Time to advance the brews

[dedken]

Mornin' all,

I've decided it's time experiment further with my brews and yesterday purchased a truck load of hops from my not-so-local HBS. I am going to be making two kits for my mate's stag weekend in April. Kit one is a Munton's Gold IPA and kit two is Coopers lager. Other than using DME with my Coopers I have some Saaz and Hallertau. For the IPA I have small amounts of Cascade and goldings (about 30g of each), plus a load of target and fuggles, and some dried elderflower (I was thinking along the lines of a Golden Champion style summer ale). The ale is to be kegged and the lager bottled.

Anyone have any suggested recipes?

[Cheshire-cheese]

Are you intending on boiling with the hops, steeping whilst disolving the kit's contents or dry hopping?

[Manx Guy]

Hi!

I would recommend the following 'adaptation' for the Coopers Lager kit

Get some Saflager S-23 if its not the European lager or Pilsener kit as the other Coopers lagers come with ale yeast.

I made mine with 750/800g Light Dried MAlt extract and 250G sugar.
I made soem 'hop tea' in a clean and sanitised french fress coffee maker using a litre of hot (~80C) water and an ounce of Saaz hops...
Hallertau or similar lager hops would also work well

Pitched the yeast at 20C and then allowed to drop to 15c it took just under 14 days to reach target gravity. I then bulk primed with 200 g of white sugar and bottled it into 48 x 450 ml Swing top (grolsch) bottles

The result almost 2 months later is a crisp hoppy easy drinking lager which rivals most european premium bottled lagers!!


You could use the hop tea method with the IPA kit or you may wish to boil the hops in some malt extract depending on the bitterness of your kit...

Hope this helps
Good luck
SLAINTE!

[dedken]

Are you intending on boiling with the hops, steeping whilst disolving the kit's contents or dry hopping?

I was originally going to boil the hops but I suppose I could dry hop? I'm not sure what would give the best flavour - I guess it's a matter of trial and error?

[dedken]

Hi!

Get some Saflager S-23 if its not the European lager or Pilsener kit as the other Coopers lagers come with ale yeast.

I made mine with 750/800g Light Dried MAlt extract and 250G sugar.
I made soem 'hop tea' in a clean and sanitised french fress coffee maker using a litre of hot (~80C) water and an ounce of Saaz hops...
Hallertau or similar lager hops would also work well

Pitched the yeast at 20C and then allowed to drop to 15c it took just under 14 days to reach target gravity. I then bulk primed with 200 g of white sugar and bottled it into 48 x 450 ml Swing top (grolsch) bottles

The result almost 2 months later is a crisp hoppy easy drinking lager which rivals most european premium bottled lagers!!


You could use the hop tea method with the IPA kit or you may wish to boil the hops in some malt extract depending on the bitterness of your kit...

I like the sound of that. I was just going to get whatever Cooper Lager my local Wilko's has - I think it's the Aussie one - it just says 'Lager' on the tin. I have some spare saflager S-23 anyway, just in case. What exactly is the 'hop tea' method? Presumably this means steeping the hops in pre-boiled water?

[dedken]

Well, I've done it, and this was the method.

15g goldings /45min boil
15g cascade /15min
11 heaped teaspoons elderflower / 15min

Smelled lovely afterwards, I could have drunk it straight! Chucked it in the fv with my wort. OG 1.055. Pitched yeast at 18C. Put blanket round fv. Shitfted to warm place. Put hands together and looked to the ceiling.

Seeing as this brew is for someone else it'll be pretty embarrassing if it fails!

[scottmoss]

Well, I've done it, and this was the method.

15g goldings /45min boil
15g cascade /15min
11 heaped teaspoons elderflower / 15min

Smelled lovely afterwards, I could have drunk it straight! Chucked it in the fv with my wort. OG 1.055. Pitched yeast at 18C. Put blanket round fv. Shitfted to warm place. Put hands together and looked to the ceiling.

Seeing as this brew is for someone else it'll be pretty embarrassing if it fails!

What kit did you use?

[dedken]

What kit did you use?

Muntons' Gold IPA

[escapizm]

I recenlty made a pale ale with 4kg MO and 100g hallertaur. 30g first wort hops then 60g 90mins, then final 10g at 10min to the end. Ive yet to taste it but it is based on very nice commercial ale

[dedken]

I recenlty made a pale ale with 4kg MO and 100g hallertaur. 30g first wort hops then 60g 90mins, then final 10g at 10min to the end. Ive yet to taste it but it is based on very nice commercial ale

...And which ale would that be........?

[escapizm]

see AG#5

[dedken]

Yes, I see. Do you have any of their nice bottles for it?

[escapizm]

I did as I've consumed many many bottles but as they were green I gave them away to turbo brewer on here

[dedken]

I am now wondering what a good FG might be for my hopped Coopers lager. I've read around and the range seems to be 1.004 to 1.009. Mine seems to have settled at 1.011. I've used the Saflager-S23 yeast and the fv has been around 14-15C most of the time for approx 14 days, however when I checked yesterday the beer was registering 12.5C on my spirit thermo - is this too cold for the lager yeast to ferment out fully?

Basically I'm want to know if it has become stuck or reached FG. Should I try to get it moving again or not? If I need to get it going again I don't have any extra lager yeast to chuck in - only ale yeast and some yeast vit.