FERMENTATION

shedboy71

JUST FINSHED MY FIRST FERMENTATION ON COOPERS EUROPEAN LAGER CAN I STORE MY LAGER IN ANOTHER VESSEL FOR SECOND FERMENTATION WITH ADDING PRIMING SUGAR AND LEAVE TO CLEAR FOR 2 WEEKS THEN TRANSFER TO BOTTLES

HBO_Staff

It's best to transfer straight from the primary vessel into bottles, this is because the lager now needs to be in an airtight container and stay airtight until it is consumed. This way the priming sugar can begin to carbonate the lager and secondary fermentation can take place. The lager will clear on it's own in the bottles. Follow the instructions as usual, but just be aware with the Coopers European it is a slower fermenting brew, it needs to be left in the bottles for at least 12 weeks to properly clear and carbonate. In the early days it can taste not very good, but this will go and become much nicer when kept for longer in the bottles like Coopers say to

shedboy71

CHEERS GREAT HELP THANK YOU

HBO_Staff

no worries, and this way you don't have another container to sterilise and clean! Let us know how you get on....

shedboy71

STARTED TO TRANSFER LAGER AND IT LOOKS VERY DARK CAN YOU TELL ME WHY AS THE COOPERS LAGER I DID BEFORE WAS NOT AS DARK AS THIS ONE

HBO_Staff

It can vary if it was a different lager you did before. This is a slow clearing and conditioning lager so may well not be as light, just try and leave as much sediment behind as possible when syphoning. As long as your hydrometer reading was around where Coopers believe it should be, you are ok to transfer into the bottles

Mikehunt124

I'm fermenting the Cooper's European lager at the minute and after 15 days, its still not ready to bottle. Because the instructions said to check the brew after 6, I've been opening the brew up constantly since then and taking a gravity reading. Have I contaminated my brew? Or since there seems to be very little "bubbling" going on and the gravity readings are roughly the same, should I just bottle it now?