Cooper's reccomend 8g of sugar per litre to be added prior to bottling. Now this is only my third brew but I have only added about 80g in total to my first two brews (following advice from this board) and 184g for 23 litres seems rather a lot. Has anyone done a Cooper's lager and used the full amount of sugar and had successful results or would you advise less to be added. I plan to add the sugar in bulk to the 2nd FV and bottle in glass. Just a bit worried I'll have an exploding bottle problem!
Thanks in advance.
Cooper's Lager
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thatscolder
Re: Cooper's Lager
I've bottled a coopers lager 2 weeks ago, using 500ml and 2l PET bottles. I added 1tsp of sugar to the 500ml bottles and 4 to the 2l bottles.
The bottles were left in the warm for a week and then moved to the fridge in the garage. I tried a couple of bottles last week and was very pleasantly surprised by the taste. My last experience with homebrew lager 10 years ago was not good. (for the record I used beer kit enhancer rather than tate and Lyle which makes a massive difference).
Anyway I digress, to answer your question using the above amount of sugar the lager is highly carbonated. It maintains its head to the bottom of the glass. You do need to pour it very slowly. My point is you could probably get away with less sugar at the priming stage, it just depends how you like your lager.
The bottles were left in the warm for a week and then moved to the fridge in the garage. I tried a couple of bottles last week and was very pleasantly surprised by the taste. My last experience with homebrew lager 10 years ago was not good. (for the record I used beer kit enhancer rather than tate and Lyle which makes a massive difference).
Anyway I digress, to answer your question using the above amount of sugar the lager is highly carbonated. It maintains its head to the bottom of the glass. You do need to pour it very slowly. My point is you could probably get away with less sugar at the priming stage, it just depends how you like your lager.
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mat69
Re: Cooper's Lager
i personally would steer away from adding sugar to every bottle,i always use 115g of sugar boiled and cooled then added to a bottling bucket before bottling,184g seems to high to me and 80g to low..
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sparky Paul
Re: Cooper's Lager
I've done several Coopers lagers, I always add 4 tsp to a 2L PET for lagers only, which wont be far off the 184g figure for 23L.
This gives a good level of carbonation which IMHO is necessary for a lager. At this level of carbonation, bottles wills require several hours refrigeration before opening to prevent sediment snowstorm... by happy coincidence, I like my lagers fridge cold.
FWIW, I prime by adding glucose directly to each bottle using an accurate teaspoon measure and funnel, both sanitised.
This gives a good level of carbonation which IMHO is necessary for a lager. At this level of carbonation, bottles wills require several hours refrigeration before opening to prevent sediment snowstorm... by happy coincidence, I like my lagers fridge cold.
FWIW, I prime by adding glucose directly to each bottle using an accurate teaspoon measure and funnel, both sanitised.
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timothio
Re: Cooper's Lager
I'm planning on bottling my first lager brew today, I'll go with the 4 tsp per 2 ltr PET bottle (I like it nice and fizzy!), would caster sugar be better in any way than normal granultaed sugar? The granules are smaller so I'm guessing it would disolve better, or does it not really matter in the slightest?