Coopers sparkling ale

[tarmacsurfer2000]

BTW: how is your IPA you made up?
I have one lined up, so I'd be interested to hear how yours worked out...

Slainte!

Cheers for the reply. The IPA is coming along nicely. It has been in the PB for about 2 weeks now and is starting to clear. I tried a little of it and its dry and hoppy and crisp...good one that worked. Going to leave it till it clears properly and not start drinking it until it has been in at least a month.

Regarding the Sparkling. I was thinking about putting it into 2ltr PET bottles (not enough pint size glass ones and don't want them full of too sweet beer!) and seeing what happens...could be it being in the PB that is the problem???

[Normski]

No worries, I used

The tin (obviously) of Sparkling Ale
1 tin of 1.5kg light LME (Coopers own)
300g of brewing sugar
500g of dried light spraymalt... phew it still sounds a lot!

Cheers

Hi tarmacsurfer
That sounds Ok. I'd reprime it and bottle it and leave it for a few weeks. Actualy maybe you dont need to reprime it.
Im sure it'll be ok. Dont chuck it. Time will sort it out.

[Manx Guy]

Hi,

I'd bottle it so you can leave it to condition and carry on with another brew (if you like dry and crisp dry coopes Pale ale), your PB will be free then in 6 weeks give it a taste and see what you think...

I'm sure I read on here that this kit does take a while to mature and for the flavours to develop...

It might also be worth searching this forum for 'over sweet beer' for suggestions on what to do... If no joy post another thread to that effect and see what you get... give it a few days for a response to filter thru' then if all else fails bottle & forget it for a month or two...

I know you can get 'dry beer enzyme' which can make all the normally unfermentable sugars fermentable... Whether you can add it at this 'late' stage I dont know...

But certainly the last thing I would do is chuck £20 worth of beer as its too sweet... you may have mates who'd love it when its matured and ready...
There are beers out there for every taste and while I like a malty brew (balanced with a bit of hop bitterness) some cant stand 'heavy' malty brew balanced or not

Good luck!

Slainte! (Manx Gaelic for Cheers btw)

[tarmacsurfer2000]

Ok it is in 2 ltr PETS now, and stored away for a few weeks to see what happens! Cheers all for your advice

[tarmacsurfer2000]

Had a reply from Coopers...

"G’day Ben,

No we don’t use artificial sweeteners in any of our beer kits.

1.012 does not indicate a very high level residual extract (malt) and therefore sweetness should not be an issue. Maybe the beer isn’t bitter enough for your taste? I checked bitterness on pre-release sample tests and samples from the history room and they were all in specification.

Both the IPA and Stout have much higher bitterness levels. If you prefer a drier style, maybe try replacing the 500 LDME with dextrose next time?

The other possibility is that your brew contains elevated levels of Diacetyl and/or 2, 3-Pentanedione which have butterscotch and honey aromas and flavours respectively.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Frank."

[yoshimitsu]

Latest update from my attempt with this kit.

Ferment went fine - bottled up and left just over a week for secondary fermentation and now been in the fridge for a couple of weeks to condition. Tried one last night - tastes fine but little head to it and went flat pretty quick. So something went wrong with the secondary, either not enough time/warmth/priming, who knows which?

Not a bad drop though and am happy with my progess with this homebrew lark - hopefully the next (third) will be the best yet - thinkingCoopers pale ale with maybe some simple additions (a step towards extract brewing)

Ta all

Yoshi

[Manx Guy]

Hi Yoshi,

Good to hear your brew tastes good...

Dont be too dissapointed as sometimes it could be that your bottles a re letting some of the CO2 escape.. try a few more to be sure... lol

With the current weather I'd be surprised if it was a lack of warmth that caused secondary to 'fail'...
There are a few 'culprits' :
Poor seal on bottles
Bottle not rised after sanitisation (kills yeast)
not enough yeast in suspension
not enough suagr
poor temprature control (too hot/cold)

On the bright side I love the coopers Pale Ale I made... (it went in a few weeks!)

See the thread 'adapted recipes' Spin has posted an adapted recipe on there using yeast re-cultured from some Bottles of Coopers original ale (AKA PAle Ale)

I'm going to do the same myself (as I did this with the Sparkling) and add some fuggles or styrian goldings hops for a bit of extra 'hopiness'!!

Slainte!