New Kit: Coopers European Lager

[GTS350]

[quote name='Rack'EmUp' post='499540' date='Aug 1 2009, 12:39 AM'].. My brew day went something like this- 240g carapils steeped for 60min @ 65c, 800g of light dry malt, 300g dex, 28g haller h for 50min, .5 whirfloc pill, kit yeast and obviously the tin as well, i plan to dry hop with about 20g of hops maybe around week 2-3 in primary? it is fermenting now at around 10c. critique/tips welcome, Cheers :icon_cheers:[/quote]
RackEmUp
How did it turn out? did any of it last the whole 12weeks?

This is my 4th brew and my first go at the Coopers Euro Lager , and being 35deg here in Sydney, I thought it a great way to test the fermenter fridge (first mistake).
My brew day went something like this :

- (for a 60 litre fermenter) -
3 x 1.7kg cans of Coopers Euro Lager ,
3 x 1kg of Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 ,
500g Vienna grain steeped in a pot for 20mins-ish at an average of 70deg,
50g of Summer Saaz 4.7%AA hop pellets - rehydrated for 10 mins in one of the empty cans with cooled boiled water, then tossed the whole lot in.
24g Weihenstephan yeast.

I topped the 60l fermenter up with filtered tap water, the water temp here today was 27 deg!
I was going to use the kit supplied yeast, but I wasn't monitoring the tap water temp, and couldn't work out why the 35deg wort wasn't cooling down. 2 hours later the fridge (with air temp 18deg) had only cooled the 60litre wort to 31deg, and by now the kit yeast was frothing ready to go.

So I left the wort another 2 hours , and decided to give the Weihenstephan a go.

I was running out of patience and available spare time (brew temp lost the battle to kids and dinner time).
Finally pitched at 27deg and a gravity 1054. :blink: The fridge will have to go all night, and I'll panic about it in the morning when the krausen slams open the fridge door! (like Kramer from Seinfeld).

The priceless moment was 5yo daughter saying: "Mmmm... Daddy... It smells like Vegemite in your shed!"

 

[rackemup]

RackEmUp
How did it turn out? did any of it last the whole 12weeks?

This is my 4th brew and my first go at the Coopers Euro Lager , and being 35deg here in Sydney, I thought it a great way to test the fermenter fridge (first mistake).
My brew day went something like this :

- (for a 60 litre fermenter) -
3 x 1.7kg cans of Coopers Euro Lager ,
3 x 1kg of Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 ,
500g Vienna grain steeped in a pot for 20mins-ish at an average of 70deg,
50g of Summer Saaz 4.7%AA hop pellets - rehydrated for 10 mins in one of the empty cans with cooled boiled water, then tossed the whole lot in.
24g Weihenstephan yeast.

I topped the 60l fermenter up with filtered tap water, the water temp here today was 27 deg!
I was going to use the kit supplied yeast, but I wasn't monitoring the tap water temp, and couldn't work out why the 35deg wort wasn't cooling down. 2 hours later the fridge (with air temp 18deg) had only cooled the 60litre wort to 31deg, and by now the kit yeast was frothing ready to go.

So I left the wort another 2 hours , and decided to give the Weihenstephan a go.

I was running out of patience and available spare time (brew temp lost the battle to kids and dinner time).
Finally pitched at 27deg and a gravity 1054. :blink: The fridge will have to go all night, and I'll panic about it in the morning when the krausen slams open the fridge door! (like Kramer from Seinfeld).

The priceless moment was 5yo daughter saying: "Mmmm... Daddy... It smells like Vegemite in your shed!"

Hi mate, Just cracked the first one a few days ago and i think it turned out really nice! the hallertau hersbrucker hops really work with this one, the only complaint i have is that it turned out a bit darker than i had hoped, not sure if this is because i added some crystal malts and used a fair bit of ldm or just because its a tin...it also has alot more body than a lager should so its kind of like an ale/lager (I might use less malt and more dex next time) I think your recipe sounds really nice, i would say that coopers Be2 is perfect for lagers and its what i will be using next winter.
Let me know how it turns out, Cheers!

 

[Florian]

Hi Guys,

am just about to start my very first brew on the weekend. Got a tin of coopers european lager and the coopers brew enhancer 2. Today I went to the local brew shop and also got recommended 500g of light dry malt and a teabag of hallertau (put in a cup of boiling water and soak 10 min).

What do you guys think, should this be alright? Could I adjust anything to get a better result? My preferences at the moment are becks and lwenbru.

Also, once I got home I noticed that the hallertau had expired in june 2009. Can I still use it, or better hands off?

I would appreciate your input.
Thanks
Florian

 

[RobboMC]

RackEmUp
How did it turn out? did any of it last the whole 12weeks?

