G'day!
Well, the Lager sat in the darkened spare room for 7 days. Which made today... Bottling Day!
Not much to report here, as the process is pretty simple. I sanitized the bottling wand that comes with the kit and then inserted it into the spigot. I have heard a lot of positive things about the Mr Beer bottling wands and was anxious to use the one for my Coopers kit.
*side note*- I do not have a bottling wand for my Mr Beer kit yet as I have to get to the US to pick one up-
So, with the wand inserted, I grabbed my first PET bottle that came with the kit, put two "carbonation drops" in the bottle and then put the wand in the bottle and held the bottom of the bottle against the tip of the wand.
This is where the genius of the wand comes in to play... Once the bottle was full to the top of the neck, I simply let the bottle drop a little bit and the beer stops flowing! AUTOMATIC STOP! I LOVE this bottling wand!
Anyways... half an hour later I had 30 bottles of Coopers Lager filled and capped. Now I just have to wait a minimum of two weeks for it to ferment in the bottles and then we'll see just how well I did.
*Fingers Crossed*
Oh hey... I almost forgot.... I used the hydrometer that came with the Coopers kit and... Original Gravity was 1.055 and Final Gravity was 1.012. So, if my math is correct, the ABV should be 5.7%
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Coopers Brew!
I made a batch of Coopers Lager today. My wife bought me a Coopers kit for my b-day.
I'm a LOT worried.
First, the stove is upstairs in the kitchen. The laundry sink which will fit the Coopers fermenter is in the basement. I did the initial brew process in the kitchen, then carted the fermenter to the basement to fill with cold water.
I think my first mistake at this point was stirring the wort/hot water/sugar before adding the cold water, as it created A LOT of foam. Once I started adding the cold water (from the tap) the foam only expanded! By the time I got it to the 23 litre mark, the foam was overflowing the fermenter, and I had left the lid upstairs.
So.. with the wort and it's foam offspring exposed I ran upstairs to grab the lid, but I forgot the airlock. So I ran upstairs again to get the airlock, but I forgot the yeast. So I ran upstairs again to grab the yeast.
I installed the airlock incorrectly and sealed the lid. Upon noticing I installed the airlock incorrectly I unsealed the lid and correctly installed the airlock and sealed the lid..again, but I forgot to add the yeast. I unsealed the lid, again, sprinkled the yeast on top of the mountain of foam in the fermenter and stirred vigorously, and resealed the lid.
What am I worried about? Oh I don't know.... the multiple exposures to the outside because I'm a moron comes to mind.
What did I learn?
A. Plan brew day better. I need to figure out how to do it all in one place, not two floors.
B. I LOVE my Mr Beer kit a lot better for the simple fact the fermenter will fit in my kitchen sink!
I'm a LOT worried.
First, the stove is upstairs in the kitchen. The laundry sink which will fit the Coopers fermenter is in the basement. I did the initial brew process in the kitchen, then carted the fermenter to the basement to fill with cold water.
I think my first mistake at this point was stirring the wort/hot water/sugar before adding the cold water, as it created A LOT of foam. Once I started adding the cold water (from the tap) the foam only expanded! By the time I got it to the 23 litre mark, the foam was overflowing the fermenter, and I had left the lid upstairs.
So.. with the wort and it's foam offspring exposed I ran upstairs to grab the lid, but I forgot the airlock. So I ran upstairs again to get the airlock, but I forgot the yeast. So I ran upstairs again to grab the yeast.
I installed the airlock incorrectly and sealed the lid. Upon noticing I installed the airlock incorrectly I unsealed the lid and correctly installed the airlock and sealed the lid..again, but I forgot to add the yeast. I unsealed the lid, again, sprinkled the yeast on top of the mountain of foam in the fermenter and stirred vigorously, and resealed the lid.
What am I worried about? Oh I don't know.... the multiple exposures to the outside because I'm a moron comes to mind.
What did I learn?
A. Plan brew day better. I need to figure out how to do it all in one place, not two floors.
B. I LOVE my Mr Beer kit a lot better for the simple fact the fermenter will fit in my kitchen sink!
God I hope I don't get 23 litres of bad beer..
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