Any advice on International 'Mexican Cerveza' and 'English Bitter'?

[LordEoin]

It's probably a bit too late to ask as I have already ordered the kit and sugars, but does anyone have any advice on brewing these?

- International Mexican Cerveza (+ brew enhancer 2, 1kg)

- International English Bitter (+ spray malt light, 500g)

The sugars were marked as 'Coopers Recommends' so I just stuck with that.

[Guest]

Hey LordEoin in regards to the Cerveza i cant help but the english bitter kit is quite nice. If u check out beer banter my latest and top of list post has ingredients i have ordered hops yeast grain etc the kits i can get locally or drive 50 km for.

Im also thinking of an English Bitter nobody has commented yet post is lost in time [innocent]

Adding hops and specialty grain to your beer will greatly improve it and be alot fresher tasting. Doing the basic recomended coopers recepies will still make a good beer but the suggested ones with extra malt hops and grain are worth a crack. Just dont ever mention your drinking Budwieser on here or youll be labeled as some sort of evil [devil]

If i was you i would make tyour simple recepies just to knock it on the head then order some specialty grains like Crystal malt and hops etc and spice things up a bit. Good luck mate hope works out.

[Guest]

The Extra Smooth Bitter is nice for a basic recipe. Replace the BE2 with 1kg LDM and 300g Dextrose though.

[DavidP30]

I did this with English Bitter

 

English Bitter Kit

1.5kg Coopers LDM

Goldings 24gm @ 15mins

Goldings dry hops 24gm @ day 3 or so

 

Seriously very nice considering the low effort.

 

[LordEoin]

wow, you guys add a lot more sugars than the recommended. I'll have to look into each of your mixes and see what i have knocking about the press.

 

Thanks, i'll let you know how I get on with both

[Hairy]

You can use the English Bitter as a base to make:

 

Ordinary Bitter

Best/Special Bitter

Extra Special Bitter (ESB)

 

I tend to go for the ESB around (or just above) 5% ABV. The Coopers recipe on the can is probably leaning towards the Ordinary or the lower end of the Best Bitter.

 

Below is a link to the BJCP style guidelines for English Bitters for some more info:

 

BJCP - English Bitters

 

Also, if you can, get yourself some English Ale yeast. Windsor or S-04 dry yeast would be good (although not everyone is keen on S-04). If you can't the kit yeast will still make a nice beer.

[Guest]

You can put as much sugars as you like in provided you have a respectable balance and enough yeast to cope.

[Canadian Eh!L]

I'm with BillK and Hairy.[rightful]

 

It's an easy can to play with.

[LordEoin]

Just dont ever mention your drinking Budwieser on here or youll be labeled as some sort of evil

Why would I do something like that? Everybody knows that Bud Light is way better... Probably one of the finest beers in the world. Up there with Dutch Gold and Carling! [innocent]

 

I appreciate all the different ideas, and although I'm not yet comfortable enough to start playing with speciality grains and hops etc at least you all gave me the push I needed to stray a litle away from the 'Coopers Recommends' [happy]

 

So, baby steps, I'm going to leave the Cerveza with 1kg of BE2 (look at me growing up and using abbreviations), but I might add the rinds of 2 limes as I saw in another thread (who also used honey. wise move?)

And for the Bitter, I'm just going to add an extra 300-500g dextrose to bump the alcohol content up a bit.

 

Also, hours of reading through threads later, I stumbled upon the best advice ever. It read something like 'The search bar is on the bottom'...[biggrin]

I completely missed it. The lack of searchbar was driving me nuts. Always the last place you look, right?

That should help me minimize silly question [wink]

Although I do have one really basic question left,that i can't find a sure answer to. The site I buy my stuff from doesnt seem to have Coopers Light Dry Malt, is munton's Light Spray Malt the same thing? (ie are LDM, and DME the same thing?)

 

[Smithy]

I've only used honey in one beer so far, and it's put me off it for a long long time. I used 1kg worth in a wheat beer kit. It was my only fermentable beside the kit can.

 

It turned out way too dry, sweet, and no head retention. After some research, turns out I'd actually made a braggot. But it really wasn't anything to braggot about [roll] [lol]

 

The search function on this site is "ok", but if you want better results, back out to Google, and type in something like "Coopers Talk Brewing Citra", and that should bring up better results than if you were to type "citra" in this search box. Go on, try it, see what results you get [annoyed]

[Hairy]

The site I buy my stuff from doesnt seem to have Coopers Light Dry Malt' date=' is munton's Light Spray Malt the same thing? (ie are LDM, and DME the same thing?)[/quote']

Yep, Spray Malt and Dry Malt are the same thing.

 

Also:

 

LDM = Light Dry Malt

DME = Dry Malt Extract

 

Just a different way of saying the same thing.

[LordEoin]

lol smithy, 'nothing to braggot about'...

I know what you mean about the search, i had the exact opposite when trying to sort out the LMD, DME, LDME, etc thing because they're mentioned so much. Searching 'lime' was the ticket though, that's why I figured it was a good addition. And now I'm sure I won't be using honey [happy]

 

Thanks for clearing it up Hairy, I was googling until I ended up in the weird parts of the internet again, so I figured I'd just swallow my pride and ask. Success!

