# Coopers Dark Ale



## Mcstretch (14/6/09)

Hi, all

I'm going to pe putting down my third brew and I've decided to start messing around with hops for this one.

1.7kg Coopers Dark Ale
1kg Brew Enhancer

30gms Fuggle 3.9% 30 minutes
15gms Fuggle 3.9% 15 minutes

I was thinking about putting in some LDME for a bit more body. 
Any help would be greatly appreciated?

Cheers


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## manticle (14/6/09)

I made a few of those kits a while back. Most of them turned out very nicely. The best ones I made used brew enhancer + about 500g of LDME so you're on the right track.


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## buttersd70 (14/6/09)

fwiw, I would lose the brew enhancer alltogether, and just go with the ldme. The coopers dark has a reasonable amount of bitterness, and combined with the hop additions that you're looking at doing, I think it would easily have enough to be an all malt beer. Adding a steep of say 100g crystal and 100g chocolate would kick it well over the line for a nice drop. Especially if you toss the kit yeast, and use something English, like Nottingham.


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## manticle (14/6/09)

buttersd70 said:


> fwiw, I would lose the brew enhancer alltogether, and just go with the ldme. The coopers dark has a reasonable amount of bitterness, and combined with the hop additions that you're looking at doing, I think it would easily have enough to be an all malt beer. Adding a steep of say 100g crystal and 100g chocolate would kick it well over the line for a nice drop. Especially if you toss the kit yeast, and use something English, like Nottingham.



I found with a couple of Coopers kits (primarily stout and dark ale) that a bit of DME (500g)was a great improvement but too much (ie 1 kg) gave it a quality of which I wasn't fond. It may simply have been that the DME I used for those was Coopers brand from K-mart and that a better quality extract would make all the difference. If I were to do one again I'd try a fresh liquid malt - maybe amber or a caramalt.

In hindsight, I'm fairly certain it was the quality of malt as I love malt flavours so maybe just shop around for a good one.

Just musing really - back then I only had myself, a sense of experimentation and some bad instructions with every tin to teach me about beer.


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## buttersd70 (14/6/09)

I think one of the biggest things to improve it would be a quality yeast, correct pitching rate, and good temperature control for a strong, healthy fermentation. Adding some steeped grain goes a long way to 'freshening it up', as well.


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## Mcstretch (14/6/09)

buttersd70 said:


> I think one of the biggest things to improve it would be a quality yeast, correct pitching rate, and good temperature control for a strong, healthy fermentation. Adding some steeped grain goes a long way to 'freshening it up', as well.




Hi Butters,

what do you mean by a good pitching rate? 

At the moment I'm only using the kit yeast and only 7 gms of it. 

I'm about to start buying specialty yeast for all my brews


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## buttersd70 (14/6/09)

Mcstretch said:


> Hi Butters,
> 
> what do you mean by a good pitching rate?
> 
> ...



in short, the amount of yeast you pitch depends on the type of yeast (ale or lager), the gravity of the wort. Bigger beers need more yeast. As your brewing progresses, and better recipes and ingredients are used, and particularly when quality yeasts are used, then it becomes a factor for consideration, particularly if you are going to be re-using the yeast for subsequent brews.

There is a lot of discussion on this site about the correct pitching rates, so if you do a search you'll get much more in-depth info. There is also information on the whitelabs and wyeast websites about pitching rates for the yeasts they produce, as well as some good articles on the subject on mrmalty.com


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## mfdu (15/6/09)

yum. i do this as a house ale : "spotswood black"

1 can coopers dark
1kg dark dried malt (or LDME if you're relying on supermarket provisions - no judgement)
500g treacle or molasses. or raw sugar? or maybe a dark honey, even? tho i haven't tried that yet

generally i'll go for a major hop burst to eg:
20 g galaxy @ 10 mins
20 g galaxy @ flameout
(aiming for flava, not bitterness - i got 1/2 kg of galaxy and mmmm i lovelove that galaxy pink grapefruit / passionfruit overtone!)
(sometimes fuggles or ekg, if i want to be a bit more demure)

does 21 to 23 liters. fill it how ya feel it.

if i'm using kit yeast, i use two sachets (14 grams), and i build it into a 500ml starter. i find it's much much better used like that. or i'd use s.04 (again, 500ml starter)

generally i assume no-one else will drink a dark ale, so i let myself have some fun with it - it's my chance to go extrem-o.

chris.


