Improving Coopers Kits?

[Degsie]

Anyone out there got any proven ways of improving coopers ale kits?
Have brewed one of the old ale kits - and must admit it fermented like wildfire and
cleared in no time - but if i'm honest lacks any real flavour. Before anyone asks I added
1kg beer kit enhancer and batch primed the bottles with spraymalt and brown sugar mixture
(plenty of sparkle too). Found it to be an almost perfect brew and cleared and drinkable after
just two weeks. Would like to do it again but I do prefer an ale you can almost chew!
Any magic to get a stronger flavour to me brew as I do like these coopers kits. Have
got a stout fermenting at the mo with 1kg of dark spraymalt and some dark treacle added
(hi hopes for this one)!

[Geezah]

Add a hop tea to the wort when you make up your kit.

I add 40-50 g of hopps in a hessian bag to the empty malt tin and fill it up with water, leave it for 20 minutes then add the tea to the wort (squeeze the bag too get all the flavours out)

[Andris]

add can of liquid malt extract (1.5kg) or 1kg of dry malt extract + 300-500g brewing sugar = strong and full bodied beer. thats how I usually go about Coopers kits.

[Beer O'Clock]

You could also try reducing the brew length.

[worts n ale]

i do a few coopers kits for the mrs as she is a lager drinker and occasionally a pale beer or two ( living in nottingham castle rock harvest pale is favorite )
so i get her the coopers mexican with 1.5 kilo glucose just to get a bit more kick in it then i boil 30 gm of either amarillo or cascade for 50 mins in 5 ltrs of water then add 30gm more of the same hop for 10 mis then i throw the whole lot in the fv top up to 20 ltrs and let her rip, after 3days i syphon off into a clean fv an continue the ferment its usually clearing nicely after a further 5 days or when ready to bottle (1010 1012) rack off into bottling bucket boil 120gm of priming sugar for 15 min in 1 ltr water stir in and bottle, usual routine after 1 week in the warm two weeks in the cold you'll end up with a nice clean sparkling lager with good hoppy taste ideal for converting those lager only drinkers.

[Degsie]

Cheers all,
Am certainly interested in this hopp tea bag idea Geezah! Sorry if it sounds dumb- but do you buy these hessian bags from some where
and I assume they have to be sterilised? Also any starter points for hopps there is quite a few different ones out there!

[Spud395]

If it's body you're looking for you a shorter brewlength 19-20L
Enhanser is a mix of sugar and spraymalt
Sugar will add alcohol but thin out the body, so spraymalt is your best bet.

[mickhew]

I've a couple of Coopers ale kits, and know exactly what you mean, nice, but not a great deal of flavour. I've made them with a KG of spraymalt, and reduced to 20 litres, made a little difference, but not a lot. I'm thinking of doing a Smugglers Ale, as I've heard this tastes a bit like Speckled Hen. I like a good malty flavour, like the Hen or Abbots Old Ale.

[Geezah]

Cheers all,
Am certainly interested in this hopp tea bag idea Geezah! Sorry if it sounds dumb- but do you buy these hessian bags from some where
and I assume they have to be sterilised? Also any starter points for hopps there is quite a few different ones out there!

I bought mine off ebay from this seller.. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Muslin-bags-x10-h ... 3363a514bc


I have made many Coopers kits now and use a variety of malts, sugars and BKE's and found this to be 'MY' perfect recipe

1 tin of Coopers Aussie Pale Ale
600-800g of light DME
500g of Brewing sugar
Hop tea added during making up the kit = 40-50g of hop pellets, stewed in the coopers tin full of boiling water for 20 mins, sqeezed dry and added to the wort.
20-30g of hops added dry after 5-7 days ferment has passed and left in till keg/bottle time.

My last brew (kegged for 2 weeks now) is still struggling to clear, but still tastes very close to a fursty ferret style of ale.

As I have said many times already, get to know a kit as intended, then do it again several times with different malt/sugar combo's, then mess around with hops.
You will soon learn how to persuade the brew to your liking

[Degsie]

Cheers for the advice Geezah! Been to the homebrew shop and got some hops, hop pellets, some muslin bags
and a can of Coopers APA - it's looking like a very happy new year!

[canarytim]

The coopers website has an ashes ale receipe for their apa.from memory its as follows: Simply add 500 light dme to 4 l boiling water then its a 30 min boil of 20 gr hops of your choice (I used challenger) plus 20 gr at flame out.leave for 20 min then transfer to FV. top up to 20 l, add the apa and 300 gr sugar then pitch winsor yeast. dry hop with another 20 gr hops 3 days into primary (cascade in my case). It suggests 'the adventurous' could steep 200 gr of speciality grains in the boiled liquor beforehand, which I did (my first use of crystal malt). It will be drinkable next week, I hope!

[Stomach]

I did a Coopers IPA with 1.5kg of Light Malt Extract and 500g of medum spraymalt. It was very quaffable and was similar to an Old Speckled Hen.

I have just ordered another IPA and may do Geezahs APA recipe and see how that comes out!

Cheers.

[Blue Brew]

Found this a while ago, not tried any of them as yet but should give you some ideas.

http://www.aussiehomebrewing.com/Custom ... opers.html

Cheers

[Paulb]

I havent tried this yet but was told my the local homebrew shop that its good for the coopers draught or mexican lager

instead of the sugar use .5kg of DME and 1 tin of Lyons Golden syrup....

Has anyone tried this?

Just looked at the link above and its there as IRISH ALE with an enchancer rather than dme.

1 can Coopers Draught
1kg Coopers Brew Enhancer
300g Golden Syrup
Note: Fill your fermenter to the 21 litre mark only.

I suppose my next question is should i be using .5kg or 1kg?

Answers on a postcard please......

Paul

[batey1963]

Coopers old dark ale with 1 kg of Demerara sugar. Tastes gorgeous.