# Coopers + hops recipe?



## Micko71 (30/3/15)

Hey guys. In an effort to minimise costs I'm looking for a coopers lme plus hops recipe that will give a good tasty beer. Has anyone got any tips on what goes with what ? Coopers @ $12 delivered plus hops sounds like a cheap option. 

Cheers guys. Anything appreciated. 

Micko.


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## paulyman (30/3/15)

From all accounts the Hop Hog clone is awesome:

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/78207-hop-hog-extract-recipe/

or you could try the James Squire Hop Thief clone myself and Natsta plus a few others tried out:

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/81970-james-squire-hop-thief-6-extract/

Ignore the first few posts, unless you want to learn how not to brew it!


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## Micko71 (30/3/15)

Haha. Thanks.


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## Micko71 (30/3/15)

Oh. Sorry. This is how newbie I am. I meant using a can of coopers (anything ) and a dry hop. Any recipes that are half decent. ? Cheers.


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## Matplat (30/3/15)

Im about to do a coopers blushing blonde plus citra but wont be able to report back for a few weeks


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## GNU (31/3/15)

Check the coopers website for recipes. I really enjoyed the fruit salad ale. Also buy your hops in bulk from hop dealz. I grab 4x 250g bags and split with a mate. Grab liquid malt and cans from coopers direct when they have a free shipping deal


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## Micko71 (31/3/15)

Thanks wilderbeast I mean gnu. Lol. Checking website now. Cheers micko.


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## TehCrucible (3/4/15)

GNU said:


> Check the coopers website for recipes. I really enjoyed the fruit salad ale.



This. I've brewed a few of the recipes from the Coopers site now and they've all been pretty tasty when made properly.


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## N3MIS15 (3/4/15)

Simple pale ale recipe that tastes great IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7iqgerF748


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## Micko71 (4/4/15)

Thanks n3mi. Will try that next brew. Great vid.


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## malliemcg (6/4/15)

I've made a couple of beers based on the Hop Slam (UK) and the Fruit Salad Ale recipes from their website. I modified the FSA a little bit:

For the FSA I used the following:

1x 1.7kg Coopers Australian Pale Ale Can
1x 1.5kg Extra Pale Malt Extract Can
150gm Simpsons Medium Crystal Malt
20gm Amarillo Hops
20gm Citra Hops
20gm Cascade Hops
Danstar BRY-97 American West Coast Yeast

I boiled the hops for 10 minutes, let it chill to approx 73-74C threw in the grain and let it steep for 20m.

Then I dry hopped 3-4 days before bottling with with 6g Amarillo, 12g Citra and 6g Cascade hops. It was very tasty.

The Hop Slam is just settling down, I didn't follow the recipe, I split the hops 50/50 and steeped one set with some crystal malt then kept the remainder for a dry hop. It was very very resinous for the first few months, is 4 months in now and very drinkable, it also tastes (to my palate) better if a little of the yeast from the bottle ends up in the glass than a perfect clear decanting (the FSA is the reverse).


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## Micko71 (6/4/15)

Interesting stuff ! I'm starting to get an idea from all the input. Thanks everyone. I picked up a couple cans of coopers lager while I was in Coles the other day. $10 ea ! Should I do a toucan or try malt / hopping them ? And any ideas as to which hops would suit ? 

Hope everyone had a great Easter. 5 kegs got a good workout here lol. Even made a keg of premix Smirnoff for the ladies. Haha.


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## GNU (6/4/15)

You can follow most recipes using pale ale, lager, blonde and real ale kit cans by switching the kit can out for one of your lagers if you're going to be playing with hops via a boil or steep. Whilst the kit can does have flavors, think of it more as your bittering addition with malt for the beer. 

The recipe posted above looks nice, but after steeping grain, always bring the liquid to the boil after removing the grain as to sterilize it. Grain should never be boiled, as it will release unwanted flavors. 

