Adapted Kit Recipes.

[canarytim]

I use the fantastic kit and extract beer designer spread sheet available here:

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/i ... opic=29655

I used it for my current brew: a Light Wheat Bock (Maibock) comprising:
one 1.7 tin out-of-date Black Rock Blonde Pilsner;
one 1.5 tin of out-of-date Brupaks Wheat LME (£8 for both tins)
500 g carahell steeped for 30 min;
kit yeast (reconstituted, just in case it was duff);
1 kg dex
no hops as it's meant to be a malty brew.

OG 1063, down to 1015 in 6 days.

[pongobilly]

I really want to have a go at an adapted kit recipe but don't fully understand the process, I understand mashing and steeping, but what I don't get is when you doing the mash and steep does everything go in the same pan but at different times ???????

[ND Clear]

Hello Pongobilly

I have just adapted my first kit a Woodfordes Admiral's Reserve. I was trying to make it more like an IPA. I used Graham Wheeler's guidance from Home Brewing the CAMRA guide. His basic non adapted instructions are:

1. Stand the beer kit in hot water for a few minutes to soften the contents.
2. Pour the malt extract into a large pan with two to three times as much water.
3. Rinse the last drops out of the can with hot water.
4. Gradually bring to the boil stirring continuously until the malt extract has dissolved. A gentle simmer is all that is required.

If adding dry ingredients:

5. Adding grains, add to saucepan and simmer gently for fifteen minutes and then strain with sieve on transfer to FV.
6. Hops, add about 15g and simmer for a few minutes with the above contents. Then turn off heat and leave to stand for 15-30 minutes and then strain as per 5.

This was my first attempt:

I cultured the yeast from a bottle of Fullers Bengal Lancer. Made the culture last Saturday. It started to bubble through the airlock on Wednesday and was going well by Thursday night. So it was time to get the brew on. Started at 2100 much to my wife's displeasure. Luckily she went to bed so I could open the kitchen door and windows, to vent the kitchen.

I had wanted to add Golden Syrup but didn't have any to hand. So I did the following.

Not having a big sieve, I brought the kit to a gentle simmer and added 500g of crystal malt to the pan in a muslin bag. As this was simmering I added 200g of golden granulated sugar. ( No Invert sugar/ golden syrup available) I also added 30g of East Kent Goldings to one of the empty tins and made a hop tea. Which infused for 30 minutes.
I gently simmered for 15 minutes with a gentle stir. Five minutes before the end I added 15 g of Goldings to the muslin bag. I then turned off the heat and let it stand for 15 minutes. I removed the muslin bag and let it drain into the pan. I then strained the hop tea into the FV. I then added the kit/wort to the FV and topped up to 20 litres.

My observations are:

The unadulterated kit is supposed to come out at 4.5%. The OG of mine was around 1044. I am not sure wether the use of the muslin bag means that some of the wort is absorbed by the malt, with the result of some loss of liquid.

Don't leave the pan unattended, I left it for a second and caught it just before it boiled over!! Good job the wife was in bed!!

Compared to the other kits I have done, it smell superb with a good hoppy aroma. A quick taste of the wort and it tastes even hoppier than a Brew Dog IPA. I haven't got a set of electric scales, so I may have gone a bit over the top with the hops.

The Fullers Yeast had got going by Friday evening. It is currently down to around 1025 on the hydrometer. So it seems to be a quick worker. This is my first attempt altering a kit. I plan to condition for three weeks in a keg and then bottle. Hopefully it will be ok.

Cheers,

ND

[Beer O'Clock]

Here is one worth trying;

Cascadian Draught.

20 litre length
1 X Cooper's Draught Kit
1Kg BKE
20g Cascade Hop Tea (steeped for 30min)
20g Cascade Dry Hopped in primary at pitching.
Ferment at 18deg C.

After 10 days primary, bottled the 14 days @ 20deg, then 10 days @ 12deg, it is a spicey, citrus, flavour bomb.

This will improve with age but I suspect my plan of saving it for the summer is destined to fail.

[jimp2003]

Nice one Beer o'clock - gotta love the coopers kits for adapting and your recipe sounds right up my alley!

