Adapted Kit Recipes.

[verno]

Cheers!

Which other thread? To the best of my knowledge I've been on four threads, this one, one asking about bottling, one re-telling a daft mistake with a broken hydro, and one asking about adding extra sugar to the FV. I dont recall in any not taking advice. In fact, isn't that what a forum is for. As I recall, your response to my question about adding other sugars was that i "may well introduce infection". Other replies followed, I took on board, and the brew has been left well alone.

I think the issue is the amount of standard sugar you are using rather than a malt extract. I think the weight of fermentables is close enough though (at 1kg) That said I have been doing this less than a year so might be wrong.

[pauljmuk]

it was indeed close enough, just had a cheeky early sample. Loads of flavour, loads of body, and a brilliant head that just stayed and stayed.

[Providence]

Hi. I'm new to this forum but have been making various kits for 4 or 5 years.

I couldn't find any reference anywhere on this site to anyone doing one of the Coopers adaptations shown here:

http://www.geocities.com/lesjudith/Cust ... opers.html

I've just done the best bitter recipe and I am very pleased with it. I followed the method on the site except I used 20gms of hop pellets.

Last night my wife, brother and I had a bit of a drink. We started with a pint of Woodfordes Great Eastern that is three months old, then moved on to the Coopers which has had three weeks in the bottle. Both my wife and brother agreed that the Coopers was better. They both agreed it tasted similar to Gales HSB. I thought so too.

I would fully recommend trying this adaptation with two considerations:

1. Our water is quite soft around here and that could have affected the result.

2. I bottled at 1008 and it is on the flat side. This suits us as I poured it fast and it came out like a pub pulled pint. Anyone requiring more fizz should bottle at 1010.

I'm definitely going to do it again but wondered if any experts lurking here could comment on whether the brewing method is sound? Could it be even better by boiling in more than one litre of water? Would keeping the temperature at 60-70 and simmering for 60 minutes help?

[Manx Guy]

Providence

Which adapted Coopers kit recepie did you use?

I'm thinking of trying a hopped Coopers Lager or Draught... I received a good looking receipe from a forum member on here...

Be good to here about alternatives or from someone else with expoerience of sucessfully enhancing a Coopers kit...

Slainte!

Guy

[Providence]

I did the 'Best Bitter' recipe.

I nearly tried the 'Bavarian Lager' recipe because they stopped doing the Bavarian lager kit but found that their Pilsner Brewmaster kit made with 1kg of beer enhancer fulfilled my lager wishes.

[Spin]

I have just opened a bottle of my Coopers Pale Ale and it tastes superb!!!
For this batch I made the batch up to 26L and added a 1.5kg can of Coopers LME.
I also added 300g of LDME and 200g of brewing sugar. I also recultured some yeast form 2 Coopers CPA stubbies.
I left it in the primary fermenter for 7 days and then transferred it to a glass carboy for 2 weeks with 25g of Saaz hops thrown in for the entire 2 weeks as aroma hops (I think POR hops are meant to be better though as they are what Coopers use).
I then bottled it and bulk primed it with what worked out to be about 10g per litre of brewing sugar.
I thought I might get bottle bombs. But didn't
I left the bottles at room temp for 2 weeks and put in the fridge for 2 days before drinking.
The results were brilliant !! I'm so pleased. It tastes nothing like any of the brews I have made before and remarkably similar to the actual Coopers CPA.
It also cleared really quickly. The beer was ready after such a short length of time. I normally leave it in the bottles for 2 months.
Perhaps using the real Coopers yeast made all the difference. And using the can of LME rather than DME.
I'm really glad I have finally found something that is cheap and easy to make but great quality. Goal acheived !!!

[Manx Guy]

Hmmm
I love the coopers Pale Ale!

when you say POR what do you mean?

I'll give this one go soon!

Slainte!

[Nobby Novice]

Hi, is it possible to use half a can, put the other half in a storage (sterilised) jar, add a quantity of honey (not sure how much) and make up say 20 pints in the fv rather than the full 40 pints. So that I can bottle 20 pints of a honey type beer and later experiment with the other half of malt.
Thanks brewers

[simple one]

Yes.... ish!

Once opened it would need to be used within a few days really. And then I would also boil the second half of the tin of wort to make sure it was more sterile. It would only need a bit of bacteria to get in there and the sugars would start to turn nasty.

If you got a two can kit though... you wouldn't have to worry about the split.

[Spin]

Hmmm
I love the coopers Pale Ale!

when you say POR what do you mean?

I'll give this one go soon!

Slainte!

POR is Pride Of Ringwood hops. I don't seem to be able to find them anywhere though. If anyone knows where to get them I'd love to know.

[Manx Guy]

Spin,

This is a supplier in Australia :
http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/default.asp?CID=2

They were recomended to me by another forum user when I was looking for Green Bullet Hops...
I've yet to try their site but apparently they are reputable and ship worldwide.

Be good to hear how you get on...

[Titanium Tone]

Found this on the forum and thought it would be good here.
Report this postReply with quoteCoopers Best Bitter Adapted.
by Providence on Sat Jun 06, 2009 11:40 am

I have just made the Best Bitter recipe from here:

http://www.geocities.com/lesjudith/Cust ... opers.html

Following the method suggested apart from using 20gms of Goldings.

It has produced a good result and I will be making it again in a couple of weeks.

The method suggested is as follows:

1. Mix the cracked grains with about 1 litre of water and bring to the boil.

2. Boil gently for 20 minutes then add the hop pellets and turn the heat off at the same time. Let

the hot mixture stand for about 10 minutes.

3. Pour the hot mixture through a fine strainer into the fermenter. Gently pour some hot water through

the collected grain to rinse all the goodness into the fermenter.

4. Add the other ingredients to the fermenter plus some hot water if necessary and mix thoroughly.

5. Add cold water up to the 23 litre mark and stir well.

6. When the temperature is below 30 deg.C. add the yeast and make your beer the usual way.

I was thinking of adapting the method in the following ways.

Simmering the crystal malt for 1 hour at 60 to 70 degrees in 4 litres of water (the maximum capacity of my pot).

Steeping the 20gms of hops at 70 degrees in 1 litre of water for 15 mins.

Then following the rest of the instructions.

My objective would be to up the hoppiness of the final brew and to improve extraction from the grain.

Should I increase the amount of hops/grain used?

Any comments on this from the experienced would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

[Providence]

There has been some discussion on the technique, so check this thread if you're going to try it.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=23990&p=266868#p266868

[micmacmoc]

My most successful kit bash was a pure mistake. I made up Muntons Connoisseur IPA and accidentally chucked a kilo of beer kit improver in it. Following advice from this site (thanks!) I didn't throw it all away but allowed it to ferment (Jeez whatta foamy looney fermentation!) I bottled it and it was the nicest ale I've had so far. I will be doing it again but this time with some added hops in the fermenter. Now I cannot resist a bit of tinkering, varying the sugars, dry hoppping, mixing kits and generally arsing about in my cellar until the missus tells me to get to bed.
I'm getting a boiler next, she'll never see me!
Thanks all
micmacmoc

[Manx Guy]

Hi,

I'm following this thread as I have a couple of 'experiemnts' in mind....

Micmacmoc... How is the Burton Bridge kit you made?
Their 'Summer Ale' sounds good...

How did it ferment & was there a long conditioning time, did it clear etc...
Many thanks!

Guy