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On the cooper's dvd they say that you need to ferment lager betwwen 21 - 27 degrees, But Trough Lolly say's between 8-10,or it will taste cidery, well i've just brewed mine at 24 degrees .
Could some one tell me what is the prime temp for cooper's lager's????...

Thank you Sean...

Depends on the yeast.
If you use the supplied sachet with the Coopers Lager the it is actually an ale yeast and suits the higher temps, although 18-20 would have been better.

You can get Lager specific yeasts at your HBS that need to be fermented down at 8-10 deg.
Coopers directions are not the best and are designed to "quickly" brew a batch. Read up on the forum for much better instructions and tips.

The Coopers lager kit comes with an ALE yeast which should be fermented @ 18-20.

The quoted 21-27C will give you bad beer.

Proper lager, with lager yeast is generally brewed @ 5-12C.

Ive learnt that brewing at constant temp and brewing it at lower end of the scale always makes for a better tasting beer. Alot of my 1st brews tasted vegimity due to brewing at higher temps. So it might take longer to ferment out but its well worth it

Pale_Ale wrote:The quoted 21-27C will give you bad beer.

With that particular yeast strain anyway. There are yeast strains that benefit from temperatures that high, but they are not suited to lagers.

Lagers are really not a good idea for beginners. Try your hand at an ale and work out a way to keep the temperature at a constant 18C (I use a frozen 2L bottle of water on top of the fermentor with a couple wet towels over the top) with the kit yeast and you should be well on your way

Just to throw a curve ball... if your talking about coopers bavarian lager I am pretty sure I read on this forum that it comes with a lager yeast & having done one it certainly had that "egg" smell that lager yeasts have when brewing...But heh what do I know??Stand corrected if this is not the case! or if you are just talking stock standard lager.

It is much more important to have a stable temperature than to have a particular temperature. While it's true that you will get the cleanest tasting beer from fermenting towards the bottom end of the range for each yeast, if you're frigging around with your temperature control so much that you end up with a fluctuating temperature, then I think it's not worth bothering as you're doing more harm than good.

A beer brewed at a constant 24°C will be better than one brewed between say 16° and 22°.

The reason fluctuating temperatures are bad is that the yeast has to constantly change the enzymes it is producing so as to adapt to the current temperature, and this process produces off flavours.

Higher temperatures are generally considered bad because the yeast produce more esters, phenolics, fusels and diacetyl. Now, these flavours are generally not what you want in most styles of ales, though some of them are very important, especially in wheat beers where the yeast plays a large role in the final flavour profile (banana esters and peppery phenolics). Most of these flavours will reduce over time as the yeast "clean up" after the primary fermentation is complete (i.e. a lot of these compounds are still "food" for the yeast, so once they run out of the easy sugars, they'll move on to the harder stuff), which is why beer tastes better after it's had time to age.

rwh wrote:It is much more important to have a stable temperature than to have a particular temperature. While it's true that you will get the cleanest tasting beer from fermenting towards the bottom end of the range for each yeast, if you're frigging around with your temperature control so much that you end up with a fluctuating temperature, then I think it's not worth bothering as you're doing more harm than good.

A beer brewed at a constant 24°C will be better than one brewed between say 16° and 22°.

The reason fluctuating temperatures are bad is that the yeast has to constantly change the enzymes it is producing so as to adapt to the current temperature, and this process produces off flavours.

Higher temperatures are generally considered bad because the yeast produce more esters, phenolics, fusels and diacetyl. Now, these flavours are generally not what you want in most styles of ales, though some of them are very important, especially in wheat beers where the yeast plays a large role in the final flavour profile (banana esters and peppery phenolics). Most of these flavours will reduce over time as the yeast "clean up" after the primary fermentation is complete (i.e. a lot of these compounds are still "food" for the yeast, so once they run out of the easy sugars, they'll move on to the harder stuff), which is why beer tastes better after it's had time to age.

Nice one

Fermenting Fred wrote:Just to throw a curve ball... if your talking about coopers bavarian lager I am pretty sure I read on this forum that it comes with a lager yeast & having done one it certainly had that "egg" smell that lager yeasts have when brewing...But heh what do I know??Stand corrected if this is not the case! or if you are just talking stock standard lager.

Fred. You are correct. The Bavarian does come with a lager yeast

Fermenting Fred wrote:Just to throw a curve ball... if your talking about coopers bavarian lager I am pretty sure I read on this forum that it comes with a lager yeast & having done one it certainly had that "egg" smell that lager yeasts have when brewing...But heh what do I know??Stand corrected if this is not the case! or if you are just talking stock standard lager.

G'day Fred,
The rotten egg smell is sulphur which will go away over time. Some Lager yeast strains, eg W34/70, give off more sulphur smell than others, eg Wyeast 2000 gives little sulphur, and it's often a sign that you're fermenting the lager at the right temp!