Review: Coopers European Lager Part Two

DJ Spiess — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:14:49 +0000

Background

Four months ago I made a Cooper’s beer kit. The kit is a no-boil beer kit and I tried the European lager. After fermentation, I kegged the beer and bottled a few using the Coopers carbonation drops. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the beer, since I had bad memories of the canned kits I tried in college. I’m glad this kit did not resemble the beer kits from my early days.

I was going to review it as soon as I kegged it, but time kinda got away from me. I’m glad it did.

Looks

The kegged version of the beer was clear, but after 4 months the bottled version of the lager was crystal clear. You could read a paper on the other side of the beer. The extended lager really made this beer shine. It had a slight head, but it quickly dissipated. I think the head should be creamy and long lasting. The color of the beer is a great golden hue. It looks like a great lager which you’d have no problems serving to your friends.

Aroma

When I first kegged/bottled the beer, the lager had a strong sulfur smell. I was warned about the sulfur before the fermentation was complete, so I was expecting the sulfur. In fact it’s common for young lagers to have some sulfur nose. There wasn’t much else to smell. After a month in the keg, the sulfur smell was mostly gone. You could barely detect it, and most people trying the beer could not smell any sulfur.

The bottled version was tasted 4 months after bottling, and there is no sulfur smell at all. Both the bottled and kegged versions had little to no hop or malt aroma. It smells like “beer”, but it doesn’t really have a malt or hop aroma.

Taste

The taste is really crisp and good. There was no alcohol flavor, and the beer was very balanced. There is a slight malt flavor, but it’s as crisp of a lager as you would expect. The malt does not dominate. I thought it tasted good when I kegged earlier, but I was really plesantly surprised by the bottled version. I think it really benefited with the extended lager. I meant to keep the kegged version longer to directly compare it to the bottled version, but it didn’t last long in my neighborhood.

Results

I would not say it was the best lager I’ve had, but I think it compares very well with many commercial examples. If you served this beer, most would be very surprised it was homemade. I’m curious how it would fare in a competition. I know you’d lose points for the head and aroma, but I think it would fare well in the other categories. The beer definitely benefits from an extended lagering. If you plan to try this kit, make sure you have the patience to leave it in a fridge for a few months.

The carbonation drops were impressive too. I thought the beer was perfectly carbonated, and it didn’t leave any residual sweetness. I bottled in a 24 ounce “bomber” and added two drops.
The bottled version was perfectly carbonated, even better than my forced carbonation in the keg.

The ease of this beer kit makes it a good choice for those who want to make beer at home, but do not want to invest in lots of equipment. It also has a good clean flavor, and it makes a solid lager.

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Review: Coopers homebrew kit

DJ Spiess — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:06:45 +0000

The Coopers home brew kit

Coopers is a home brew kit company in Australia, but you can find their kits pretty much anywhere. MakeBeer.Net has all the Coopers kits available online too.

This isn’t a extract brew kit in the traditional sense. This kit includes a hopped malt extract, extra sugar fermentables, carbonation drops and dry yeast. The carbonation drops are cough drop sized candies which you add to each bottle to bottle condition the beer. This makes sure every bottle gets the correct amount of sugar for carbonation. I’ve never used these, so I’m very interested to see how well they work.

Coopers European lager kit - it's a no-boil lager kit that tastes pretty good!

All you need is water, a fermenter, and beer bottles, bottle caps, and a bottle capper. There are a few other things you can use, but the fermenter and bottles are all you really need. The kit does not need to be boiled. It is more like a wine kit where you just rehydrate the extract and add yeast.

The Coopers home brew kits range from $18 to $29, and if you need everything (you’re starting from scratch) they do have a $99 kit which includes the beer kit, bottles, fermenter, instructional DVD and more. It looks like their Microbrewery kit contains everything you need. I have most of the equipment already, so I am just reviewing the Complete European Lager package.

How easy is the Coopers home brew kit?

The kit is pretty easy to put together. If you want to watch the whole process watch the video at the end of the article. You simply mix the ingredients, add it to your fermenter, toss in the yeast and wait 6 days for the fermentation to complete. As I mentioned there is no boiling since the wort is pre-hopped and the starches are already converted. I boiled some of the water to make it easier to mix the ingredients, but the instructions say you can use hot tap water. Their process allows you to focus on the fermentation side of home brewing, without getting bogged down in the boil and cooling. Once everything is mixed up, you add the yeast and move the fermenter to a cool location in your home.

The hydrometer says the gravity was spot on

I think the kit took about 30 minutes to make, but the filming of the process definitely slowed me down (not the kit’s fault). All in all I thought the kit was very easy to make. If you have a friend who wants to try out home brewing, but doesn’t want to get involved with all the equipment, this might be a good place for them to start. Extract brewing is easy, but these kits are even easier since it removes the boiling and hop additions from the home brewing steps.

In a few days I’ll continue with the kit and try out the carbonation drops. After that we’ll taste the kit and see how good it is. Stay tuned!

Inside Fermentarium – Episode 5 from DJ Spiess on Vimeo.

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