# Coopers Real Ale



## homebrewkid (29/3/10)

ive got a can of coopers real ale and was thinking of adding 1 kg of dextrose and some brown sugar for some different flavour any thoughts on how much i should use and what type of yeast i should get?


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## Ivan Other One (29/3/10)

Yeah Mate, try about 250grams of the sugar, this may be enough to give it some flavour.

Even better, try a pack of Coopers BE1, and chuck in a tea bag of goldings hops and ferment at 20degC, all up a couple dollars dearer to make but better in taste.

Cheers, Ivan.


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## tehdilgerer (29/3/10)

You cant go wrong using either nottingham or us05 yeast mate, in my limited experience, though anything will be better than what is under the can lid. Using advice i got on the forum, i used a Real kit to make a James Squire Golden Ale clone-ish, if that helps with ideas:

=1x Coopers Real Ale kit
1x Coopers Wheat Malt
25g Amarillo @ 15
25g Amarillo @ 5 (or flameout)
1x 11g US-05 Yeast


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## Gronko (29/3/10)

I've been looking at the Real Ale thinking I would try a two can brew with a kilo of DME and some of the amarillo or tettnang hops I have

Is this likely to work out ok? (noob qwextion)


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## nqtrancer (29/3/10)

Gronko said:


> I've been looking at the Real Ale thinking I would try a two can brew with a kilo of DME and some of the amarillo or tettnang hops I have
> 
> Is this likely to work out ok? (noob qwextion)



Wouldn't that come out at like a 6.5% beer? :huh: (noob here to lol)

Maybe go the 2 cans with some crystal instead... would bring it to 5% if you were not really keen on the high %

+1 on amarillo though


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## Gronko (29/3/10)

nqtrancer said:


> Wouldn't that come out at like a 6.5% beer? :huh: (noob here to lol)
> 
> Maybe go the 2 cans with some crystal instead... would bring it to 5% if you were not really keen on the high %
> 
> +1 on amarillo though


I don't have any crystal, but I do have a few kgs of DME from Craftbrewer so I want to use it before buying anything else.

Also the higher alcohol content the betterer


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## roverfj1200 (29/3/10)

The Real Ale comes out quite OK with just the kit and a kg of dex. But for a much better brew add 1 Kg of LDME or a mix of .5 dex and
.5 LDME. Next step to a better ale would be a hop tea.. Goldings? Cluster? say 10 or 15 grams.... Then a better yeast...Us-05 or some ale yeast... Build from here..


Cheers


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## Adam Howard (29/3/10)

With my Centenarillo Half Batch furiously fermenting I am now planning my next 23L batch because the realisation of a beer drought while I have brews conditioning is starting to worry me.

I've sort of skipped the 'Trial by Coopers' entry into homebrewing so far so I figured I would go back to that with a Real Ale recipe.

Came up with:

Ferment Volume: 23L

1.7kg Coopers Real Ale Can
850g Coopers LDME
250g Crystal
500g Dextrose
250g Maltodextrin

Centennial 5g @ 20mins
Centennial 10g @ 15mins
Amarillo 15g @ Flameout

US05 Yeast


Recipe is basically going to be a Real Ale tin, Brew Enhancer #2, 600g LDME and Crystal grain with leftover hops and hopefully farmed US05 yeast from the Centenarillo. I'm thinking that the 20 and 15 minute additions of Centennial will mainly add flavour characteristics and Amarillo will be all aroma. Let the kit hops do the majority of the bittering.

Whack this one down next week....will be bottling the Centenarillo late next week I think, give it some time to clear.


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## Hatchy (29/3/10)

I love the concern about a beer drought. I've got 2 30L fermenters & a 60L fermenter full & I'm still concerned about a beer drought having just bottled all 3 fermenters. I thought about trying to stop drinking so much but figured brewing more is a better option. Having mates around for brewday is a real killer to the supplies.

I'd suggest dry hopping the amarillos I'd probably up the hops a bit, have you put the recipe in ianh's spreadsheet to see what it looks like?


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## Adam Howard (30/3/10)

Hatchy said:


> I love the concern about a beer drought. I've got 2 30L fermenters & a 60L fermenter full & I'm still concerned about a beer drought having just bottled all 3 fermenters. I thought about trying to stop drinking so much but figured brewing more is a better option. Having mates around for brewday is a real killer to the supplies.
> 
> I'd suggest dry hopping the amarillos I'd probably up the hops a bit, have you put the recipe in ianh's spreadsheet to see what it looks like?




I chucked the above recipe and it came out at 35.something IBU. A bit less bitter than the Centenarillo but I'm going to make this one more of an aroma brew. Going youse glad wrap on this brew so dry hopping once the krausen drops is pretty simple. 

