# Coopers Ipa



## awall (11/10/12)

Hey everyone, I was pretty keen on brewing a relatively standard toucan but have had an enlightenment of sorts in a bottle of Vale IPA. I understand that it may not be considered a true IPA but that intensely fruity hops aroma is what i'm really digging atm. To cut a long story short I've ended up with a Coopers IPA kit, 1.5kg of LME, some DME and dextrose. As well as some amarillo and cascade hops.

I would just like to see what you all think of this recipe. It's my 3rd brew but first real venture away from a standard K+K style brew. Using ianh's spreadsheet (huge thanks man!) I've ended up with a recipe that fills in the requirements for an American IPA but wanted to see what you all think. Without further ado...

1.7kg Coopers IPA kit
1.5kg Morgans Pale Lager LME
500g DME
500g Dextrose
Filled to 23L

I was then thinking of boiling the DME in 5L of water and adding 10g of cascade and 10g of amarillo at 10mins and another 10g of each at 5mins. I will then dry hop 20g of each ~7 days before bottling. Also I'm using US-05 yeast and will try to keep temps around 18-20C.

According to the spreadsheet, It ends up at 1.059 OG, 1.013FG, 44.4IBU's and 6.3% abv after bottling.

I should probably add that I tried a Sleeping Giant IPA and found it pretty bad. Fair amount of bitterness upfront (which i didn't mind), too much maltiness and hardly any aroma to speak of. May have been brewed to a more english style but I really didn't enjoy it so i definitely don't want to end up with something like that.

Cheers.


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## waggastew (11/10/12)

Looks like a plan to me, alot of good things going on for your third brew. Hop additions look good and will give the whole thing a lift.

One area to focus on to transform this from a good brew to an AMAZING brew is yeast health. Essentially the big faults that will bring this beer down will not be lack of grains etc, but bad stuff being generated during the ferment. Given you are using US05 I would recommend:

1. Pitching yeast at 18degC but letting it rise and ferment out at 20degC
2. Leaving it for 1 week after reaching FG to ensure the yeast clean up diacetyl etc
3. Pitching two sachets of yeast or making a starter of at least 3L
4. Giving the fermenter a big shake before pitching to ensure its well aerated

With bigger beers there is a bigger risk of generating fusels/esters etc. Keep the ferment clean and the hops can shine.

Good luck and report back once its in the glass.

Stew


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## hoppy2B (11/10/12)

Yeah I agree with you awall, The Sleeping Giant IPA is a bit heavy on the caramel maltiness. Perhaps a couple of years in the cellar would improve it. I recommend you try a Fat Yak, they are pretty nice.
Good luck with your brew.


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## wbosher (12/10/12)

Is this the first time you've used us-05 yeast? I've just done my fourth brew and used it for the first time - CRAZY KRAUSEN!!! 

I've got about 2 inches of thick gooey foam at the top, and after about a week it's still there. Never seen anything like it. Apparently it's quite normal but looks really ugly.

Just thought I'd mention that in case you've never used it either.


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## Blitzer (12/10/12)

wbosher said:


> Is this the first time you've used us-05 yeast? I've just done my fourth brew and used it for the first time - CRAZY KRAUSEN!!!
> 
> I've got about 2 inches of thick gooey foam at the top, and after about a week it's still there. Never seen anything like it. Apparently it's quite normal but looks really ugly.
> 
> Just thought I'd mention that in case you've never used it either.



I used it for my last batch only got like 2 cm, do you make a starter?


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## wbosher (12/10/12)

Blitzer said:


> I used it for my last batch only got like 2 cm, do you make a starter?




No just sprinkled it on, it's gone nuts.


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## hoppy2B (12/10/12)

Try a Cooper's kit yeast, it will jump out of the ferment vessel. :lol:


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## slash22000 (12/10/12)

hoppy2B said:


> Try a Cooper's kit yeast, it will jump out of the ferment vessel. :lol:



Recently made a Coopers "SMOTY" ale. Used both 7g packets of Coopers yeast as per instuctions. I added a bit more dry malt and some crystal grain, rehydrated the yeast, aerated the wort with my wine degasser + power drill.

Made to 22 litres. 30 litre fermentor. Krausen blew through the S-bend airlock friggin everywhere. It was bubbling too quickly to even count the bloops, sounded like an underwater machine gun or something. I have no idea how I'm going to clean the airlock out ... Whole area looks like a crime scene.  I guess it's a good thing but it's not going to be fun to clean up!


