Coopers Mexican Cerveza

[damof]

I just poped one into the fermenter on tuesday night. Having a little trouble keeping the temps down, hopefully it'll be fine though. Definitely not one to do in summer if you have no fridge or means of temp control.

 

[Pennywise]

For sure let us know how ya first brew turns out mate, welcome to the forums. For what it's worth 2 1/2g wont be noticable, unless you put that in each bottle? Good on ya for throwing youself into it, it's a slippery slope this HB caper.

 

[Flash_DG]

just a small question, Is this style of beer a Lager or Ale? and which should it be brewed as?
also Mine has been in the bottle for over a month and it is quite tasteless even compared to a Corona : (
and the carb lvl is quite low.

 

[iScarlet]

It depends on the yeast you use. I think it's supposed to be a lager, although Coopers kit yeasts (excluding a couple of kits) tend to be a hybrid monster of both ale and lager yeasts.

 

[Flash_DG]

yeah I knew about the coopers yeast, which I used, that's why I asked in case I want to try again with a bit more knowledge.

 

[iScarlet]

Heh, yeah. When I tried it first up I did I used BE1 and the kit yeast, came out around 3.2% ABV and with very little taste but it was nicely carbonated and we kept lemons handy for when we drank it.

I wasn't too big on it but it was a hit with SWMBO and her friends so I tried again with Glacier hops BE1 and a lager yeast. That's pretty much one of the few kits and bits I'll keep doing for a while to keep her happy.

 

[Peteoz77]

For some reason I decided to brew one of these after being AG for more than a year. When it finished, I carbed and kegged it... and it was so tasteless and bland that I decided to dry hop the keg with 30grams of Summer Saaz and 20 grams of Simcoe. It finished quite nice! I still have a lot of it to drink, but I am trying to save it for non craft drinkers.

 

[manticle]

OT: I find it strange that so many people report their lady friends like sweet light beers. Apart from some dangerous flirtation with platinum blond when she first tried it (shortlived and not as exciting as it may read), my lady is a fan of refreshing bitterness and hearty malty beers like stouts and porters.

 

[flattop]

I had about 4 attempts at the Cerveza for the missus, she is a St George drinker.
I gave it away after 4 brews, US-05 helped, LME was ok, Golden Syrup was a mistake but i couldn't hit the spot.
What i found was that time was the best answer, i reckon with such a light flavored kit it really needs about 4 months in the bottle to come good.
Moved to AG, that solved my problem but i still haven't brewed one the missus likes.... but then i gave up trying!

 

[stevehollins]

For sure let us know how ya first brew turns out mate, welcome to the forums. For what it's worth 2 1/2g wont be noticable, unless you put that in each bottle? Good on ya for throwing youself into it, it's a slippery slope this HB caper.

Haha will do, thanks mate! Yeah, I wasn't sure how much to put in, a mate from work offloaded them to me the other day and thought it couldn't hurt, I figured a style like this is pretty inoffensive to begin with so it'd probably make a good base to muck around with, but i guess time will tell. Seems like a hard one to get "right", if there is such a thing.

 

[iScarlet]

OT: I find it strange that so many people report their lady friends like sweet light beers. Apart from some dangerous flirtation with platinum blond when she first tried it (shortlived and not as exciting as it may read), my lady is a fan of refreshing bitterness and hearty malty beers like stouts and porters.

Oh, my lass likes a good whack of beers, but out of the kits she seems to have liked this one the best. Yet to see how she goes with some of the partials I'll be thrusting her way.

 

[manticle]

You're lucky I'm not a man who insists on making innuendos with every breath.

While my sweetpea doesn't like the all same beers I like (she doesn't enjoy yeast driven beers like trappists or some eisbocks) she does have a great palate and can be a really good source of feedback (and having a non brewer give honest feedback is really useful) and she will try most things most days.

 

[casualties_army40]

G'day Mate.

If your using the actual Coopers ones they are especially designed for brewing and are good for easily 6-9 months.

cheers.

sorry but are you saying that the bottles themself will last 6-9 months and then you will have to get new ones or do you mean that once you've bottled brew in them, that they will last 6-9 months? im just curious because i use them. cheers

 

[manticle]

sorry but are you saying that the bottles themself will last 6-9 months and then you will have to get new ones or do you mean that once you've bottled brew in them, that they will last 6-9 months? im just curious because i use them. cheers

Pretty certain it means the beer will last that long. Some PET bottled beer may have oxidation problems due to permeability of plastic but the coopers PET bottles have been formulated with that in mind. If you make beer you want to age for a long time, glass is probably best but if you want to bottle brews that need less maturation in PET then the Coopers ones are the way to go. Re-usable as far as I'm aware (have a set but only bottled in them once so far from expert).

 

[mwd]

Coopers/Morgans bottles have a nylon membrane so theoretically should be as good as glass.

Most people do not bottle in PET if they are intending to store for years.

I have some PET bottles getting on for one year without any problem considering they are stored at ambient in the tropics between 35C-13C and all between.

 

[flattop]

I have brews in PET which are fine after 14 months, i have had the odd brew that was a little flat but considering my caps have been used up to 6 times i'm not surprised. I'm in the process of ditching any cap that's been used 3-4 times and using new ones. I don't match caps to bottles either which i hear can extend their life.
Caps are cheap so i may end up only using them once or twice.
I bottle in glass as well and to be honest i like PET for ease of storage in terms of lack of weight, they are also lighter when full, tend to bounce when dropped (i've lost a few glass bottles that way).
Glass looks and feels better, but my mind is turning more to PETS just for ease.

 

[roverfj1200]

I have brews in PET which are fine after 14 months, i have had the odd brew that was a little flat but considering my caps have been used up to 6 times i'm not surprised. I'm in the process of ditching any cap that's been used 3-4 times and using new ones. I don't match caps to bottles either which i hear can extend their life.
Caps are cheap so i may end up only using them once or twice.
I bottle in glass as well and to be honest i like PET for ease of storage in terms of lack of weight, they are also lighter when full, tend to bounce when dropped (i've lost a few glass bottles that way).
Glass looks and feels better, but my mind is turning more to PETS just for ease.

I use PET bottles for my every day drinker up to 12 months in the bottle. Special brews that may be stored longer go into glass. But even the "beer" PET bottles seem OK after 12 months.

 

[BeerGimp]

you can always add some lemon rind to the boil
or lemon grass (not too much of either)

so, how would one use lemon rind in a partial? just boil water, add kit and dextrose, and the lemon rind and boil it a bit and leave the lemon rind in it? and if using the glacier hops, would the standard boil in 500ml water for 7 minutes or so be sufficient? do glacier hops come in the bags?

i really wanna try this one.

 

[BeerGimp]

hi there, everybody looking for glacier hops, i have found them here:

http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/product-search.asp

they're pricey but apparently if you pick them up from their shop you only pay for the hops but postage is free, otherwise there is postage costs to consider. They also have the saf lager w34/70 yeast.

 

[thekelsobrewer]

G'day, not currently brewing at the moment but a work colleague asked about doing a Corona clone and talked about using the kit as a base, I presume he wants something rather bland but easy to drink on a hot summers day, crikey we get plenty of them here at Bathurst but I suppose were not on our Pat Malone, any way I suggested he try the White Labs yeast suitable for this style but was unsure of the type of hop or hopping rate assuming it will be just the can kit, Ultrabrew/ Coopers No 2, a low bitterness and more aromatic hop would be my thinking, also would a Wyeast California Lager yeast be suitable for this style as it wouldn't have to be fermented at Lager temps, hard here at this time of the year, cheers Leroy.