Adapted Kit Recipes.

[Ninj]

Sounds good to me - Ive got some saaz here; can't really think of a better kit to try them with

[DJP]

OK, back in Dec 2011 I attempted a Castle Rock Harvest Pale clone.

I used a Coopers Mexican Cerveza kit plus 500g of Hopped Spraymalt and 400g of brewing sugar.

On completion of fermentation, I batch primed with 120g of brewing sugar and then bottled the beer.

I'm drinking one as I write this - it's not quite a Harvest Pale clone but it is a superb lager(ish) brew (not far off draught Carlsberg if memeory serves) and a very decent beer in it's own right.

To get closer to Harvest Pale, I'd suggest either 750g Hopped Spraymalt and 150g Brewing Sugar or simply 1kg of Hopped Spraymalt and no brewing sugar (other than 120g for priming).

Should be pretty much spot-on then.

[duffname1969]

hi, ive brewed kits for the last year and find that some taste more or less the same , just bitter , no other flavour really and no if any aroma, so adding hops as a tea as explained here, these will give the 1.7kg and 3kg kits more flavour?? is it worth the cost of added extra's?? when someone talk about real hoppy is that bitterness or some thing else please explain

thanks

[Geezah]

If you give the hops a long boil (30-90 mins) you extract bitterness.
If you give the hops a short boil (10-15 mins) you extract flavour/aroma.
If you steep the hops you extract aroma/some flavour.

If you have a favourite kit that you have brewed to the instructions, then try a short simmer / steeping of some hops and compare the difference.
You really have to know the kit and what the hops will do by taste to get a feel for achieving what your after in terms of bitterness and flavour.
Then when you start adding different dme/liquid malt extracts and grains you can really change a kit towards a style you like.
Definately worth a trial for the extra few quid cost.

[Shrunken Reaper]

Okay, the last few bits and pieces have arrived for this so I'll throw my hat in the ring here:

Recipe:
1 x Geordie Yorkshire Bitter Kit
1 x Geordie BKE
200g Crystal Malt steeped at (about) 70'C for 30 mins
25g Fuggles boiled for 15 mins & 10g Fuggles steeped for 15 mins
Safale S-04 Yeast (to pitch at about 23'C)

My plan is to leave in the FV for 10-14 days, then possibly adding a secondary Hop Tea when I rack to the PB and also prime with 110g Golden Syrup

I'm making this up as I go along but the idea is to end up with something (relatively) pale and summery but not as hoppy as an IPA, I'm also hoping the additional Crystal Mal will bring along some biscuity flavour, but we'll see - If i can get myself organised I might take some pics as well...

If anyone spots any huge errors please give me a shout

[Geezah]

Should come out like a nice (darker than pale) ale. The Crystal will definately give it a biscuity flavour with a 200g addition.
I just had a bottle of Shepards Neam Up and Under Pale ale, and it was more of a deep red colour, but definately like a pale ale in regards of tase, so i'm guessing your on the right track.

[Shrunken Reaper]

Yeah it came out a bit darker than intended, the tinned extract was quite dark, but the colour isn't important really, it's the taste I'm aiming for, the house smelled of fuggles most of saturday

Got an OG of 1037, so if it gets doen to 1010 then I'll be happy, this should be a nice session ale of about 3.5 - 3.8 by my reckoning

I'm gathering myself to hit out with my first AG in a couple of weeks

[twentyfootwilf]