There are two choices with steeping grain or crystal. 
1. Put 3L of water in a pot with the grain in the fridge for 24hrs before use. Remove from fridge, remove grain and boil. 
2. Put 3L of water in a pot at 67degrees and add grain. Temp easily achieved by adding 2 parts boiling water to 1 part cold in tap water. Remove grain after 30mins and boil. 

For both methods it's easiest to have the grain in a bag of sorts so it can easily be removed. Your local might have some grain bags or hop socks. Otherwise stitch up some chux cleaning clothes.


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## Micko71 (6/4/15)

Thanks gnu. Great info !


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## BrosysBrews (6/4/15)

If you want to buy small qty of hops at good prices to try them out cheeky peak is good as you buy per gram.


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## maaark (9/4/15)

Hey Micko,

One of the best kit & dry hop recipes I made when I first started brewing was the Coopers Parity Amber Ale http://www.coopers.com.au/#/diy-beer/beer-recipes/ale/detail/parity-amber-ale-1/

I don't think you'll have much of an issue using a lager tin instead of the traditional draught and for the yeast a sachet of US05 would do the job nicely.


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## Micko71 (24/4/15)

Help! So I've done 3 brews. All had hops added. I did this by boiling the jug, poured water into a pot. Put 15g Amarillo in for 14 mins then another 15 g for 1 minute then strained liquid into another pot, brought to the boil for a couple minutes then poured into fermenter before making a normal kit brew. I also used lme x 1.5 kg and no Dex or anything with a coopers lager can. Then used muntons yeast I had leftover from some kits. Kegged it. TASTES BLOODY HORRIBLE. ALL 3 !! Wth have I done wrong. ? 

1 was Amarillo 
1 was saaz 
1 was both.


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## GNU (24/4/15)

Micko71 said:


> Help! So I've done 3 brews. All had hops added. I did this by boiling the jug, poured water into a pot. Put 15g Amarillo in for 14 mins then another 15 g for 1 minute then strained liquid into another pot, brought to the boil for a couple minutes then poured into fermenter before making a normal kit brew. I also used lme x 1.5 kg and no Dex or anything with a coopers lager can. Then used muntons yeast I had leftover from some kits. Kegged it. TASTES BLOODY HORRIBLE. ALL 3 !! Wth have I done wrong. ?
> 
> 1 was Amarillo
> 1 was saaz
> 1 was both.


What temperature did you ferment at? 

How long has it been in the keg for?

Also, what type of kit was the yeast from?


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## Micko71 (24/4/15)

The yeast was from muntons pils. Temps have been low except for 2 warmish days 25 or so. But most 21 or less. 1 been in keg for week n a half 2 only 3 days. 

But I had my last 3 were drinkable next day from force carb. Maybe it's just the coopers cans ??


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## Micko71 (24/4/15)

Um. Ok. Think I've got it. When I first started brewing again I watched a video on YouTube and some guy had his can in a pot on the stove actually boiling with his CanOpener in it so it was sterilised at the same time. I figured that makes sense so I did that with those three could I have boiled out more bitterness before I even opened the can ? Also I had been taking Sample's to read gravity and didn't take the bubbly out and noticed some water was running back into the Fermenter. I guess that probably put some bacteria in there too?


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## shacked (24/4/15)

Micko, when you did your hop boil did you just use water or did you add some malt extract to your water?

If you boil in water, you can extract some harsh flavors from your hops. Best if you do the boil at a gravity of around 1.040 which is roughly 1L of water per 100g of dry malt extract. Doing a 5L boil is a good starting point.

Also, as an aside, boiling the kit is also not a good idea.


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## Micko71 (24/4/15)

Ok. Yep I think 'harsh' is def the word for it. Lol. 

It might be easier to just use a dry hop teabag in my case. I just want it to be simple but tasty. Maybe Amarillo all the way. Thanks so much for the info.


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## GNU (25/4/15)

Next top try a hop tea. Boil 3 litres of water and add your hops to the water, cover and leave to stand for 30mins. Then strain into your fermenter. 

With getting your gravity up for a boil, add 100g of dry malt for every litre.


