help needed for newbie

[Pirate Pete]

Hi people

My first post. Forgive me but the first part of my message is about non beer brewing.

Just started up home brewing. Did a ginger beer first at about 12 percent using bakers yeast and a lot of sugar (about 1 kg brown sugar per four litres). Tasted great. Happy to provide the recipe.

Just drinking a Brigalow kit apple cider (1 week fermenter and 1 week bottle) which tastes pretty good ( have read a lot of bad reviews). Used 1.25 kg of CSR brown sugar. It actually tasted pretty good after fermentation. My original specific gravity was 1050 and final was around 1005 ( hard to see, finding it hard to thread a needle these days). I used Coopers carbonation drops and sitting on my deck two weeks after starting I am drinking something that I think is 6.5 percent and is not cat piss.

Sorry about the non beer preview. I used a Coopers fermenter for all the above brews. My Coopers kit came with the standard beer. Followed instructions to the letter (I am an experienced cook). After one week fermentation seemed to stop at 1015 (three days same reading). Rang the Coopers hotline and the guy said to bottle now. Two weeks in the bottle at around 20 degrees and a touch below. Opened first bottle... flat and taste not that great.. not off but like really bad home brew.

Question is, will if improve or should I stick with my ginger beer.

Peter from Fiji

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Give it more time. 2 weeks is not enough. Beer needs about 6 weeks in the bottle.

 

[wbosher]

A little advice...throw away the kit instructions and spend a little more time reading here. Your beer will improve 100%

 

[bum]

My Coopers kit came with the standard beer. Followed instructions to the letter (I am an experienced cook). After one week fermentation seemed to stop at 1015 (three days same reading). Rang the Coopers hotline and the guy said to bottle now. Two weeks in the bottle at around 20 degrees and a touch below. Opened first bottle... flat and taste not that great.. not off but like really bad home brew.

Question is, will if improve or should I stick with my ginger beer.

What did you use to prime the bottles? Was it carb drops? People sometimes report batches barely carbing at all with these (happened to me for one batch as well). You sometimes see people guessing that maybe the drops dissolve slower than stuff drops out and sediment forms on top of the priming sugar. Honestly, that doesn't sound entirely correct to me but I do know that when it happened to me I (very slowly) turned the bottles a few times and they started to carb up after that. This is probably less relevant if you used plain sugar or similar.

The Lager tin that comes with the beginner kit makes really not good beer. Lots of people use it and like it but they're bad people. Coopers do generally make good kits though so try a different one from their range before you give up on them.

 

[wbosher]

Not sure that the carb drops will be the issue, although I can't offer an alternative reason. I use them exclusively, and have done for every singe brew I've made to date, and never had an issue.

Maybe a yeast problem? Never got below 1.015, so possibly not enough yeast to fully ferment, let alone carb the bottles? Just a guess though.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

They will carb up over time

 

[Pirate Pete]

Fellas, thanks for all the good advice. I hope to gain a lot of knowledge from this forum.

I used the carb drops. They worked fine in the ginger beer and in the cider. Maybe it was the yeast because the beer did not get down to 1008 which is what I was expecting. Used bread yeast in my last batch of ginger beer and the specific gravity is down below 1000 - around 995. Started out at 1055.

Any way, I will open one bottle a week for the next four weeks to see how the Coopers is progressing. I have drank Coopers kit beer in the past and it has always been good.

Peter

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

That is the best thing to do. Leave them to do their thing to

 

[Pirate Pete]

Thanks for all your advise. Have left alone for another 10 days and the PET bottles are really starting to get hard. Lot of tiny bubbles in the bottle when I give them a small shake.
I am very tempted but if I can last another three days I will be away for two weeks and they may be fine by the time I get back.

Peter

 

[wbosher]

Go on, taste one. You know you want to. :icon_cheers:

 

[Pirate Pete]

I tried one and it was pretty good. A little under carbonated but this should improve. My son and I are going to brew our second batch tomorrow. Might try the Coopers IPA.

 

[wbosher]

My last kit brew before going over to the dark side was the Coopers IPA, and to be honest I loved it. I would be happy to brew it again one day if I was pressed for time to do an AG brew, and running out of beer.

Make sure you go onto the Coopers website and find the 20L "Authentic" IPA, rather than the standard 23L. A little less beer but you'll be glad you sacrificed a few litres