in a row early last year with mice everywhere, hard to get through and a little heartbreaking but be a little anal...its worth it in the end..no pun..

 

[Bribie G]

They make a brilliant partial with about 3 kg of base grain, 20g of something American like Chinook and an American ale yeast such as BRY-97.

I made my run-up to going AG on similar brews and you can usually do it with equipment you already have knocking around like a BIG W stockpot, esky and some voile.

Edit: sodium percarbonate is the active ingredient in napisan type powders. Give a good soaking and don't spare the napisan, then a supermarket dishwashing detergent with a new yellow cloth, rinse well with hottest possible water and apply Starsan solution liberally and leave overnight before draining. Don't forget to remove tap and thoroughly clean and sanitise tap recess and thread as well.

I'd disagree that SP is a sanitiser - I wouldn't ever trust it on its own.

 

[wogdog]

The pink stain u are talking about is excellent... I use it for everything eats everything away.. Hot water an soak let dry an rinse stinks if u inhale it tho but works incredible... Will remove everything I even soak my glasses in it in kitchen sink they come out sparkling.. If u have glass bottles will eat all sticky residue away from labels etc.. Get stuff I don't use anything else. An when brew day is I rinse everything off with it few scoops of it shake an rinse. Hope that helps.

 

[fuseo]

Thanks for the replies. I obviously left out the fact that after using the pink stuff I used idaphor for sanitising. So yeah all good with cleaning.

 

[fuseo]

Any recommendations on a yeast substitute for this kit?

If so what would be the overall outcome?

Just saw the same question posted in another thread and was curious myself as to what my options would be seeing as though this is by far my favorite brew at the moment.

 

[Bribie G]

BRY-97 is good. I've done a few partials over the summer with this kit and would recommend.

 

[fuseo]

Does it come in a packet like the kit yeast? Is it pitched the same way? Any info would be great...

 

[Bribie G]

In a sachet, but better than the kit yeast as you get a decent amount. If you can't get it then US-05 is a close brother. Rehydrate in sterile water (from cooled electric kettle is good) and pitch. Does well around 17 degrees in a fake lager or blonde ale.

edit: you shouldn't need to "proof" the yeast by adding sugar, just cream it up for a while then pitch as in the photos.

 

[fuseo]

Absolute champion effort for the help Bribie! Thanks mate

 

[Bribie G]

Happy brewing .. :super:

 

[burrster]

As an alternative option, I'm currently using Nottingham. I chose it for its clean ferment, adding very little in the way of flavours, to the brew, allowing me to experiment with different hops and the difference between them. its good for doing fake lagers at 15ish degrees without having to go through the efforts of lagering. For now it's my yeast of choice while I experiment with other aspects of beer brewing!

 

[Bribie G]

I'd also second Nottingham as a good choice. If you are looking for a lager style and have temperature control it's a good yeast, and a bit of a rottweiler when it comes to chewing through the fermentables. Rehydrating instructions as per above.

I once accidentally let a brew on Notto go down to 13 degrees which is definitely in lager territory and it was still popping away happily. It is known to strip hop flavours but for a lighter brew such as a Cerveza it works fine.

 

[fuseo]

Awesome info.

 

[chemfish]

Well, I think my cerveza is going to have issues and maybe try to kill me. I popped a bottle today and.... it's fairly sweet and fairly heavily carbonated. I cold crashed it when it had reached and seemingly stopped at 1.009 but testing what was in the bottles shows 1.005... guess I should have left it a bit longer after all. My canadian blonde ended up dropping to 1.006 so hopefully it will be better.

 

[Amph]

I've got an old coopers cerveza can and a BE2 kicking around and thought I'd give it a try with a 500g tub of rice malt..

I'm thinking of doing a 5L boil and maybe adding some Citra (all I have) and some nutrient.. Should I do the boil with the rice malt, or half of the BE2?

 

[burrster]

As far as I understand it doesn't really matter, Amph.

 

[menoetes]

Personally I would use the rice malt in the hop boil, 100ml per liter (the full 500mls for your 5lt boil). It just makes judging the OG of the boil easier. I'm not sure that 500g of BE2 would give you the 1.040 you ideally want in your hop boil and this just saves you from having to use your hydrometer and make the temp adjustment calculations etc.