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I've put down a batch of Coopers Bavarian with the following ingredients

1.7 KG CB Kit
950g Light DME
200g glucose
25g Hallertau Hersbrucker
2 x Saflager Yeast

Made up to 21 litres.

Started fermentation at about 20c before hitting sleepyland last night and this morning it was bubbling away nicely so I moved it to the shed which has a temp of about 5c at the moment; this will warm up by another 3 to 5 degrees during the day (as you can guess I'm not in Oz).

Only one thing makes me curious: I didn't boil the hops with the kit - I just boiled them for 15 minutes in a large mug and threw the whole lot in - is there too much hops in the brew for this method? Now, I know some of you may say I can't overhop but I'd still like to hear any thoughts... I also wonder if I should have strained the hops or is it OK to dump them in whole.

At these temps I guess it would be the equivalent of fermenting in the fridge so I'm guessing I'll leave it in primary for a week or so and leave in secondary for as long as it takes.

That sounds like a great brew! It sounds like you have done a good job with the hops. Now I feel like doing one of those myself.

Now that I look at my post I should correct something - I didn't *boil* the hops in the mug; I *soaked* them in boiling water - I'm not sure if that's an important distinction and whether it make any difference...

i always thought there was no need to boil extra hops with beer kit cans as they have already been boiled at the factory?????

Yeah they have, but a steep (the coffee cup method as described above) will add a hop aroma that doesn't survive the concentration and canning process.

Give it a whirl, cost you only a couple of bucks at your HBS.

Cheers,
Greg

I'm also new to this, but from what I know if you add malt, it makes the beer sweeter. So if you want to balance out the sweetness of the malt, then you need to add extra hops. Although you'd boil the hops for a longer period for bitterness, rather than steep as in this case. Hopefully I'm right about this, feel free to correct me.

Sounds right to me Iron sides.

If you boil the hops for a length of time, say 15 minutes or more, you are imparting the bitterness of the hops into the beer.
If you boil the hops for only a minute, or steep them for 5 or 10 minutes, you release the aromas rather than the bitterness.

Just my understanding of how it works.

That's spot on Hashie.

Iron, you don't HAVE to add hops if you use malt. Some people perfer sweet malty-style beers. The sweetness usually disappears after a bit of maturation anyway.

It does depend on how your like your beer. I did mean that malt adds sweetness to the beer, compared to if you used sugar.

Yep... as malt has more un-fermentable sugars, the exact ratio of fermentables to unfermentables depends on the malt and the temperature the company that makes the extracts mashes them at....

bigears wrote:I've put down a batch of Coopers Bavarian with the following ingredients

1.7 KG CB Kit
950g Light DME
200g glucose
25g Hallertau Hersbrucker
2 x Saflager Yeast

Made up to 21 litres.

Started fermentation at about 20c before hitting sleepyland last night and this morning it was bubbling away nicely so I moved it to the shed which has a temp of about 5c at the moment; this will warm up by another 3 to 5 degrees during the day (as you can guess I'm not in Oz).

Only one thing makes me curious: I didn't boil the hops with the kit - I just boiled them for 15 minutes in a large mug and threw the whole lot in - is there too much hops in the brew for this method? Now, I know some of you may say I can't overhop but I'd still like to hear any thoughts... I also wonder if I should have strained the hops or is it OK to dump them in whole.

At these temps I guess it would be the equivalent of fermenting in the fridge so I'm guessing I'll leave it in primary for a week or so and leave in secondary for as long as it takes.

Looks great to me
Cheers Bigears

Can't believe how much a beer can change in a week. I bottled this after cold conditioning for a month. I tried a bottle last week (bottling plus 1 week) and it was undrinkable; rotten stuff. There was very little carbonation, which I expected at that stage. However it was still extremely green and had a horrible aftertaste to the extent that I thought it might have an infection. Last night I tried another bottle and it was transformed. It's now a very tasty beer so I'm looking forward to sampling it again in a few weeks.

I highly recommend this one. The cold conditioning (in the fridge) really helped the yeast drop so very little made it into the bottles. There was evidently plenty left for carbonation though as it's right on the button now. Saflager yeast worked very well and no sediment at all is visible when poured into the glass.

I'll do this one again.

Nice work. Thankfully winter's coming, so it's almost lager season again.