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## hoppy2B (12/10/12)

You want to clean your airlock as soon as that happens slash, mine still has brown crap stuck in it. The usual suggestion when that happens is to switch over to a blow-off tube. 
I'm not sure if I'll use Coopers kit yeast in future other than for a beer I want to drink in a hurry because the beer doesn't seem to keep well.


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## wbosher (12/10/12)

Back on topic...have you tried the "Authentic IPA 20L" on the Coopers website? Did one myself about a month ago, been bottled now for two weeks to the day.

Very tempted to try one but will probably give it another week or so...then again...


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## awall (13/10/12)

Cheers waggastew, I always try to aerate it as much as possible and was planning on leaving it for about 3 weeks before bottling. I put the numbers into an online calc and with one packet i'm going to be slightly underpitching. I was just planning on chucking a single pack in dry like usual. I think i'll try a starter next time, but i'm trying to keep things as simple as possible. I really should've got another pack and pitched half of that too, but it's too late now and I'm sure it'll end up drinkable.

I haven't used US-05 yet, Just WB-06 and a morgans kit yeast. Neither have gone crazy and I've had a relatively small krausen both times.

Wbosher, please let me know how that turns out. My recipe is similar to that one so it would be nice to get some idea of what i'll end up with.


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## Helles (13/10/12)

waggastew said:


> Looks like a plan to me, alot of good things going on for your third brew. Hop additions look good and will give the whole thing a lift.
> 
> One area to focus on to transform this from a good brew to an AMAZING brew is yeast health. Essentially the big faults that will bring this beer down will not be lack of grains etc, but bad stuff being generated during the ferment. Given you are using US05 I would recommend:
> 
> ...



Yeast will only clean up Diacetyl while still fermenting not at FG
Raise temp near end of fermentation for Diacetyl


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## Barge (13/10/12)

helles said:


> Yeast will only clean up Diacetyl while still fermenting not at FG
> Raise temp near end of fermentation for Diacetyl



Can't say i agree with this. I've had beers that have had heavy diacetyl after 2 weeks in the bottle. A month after that and they have hardly a note. This was with 34/70 which is a renowned diacetyl reabsorber so that may make a difference.


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## Brewman_ (13/10/12)

hoppy2B said:


> I recommend you try a Fat Yak, they are pretty nice.



I had a Fat Yak last week, it was just like how I used to make beer 20 years ago in a shed at 40 Deg.C. Horrible. I am convinced they used the yeast satchel that was on the Can and heated the fermenter with an electric blanket in summer to pump it out quicker. The worst fermentation / off flavours I have tasted in a commercial beer. If that were my beer I would not share it with anyone, except to diagnose the fermentation issues. It is actually worthy of a complaint to the company it was that bad.


I am not sure if I was unlucky on a bad 6 pack or not, I don't drink it regulary.  


Fear.


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## manticle (14/10/12)

helles said:


> Yeast will only clean up Diacetyl while still fermenting not at FG


You sure about that?


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## hoppy2B (14/10/12)

I thought the Fat Yak had a pretty good hop aroma which is best experienced drunk from a glass.


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## hoppy2B (14/10/12)

fear_n_loath said:


> I am not sure if I was unlucky on a bad 6 pack or not, I don't drink it regulary.
> 
> 
> Fear.



Dude I think Fat Yak comes in a 4 pack. :lol:


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## bignath (14/10/12)

slash22000 said:


> I added a bit more dry malt and some crystal grain, rehydrated the yeast, aerated the wort with my wine degasser + power drill.



WTF?? :huh:


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## hoppy2B (14/10/12)

hoppy2B said:


> Dude I think Fat Yak comes in a 4 pack. :lol:




WTF?? :lol:


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## slash22000 (14/10/12)

Big Nath said:


> WTF?? :huh:



Not sure what you are WTF'ing there? Now I'm concerned I did something wrong! :unsure:


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## hoppy2B (14/10/12)

slash, I'm guessing he's unfamiliar with your method of aeration. Do you have pics of your wine degasser?


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## slash22000 (14/10/12)

hoppy2B said:


> slash, I'm guessing he's unfamiliar with your method of aeration. Do you have pics of your wine degasser?



I don't have any pictures of my own, but . Aerating wort, same method. You need a powerdrill that can take a 10mm fitting and away you go. According to Google it takes about 5 minutes of constant "degassing" to completely aerate the wort, which is a lot faster and easier than having to pick it up and shake it etc (break your damn spine).