This is my 4th brew and my first go at the Coopers Euro Lager , and being 35deg here in Sydney, I thought it a great way to test the fermenter fridge (first mistake).
2 hours later the fridge (with air temp 18deg) had only cooled the 60litre wort to 31deg, and by now the kit yeast was frothing ready to go.

So I left the wort another 2 hours , and decided to give the Weihenstephan a go.

I was running out of patience and available spare time (brew temp lost the battle to kids and dinner time).
Finally pitched at 27deg and a gravity 1054. :blink: The fridge will have to go all night, and I'll panic about it in the morning when the krausen slams open the fridge door! (like Kramer from Seinfeld).

I see you have learned this lesson the hard way.
Just because one has a brew fridge doesn't mean you need to fight nature so fiercely.
In that hot week on Nov I reckon it was more like 47 deg in my garage where my brew fridge lives, making it
almost impossible to brew a 10-12 deg C. Some hot days I can't even GET from the house to my brew garage as it's too hot to leave the air-conditioned house.

Even with a fridge it's a heck of a lot easier to still brew ales in summer and lagers in winter. When it's 16 deg ambient you can open your brew fridge to see what's going on without having the temp start to climb within the first 3 seconds. And when it's over 40 deg ambient don't bother brewing at all, just have a swim and chill yourself out.

This isn't the first brew that's been saved by the brew fridge. Particularly when I started partials I've had quite a few brews end up at 30 plus and spend the night in the fridge before I pitched the yeast, sort of no-chiller extract brewing in a way. Never had any disasters and just kept the airlock on to keep any bugs out.

 

[aaronpetersen]

I've been given a tin of Euro lager and thought I would use it in a partial. Anybody got any good ideas for a partial recipe? What style of lager is it best suited to? I've got some Wyeast 2001 Urquell yeast that I could use if that suits, although I'm happy to use a different yeast if needed. I think I read in this thread that they use Saaz hops in the kit. If that's correct then I'd prefer to stick with Saaz for flavour and aroma. Thanks in advance.

 

[GTS350]

I've been given a tin of Euro lager and thought I would use it in a partial. Anybody got any good ideas for a partial recipe? What style of lager is it best suited to? I've got some Wyeast 2001 Urquell yeast that I could use if that suits, although I'm happy to use a different yeast if needed. I think I read in this thread that they use Saaz hops in the kit. If that's correct then I'd prefer to stick with Saaz for flavour and aroma. Thanks in advance.

Hi Aaron,

If you can control the ferment temp, then go with the WY2001, it is a great match, during the ferment period I always smell some bitter acidity something, but that seems to be gone after I crash chill.
Saaz or Hallertau are both perfect for hop-tea additives. Also, Vienna or Carapils help keep that euro-lager "head".

The Coopers Euro Lager has been my "weapon of choice" to keep the regular (non-homebrewer, mega-swill) visitors satisfied.
Ive also busted some AllGrain mates sneaking back to the fridge for 3rd+4th helpings

Cheers,
Richie

 

[eddy401]

hey i know this post was a loooooong time ago, but to try save starting a new thread - im thinking of doing this one, (going on uni hollidays for 7 weeks so will be able to lager it as opposed to the usual drink it in a month strategy ), i have armarillo hops and cascade - are either of these appropriate to add to this kit in your opinion? (i dont want anything too hoppy, already got a very hoppy ale in the other fermenter)

thanks!

t
:icon_cheers:

I've made this up with 500g LDME, 250g Dextrose and 250g Maltodextrin as well as 12g Hallertau @ 20min and the same dry hopped into primary...couldn't be assed racking this one. After 6 weeks its come out alright, body is a bit thinish, but quite drinkable. I used the stock yeast at around 17-19'C and its come out quite clean. Has decent bitterness and the flavour profile really isn't bad for the money, although its a bit thin and not too complex...but it was the kit yeast with minor mods after all. There is sweet jack all aroma however - dry-hopping in secondary is the way to go with this one.

Personally I'd be adding 1kg LDME or 1.5kf liquid light malt extract as well as at least 10g flavour hops at 20 minutes and at least another 10g hopping dry in secondary. 150g Munich specialty grain wouldn't go too far astray with this one either. I don't think that mix would dissapoint anyone for the money.

Cheers - boingk

EDIT: Forgot to add - this holds quite a decent head; I don't pour mine hard at all or I end up with a 50:50 beer/head mix! Not the closest head around but it'll stay there for a while as well as looking impressive initially.

 

[Parrothead]

hey i know this post was a loooooong time ago, but to try save starting a new thread - im thinking of doing this one, (going on uni hollidays for 7 weeks so will be able to lager it as opposed to the usual drink it in a month strategy ), i have armarillo hops and cascade - are either of these appropriate to add to this kit in your opinion? (i dont want anything too hoppy, already got a very hoppy ale in the other fermenter)

thanks!

t
:icon_cheers:

Well, depends - neither Amarillo nor Cascade are usually found in the type of beer this kit represents [a light European lager]. Cascades and Amarillo are normally found in pale ales for the most part. That said, the beauty of home brewing is that you can do whatever your heart desires! B) If you don't want anything too hoppy, as you said, you could either use a small amount of added hops, or none at all. When I made this kit, I found it pretty bland for my tastes, so the next time I'm going to add some Saaz or Hallertau.

