Coopers Pilsener Colour

[akav]

G'day from South Africa!

I'm a relative newbie, but have brewed a few Coopers kits with varying degrees of success. I started a batch of Thomas Coopers Brewmaster Selection Pilsener just over 4 days ago, and it's been bubbling away at a steady pace (slowing down a bit now). It's pretty hot over here and I don't have any temperature control, so I know conditions aren't exactly ideal. I'd say the average temperature has been around 26 degrees.

Today I couldn't resist the temptation to have a look and taste. Tapped some into a small glass and was quite surprised at the colour -- very light, almost like lemon juice. Pretty cloudy too. And very bitter.

Does this sound about right? Or could I have an infected batch on my hands? I realise it's still at an early stage, but I was hoping for something a bit more like beer by now ...

 

[sluggerdog]

I've never tried the kit myself but from the coopers.com.au site it states the following:

A pale straw coloured beer with a bold, spicy Saaz hop aroma. Crisp and dry with cleansing bitterness, Thomas Coopers Pilsener is made from premium 2- row pale malt and barley, bittering hops and a generous amount of aromatic SAAZ hops. Fermentation with the true lager yeast, supplied, at temperatures below 20C will produce an excellent example of the pilsener style. Intended to be mixed with 500g Coopers Light Dry Malt and 300g Coopers Dextrose to 23 litres.

The cloudyness would probably be from the yeast, once it finishes it should be less cloudy, you can also try racking to a cube and gelatine if you want the yeast to fully drop out.

What did you add to the kit? this will effect the colour too, if you just added dextrose or sugar then no extra colour will be added.

 

[Thunderlips]

I'd probably be worried about your ferment temp since the pilsener comes with a true lager yeast.
I've made this kit once using 500gms light dry malt and 500gms dextrose at a temp of about 22c.
Even 22c is probably too high but it turned out nicely.
After filtering,"Pale straw coloured" is how mine looked and it was only a tad bitter.

 

[akav]

Thanks both of you.

I only added 500g light dry malt and 300g dextrose (as per the instructions).

I do realise the temperature is somewhat high and that's something I'll be working on for future brews. But surely one should be able to follow the general instructions that come with the kit (which allow a range of 21-27) and expect reasonable (if not great) results? (Though there is a special section for Pilsener that recommends lower temps).

Thanks again; I guess it's really much too early to evaluate this brew in any meaningful way. But patience has never been one of my virtues ...

Any further suggetions about reducing the cloudiness would be much appreciated. I've never tried anything like filtering, racking to secondary, etc. Pretty much still going according to the instructions -- single fermenter, then bottling. What would be the easiest and safest way for a newcomer to improve on this, without adding too many new variables and risk factors? For now, I pretty much want to concentrate on getting the primary fermentation right and avoiding infections; then I'll start adding improvements one at a time.

 

[blackbock]

been one of my virtues ...

Any further suggetions about reducing the cloudiness would be much appreciated.
...
What would be the easiest and safest way for a newcomer to improve on this, without adding too many new variables and risk factors? For now, I pretty much want to concentrate on getting the primary fermentation right and avoiding infections; then I'll start adding improvements one at a time.

Just wait a few weeks and the yeast will settle... or use finings, but I personally don't favour that approach.

beerz

 

[Alf Flamin' Stewart]

Just wait a few weeks and the yeast will settle... or use finings, but I personally don't favour that approach.

beerz

I brewed this one about 8 weeks back, my first one racked to secondary. Brewed with about 800g light dry malt and 300g dex, and I think I overdid the malt a bit. Fermented @ 22-25 deg C, so maybe a little high there too.

Mine was certainly a different colour to anything I'd brewed previous, and certainly had some very malty flavours, very bitter, but improving by the day ( a couple of the last-bottled tallies were as good as I'd ever had!). I worried about the idea that I'd infected it at some stage (hadn't been too particular about the airlock on my secondary), but sounds like that's the brew...

The extra time in secondary certainly settled most of the crud, but may have contributed to it taking yonks to carbonate (got impatient after 2 1/2 weeks bottled and the first one was flat as a swaggies wallet).

...makes me think I'll try a different kit next time I'm after a pilsner though...

 

[akav]

Thanks for all the feedback. I certainly have learned a lesson I'll never forget -- not to try and brew a lager or pilsner unless you can maintain a suitably low temperature.

Alf, your experience at least gives me some hope that mine won't be a total disaster either. Seems like our brewing conditions are fairly similar, although my temp is even a bit higher than yours. I did use somewhat less malt though.

Just wondering -- would it do any good if I could figure out a way to lower the temp at this stage (about halfway through the brewing process)? Or is stability more important -- should I rather just continue at the same temperature?

 

[Paleman]

Redfox, ive done the Coopers pilsner at least half a dozen times. Your tastings from the fermenter sound about right.

You cant judge a beers clarity, while its in Primary, or even Secondary......it will be cloudy. I can guarantee that it will clear up in the bottle.

The Coopers Pilsner is one that needs at least two months bottle ageing to come into its own. If you can age it that long, you wont regret it, its a nice drop for a kit beer.

 

[akav]

Only bottled this yesterday -- let it sit in the fermenter for a full three weeks, despite the relatively high temperature. Airlock was still bubbling occasionally after two weeks. Fermentation was never vigorous and there was very little krausen in the fermemnter. Don't know what that says about the health of the kit yeast. FG was about 1.006. Beer now actually looked like beer and even tasted okay (no real character of course, but no "funky" tastes, just tasted like watered-down beer).

Put 2 Coopers Carbonation Drops in each 1l PET bottle. Don't know if that's enough -- 2 drops are recommended for 740ml bottles. I was afraid 3 might be too much. Anybody got any experience with this? After about 20hrs there's no sign of carbonation yet -- but I guess it's too early?

 

[phonos]

You could probably have gotten away with 3 carb drops, but two should be ok. It will take some time for the bottles to carbonate, you should wait for at least a couple of weeks before even bothering to open a bottle.