It's an American company who makes that specific model, I got mine off eBay for about $20 including postage (I can link to their eBay store if that's not against the rules or something). You should be able to get similar types of things from brewshops, not sure what the price is domestically.


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## hoppy2B (14/10/12)

Yeah had a look at that video. Some might call it controversial. If it aerated your wort I would be concerned about it oxidizing ones wine if used in the manner that it is in the video. It might also lead to reduction of aroma and flavour in wine. :huh:


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## Brewman_ (14/10/12)

hoppy2B said:


> WTF?? :lol:




Hey Dude,
I don't give a F! What number of beers come in the pack. I am talkning about the beer?


Fear


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## hoppy2B (14/10/12)

Yeah, the joke was that they do come in a 6 pack.


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## bignath (14/10/12)

slash22000 said:


> Not sure what you are WTF'ing there? Now I'm concerned I did something wrong! :unsure:






hoppy2B said:


> slash, I'm guessing he's unfamiliar with your method of aeration. Do you have pics of your wine degasser?



yep, have never seen that before. Learn something new each day i guess.

Whilst it may work to some degree, there's just something about it that i wouldn't be comfortable with......not sure.

You could do the same with a paint stirrer in a drill i 'spose.

Do you ferment in glass? I can see how this would be of a benefit to glass carboy brewers as you lose the ability to pour into carboy from any great height due to the small opening.

If using glass to ferment in, another option would be to compile your beer into a standard fermenter, then transfer via hose and one of Siphon Spray Wort Aerator! into the carboy.

Either way, you have something extra to clean and sanitise. I'm AG brewing, and i no chill, so i pour my cube of wort into my fermenter SLOWLY (convinced it makes a difference) from as high as i can comfortably handle. Get what appears to be very good aeration, and most fermentations kick off inside 12hours.

Would be different if brewing with cans.


EDIT: Yay, i finally worked out how to add a "link" to a post!


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## james82t (31/10/12)

awall said:


> Hey everyone, I was pretty keen on brewing a relatively standard toucan but have had an enlightenment of sorts in a bottle of Vale IPA. I understand that it may not be considered a true IPA but that intensely fruity hops aroma is what i'm really digging atm. To cut a long story short I've ended up with a Coopers IPA kit, 1.5kg of LME, some DME and dextrose. As well as some amarillo and cascade hops.
> 
> I would just like to see what you all think of this recipe. It's my 3rd brew but first real venture away from a standard K+K style brew. Using ianh's spreadsheet (huge thanks man!) I've ended up with a recipe that fills in the requirements for an American IPA but wanted to see what you all think. Without further ado...
> 
> ...




can you report on how this goes, im a big fan of the vale ipa and would like something that come close. actually i dont mind the sleeping giant ipa, its only average not the aroma of the vale. its the only ipa at my local!! shit eh


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## awall (31/10/12)

I actually just bottled it today. I followed my original plan and everything seems good. I had a small glass straight from the bottling bucket to "test"  and I don't think that it will be similar to the vale IPA, but in a few weeks we'll see. I wasn't trying to copy that beer, but really enjoyed it when I had it. I wanted to make something that had heaps of that fruity?, hoppy flavour/aroma.

The Amarillo aroma is very strong atm and it seems dryer than either of those commercial IPA's. If you wanted to copy the Vale using a kit it's probably not a bad place to start. I'd probably add more DME and less dextrose. Then use the hops they use (Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin and Citra). But i don't really know what i'm doing so that's just a guess. I'm sure someone will be able to point you in the right direction.

I'll report back in a couple of weeks when it's properly carbed, but i'm pretty happy with how it has turned out so far.

Thanks everyone for the help!


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## 431neb (1/11/12)

awall said:


> I actually just bottled it today. I followed my original plan and everything seems good. I had a small glass straight from the bottling bucket to "test"  and I don't think that it will be similar to the vale IPA, but in a few weeks we'll see. I wasn't trying to copy that beer, but really enjoyed it when I had it. I wanted to make something that had heaps of that fruity?, hoppy flavour/aroma.
> 
> The Amarillo aroma is very strong atm and it seems dryer than either of those commercial IPA's. If you wanted to copy the Vale using a kit it's probably not a bad place to start. I'd probably add more DME and less dextrose. Then use the hops they use (Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin and Citra). But i don't really know what i'm doing so that's just a guess. I'm sure someone will be able to point you in the right direction.
> 
> ...