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## Micko71 (25/4/15)

Will do. Thanks mate.


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## menoetes (25/4/15)

GNU said:


> Next top try a hop tea. Boil 3 litres of water and add your hops to the water, cover and leave to stand for 30mins. Then strain into your fermenter.


I'm not sure you need a whole 30min boil for the hops when you are using a pre-bittered kit. Remember, the longer you boil (or soak the hops in extremely hot water) the more bitterness you are adding. Adding 15g of amarillo (for instance) that has been boiled for 30min could add +10 IBUs to your already bittered beer, making it _extra_ bitter. 

A safe rule of thumb is 15 - 20min in boiling water are all you really need to get flavour out of hops 0 - 5min for aroma.

+1 to what shacked said about using a little malt and trying a 5lt boil. It's a little more effort but the difference is pretty startling.

One of my favourite coopers recipes is their Cheeky Cherub and it comes with full instructions on how to do the 5 litre boil and use the hops with _unhopped _malt. Its a golden ale that (to me) tastes something like a cross between a fat yak and a little creatures pale.

Best of luck my brew brother.

- Meno


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## GNU (25/4/15)

menoetes said:


> I'm not sure you need a whole 30min boil for the hops when you are using a pre-bittered kit. Remember, the longer you boil (or soak the hops in extremely hot water) the more bitterness you are adding. Adding 15g of amarillo that has been boiled for 30min could add +10 IBUs to your already bittered beer, making it _extra_ bitter.
> 
> A safe rule of thumb is 15 - 20min in boiling water are all you really need to get flavour out of hops 0 - 5min for aroma.
> 
> ...


I think you misread what I wrote. I wasn't suggesting boiling the hops for 30min, but to steep them in water that had been boiled for 30min. First did this when doing coopers fruit salad ale. 

I tend to do 15min boils now with a kit can or a full extract boil. But the hop tea gets done when I'm in a rush


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## Micko71 (25/4/15)

Awesome info guys. I get it. Also I'm adding 500m to 1 l of lme to my brews ATM. so if I just boil 3 l water. Turn off the heat, add 500 ml lme mix er up and steep hops for 20 odd mins, add my aroma for 2 or so then strain all Into fermenter , I should be close to the mark ? 

Also, take my bubbly out before drawing for gravity test ! 

Cheers micko.


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## menoetes (25/4/15)

GNU said:


> I think you misread what I wrote. I wasn't suggesting boiling the hops for 30min, but to steep them in water that had been boiled for 30min. First did this when doing coopers fruit salad ale.
> 
> I tend to do 15min boils now with a kit can or a full extract boil. But the hop tea gets done when I'm in a rush


Fair enuf...

Micko, we seem to be causing some confusion between steeping and boiling here. Personally I boil hops and steep grains but I won't say you can't steep both. Here's a simple method you can follow that's pretty fool proof though.

If you have 500g of light dry malt, dissolve that in 5lts of hot water (100g of dry malt per litre will give you the SG of 1.040 that you want for hops) and bring it to the boil in a stockpot or whatever you have handy. Keep an eye on it as it can boil over.

Set a timer (or keep an eye on your clock) for 15 minutes and add your favour hops, when the timer goes off after the 15 minutes add your aroma hops. Give it all a good stir then turn off the heat and pour the lot into your fermenter (you can strain if you like, I don't bother as the hops will drop to the bottom eventually) then stir in the kit with any extra malts/sugars you have.

They should all dissolve in the hot wort if not add some more hot water from your kettle to help it along. Top it up to your desired volume with clean tap water (please don't use the garden hose) and wait until the temp gets below 21'c before pitching your yeast.

Try and keep the temp below 20'c as much as possible, especially in the first 3 days when the yeast is throwing off most of it's flavors. Ferment until it's done. Lemon Squeezy.

Hope this helps.

- Meno


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## Micko71 (26/4/15)

Great thanks heaps.