Nut Brown Ale:
I've just sampled my Nut Brown Ale, made from a Coopers Dark Ale kit pretty much as per their recipe here http://www.coopers.com.au/the-brewers-g ... -brown-ale . I used the Dark Ale Kit and a 1.5kg tin of Coopers amber malt extract rather than the dme (just happened to have one in the cupboard) I went mad and steeped a full 500g of crystal malt for 30 mins at approx 75c and hoped I was not over doing it I used a sachet of Muntons gold yeast and saved the kit yeast just because I bought some muntons gold yeast cheap just out of date and wanted to use it up and fortunately it was still ok. I dry hopped after three days with 30g of Willamette hops. OG 1042 - final gravity 1010.
I am very very pleased with the result after only 1 week in the keg, it tastes just like I remember the old Batemans Nut Brown Ale and Bass Toby Brown I used to drink back in the early 1970s when I was nowt but a lad trying to convince the landlord I was 18
The crystal malt is definitely apparent giving a lovely nutty sweet flavour followed by a well balanced dry bitter finish. There is no real hop aroma from the dry hopping but that doesn't surprise me with all that malt which is apparent on the nose. The beer is a lovely deep dark red as is normal with Coopers dark ale and crystal clear after only 1 week. This should mature into something special. I can recommend this recipe. I'm going to give Coopers SMOTY ale recipe a whirl after this result

[friedaweed]

Just bottled this.
Chocolate Biscuit Boadicea Brown Ale

1 (out of date) Brew Makers Northumberland Brown Ale
500g Dark Candy sugar (Home made)
485g Dark Spray Malt
85g Molasses

200g Biscuit Malt
200g Organic Chocolate malt
100g Chocolate Wheat malt
Steeped in oven at 67c for 45 mins

Boil on for 45mins

22g Boadicea Hops (Last 20 mins of boil)

Bottled 23lts batch primed with 85g DSM

OG 1042 FG 1012

Only time will tell

[Dadstaxi]

Evening All

It seems ages since I last brewed but I was clearing out a cupboard and came across an out of date Wherry Kit and a 1 kg bag of Geordie Beer Enhancer - also out of date but surely worth giving a go.

Rather than run the risk using out of date yeast, I picked up a sachet of Safale S-04. I replaced the Kit yeast with this.

I then made up the brew with the kit plus 500g of the beer enhancer.

Any suggestions as to how this will turn out?

How critical is the use by date on dried yeast?

Many thanks

[nutmeg31415]

Can anyone shed some light on using Coopers Malt Extract Light 1.5kg instead of sugar in beer kits? What impact would this have in the flavour? and is 1.5kg malt extract equal to 1kg sugar? or would I get a slightly stronger beer? I was hoping to add this to a coopers pale, and try and push it up towards 6% by adding 500g of light spraymalt. Is this too much malt, or should I just use brewing sugar to push up the strength?

[Geezah]

1 can of 1.5kg of liquid light malt extract will be eqivalent to 1 kg of dried malt extract (0.5kg of water in the liquid extract)
Malt extract is about 80% fermentable, so you will get a lower %ABV by using this, but it will give the brew more body and it will taste less 'homebrew'
Some people offsett the %ABV loss by adding 300g of sugar into the mix, or some honey.
If you add another 500g of malt, it wont be a bad thing but you might find the brew too malty or sweet, this is generally offset with adding a hop tea to the brew.


Check out my kit adaption guide for a Coopers APA
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=42443

[nutmeg31415]

Thank you. Ive found some beer calculators online, and I'm trying to use these to work out my kit adaption, but they tend to be for extract or AG brews. Therefore when putting together the ingredients to calculate the ABV, there arent any options for the beer kit cans. Can I just assume these are amber malt extract? I'm imagining that the potential abv from a kit can must be about the same as this?

[WestyTwaalf]

Have you tried this site: http://hopville.com/

I see coopers malt extract on the list of fermentables.

[barry44]

triple hopped cascade pale ale:

Coopers Australian Pale ale plus the following:

20g cascade boiled for 15 minutes
20g more cascade steeped when the temperature dropped to 80deg, for another 30 minutes.
Add to the (partially filled) FV & top up to 20litres with cold water
pitch yeast as normal with a coopers kit
after fermentation but before racking, another 20g cascade dry hopped for 2 days, then racked and eventually bottled as normal

turned out like a Wharfebank Brewery Tether Blonde
citrussy with a hint of elderflower. picture to follow

John, how much water did you do the boil with? What fermentables did you use?

Cheers,

Barry