 

[Swordsman]

hey i know this post was a loooooong time ago, but to try save starting a new thread - im thinking of doing this one, (going on uni hollidays for 7 weeks so will be able to lager it as opposed to the usual drink it in a month strategy ), i have armarillo hops and cascade - are either of these appropriate to add to this kit in your opinion? (i dont want anything too hoppy, already got a very hoppy ale in the other fermenter)

thanks!

t
:icon_cheers:

A couple of brews ago i put down a 'dortmunder style' euro lager (not based off a coopers euro can but a tcb wal's lager...) and that was an extract primarily based around hallertaur. However i did sneak a bit of cascade (only 5-10 grams or something) into it early in the boil because i always have tonnes of cascade around (fav hop big pale ale drinker...) and was using it for a bit of bittering and flavour. Cascade is used in lager's (not european ones mind) so it can be done but it is a pretty powerful hop (esp aroma) so you need to be careful if you want to use it with a traditional european noble hop. TO be honest i don't really pick up the cascade in the final beer but worth the effort to test it out.....maybe on the burp back you can get a bit of non-hallertaur flavour so you never know....

THis is all based on my experience so no gurantees but like parrothead says experimenting is half the fun (drinking the other half...).

Oh and i'd have to say watch the ammarillo. I'm a big ammarillo fan but i'd say it would be over the top for a lager of just about any time....i bittered and dry hopped a wacky americanised english bitter with it (wierd i know) and the aroma was crazy...even after a few months in the bottle the passionfruit was off the chart! Can't see that working in a lager IMO....

 

[MT79]

hello all,

well this is my first adventure into home brewing.

ive started out with the coopers euro lager, start safely and perhapd get more adventurous with experience.

anyway i put down 2 brews at the same time.

one brew i ended up with the cling wrap - fish heater - an idea from the blue bible - understanding beer making by grant sampson and tried the other the more traditional style (since abandoned that as need to take lid off to see whats happening).

The first brew with the heater was set too 22degrees, as mentioned on the guide with the can - gave it 13 days and have bottled it.

The second brew not far behind but has been brewing at far cooler temperatures - around the 14-16 degrees.

i do plan on giving these close to the 12 weeks required in the bottle. May try them at 4-6-8-10 weeks just to check up on taste.

good thing is ive got enough bottles for 12 cartons!!


ive heard another idea for euro lager is -

2 cans
both yeasts
21 degrees
low temperature

thoughts on the above?

does anyone else go with the cling wrap?


has anyone done the stella, grolsch, heineken style kits you can get and how good are the results?

thanks

 

[MT79]

i also saw somewhere and not sure if it was here, but a table with a guide to how long fermentation takes at a certain temperature.

has anyone else seen this and used this as a guide

 

[yum beer]

i also saw somewhere and not sure if it was here, but a table with a guide to how long fermentation takes at a certain temperature.

has anyone else seen this and used this as a guide

Eggy dont worry about how long fermentation should take...it takes as long as it takes...check with hydro every couple of days.
Try and keep your temp a bit lower for the euro kit..12-14c if you can..it uses a true lager yeast. 22c will throw some unwanted flavours with that yeast.

In my experience an ale at 18c will ferment in 3-7 days and a lager at 13c will take about 15-21 days. But they will vary depending on
ingredients, yeast viabilty and temp.

Just use a little patience and trust your hydro.

other than that the euro kit with 500gm Dry Malt and 1kg brew enhancer work out quite nice. A small hop addition wont hurt.

 

[bignath]

G'day eggy, welcome to the forum mate.

You need to do a bit of reading to undestand some things to enable you to make significantly better beer.

I've added some highlights on general thoughts to your quoted post below.

hello all,

well this is my first adventure into home brewing.

ive started out with the coopers euro lager, start safely and perhapd get more adventurous with experience.
The coopers euro lager is actually not a safe beer to make at all. It will require very good temp control as it comes packed with a true lager yeast. It will work better at around 12deg or so. The coopers yeasts are fairly hardy though so a little either way will still probably go ok, just telling you this about lager yeasts so that when you move away from kit yeasts into more specific and better quality yeasts, it's important info to know about the temp.

one brew i ended up with the cling wrap - fish heater - an idea from the blue bible - understanding beer making by grant sampson and tried the other the more traditional style (since abandoned that as need to take lid off to see whats happening).
Glad wrap is a great idea for brewing as it allows you to get a much clearer idea of how the fermentation is progressing. There are tonnes of brewers here that use glad wrap - im also one of them. Don't take the lid of your fermenter unless you are racking (transferring) to another vessel, bottling (or kegging). Whilst fermentation will leave a blanket of CO2 on top of your fermenting beer, it still presents a potential risk of infection - however small, it's not something that i'd do because it's simply not necessary to remove the lid - particularly if you use glad wrap.