[DavidP30]

Strongly recommend you go the goldings hops, Lordship, makes all the difference.

[Guest]

I appreciate all the different ideas' date=' and although I'm not yet comfortable enough to start playing with speciality grains and hops etc at least you all gave me the push I needed to stray a litle away from the 'Coopers Recommends' [happy']

It takes no time at all to throw in a few hops to dry hop. Easiest way to start and no skill required and for a far better outcome.

Start at 1g per liter and adjust to suit when you get an idea of tastes.

 

I reckon you should do it sooner rather than. Your taste buds will love you for it [kissing]

[Guest]

The search function on this site is "ok"' date=' but if you want better results, back out to Google, and type in something like "Coopers Talk Brewing Citra", and that should bring up better results than if you were to type "citra" in this search box. Go on, try it, see what results you get [annoyed']

 

To improve the search go to GOOGLE and type something like

site:coopers.com.au citra

where citra is the topic to search

 

[LordEoin]

You lot have convinced me... It seems pretty clear that the English Bitter is a great kit to play with, so hops it is!

 

Fuggles keeps popping up pretty consitently in other EB threads.

I have no idea what any of them taste like and I like the name, so I ordered one of the teabag style thingies of Fuggles and i'm going to up the LDM to 1kg, add 250g dextrose.

I'm going to have to push the bitter back until next week while i wait for the extra malt and fuggles, but no harm, i'll crack on with the cerveza.

 

After reading more on the Mexican Cerveza, I've decided to just stick to the recommended (1kg BE2)because lots of people say it turns out like Corona (which I like) if you don't mess with it.

 

Thanks all, peer pressure has it's uses! [wink]

I'll update later on with gravities and temps etc.

[LordEoin]

They sent me 1kg 'Extra Light Spray malt' instead of 'Light Spray Malt'.

Also, from looking at other threads,i probably should have bought two of the hop teabags (12g each)

I have 500g 'light spray malt' in the press.

 

So I will have to use 500g extra light, 500g light, 250g dextrose, 12g Fuggles.

 

Will this make for a good beer?

[Hairy]

Yeah, it will still work and taste fine.

 

The difference will probably not be that noticeable in the English Bitter anyway.

[HowieH]

I made the Cerveza with BE2 back in December. I had a bottle the other night.Everything is good about it except one thing ( in my opinion ) taste ! I just lacks something, I admit I do prefer drinking stouts but the Cerveza could do with a little hopping up or lime/lemon/coriander? Having said that, my 18 year old son likes it as do his friends. Kids seem to have far more variety ( international beer )available today than I had at the same age, so their taste requirements seem to be quite different.

So its all a matter of taste and to me the Cerveza could do with a bit more than just BE2.

[LordEoin]

Thanks Hairy, roll on friday (brewing day in LordEoin's house.. or castle.. yes castle.. I'm on the interwebs after all and nobody can prove me wrong [biggrin] )

 

Yeah Howie, i was thinking about adding lime rinds but decided against it in the end. A mexican cerveza needs a wedge of fresh lime in the bottle or glass anyway, so I'll worry about it at that stage instead [wink]

And i know what you mean, when underage drinking in the 'Bush Tavern' the choices were pretty much Carling or Dutch Gold. Both of which I still love because I grew up on them, but they are pretty basic. You wouldn't believe the looks I get showing up with a 6pack of either of those these days. People looking down their noses, past their Erdinger, thinking 'why is he drinking that?' @*$k them all and their fancy tastes... [tongue]

[Guest]

I totally agree. However, in the defence of the mighty Cerveza, I believe it was supposed to be slighty toward a Corona style of beer. Most people do add something to it if not only a slice of lime or lemon in the bottle.

[LordEoin]

Indeedy! That's why I decided to add it before drinking instead of during brewing. i wasn't convinced that adding rind would make up for the loss of fresh juice.

[NathanF2]

i have made a few batches of the Cerveza - and so far i am not impressed (maybe i'm doing something wrong!)

 

i'm interested to see how the lime rind works out for you.

[LordEoin]

I decided against it in the end Nathan, going to just add a slice of lime when drinking it.

but check this thread out LINK it kinda has no ending but has some (what seem to be) good tips [happy]

[LordEoin]

Cerveza's bottled

OG 1.038 @24C

7 days @ 22-24 C

FG1.010

Aprox 4.3%

43 X 500ml

Light color, light taste. pretty much what I expected.

trub smells nice and healthy.

cant wait to try it out in a couple of weeks.

 

 

Bitter is mixed

Hopping is easy.[biggrin] Dunno why i was scared of it.

Now to find out what other hops smell/taste like...

Ran into a bit of bother when adding the water. Didn't notice I was adding warm water instead of cold and by the time i was 18-20 l it was sitting at about 45C.

It was hastily thrown into the freezer to cool it down.

Yeast (pre-activated, as someone suggested) pitched at 28C, a bit high, but i really wanted to get things all sealed up and done...

in a couple of hours it'll be back down around the 24ish mark.

28Cshould still be fine, right?

Will it mess things up?

OG 1.040

SWMBO can't stand the smell of it, I like it:)

i'm surprised at how dark it is.

and now for the long wait for the first signs of bubbly life...