Brewing a Coopers

After the first attempt at trying to brew up a lager kit failed quite miserably, I was very reluctant to try another beer kit and quite frankly very scared to try anything other than a kit. Somehow the guy at the LBS convinced me into a  fool proof Coopers Pale Ale kit (and some more gadgets of course 😉 ).

Having even very little experience in brewing helped a lot this time round. Got the temperature at exactly 22deg up to the 23 liter mark making sure to aerate the wort good for the yeast to kick off.

I used the Cooper’s yeast supplied with the kit despite what my LBS guy advised trying to do it by the book this time. I prepped the yeast starter by adding it to 22deg sterilized water and a teaspoon of dextrose and covering it up with foil. After an hour I could see the yeast starting to form some CO2 which was a good sign. Added it to the wort and off she went.

With a SG value of 1042 she cooked up a storm and started bubbling vigorously over the next 3 days. Bubbling became less and less and finally came to a complete stop after 5 days. With no means to check gravity reading (no tap installed on fermenting vessel) other than to open her up, I decided to wait a few more days. Apparently it also helps with the cleaning of the beer as I am not a big fan of adding beer finings. On day 10 it was go time! Took a gravity reading and the FG was at 1010. Perfect! Giving us a abv of 4.5%. Beer looks pretty clear in the test tube so will fenitely not be adding any finings to it.

All Bottled and of course sampled about a liter of it (you can never sample enough). Even the wife commented on the good taste. Quite bitter and still a bit young but all in all a very successful brew!

Next up will be the Duvel (Belgian strong ale) which will bring me one step closer to mashing and one step away from using kits.

– Regardt Kruger