Adapted Kit Recipes.

[mrmojorisin]

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.

Really interested in tweaking kits before I branch out into mini-mash/extract/AG, but I have a few questions;

What volume of water was used for the steep/boil as my biggest pot is 5.3l ?
My LHBS doesn't sell the coopers APA kit, would the coopers IPA kit suffice ?
As we are now out of the elderflower season, would dried be any good and how much?

Many thanks

[Geezah]

I steep my hops and grains in 4 litres of water.
If your using dried elderflowers then you will need about 1/2 the weight of fresh.
The Coopers IPA will be ok for this experiment, but i'd adjust the hops slightly as the IPA has more bitterness than the APA, maybe only steep the hops for 20 minutes rather than have them on a boil.

This thread give you a good guide...
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=42443

[mrmojorisin]

cheers geezah,

after further reading on the site and particularly your guide you linked above, as well as needing to get a brew on ASAP, i have decided i will do an IPA with a crystal addition and 50g of amarillo. i will then get the APA ordered (as i need to get a wine kit as well so will bump me over the free postage limit) and do the APA tweak properly.

thanks again

[L_Brown1983]

Hi All,

Although this is my first post I have been brewing kits for a fair while now, but after watching this thread for some time I am now keen to try my first adapted kit.

I am planning on creating a pilsner (something similar to Pills Urquell would be ideal).

Having done a bit of rooting about and research i have come up with the following recipe:-

Ingredients:-
Coopers European Lager Kit
800g Light Dried Malt Extract
300g Brewing Sugar
50g Pale Crushed Crystal Malt
30g Saaz hops.

Method:-
Boil the malt in 2 litre of water for 20 mins.
Add the hops and turn out the heat, leave for 10 mins.
Empty kit contents, malt extract and brewing sugar into the bucket.
Strain hops and grains through a fine strainer into the brewing bucket.
Give it all a good mix, fill bucket to 23 litre.
Check temp is around 20 degrees and add the yeast – stir again and leave it to do its stuff.

What are your thoughts – would you change anything / substitute any ingredients for alternatives etc?

would anyone reccommend dry hopping either the same or a different hop?

It’d be great to get your thoughts / ideas.

Luke.

[houblon]

Just slung on a complete experiment. I had a Coopers Aussie lager can just sat there, but I've got no way of bottling it without going through the hassle of buying a load more equipment (it's on the shopping list though). So I decided to mess with it and do something for the brand new second keg.
To go with the kit, I'd bought a lager flavapack - steeped that for half an hour and that's gone in. TBH, it didn't smell all that lager-y, but the hop pellets did smell nice.
I had two spare bags of 500g dark spraymalt, so one of those has gone in. In addition, I went looking for invert sugar syrup in the supermarket - nothing. The closest they had was a glucose syrup with honey used for making baklava. No dodgy looking preservatives or such like on the label, so 700g of that's gone in too.
Also added a handful of oats for a bit of head retention.

Kit yeast and it'll be at around 25 degrees. Bin bag already put round the bottom in anticipation of the infamous Coopers FV explosion, especially at this temp. Made a bit of a balls-up with adding the water - forgot to account for the boiling water used to kill any nasties lurking on the oats and for the yeast pitch slurry volume, so it's come up to 24 rather than the 23 I was aiming for. Oops. Live and learn.

OG: 1038

Really looking forward to seeing how this comes out!

[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!

After nine days the fermentation is well and truly over. Sitting at 1.014 down from 1.054. Will probably rack off the trub tonight just to kickstart any remaining fermentation and settle out any other junk in there. Maybe bottle this weekend. Can't imagine there would be much more to be gained leaving it if I'm not dry hopping.
Had a taste last night, loving it, strong coffee and chocolate flavours and a good body.

[houblon]

That recipe does sound pretty special. I guess that chocolate malt is really pushing through.

[shin]

That recipe does sound pretty special. I guess that chocolate malt is really pushing through.

More so the roasted barley at this stage which is what I was shooting for. A good, cold day, Rugby League watching beer.

[alxmonkey]

Heres a tweak that came out nice

1/2 can geordie mild
1/2 can geordie scotch export
13g bramling cross
10g fuggles
5g progress

Boil kit hop combo 15min in 3l water
Dissolve in 300g dark dme, 200g medium dme, 300g light dme, 200g brewing sugar

Mix up to 20l and pitch muntons premium gold

Dry hopped it in secondary with 10g goldings and left in there for 4 days (oh, i added 100g of medium malt for some reason but cant remember why)

Bottled once fermentation finished

Abv around 4.5%, malty, nice fruity current nose, slight hoppy finish with fruit. Colour of a light ruby ale.

[Joppo]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to the brewing and thought to do a kit first.

I have the next ingredients:
1,7kg Coopers Lager kit
1kg Light DME
100g Citra
1 US-05

What brewlength should I do to get a nice balanced IPA-like brew? Something like 5,5% or over.
How should I use the hops to get the best out of them? Is 100g too much?
I like Citra's aroma and flavour a lot.

[Paddy Bubbles]

American Amber Ale (for the hop-heads only!)
---------------------------------------------------------------
1.7kg Coopers Australian Pale Ale
250g medium Crystal
1.5kg Coopers amber LME
US-05 yeast
21 litres

Hops
15 mins - 25g Nelson Sauvin, 25g Amarillo (total 50g)
Dry Hop - 30g Simcoe, 25g Centennial, 20g Ahtanum (total 75g)

I adapted a recipe off the Coopers website (for Parity Amber Ale) and added crystal malt and lots more hops. It was intended as a copy of Brewdogs 5am Saint. More background here:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=36195

Highly recommended, but age it for at least 12 weeks to allow the hops and caramel to become smooth.

[Sparkz]

I remember my adapted kit from ages ago, pretty much was a very simple experiment which went right . Ended up being a very very hoppy beer which was very drinkable. (cant remember if i have already put this method in this post, dont think i have though)

1x hambleton bard lager supreme dry kit
1kg bke
30g northern brewer hops
elderflower

boil some hops and sprinkles of elderflower (as much as you want) in a pan (20g maybe), until its bubbling away. pour through a collander, empty liquid into fv, fill pan with water again, and repeat process 3 or 4 times.

add 750g (approx) bke and the dry kit to fv. Do the rest to start kit as usual.

after a week or so boil the other 10g of hops in a pan with some more sprinkles of elderflower and do the above process and empty the liquid into another fv. Transfer your beer to that FV and leave for another week maybe.

do the rest as you usually would.... result = a light, refreshing, clear, extra hoppy beer (I could nearly see through the glass and it was a straw/hint of lime color)

[john_drummer]

triple hopped cascade pale ale:

Coopers Australian Pale ale plus the following:

20g cascade boiled for 15 minutes
20g more cascade steeped when the temperature dropped to 80deg, for another 30 minutes.
Add to the (partially filled) FV & top up to 20litres with cold water
pitch yeast as normal with a coopers kit
after fermentation but before racking, another 20g cascade dry hopped for 2 days, then racked and eventually bottled as normal

turned out like a Wharfebank Brewery Tether Blonde
citrussy with a hint of elderflower. picture to follow

[john_drummer]

only been in the bottle a few weeks so still a little hazy

[Barloch]

...