Printed it off so I don't forget it but it might have to wait a while as I plan my first BIAB brew this coming weekend.

Jim

[Beer O'Clock]

This was my last kit before going BIAB, so I understand.

[niallac]

Black Sheep Bitter Clone

Alright,

Just thought I'd share this recipe with you, as it turned out very nicely. I was expecting something akin to a commercial IPA or pale ale, but it's a lot darker, and the final flavour is very similar to Black Sheep bitter, which is a good result as far as I'm concerned!

1 x can Thomas Coopers Selection IPA Kit (1.7kg)
1kg light DME
100g light brown sugar
12g Fuggles
33g East Kent Goldings
75g Brewing sugar (to prime)

Stand 23L water overnight to get rid of chlorine etc.
Empty can contents into FV. Rinse can with 2 x kettles of boiled water (see above) and add to big stockpot.
Bring to boil, add fuggles, boil for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile rehydrate the kit yeast in about half a pint of boiled water, cooled to 25-30C.
Remove heat, add 12g EKG, steep for 20m.
Strain hop liquor into the FV.
Add the brown sugar, the DME, and half of the water.
Dissolve everything, then top up to 23L with remaining water.
Check that the FV temperature is under 30C and not too different to the yeast mixture, then pitch the yeast.
Ferment at about 22C, should take around 4-5 days to reach an FG of 1.010 (from an OG of about 1.038).
After another couple of days, siphon to secondary FV with 14g EKG and a tablespoon of brewing sugar.
After ten days, prime with 75g brewing sugar, stir settled yeast back in, and bottle.

Note: This should be ready to drink at about 2 weeks in the bottle, and at its best after about 4 weeks. My primary fermentation started on the high side, at about 23.5C, and resulted in a huge mess in my brewing cabinet...

[Paddy Bubbles]

Here's one I did earlier. I call it Preston Bitter. Currently working my way through it at an alarming rate. It makes a very balanced and refreshing bitter with some welcome malt and grain complexity from the crystal and hop additions.

Coopers English Bitter 1.7kg
500g light spraymalt
250g medium crystal malt
25g Fuggles/EKG (at 15 mins)
25g Fuggles/EKG (at 5 mins)
Kit Yeast
Brew to 21 litres

Steep the crystal malt in a muslin bag at 80C for 30 mins. Remove muslin bag, add spramalt and dissolve, bring to boil and add first addition of hops. Boil for 15 mins adding another 25g hops at 5 mins. Strain and add to FV along with English Bitter kit and spraymalt. Brew as normal.

This is ready to glug 4 weeks after bottling. Must try this with S-04 at some stage to see if it gets even better. The Coopers kit is hopped with EKG apparently so you could replace the Fuggles with EKG but you'd end up with a more "floral" beer.

Try it!

[canarytim]

Here's one I did earlier. I call it Preston Bitter. Currently working my way through it at an alarming rate. It makes a very balanced and refreshing bitter with some welcome malt and grain complexity from the crystal and hop additions.

Coopers English Bitter 1.7kg
500g light spraymalt
250g medium crystal malt
25g Fuggles pellets (at 15 mins)
25g Fuggles pellets (at 5 mins)
Kit Yeast
Brew to 21 litres

Steep the crystal malt in a muslin bag at 80C for 30 mins. Remove muslin bag, bring to boil and add first addition of hops. Boil for 15 mins adding another 25g hops at 5 mins. Strain and add to FV along with English Bitter kit and spraymalt. Brew as normal.

This is ready to glug 4 weeks after bottling. Must try this with S-04 at some stage to see if it gets even better. The Coopers kit is hopped with EKG apparently so you could replace the Fuggles with EKG but you'd end up with a more "floral" beer.

Try it!

Sounds like a good recipe. Just one thought. Shouldn't the LME be added to the boil (in order for the hops to do their thing) or is that just for bittering hops? In this case the hops are only for aroma so maybe you don't need the LME in the boil.

OT I have say your American Amber Ale sounds fantastic. 5 different dry hops! Let us know how it goes down.

[Barnsley_Brewer]

Thought I would try some mucking about so have done the following...