I'm gonna be looking into another 30L soon I think. I want to get the stocks right up over this Autumn, Winter and Spring. Homebrew shed will be together soon so I'll be looking for a fridge.

Cracking the first bottles of my Munich Lager next week for a test. Not expecting it to be mind blowing but it's the first ever brew!


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## Pennywise (30/3/10)

Just throwing my Coopers Real Ale recipe out there

Coopers Goo
1kg LDME
200g Dextrose
200g Cara Aroma
30g Styrian Goldings @ 10 mins
Wyeast 1968 ferment @ 18

Pretty common brew on tap at my place lately


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## cdbrown (19/4/10)

I'm going to try
1.7kg coopers real ale
1kg dark dried malt extract
10g EKG @ 15mins
S-04
23L to give 4% brew with a similar profile to an ordinary english bitter


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## jivesucka (19/4/10)

i did a can of real ale with 1/2 a tablet of brigalow finishing hops. is very tasty and has excellent head retention!


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## Jamieman (19/4/10)

Just curious, i have been experimenting with the Coopers LDM & havent been real impressed with it.
Tried my LHBS variety, & very tasty in the same recipie.
The coopers version seems to leave a real agressive malt taste. Even after 4wks aging (I know this isnt very long)
Used 300gms of the coopers stuff in a Blue Mtns Lager with a blend of dex, malto & wheat malt (Made up to 1kg) & it made it undrinkable.


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## boingk (19/4/10)

Undrinkable? Expand on that, I'm interested...do you mean harsh? Bitter? Overcarbonated? Simply 'too malty'?

You mention you used it with a blend of practically everything you can use, yet you pick the Coopers malt as being at fault - are you familiar with the effects of all of these ingredients?

Anyway, I also use the locals LDME and find it it quite good. A standard addition for a kit (for me) is 500g LDME and 300g white sugar. Decent body and taste from the malt with the sugar providing more alcohol and thinning it out a bit so its on par with a 'premium' commercial beer. I add specialty grain to that base (kit + 500/300 mix) and hopping to taste (20min & dry additions).

My favourite for the Eng Bitter was the 500/300 mix I mentioned, plus 20g of Fuggles dry into the fermenter at day 4. Bottled around a week later.

Cheers - boingk


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## theredone (19/4/10)

Adamski29 said:


> With my Centenarillo Half Batch furiously fermenting I am now planning my next 23L batch because the realisation of a beer drought while I have brews conditioning is starting to worry me.
> 
> I've sort of skipped the 'Trial by Coopers' entry into homebrewing so far so I figured I would go back to that with a Real Ale recipe.
> 
> ...



quite like the look of that. on my "to brew list" now.
stocks are always dangerously low at my house with mates keen for freebies. i was going a batch a week and that was just enough(none put away for aging though) but having just moved house ive had to stop for a bit and just starting to stockpile again now. about to put my 5th batch down in the next day or 2 and still dont have anything that i should be drinking yet 

commercial beer it is for now


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## Jamieman (19/4/10)

boingk said:


> Undrinkable? Expand on that, I'm interested...do you mean harsh? Bitter? Overcarbonated? Simply 'too malty'?
> 
> You mention you used it with a blend of practically everything you can use, yet you pick the Coopers malt as being at fault - are you familiar with the effects of all of these ingredients?
> 
> ...


Simply too malty, not in a pleasent way.
The 2 main brews i tried it with, i have done plenty of times. Bluemtns lager, 50+ Pale ale the same. Always the same mix. I have tried varying mixes as well.
As far as throwing everythin i can use at, well no. My standard Blue Mtns mix (for 50 + brews) has been mix of Dex, Malto & 10% Wheat malt made up to 1 kg. Nice, but was chasing a little extra malt. Pale ale, the same number of brews with BE2. Nice quaffer, but again i was looking for a little extra maltieness. I found the coopers LDM gave a vastly different flavour to the LDM i got from the LHBS.
For me the twang it gave made it undrinkable. I tried lesser amounts, but still had this twang. I did not get this with the LDM i got from the LHBS. I can only asume, I havent asked, it is a different malt.
By undrinkable, if what i am setting out to achieve is a mile off, i will tip it out & start again.


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## Siborg (19/4/10)

my second brew, also my first successful brew, was a real ale can, with a kilo of BE2, and 500g of coopers LDME. Carbonated with the coopers carb drops. Was a really nice, malty beer. If I were to brew it again (maybe I will to compare) I'd add some hops similar to the ones (if not identical) to the ones other users have posted here.


hmmm. I think I'll see if I still have a bottle of that!


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## boingk (19/4/10)

> Simply too malty, not in a pleasent way.



