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Well it came in the box, with the coopers kit so i made it.
1.7kg can Coopers Lager
1kg Dextrose
It was brewed within the suggested temps of about 18-25degrees but had a reasonably cidery taste, kinda cross champagne.
After reading Oliver and Geoffs instructions and tasting samples of all their beers the Coopers Lager which the brewed in the same way with the Coopers yeast they said theirs turned out very well.
If it's what came in the Cooper's Starter Kit, then it wasn't dextrose, but Cooper's Brewing Sugar, which is 250g MaltoDextrin, 750g Sucrose. The Sucrose is probably where the cidery taste comes from.
Never mind the fermentables; plain white sugar works OK, but you blokes are all drinking these HB Lagers far too green. A minimum of 10 weeks in the bottle will settle all these "off" tastes and odours. You just have to own enough bottles made out of real brown glass.
My own preference is to have them green, I like the sharper flavours. The aged stuff I had recently was OK, but it sure tasted better younger
Dogger
"Listening to someone who brews their own beer is like listening to a religous fanatic talk about the day he saw the light" Ross Murray, Montreal Gazette
Dogger, I have to disagree, and agree in part with J D Kipper.
I find that a bit of time in the bottle will help these flavors dissipate.
Ten weeks or three months is, in my view, a good time to start drinking.
As for ingredients, I have found that sucrose (sugar) gives a cidery taste that sometimes doesn't disappear. Next time, try one of the other Cooper's brew enhancers (look at the ingredients and choose one without sucrose. From memory Brew Enhancer No.1 and No.2 don't contain sucrose).
Of you could just go to the homebrew shop and buy 500g dextrose and 500g dried light malt and use that instead of the brew enhancer.
Its hard to not drink em young, its to long to wait!
Yeah your right Oliver, the BE 1, and 2 are glucose with some maltodextrin to improve body. Im suprised that coopers as brewing advocates sell brewing sugar that contains sucrose..
Now ill have to go get some more bottles so i can leave my beers to mature more.
We will have to agree to disagree. I design my beers to be drank young and more than once we have had this discussion.
You can add 20 grams of hops and wait 2 months or add 10 grams and not wait.
The decision is yours, it just makes me smile to see the number of posts in which people are saying its over hopped and the ultimate answer is wait, it will get better.
Make it so its drinkable today because you may not be there to drink it tomorrow.
Just me though, no need to rip my head off once I put this on the board
Dogger
"Listening to someone who brews their own beer is like listening to a religous fanatic talk about the day he saw the light" Ross Murray, Montreal Gazette
Dogger Dan wrote:
The decision is yours, it just makes me smile to see the number of posts in which people are saying its over hopped and the ultimate answer is wait, it will get better.
Make it so its drinkable today because you may not be there to drink it tomorrow.
i agree dd. not to mention the affects of oxidisation (which is quite common with bottled hb's due to the headspace etc) & poor storage etc. that could ruin your brew whilst your waiting for it to become drinkable