The first brew with the heater was set too 22degrees, as mentioned on the guide with the can - gave it 13 days and have bottled it.[/color]
The best thing you will do for your brewing if using coopers cans, is forgot all about the destructions on the can and listen to the advice you get from this forum. Don't forget that coopers also make and sell a hell of a lot of commercially market beers. Their best interests is in making you buy it, not making you brew it.[/color]
The second brew not far behind but has been brewing at far cooler temperatures - around the 14-16 degrees.

i do plan on giving these close to the 12 weeks required in the bottle. May try them at 4-6-8-10 weeks just to check up on taste.

good thing is ive got enough bottles for 12 cartons!!


ive heard another idea for euro lager is -

2 cans
both yeasts
21 degrees
low temperature

thoughts on the above?
Yeah, it won't taste good. As per advice above re: temps.

[/color]
does anyone else go with the cling wrap?
Yep, heaps o' people.

has anyone done the stella, grolsch, heineken style kits you can get and how good are the results?

thanks

As i said, do a bit or reading on things like temperature, yeast types, what yeasts come with what cans (as it's quite rare that a "lager" can will contain a true lager yeast.) Most yeast supplied with the coopers tins are a combo yeast with both ale and lager characteristics, but they work better at ale ferment temps.

Also the obvious stuff like sanitation, although i haven't gone into it as it wasn't a part of your question - assuming you know how to keep your stuff "clean".

follow the advice on this forum mate and that kit will make a decent beer.

Cheers

Nath

 

[MT79]

Thanks lads for your input.

I will in future find out here exactly what i need to be doing and not follow the coopers instructions.

Sanitation i have under control.

it sounds as though my second batch which is fermenting around the 14-16 degree mark should be better then the first!

all trial and error, im not expecting fantastic results first up, but am expecting to produce something that can be drunk!

 

[Diggs]

:icon_cheers: Hey guys, I'm pretty new to brewing. Done a few but yet to make one that I am PROUD of. Have just put this one down with some help from LHBS (chilling in espy with ice, managing to keep it up 20).

1 x Coopers Euro Lager
1 x Morgans Brew Enhancer
Saf lager s23 yeast
Hallertau hops - 10 mins steep

Tell you what it's like in about 14 weeks or so

 

[keifer33]

:icon_cheers: Hey guys, I'm pretty new to brewing. Done a few but yet to make one that I am PROUD of. Have just put this one down with some help from LHBS (chilling in espy with ice, managing to keep it up 20).

1 x Coopers Euro Lager
1 x Morgans Brew Enhancer
Saf lager s23 yeast
Hallertau hops - 10 mins steep

Tell you what it's like in about 14 weeks or so

If your using a true lager yeast (as you are) then 20c just aint going to cut it.

Fermentation temperature: Recommended fermentation temperature: 9C – 15C, ideally 12C.

If you can drop it down a bit more it will end up being a much better brew than at 20c. Also for more info on the yeast check out the manufacturers info.

http://www.fermentis.com/fo/pdf/HB/EN/Saflager_S-23_HB.pdf

In the future if you dont have temp control then stick to using Ale yeasts such as US05 and Nottingham to name a few. They work alot better around 18-20c and getting kinda fake lagerish at around 16

 

[Diggs]

Thanks for the advice, for my next batch I will have a fridge and controller so will be able to get down low for the lager yeast, to be honest I just got a bit excited and put this one on.

PS just looking through the yeast info you added Kiefer, do you use that method to pitch?? I have just used the normal, straight into tub method. It's chugging along quite nicely now though.

 

[yum beer]

It will chugg along at 20c, but not nicely,

the yeast is in there making nasty flavours that you will never get rid of.

The coopers Euro makes a nice enough drop but you have gotta be low teens temp wise, 11-14c.
Once you have temp control try just the kit with 1kg LDM or a can of Light extract. 2 months in bottle, yummy.

 

[enuun]

and ventilate your brew area
u gonna have rotten eggs perfume coming at you pretty soon
jus give it time to clear. its normal btw

 

[Diggs]

Using the esky and milk bottles full of frozen water I've been able to keep the temp under 18 most of the time, more like 16.

Problem is I have to go OS on Saturday now and I don't think it will be fermented out by then. I am away for 16 days.

I will have a brew fridge by then, so I could drop the whole thing in the brew fridge for while I am away, or bottle early.

Any help would be appreciated guys.