Dumped My Coopers Beer Kit

[SwampWater]

I thought I would use a kit to use in my spare carboy. I haven't used a kit in years but followed the instructions with an addition of 1 lb. of DME. I used Nottingham yeast. I decided to use 100% RO water and I think that was a mistake. This was the lamest fermentation I have ever had. Barely a 1/4" of krausen during the 12 days it fermented. It did get down to 1.016. It tasted like a yeast starter with hops. I assume I should of used regular tap water minus the chlorine. If it wasn't the RO water, what went wrong?

 

[Nosybear]

Lesson learned, the yeast needs minerals to grow. Dechlorinated tap water should be fine unless extremely hard. If you're going to use TO water don't forget to add back calcium and make sure your pH drops enough in the mash.

 

[SwampWater]

What mash?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

he was thinking all grain, but ro water doesn't have the correct minerals yeast need by its self, people use it all of the time but they add brewing salts and minerals specific to that type of beer they want, it can be a challenge the first few times so the best thing would be to filter the water with a carbon filter to get rid of all the chlorine and or Campden Tablets to get rid of the taste

 

[The Brew Mentor]

Those cans are 1.8 kg so roughly 4# of hopped extract. If you added 1# of dme and brought the batch up to 5 gallons, you might have reached an OG of 1.035. Attenuated down to 1.016 would give you an ABV of about 2.5% :shock:
I'd say that would be quite weak. I would have added a bit more.
Brian

 

[SwampWater]

I also added a pound of corn sugar. I assume the RO water all by itself was a bad idea.

 

[bilhelm96]

I'd be surprised if RO water had any impact on fermentation. How old were the kit and the yeast? Was your pitch rate high enough? Off flavors could be from old extract or hops.

 

[flars]

I thought I would use a kit to use in my spare carboy. I haven't used a kit in years but followed the instructions with an addition of 1 lb. of DME. I used Nottingham yeast. I decided to use 100% RO water and I think that was a mistake. This was the lamest fermentation I have ever had. Barely a 1/4" of krausen during the 12 days it fermented. It did get down to 1.016. It tasted like a yeast starter with hops. I assume I should of used regular tap water minus the chlorine. If it wasn't the RO water, what went wrong?

Your water had nothing to do with it. You can use distilled water with a kit and have excellent results.
Some questions;
What was your brew?
How many grams was the packet of yeast?
Did you rehydrate the yeast?
What temperature was the wort when you added the yeast?
What was the wort temperature for the first five days of fermentation?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

you can always fix it by adding more fermintables and shaking it up, it would start right back again

 

[SwampWater]

Coopers Beer Kit ( BB 9/14 )
Nottingham rehydrated. ( 11.5 g )
Wort was 68 F.
I kept it @ 68 F for 2 weeks.
I bought a different extract kit and will try again with tap water. This kit was put together by a HB store so everything should be fresh.

 

[Scrumpy]

Most of the brewing problems you have described, can be easily avoided through proper beard growth.

 

[SwampWater]

Just checked my carboy from my second extract kit. Fermentation is strong. Will update in 2 weeks.

 

[chessking]

Most of the brewing problems you have described, can be easily avoided through proper beard growth.

I agree

 

[Nosybear]

Those of us who can't grow beards have to find work arounds.