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## Matplat (27/4/15)

I just tasted the blushing blonde + citra after a week in the bottle, despite the very light flavour of the beer, I can't taste the hops at all. While I'm on it, the fruit lends a 'very weak cordial' flavour to the beer which is crap.

I steeped 30g hops in 3l of water just taken off the boil for 30 mins...


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## eungaibitter1 (27/4/15)

Micko, pretty much what menoetes said. If you boil your ldme 100gm to the litre and then add your hops. I found 20min to be long enough and or a 0min addition.
1 can lager
1kg ldme
10g Cascade @ 20min
20g Cascade @ 0min
Kit yeast
Was an old favourite.


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## Micko71 (27/4/15)

Thanks guys. This is all going into the brain. I'm getting a bit of an idea now ! 

Sorry to be off topic but I'm a bit worried. I just smelt one of my current brews. Muntons Scottish heavy ale. It smells like hcl. Should I be worried ??


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## Jazzman (28/4/15)

This is what l do for my cheap and easy APA/IPA "clones"

1 tin coopers pale ale and 200g dextrose to dry it up a bit and increase alcohol a bit

Brewed to 10 litres if I want a 7%, or 14 litres for a 5% after bottling (roughly). This way l get good bitterness from the tin and dry hop for flavour/aroma, and the beer is nice and 'malty'. 

Then I can experiment with different flavour hops. My favourite is Citra at the moment. Next batch will be 2g/litre, and I'll add some galaxy too. I hop toward the end of the ferment coz I like having some CO2 above the wort. I've been told this is not needed, but l like the security. I use tea bags with marbles, and l got some big stainless tea strainer ball thingies I use too

No boiling. Just mix up a batch. I also use a smaller paint tin type bucket from Bunnings with a GOOD tap.

This way I can try different beers, it's easier to move down to the shed, and I only have to fill 28 Grolsch bottles at most instead of 45, and if I don't like them its only 15 or so bucks worth. I tried the last batches with Coopers Real Ale, but they're too bitter for my tastes (still drank em!!!)

Anyway, that's where this Noob is at now. Hope it helps.


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## peekaboo_jones (28/4/15)

Nice one Jazzman! I like your thinking.
How do you find the bitterness for the APA tin at 14L?
Do you get much flavour from the dry hop or just aroma?


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## Jazzman (29/4/15)

I reckon the bitterness with the coopers green is perfect. And when I brew to 10 litres for an IPA its great.
Thats why l won't be using the Real Ale tins- they are too bitter for me.

Some of my dry hop experiments didn't have enough flavour/aroma but that was before I read about the 2g/litre ratio. Some where i just chucked a heap in came out great. I don't think you can really put too much in with dry hopping BUT l use the much less bitter hops of the American kind for flavour/aroma only. 

Give it a go!


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## Jazzman (29/4/15)

I did the sums again tonight and I've over estimated the alcohol (I'm usually drinking something when doing this stuff!!!) More like 6% for 10 litres and just under 5% for 14 litres after bottling.
Also, with regard to bitterness, Coopers green isn't very bitter at normal strength (pretty weak really), so to brew to 14 or even 10 just makes a normal strongly bittered beer (if that makes sense).

There is talk of "The Extract Tang" but l don't know what it is and l haven't been bothered by it. Eventually I'll start BIAB but for the moment my Povo IPA is working for me!
Whotcha don't know, don't hurtcha!


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## peekaboo_jones (29/4/15)

Cool it's the only way, I've been known to do that too!
I agree it's not very bitter, way too easy to drink!! 
I've never tasted that 'extract twang', I reckon some people have different tastebuds and can pick the home brew yeast a mile away. I had a few mates taste several of my brews over the weekend and none of them mentioned any 'twang' . neither of them had homebrew before too.

I was thinking of halving one Coopers green can between 2 fermenters, 10L each, 500g dry malt and trailing some different hops but might grab 2 cans and try your method!
I'm using specialty grains now, cold steeping overnight and boiling on brew day and dropping hops in at 5-10 mins from end of the boil and then drop more in when that time is up and take it all off the heat. It seems to work well and tastes nice. Plus doing a dry hop around day 10 and bottling day 13-14. 

