Brew 3 - Coopers Pilsener (Juborg)

Seeing as I'm not having so much luck with the Woodfordes Wherry I decide to give another Coopers extract a go. This one is Coopers Pilsener, one of the Thomas Coopers Brewmaster Selection range. I chose this mainly because it uses a real bottom-fermenting lager yeast which doesn't need such a high temperature in the fermenter. This means I can brew it in the garage without having to use the brewbelt.

I shall call this brew "Juborg" in remembrance of the thousands of bottles of Tuborg Gold we drank growing up in Newquay back in the eighties. Everyone used to call it "Steam" which was a bit confusing really as around that time Newquay Steam Lager was released and quite popular I seem to remember. Still, the real "steam" to a local back then was always the little brown bottle of Tuborg Gold.

Here's the brewing notes:

04/09/2008 20:30 Sanitized equipment
04/09/2008 21:45 - OG: 1.034
Air temp 16/17 degrees so no brew belt as this is a true lager yeast.

05/09/2008 21:00ish SG: 1.030
06/09/2008 20:00ish SG: 1.027 - No bubbling still so I screwed the top on a little tighter and it immediately started bubbling every 10 secs!
07/09/2008 20:00ish SG: 1.022
08/09/2008 SG: 1.019
09/09/2008 21:00 SG: 1.015
10/09/2008 21:00 SG: 1.012
11/09/2008 21:00 SG: 1.011
12/09/2008 20:30 SG: 1.009
14/09/2008 SG: 1.008
15/09/2008 - Bottling Day! SG: 1.008 - added 1 teaspoon of dextrose to each bottle.

I love the Coopers kits. They seem to ferment really well and the Coopers fermenter with tap means that I can take a daily SG reading with opening it up and risking infection. Beauty! (as the Aussies might say.)

Brew 2 - Houston, we have a problem

Because this second brew kit says to brew it in the pressure keg supplied (odd I know but I decided to do what it says) I can't take sample everyday for a SG reading as it would lose pressure. I decide to take a sample every few days. Here's my brewing notes:

Specific Gravity (SG) Readings
30/08/2008: 1018
04/09/2008: 1016 - stuck? Still plenty of pressure though.

09/09/2008: 1016 - shook it!
11/09/2008: 1015 - Took off brew belt - still good pressure
12/09/2008: 15 degrees - I put the keg on the floor

I took off 2 litres into a 2 litre PET bottle and added 1 tablespoon of brewing sugar (dextrose).

19/09/08: Pulled a pint from the keg. Very cloudy and yeasty - very bitter aftertaste!

I'm pretty disappointed by now. I decide to add some more malt and re-pitch some more yeast just in case it's stuck. Remember, I'm flying blind here and am clutching at straws. (These are all metaphors, I cannot fly. I do have straws though albeit not at hand.)
21/09/08: Cleaned but did not sanitize my Coopers fermenter although I did a couple of days ago - alcohol already in it so may not matter? (I know, I know, hindsight and all that but sod it.)

Added 1kg of Munton's Beerkit Enhancer to 2 litres hot water.

Poored the beer from keg to fermenter using tap then out of the top. This made it up to the 20 litre mark. Temp of 25 degrees . added brew belt. The SG is now 1.028

Added Young's Ale Yeast.

22/09/08: 1015 and bubbling well!
23/09/08: 1014 and hardly bubbling! Sample really cloudy.
25/09/08: 101227/09/08: 1010 - Time to bottle.

Didn't put into king keg because as there's only 20 litres I though that there would be too much headspace and therefore too much oxygen so I decided to bottle into 11 1.5 litre bottles. Added 2 teaspoons of dextrose. It was still very cloudy.

Strength Calculations
First ferment
1034 - 1015 = 19
Second ferment
1028 - 1010 = 18

Does that mean it's effectively 37 altogther?
If so, ABV = 37 / 7.46 = 4.959 + .5 = 5.459

So, by my (probably very wrong) calculations 5.5% ABV is what I can expect. But will it clear and taste any better? I'll have to wait.

Brew 2 - Woodfordes Wherry

Right. Here we go with brew number two. This time it's a bitter, Woodfordes Wherry, and my mate is helping me as he's interested in what I'm up to.

