Coopers Vintage Ale 2009 Recipe? My Brew Tastes Soapy!?

[lukemarsh]

I'm a big fan of Coopers 2009 Vintage Ale, I think (next to their Stout) it's the best brew they have on the market... yes, I like it more than Pale Ale! My friend and fellow Coopers beer enthusiast bought me the Brewcraft Coopers Vintage Ale recipe kit which consisted of Muntons Barley Wine + Brewcraft Brewblend #15 + Muntons Gold yeast and 17L final volume. I brewed this a while ago and the OG was 1.050 and FG 1.021 and was in the fermenter for just over 2 weeks. I used Homebrand Spring water for it, and found out later that i probably should have used a harder water... oh well.

Anyway, I had the first longneck of it the other night (the bottles were just over 2 weeks old by this time) and found it tasted a bit soapy? I'm very careful and thorough with my cleaning and used Pink Stain to clean the fermenter and made sure everything was fine n dandy. I never use detergent or anything with my brew cleaning. How could this have happened?

Also, if anyone has any better recipes for making anything close to a Coopers Vintage Ale it would be much appreciated! Any combinations of brew kits and extras... also tasting notes would be helpful.

Thanks!

 

[dkaos]

Coopers Vintage Ale, now there's something I'm keen on making. Thanks for sharing the brand of the kit, I want to take a look at it now

Soapy? wow mate, the only way I could think of it getting soapy would be that you haven't washed out the fermenter enough after sanitising. I sanitise with bleach now, so it's actually very easy for me to tell when it's been washed out enough as I simply can't smell any more bleach.

I wouldn't throw it out, just give it some time. I thought I had a dodgy IPA once, left it for about 4 weeks and turned out to be great.

Good luck!

Clint

 

[whitegoose]

Soapy
Soapy flavors can caused by not washing your glass very well, but they can also be produced by the fermentation conditions. If you leave the beer in the primary fermentor for a relatively long period of time after primary fermentation is over ("long" depends on the style and other fermentation factors), soapy flavors can result from the breakdown of fatty acids in the trub. Soap is, by definition, the salt of a fatty acid; so you are literally tasting soap"

How to Brew - John Palmer

 

[WSC]

View attachment 38416

Coopers Vintage Ale, now there's something I'm keen on making. Thanks for sharing the brand of the kit, I want to take a look at it now

Soapy? wow mate, the only way I could think of it getting soapy would be that you haven't washed out the fermenter enough after sanitising. I sanitise with bleach now, so it's actually very easy for me to tell when it's been washed out enough as I simply can't smell any more bleach.

I wouldn't throw it out, just give it some time. I thought I had a dodgy IPA once, left it for about 4 weeks and turned out to be great.

Good luck!

Clint

I am going to do this one. never done it before so it is a starting point.

The NS will be replaced with Galaxy.

Using 1272 and making to 18L

View attachment Kit_brewing_calculator___vintage_ale.xls

 

[Bribie G]

I'm a bit confused.. why would a Coopers Ale kit consist entirely of UK Muntons ingredients? Most of the pom kits I have made, turned out a bit weird tasting to the Aus palate. Maybe that's the problem.

 

[lukemarsh]

Hmm... as for cleaning my method is: rinse out all crap in fermenter and wipe out any stains, fill 5L really hot water and some boiling water and swirl around the inside, pour in 50g pink stain, fill to 25L with warm/hot water and leave for a couple of hours... then pour that out and rinse with a hose, spray with brewcraft sanitiser, rinse, spray with brewcraft brewshield, rinse, rinse. (All rinses are done using an outside hose) Maybe this wasn't done well enough, I can't really remember...

The glass I used probably wasn't too clean either come to think of it... I'll let them sit for another month maybe and then try again.

In the meantime I want to find a proper Coopers Vintage Ale recipe to try, incase the one I used was shit. To be honest, it tasted NOTHING like CVA! Not even close. I don't know what it tasted like really. Wasn't an enjoyable drink

 

[manticle]

Not sure what the soap is but it isn't a great surprise that a kit brew at two weeks in the bottle won't taste anything like an aged, vintage, commercial brew.

 

[michaelcocks]

Hmm... as for cleaning my method is: rinse out all crap in fermenter and wipe out any stains, fill 5L really hot water and some boiling water and swirl around the inside, pour in 50g pink stain, fill to 25L with warm/hot water and leave for a couple of hours... then pour that out and rinse with a hose, spray with brewcraft sanitiser, rinse, spray with brewcraft brewshield, rinse, rinse. (All rinses are done using an outside hose) Maybe this wasn't done well enough, I can't really remember...

The glass I used probably wasn't too clean either come to think of it... I'll let them sit for another month maybe and then try again.

In the meantime I want to find a proper Coopers Vintage Ale recipe to try, incase the one I used was shit. To be honest, it tasted NOTHING like CVA! Not even close. I don't know what it tasted like really. Wasn't an enjoyable drink

Leave it another few weeks.
Wow that's one heck of a complicted cleaning and sanitizing routine

I go napisan with hot water, rinse, then iodophor, no rinse.

 

[Franko]

Not sure what the soap is but it isn't a great surprise that a kit brew at two weeks in the bottle won't taste anything like an aged, vintage, commercial brew.

Well said I'm also a little worried that the gravity finished that high at 1.021 I think it should have gone down a little more

Franko

 

[lukemarsh]

Yeah the gravity was pretty high... I was hoping for it to go down further, because at those rates it was only 4.6% or something, which is pissy for a vintage ale. I didn't have much of a grasp on the whole brewing thing when I did this, I didn't know much about different ways to kick down the gravity using heat and other methods etc... I always learn something new and important after every brew that I needed to do it!

 

[felten]

Hmm... as for cleaning my method is: rinse out all crap in fermenter and wipe out any stains, fill 5L really hot water and some boiling water and swirl around the inside, pour in 50g pink stain, fill to 25L with warm/hot water and leave for a couple of hours... then pour that out and rinse with a hose, spray with brewcraft sanitiser, rinse, spray with brewcraft brewshield, rinse, rinse. (All rinses are done using an outside hose) Maybe this wasn't done well enough, I can't really remember...

The glass I used probably wasn't too clean either come to think of it... I'll let them sit for another month maybe and then try again.

In the meantime I want to find a proper Coopers Vintage Ale recipe to try, incase the one I used was shit. To be honest, it tasted NOTHING like CVA! Not even close. I don't know what it tasted like really. Wasn't an enjoyable drink

What is the difference between brewcraft sanitiser and brewshield? Anyway a no rinse sanitiser is exactly that, you don't have to rinse it off as that defeats the purpose of sanitising. Though this shouldn't have anything to do with a soapy flavour afaik.

 

[lukemarsh]

Yeah I figured you don't need to rinse off the sanitiser... it smells pretty chemicaly though so I'm always too afraid to not rinse it off haha

 

[A3k]

I wouldn't be doing your final rinse with an outdoor hose.
I agree with felten, get a good no rinse and do just that.

how ever, i doubt this is your problem for this beer, but it may prevent infections in the future.