1 x Can Harvest Pilsner
1 x Jar Malt Extract from H&B
1 x Jar Golden Syrup from Asda
Apx 200 grams Brewing Sugar

Used the yeast from the kit

Started tyesterday at 1041...will see what it's like in a week or so...

It's destined for one of my new cornies, so am hoping will be all done and carbonated for 25th as have a party on !..

I also did a Brewmaster Victorian Bitter last month with a Kilo bag of BKE and that's now in bottles, I have to say that it's really nice !!
Dark & Malty with a nice bitterness to it..

Off down to another members place next week to do an AG Timothy Taylor Landlord recipe which is apparently a great brew !

[Paddy Bubbles]

Sounds like a good recipe. Just one thought. Shouldn't the LME be added to the boil (in order for the hops to do their thing) or is that just for bittering hops? In this case the hops are only for aroma so maybe you don't need the LME in the boil.

OT I have say your American Amber Ale sounds fantastic. 5 different dry hops! Let us know how it goes down.

Well spotted! Original post amended.

The Amber Ale is coming along nicely. Waiting for the damn yeast to drop!! US-05, grrr!

[g1tpo]

I've just 'adapted' my first kit. Basically I've been very happy with the Woodfordes kits I've done so far - Wherry, Grt Eastern, Admirals, and Headcracker...however, other than Headcracker, they've all ended up being about 3.8% - 4%.... If they reached the advertised strengths - say 4.5% they'd be perfect (for me)....hence I decided to simply add more sugar...for convenience I added 1kg of ordinary granulated sugar to a Wherry kit.

This has been interesting..... OG was 1056...which is really far more than I wanted - I normally get 1040 - 1042. Even more interesting was the fermentation. I used a starter made of a small amount of the hot wort, cooled to 70 F, with safeale yeast ...this was very active after only a few minutes...say half an hour at most. Pitched this to the main wort, and there were signs of fermentation within an hour. Next day the brew looked as if it was just starting or just finishing!......I checked the gravity and it was down to 1016...not far off a normal Wherry's finish. I rested the brew in a wine fermenter, under airlock for a few days, rechecked the gravity...now down to 1010. Don't think I've ever had a Woodfordes kit ferment that low.

I'm waiting for it to clear before I bottle it...hope it tastes OK...smells nice..... It'll not be a "session beer" at 6%.......

Lesson learned (assuming it tastes OK) is in future just add 1/2 a kilo to a 3 kilo kit

[Geezah]

Just thought I would add this to the archive before it dissapears to the bottom of the barrel.

Geezah's WaggleDance clone

[Geezah]

I have just made up an Elderwych clone to something like this.....

150g crystal malt steeped at 65c for 30 minutes
added 100g of extra light DME
added 20g EKG, 20g Fuggles & 26g of fresh elderflowers @ 20 minutes
@30 minutes removed grains and flame out - left hop/elder bag in for another 10 mins
removed hops/flowers and got wort to boiling point and added 370g of honey and flame out again
Made up a Coopers APA kit with the other 900g of dme and the crystal wort to 20 litres
I used the remaining 80g of honey for priming.

Aurora hops added dry on day 4 and removed when kegged on day 13.

Used the coopers yeast.

A truely excellent pint.

[shin]

A bit of an experimental Porter adaption I'm trying this weekend:

Coopers Dark Ale Kit
1.5kg Dark Malt Extract
200gms Roasted Barley
100gms Chocolate Malt
100gms Crystal Malt
500gms Golden Syrup
50gms Cascade Hops
US-56 Yeast

Bring 6L of water to the boil, then bring back to 75deg.
Steeped grains for 45 minutes @ 69deg then remove, squeeze excess.
Add 30 grams Cascade and bring to boil for 10 mins.
Remove hops, squeeze excess then add Golden Syrup, dissolve with boil then kill flame.
Add 20 grams Cascade after flame out and leave for 15 mins, then remove.
Chill in sink then add to fermenter with extract and Dark Ale kit, top up to 23L, cool to 22 deg then aerate and pitch re hydrated US56 yeast.
Ferment till activity slows (4-5 days), rack to carboy to condition for three weeks before bottling and leaving for at least another month.

Will report back!