We sanitize the King Keg pressure barrel, including its float system, with the supplied sterilizing solution. Unfortunately whilst tipping the water away down the toilet* the float system follows it and lands in the loo. Ah. Not too sterile then? I start again with a new bowl of sanitizing solution to clean the float system.

I follow the brewing instructions and add the extract and water in a similar way to the last brew. This time though there's nothing said about adding any sugar. Apparently it's already in the extract which is probably why there's two cans of it supplied.

Once again I add the yeast before I take the gravity reading just as I did with my first brew. Muppet. I quickly take a reading. The Original Gravity (OG) is 1034 which I think is pretty low but what do I know?

The barrel temperature reads 27 degrees. The ambient temperature in the garage is 20. I wrap my brewbelt around the barrel to try and maintain a steady temperature of around 24.

And that's it for brew number two. Fingers crossed.

*Yes, I have a toilet in the garage. Look. I didn't put it there and it's not used for number 1's or 2's anymore anyway. Still, it is pretty weird I agree. Useful though.

Muntons Micro Brewery System

Now I've been bitten by the brewing bug I thought I'd try another kit and this one was an easy decision. You may remember that my first brew was a choice between the lager-based Coopers Micro-Brew Kit and the bitter-based Muntons Micro Brewery System where I eventually chose the former. Now it's time to check out the latter.






I noticed that the homebrew section in my local market house hardware store had one of the Muntons Micro Brewery Systems for sale with an extra tenner off so I handed over my £49.99 and walked out of the store with my second everything-you-need-to-brew-tasty-beer-at-home-in-a-box-job.

Here's a quick run-down on what's in the box:

1 x 5 gallon "top tap" King Keg pressure barrel with dispenser tap

1 x screwtop barrel lid (with pressure release valve)

1 x top float plus tube

2 x tins premium hopped brewers malt extract (Woodforde's Wherry Bitter)

1 x steriliser powder

1 x Co2 bulb

1 x Co2 dispensing unit

Here's a photo of the kit borrowed from Muntons site, complete with blonde woman. Sadly my kit did not include this woman. I intend to complain to Muntons about this. I know my rights.

The full article for the kit's launch can be found here.

Unlike the Coopers offering this kit does not come with any bottles as everything is brewed and dispensed in the pressure barrel so you can just pull a pint ready for drinking straight from the tap.

What I did notice is that the instructions provided (an A4 sheet supplied along with a badly photocopied diagram or two) were no way near as professional and comprehensive as the Coopers kit. It's quite obvious that this kit is "badged" by Muntons by adding the Woodforde's Wherry and that you could probably buy this exact kit around the world supplied with identical components but with a different extract. That said, it certainly has no bearing on the quality of it and it shouldn't have any affect on the beer produced.

Well, hopefully not. I'll soon see.

First Taste!

It's my daughter's birthday so what better excuse to try the new beer out with my friends at the evening's BBQ?

I'm worried because there are no bubbles in the bottle. Have I brewed 30 bottles of lager-flavoured still water? The bottles feel solid so there's pressure but for some reason I expect to see bubbles. There's a little sediment in the bottom of the bottles which, I'm assured, is normal but the beer seems pretty clear.

I open a bottle and realise that I really shouldn't have worried about the carbonation not working as it makes a very satisfying PSSSHHT! sound. I poor the beer slowly into a tall German lager glass and it looks great, quite golden and reasonably clear. And the taste? Well, not as I expected really. I guess I was expecting a pub/shop lager taste (in other words not much!) but it tasted a lot, er, "fuller" if you know what I mean. But it also has a slight taste I can't explain. My friends says it's OK which puts my mind at rest a little. I think it's just a "young" taste. It needs time I reckon.

Relocation Relocation Relocation

Actually, I've just realised that the bedroom has exactly the same temperature as the airing cupboard so I pack up the bottles into a large, sturdy cardboard box (thank you Dell) and store them in the corner of the bedroom for another week.

The Week's SG Readings

Original Gravity (OG)
19/5/2008: 1052 or maybe 1042!

Specific Gravity (SG)
20/5/2008: 1032
21/5/2008: 1020
22/5/2008: 1010
23/5/2008: 1006
24/5/2008: 1006

Final Gravity (FG)
25/5/2008: 1006 - Time to bottle!