I want to do smaller batches cause I can't drink it fast enough! Otherwise I'll end up with too much stockpile.
Trying to keep somewhat fit in the meantime is proving difficult with this hobby too!

Cheers
Nick


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## Jazzman (30/4/15)

Also, what I like about the green is it comes out a lovely golden colour whick looks great in the glass.
I just put 2 fermenters on last night, One at 10 and one at 14. 1 can and 300g dextrose, and about 12g of Galaxy in each (coz I had that much). a bit of that aroma will escape through the S bend, but thats OK. They will both cop at least 2g/Litre of Citra in a few days. Then they'll be in the bottles fot 2 whole months(which never happens with my beer!!) as I'll be in Europe.
Will be nice to come home to!

I've never entertained the specialty grain thing. It looks like too much work. I think BIAB is the next step for ne. It looks pretty straightforward. I've got the big pot from BigW and my wife will make me a bag.

Regards
Brad


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## peekaboo_jones (30/4/15)

Sounds delicious Brad, very good maturing time it's a good test for you compared to your other batches. Specialty grains are an easy way to add complexity without doing biab.
I'll give the 14L recipe a try soon and let u know how it turns out.
Cheers


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## Jazzman (1/5/15)

Rock on, Peekaboo!
And sorry (nah, not really) for the thread drift, OP. (but is it really drift, l mean.........


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## Gigantorus (8/5/15)

Micko,

I did the Coopers "Authentic IPA" recipe and dry-hopped with 50grams each of Citra and Galaxy for the last 5 days of a 14 day ferment. It turned out a real treat. Friends and mates loved it. I've also been asked for the recipe by a few mates that home brew as well. It's a real simple recipe. Only real issue is that it takes 2 packets of american ale yeast to kick it off. But apart from that it's real simple and a great end result.

Cheer,s

Pete


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## Jazzman (9/5/15)

That looks good! Might try that.


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## Micko71 (11/5/15)

Hey thanks Pete. What temp did u have it at ? I'm Assuming u used a fermentation fridge for the 14 day brew ? 

How's this: I did a muntons Scottish heavy ale and after dropping in the can, noticed I left the tap open. Lost about half the can syrup. 

So I added 1.5 k lme and a dark booster (no. 25? I think) , made it up to 19 lts. 60 og. gave it 14 days and it's the most amazing beer. Tastes nutty & honey. Pours like a Guinness. 5.5 % but doesn't taste of strong alcohol. 

Very surprised. And happy 

Cheers. Micko.


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## Gigantorus (29/5/15)

Hi Micko,

Sorry for the tardy reply.

I don't use a fridge (yet). When I did my last IPA batch it fermented at around 23C for the 2 weeks. I have also brewed this recipe at around 27C (middle of summer) without any issues.

Ah the old Scottish ales. I did the Coopers Scotch Ale Recipe and it was a big heavy brew. It felt like it had scotch whiskey in it. Had quite a kick. 

Glad your mishap has turned out nicely. Its great to experiment.

Am about to bottle my Bracko Midnight Ale tomorrow. Its an extract recipe I created using 3kg of dark dry malt, a little matlodextrin and 3 hops (perle motueka and mosaic) in a schedule. IBU of 58 and ABV of 5.6%. It's somewhere between an american brown ale and a stout. Should be a hoot.

Cheers,

Pete


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## Micko71 (30/5/15)

Mmm im salivating. Lol. 

I've found the fridge makes it so easy. Just dial in the deg for cold crashing after its fermented. . Clear beer the easy way ! And the best thing is if ur out of beer u can force carb as soon as u keg it as its already cold. Insta-beer. 

I just did a muntons ipa bitter and just added a little extra ldm & no. 20 booster. Bloody ripper ! Controlled temp and so5 makes all the diff. 

Cheers mate and enjoy. !


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