so shoot me - coopers lager.

[Robbo]

i got given a half dozen cans of coopers lager, and really, they've had me scratching my head, and.. well, other places.

the cans expired in 2005, yeast and all

batch 1: 20lt with new blackrock premium yeast packet. OG 1.042, FG (bottled) at 1.010
my calculations make this 4.19% abv. (1.042-1.01*131) not bad. seems to have done what it do, but left me with the question (below)

batch 2: 20lt with a recycled 24911 from a draught i did a while back. OG 1.040, got down to 1.010 (3.9%) so i added some m0ar sugar, bumping it back up to 1.017 - which i'm not sure is high enough, BUT i'm questioning the hydro (see wine below) so tomorow i might be throwing some more sugar at it.

Question from this: would you expect this yeast to floc at not much over 4%? i've brewed it over 5% in previous batches.
...do i just keep adding sugar day by day..?

wine: i got 30lb of grapes. me being me, i thought they'd do well in the bucket.
grapes by themselves were 1.045, added sugar to bring it up to 1.076, left it 7 days, it's at 1.030,
added more sugar (1lb 10) and it APPEARS to have gone to 1.035. this has me puzzled as that amount of sugar should have bumped it a potential 2%
so i'm wondering if my sugar syrup wont be blended through for a day or so - i guess i'll find out tomorow.

any of you professionals have thoughts on it (asides from don't brew coopers)

[Paul Fraser]

You should have a read of the post that Mike recently posted - Simple things to avoid when kit brewing. There is some good tips to getting the best out if your extract.

[Robbo]

i did read it.
it didn't answer either of my questions.
i'm generally fairly happy with what i get out of cans, but these ones are a) coopers b) old and c) not quite what i were expecting...

[Grant R Baker]

I have a small cocern with adding more sugar later in the fermentation.

Are you running off 500ml of your beer into a pot, boiling this and dissolving the sugar then cooling before adding back to the fermenting beer or just adding un-sterilised sugar to the brew? 

 

As for the Flocculation question: different yeast behave very differently. S04 is highly active and produces are dense yeast cake, WhiteLabs WLP013 is extremely active but the yeast cake is quite loose .. so no real way to tell expect to use them and see (or refer to the manufacturers page),

I think Paul was trying to hint out that you should use a fresh Kit can and not and old one.

[Robbo]

i do comprehend "good brewing practice", it just happens, that's not what i'm doing right now. sugar was added as syrup, ie boiled in 60% by weight water, cooled and chucked in...

[Grant R Baker]

Sorry.. just had to ask.