First brew a success!

[Toastie]

Cracked my first bottle today (standard Coopers lager kit, will have been bottled for 2 weeks tomorrow) & it tastes great, much better than I thought & much closer to a lager taste than I thought it would be too! Certainly my first brew's success has been helped by the wealth of helpful information & people from this forum
Only negative is that the carbonation isn't great (used the 2 coopers carbonation drops in the kit PET bottles), is that likely to improve with more time?

 

[superstock]

Yes. Don't keep them too cool while carbing up.

 

[Killer Brew]

Yep. Cracked my first at a similar stage and have found those opened a week later (3 weeks) have far superior head retention.

 

[Matplat]

Interesting, i bottled my first batch yesterday using the same carbonation drops, so i guess il have to watch out for that too.

I'd imagine that bulk priming would carbonate quicker, as all the sugar is already in suspension, but you can't beat the convenience of those carbonation drops!

 

[burrster]

Just a tip about priming, if you learn to bulk prime, then you can adjust the amount very easily in small increments, instead if 1,2, or 3 carb drops. This way you can learn reproduce your preferred carbonation levels in all your beers. I found that the carbonation drops were not giving me what i wanted. That said 2 weeks in the bottle is young, and i find 4 weeks in the bottle is my minimum time before i drink my brews. As superstock said, keeping them 'warm' aka around 20-25 degrees help for the first 3-4 weeks.

Good Luck

 

[superstock]

Interesting, i bottled my first batch yesterday using the same carbonation drops, so i guess il have to watch out for that too.

I'd imagine that bulk priming would carbonate quicker, as all the sugar is already in suspension, but you can't beat the convenience of those carbonation drops!

Haven't noticed any difference in carbing up time with each method. Temp makes a big time difference.
Carb drops are convienent but expensive compared to bulk priming with sugar and they're difficult if you are filling bottles that aren't stubbies or 750mls.

 

[shacked]

Cracked my first bottle today (standard Coopers lager kit, will have been bottled for 2 weeks tomorrow) & it tastes great, much better than I thought & much closer to a lager taste than I thought it would be too! Certainly my first brew's success has been helped by the wealth of helpful information & people from this forum
Only negative is that the carbonation isn't great (used the 2 coopers carbonation drops in the kit PET bottles), is that likely to improve with more time?

Nice one Toastie!!

Yes, your carbonation will improve over time. Best bit about the PET bottles is you can tell just by giving them a squeeze (I use at least one PET per batch just for this reason).

+1 for bulk priming. I started doing it on my 3rd brew and haven't looked back. Read up on it, use the calculators and also just be really mindful of splashing too much beer around when you transfer from the fermenter to the bottling bucket. You can then use all sorts of odd sized bottles.

What's your next brew???

 

[Toastie]

Thanks for the input guys My next brew was a Coopers Pale Ale kit (just Coopers Pale Ale + kit yeast + brew enhancer 2), I actually bottled it today! The first batch has definitely been kept in the low 20's if not a bit under 20 in the same room as the fermenter containing brew #2 due to the cool weather here at the moment, that's all going to change with the weather looking to hit 35 degrees for a week!

Batch #3 I thought I'd try the basic lager kit again, this first one tastes nice so I figured why not! I'm not in a rush to get into adding hops etc at this stage, I will have to source a temp controlled fridge before I start getting too fancy.

 

[Yob]

It'll change your world when you do

Good thoughts on getting the temp control set up, priority that

 

[superstock]

Looking back I wonder how I brewed anything drinkable without temp control.