Righteo. And yes, the malts are generally from different palces. Coopers malts are quite good in my opinion, but I buy local to support the 'small guys' and they have a good product at a good price anyway.



> Nice quaffer, but again i was looking for a little extra maltieness.



Have your tried using specialty grains like Crystal or Munich? Both these grains will give a great taste to your beer - better than anything you can hope to get from a dried malt extract...be it liquid or dry.

Cheers - boingk


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## Adam Howard (19/4/10)

theredone said:


> quite like the look of that. on my "to brew list" now.
> stocks are always dangerously low at my house with mates keen for freebies. i was going a batch a week and that was just enough(none put away for aging though) but having just moved house ive had to stop for a bit and just starting to stockpile again now. about to put my 5th batch down in the next day or 2 and still dont have anything that i should be drinking yet
> 
> commercial beer it is for now



Just bottled that brew. Used Coopers Australian Pale Ale instead of Real Ale. It smells magnificent so I can't wait to try it. My biggest concern is carbonation. Gotta keep the bottles warm enough to get the dextrose fully fermented. My second brew got cold early in the bottling and seems to have incomplete carbonation, swilled the bottles and warmed them up, hopefully they come good.

As an experiment I've used carb drops in 3 of the longnecks and dextrose into the others.

Doing another modified kit brew next in the 30L fermenter. Coopers IPA with a big addition of Cascade hops, CaraAroma and Crystal.


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## manticle (19/4/10)

boingk said:


> Righteo. And yes, the malts are generally from different palces. Coopers malts are quite good in my opinion, but I buy local to support the 'small guys' and they have a good product at a good price anyway.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Do you mean caramunich? Munich is a base malt.


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## Jamieman (20/4/10)

boingk said:


> Have your tried using specialty grains like Crystal or Munich? Both these grains will give a great taste to your beer - better than anything you can hope to get from a dried malt extract...be it liquid or dry.
> 
> Cheers - boingk



No not yet. This will be my next step.
I am progressing to partials & experimenting with flavours in kits to see for myself what works for me.
The last Blue Mtns batch with 300gms of Coopers malt is 5 weeks old now & i will put the remaider in my spare fidge for another 2-3 weeks to see if it tones down a little.
I must ask my LHBS what there malt is, as i used 300gms of it in a previous brew & it was great.


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## mrmatt (20/4/10)

Second brew was real ale brigalow brew sugars1 kg 50/50 malt/dex (i think?) and hop tea-ed a morgans saaz bag.
Tastes great but is flat and gutless. more malt/suger next time.


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## theredone (20/4/10)

Adamski29 said:


> Just bottled that brew. Used Coopers Australian Pale Ale instead of Real Ale. It smells magnificent so I can't wait to try it. My biggest concern is carbonation. Gotta keep the bottles warm enough to get the dextrose fully fermented. My second brew got cold early in the bottling and seems to have incomplete carbonation, swilled the bottles and warmed them up, hopefully they come good.
> 
> As an experiment I've used carb drops in 3 of the longnecks and dextrose into the others.
> 
> Doing another modified kit brew next in the 30L fermenter. Coopers IPA with a big addition of Cascade hops, CaraAroma and Crystal.



was about to say wtf at bottles too cold then i realise your in vic. fair enough. let me know how it goes. im off to craft brewer to grab some cent this week for neils centarillo so ill grab some extra and do this one in the next couple of weeks. anythoughts of using coops sparkling? i quite like the ibu's this fella puts out and both the recipes ive made using this have turned out quite nicely


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## Adam Howard (20/4/10)

theredone said:


> was about to say wtf at bottles too cold then i realise your in vic. fair enough. let me know how it goes. im off to craft brewer to grab some cent this week for neils centarillo so ill grab some extra and do this one in the next couple of weeks. anythoughts of using coops sparkling? i quite like the ibu's this fella puts out and both the recipes ive made using this have turned out quite nicely



I'm sure you could use Sparkling. I used the Pale out of convenience. Can't wait to sample, hoping carbonation it a bit more complete with this brew. Will let you know in 12ish days on first impressions. Gonna leave the rest of the bottles for a full month though.


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## boingk (20/4/10)

"manticle" said:


> caramunich?



Yeah thats the one. Thanks for that!



"Jamie1" said:


> I must ask my LHBS what there malt is, as i used 300gms of it in a previous brew & it was great.



It may be as simple as them having a high turn-over of it, so its always fresh when it gets to you. I can't imagine a Coopers malt pack sitting in a hot truck then a hot warehouse then a supermarket for weeks (months?) would be better than fresh stuff...whatever it may be...from the local.

Cheers - boingk


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