I'm banging on about this one a lot at the moment because it's one of the best beers I've ever made*. It was a Coopers Canadian Blonde kit with the coopers brew booster and some Hallertau and Citra hops. The Citra (I'm tipping from the smell in the packet) have given this beer a massive floral note, like a goddamn fruit salad. People ask if there is fruit in the brew yet it is not offensive or out of place. I'm a big Citra fan now. I'll post more information if anyone is interested. Really enjoying the outcome of my cheap beer experiment which I'm Calling the "Bitter Blonde" (Plagiarised). I'll not be buying any $50+++ kits for a while. Just put down a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and some of the hops with that (Magnum was one) smell like horse-shit in comparison. I'm sure it will play it's part in the PA but they are chalk and cheese.

*Not the greatest claim to fame as by brew count would probably only be a about 20.

Incidentally , I plan to Visit the Matilda Bay Brewery for a meal and a tour soon so I searched AHB for references and this thread is the second time I've read about what sounds like infected bottles from them. Fat Yak is one that I have had a few times and really enjoyed. I was surprised to hear it criticised - hence my comment on infection... I bought a 4 pack of Alpha there yesterday which is great and packs a hop punch (unsurprisingly) but my Bitter Blonde is better.


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## unclebarrel (3/11/12)

431neb said:


> Incidentally , I plan to Visit the Matilda Bay Brewery for a meal and a tour soon so I searched AHB for references and this thread is the second time I've read about what sounds like infected bottles from them. Fat Yak is one that I have had a few times and really enjoyed. I was surprised to hear it criticised - hence my comment on infection... I bought a 4 pack of Alpha there yesterday which is great and packs a hop punch (unsurprisingly) but my Bitter Blonde is better.




I agree with you 431neb. I cant say I am an expert on anything beer related but you may have read correctly on the bottle infections. I am a bit of a fan of fat yak. But I have definitely had a couple of slabs that I had to return to point of purchase because it tasted like out if date mass produced rubbish beer. 

I am only 5 brews into the world of home brew, and I already prefer to drink my own !!


UB


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## 431neb (5/11/12)

unclebarrel said:


> I agree with you 431neb. I cant say I am an expert on anything beer related but you may have read correctly on the bottle infections. I am a bit of a fan of fat yak. But I have definitely had a couple of slabs that I had to return to point of purchase because it tasted like out if date mass produced rubbish beer.
> 
> I am only 5 brews into the world of home brew, and I already prefer to drink my own !!
> 
> ...




I discussed this topic with a very knowledgeable brewer the other day and his opinion on crook stubbies from Matilda Bay was that their newfound popularity meant that they needed to make and store a lot more beer. ie Improper storage of real beer = shit beer. 
Wheras commercial beers are more forgiving. Seemed plausible to me.


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## jdsaint (7/11/12)

hoppy2B said:


> Yeah I agree with you awall, The Sleeping Giant IPA is a bit heavy on the caramel maltiness. Perhaps a couple of years in the cellar would improve it. I recommend you try a Fat Yak, they are pretty nice.
> Good luck with your brew.


fat yak is awesome but its a starter for whats out there, fat yak got me into hoppy beer and now ive been forking out $50 after $50 for fat yak to save bottles to get back into the brew game, ive been gone for 5 years, now beer price has risen time to get creative


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## Stuwort (7/11/12)

hoppy2B said:


> Dude I think Fat Yak comes in a 4 pack. :lol:


Definitely six to a pack.


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## awall (14/11/12)

Hey everyone, it's only 2 weeks since i bottled, but thought i'd give an update. Unfortunately rather that being a hop-bomb it's turned into a bit of a fusel-bomb. It has a pretty nice aroma and smells almost like a strawberry jam which i was very pleased with. It tastes quite nice upfront and has a solid bitterness, but has a very strong alcoholic bite at the finish. I also find I get slight headache pretty quick after only half a glass.

Definitely a lesson learnt in yeast comfort (should've listened to you waggastew  ). I couldn't cool the beer any less than ~27 degrees before i pitched and looking at the calculators I underpitched by about half a pack of dry yeast. I kept it around 18 degrees while fermenting but those first few hours were probably quite a bit higher and supposedly that's when the bad flavours are produced.

I'm going to try something similar again soon, but sub in more DME and less dextrose. Then make sure I pitch the correct amount of yeast at the correct temp. I might try and add some specialty grains to pimp it a little bit too.

It's unfortunate because it's a nice beer until the fusel twang finish and impending headache <_< . Cascade and amarillo are a great combo and for anyone wanting to step out of K+K land it's probably not a bad place to start if you can sort out the yeast issues.


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