First brew tasted today

[Ghizo]

Ok I have kegged my first batch and poured my first beer today.

The beer was
Morgan's silver jubilee Lager (came with brew kit )
500g LDM
500g Dex
24g cascade hops ( dry hopped from the beginning of fermentation)

Taste was good, not great but easy to drink, did not have a lot of body but for a first attempt I am happy.

I am having to fine tune the keg system as I am still pouring lots of head.

My next brew will be a cerveza my LHBS suggested a coopers cerveza with 1kg of brew enhancer. And just use kit yeast.
Any thoughts on this? Will only be my third brew ( 2nd brew is still conditioning a mangrove jacks cider).
Should I do any more with it?

 

[Benn]

This is just my opinion from my limited experience so far - most of my all Coopers ingredients brews taste pretty similar. I think of their (widely available) tins now in shades of light to dark and weaker to stronger in terms of hop charactor rather than specific styles as they are labelled, like I said this just the way I look at it.
I use them as a base and generally add hops and mostly the LHBS pre-blended fermentables in place of the coopers BE1,BE2 etc.
Not sure if your using temp controll, but its worth the small outlay for an STC-1000 a heat mat/belt and a chest freezer from E-bay. Set and forget.
The Cervesa kits make a nice easy drinking beer, I've found temp control largely reduces the winey/alcoholy background.
Cheers,

 

[Ghizo]

Have built 1 stc 1000 but the unit was faulty so I am waiting for a replacement to arrive, as soon as that arrives I will put next brew down, the temp here keeping a fermenter in my shed at 10c so no need for a freezer but I do have a fermenting fridge when needed.

 

[meathead]

Agreed
If you like Corona you will like the coopers cerveza. The beer you are drinking now from the get may improve with a bit of time.
Plus one on the stc1000 stable fermentation temp very important

 

[panzerd18]

Have built 1 stc 1000 but the unit was faulty so I am waiting for a replacement to arrive, as soon as that arrives I will put next brew down, the temp here keeping a fermenter in my shed at 10c so no need for a freezer but I do have a fermenting fridge when needed.

If its at 10 degrees, you could pitch two packets of dry lager yeast like W34/70.

To get the best out of kits.

Substitute, the Brew Enhancer for Light Malt Extract.

Buy hops and add as dry hopping and/or hop tea.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

I like the Pale Ale the best. the Dark Ale is good, and the draught. So easy to make a squillion slight but various blends.
A small boil say 6lt with the added sugars. Dry malt extract being my choice, finishing hops etc.

: as Panzerd said hahh.

The Draught I found to be a good neutral flavor for a spice beer that was my 14th brew when I made a kegerater.
It was my first kegged beer and one of my finest still to date. In a subtle way it had fresh ginger and cloves and chilli and bay leaves and lemon rind and it was a freakingly good balance!

Enjoy the explorations :chug:

 

[Ghizo]

Well despite my problems tuning my keg system, I must say I a happy with the beer,
The first couple tasted very light and a little bland, but after a couple the flavour came and big difference,

 

[yum beer]

Add 1kg LDM and 500gm Dex to your Cerveza tin, comes out quite nice.
2 packs of yeast is a good idea if down around 10c.
Give it six weeks to age in the keg then hook in.

 

[shacked]

I've been making coopers kits with my brother in law, who just started brewing. They turn out pretty well to be honest.

To get the most out of the tins I think it's important to have your sanitation and temp control sorted; add dry hops towards the end of fermentation; and upgrade the kit yeast to good quality [rehydrated] dry (or even liquid) yeast.

Adding some steeped specialty grains also helps.