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## Pennywise (15/6/09)

One of the better Coopers goo's IMO (along with the Pale Ale), I get one of these down when I have little time on my hands. IMO, go all malt (1.3kg in a 23 litre batch), tin of goo, 300g choc malt (I prefer choc chit), and a 20-30g flame out addition of Willamette for some earthyness, or Chinook for some fruityness :icon_drool2: I have one of these in the keg ATM but it's not carbed/tapped yet


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## Mcstretch (16/6/09)

manticle said:


> I made a few of those kits a while back. Most of them turned out very nicely. The best ones I made used brew enhancer + about 500g of LDME so you're on the right track.




I put the brew down on Sunday afternoon with +500gms of LDME and I gotta say by Monday morning I had froth exploding out of the air lock. Overall the Hop addition has worked quite well. I had a taste this morning 

OG was around 1.041 and today it is sitting at around 1.016 so it seems to be going quite quickly. 
I've been reading around about steeping grains and I will need to buy some more gear before I start that

I recently bought a Hot/Cold thermostat which I am now using for temperature control. 

Thanks for all the posts

Cheers


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## manticle (16/6/09)

You can steep grains in a pot. You can cold steep (soak overnight in cold water) strain and boil or hot steep (hot water for 30+ minutes, strain and boil). for hot steep it's good if you can maintain temperature - this can be done with a stove on very low (monitored closely and ocassionally turned off) or in a low oven, or even a sink full of hot water. Easy and no real need for any special equipment. 

Just don't boil the grains.


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## the_yobbo (23/6/09)

I put down a Coopers dark ale on Saturday around midday. I followed the guidance of the brew store salesman and bought 11g of Safale S-04 yeast and a stout enchancer prepack of fermentables.

I rehydrated the yeast in 500ml of 27 degrees wort for about 15 before pitching.

Sunday morning the brew was bubbling away happily at 18 degrees. Woots, good quick start. However, looked at it this morning before heading to work and didn't see it bubble once over a period of a minute. The lid doesn't have much condensation on it, but there does appear to be a thin yeasty head on the wort.

Is all good, let it be? Or do I need to give it some more heat, or yeast, or anything?


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## petesbrew (23/6/09)

The Muzz said:


> I put down a Coopers dark ale on Saturday around midday. I followed the guidance of the brew store salesman and bought 11g of Safale S-04 yeast and a stout enchancer prepack of fermentables.
> 
> I rehydrated the yeast in 500ml of 27 degrees wort for about 15 before pitching.
> 
> ...


It's alright. Just leave it go. 18c is perfect IMO.


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## mwd (23/6/09)

Check your nightime temperatures probably got cold and yeast gone dormant.

Warm up to 20C should fire up again and give the FV a gentle rock to get it all mixed up.

edit: Beaten to it but yep if it is a constant 18C day and night should be perfect.


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## the_yobbo (23/6/09)

Pretty sure the tempmate has been keeping the temperature right. Its actually set to 18.5degres with differential of 0.5degrees. So in this cold weather, it varies between 18-18.5 degrees.

So, is that usual for fermentation to start off quickly then slow down to no airlock activity within 1 minute on day 2 of fermentation?

I'll give it a check this evening with a hydrometer reading if its not bubbling when I get home.

Its the first time I"ve used non-kit yeast for a brew. Is it the right yeast (and quantity) for the job (11g of S-04)?


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## Bribie G (23/6/09)

buttersd70 said:


> fwiw, I would lose the brew enhancer alltogether, and just go with the ldme. The coopers dark has a reasonable amount of bitterness, and combined with the hop additions that you're looking at doing, I think it would easily have enough to be an all malt beer. Adding a steep of say 100g crystal and 100g chocolate would kick it well over the line for a nice drop. Especially if you toss the kit yeast, and use something English, like Nottingham.



Yes, darker ales really shine with all malt construction. You know what I'd put in a can of liquid malt extract rather than the LDME, turns out a bit exxie but you should get a nice smooth drop. On the yeast question what Butters says about Nottingham is spot on, but for this style I would nevertheless stick with the kit yeast but ferment it at 19 degrees. It's not the best yeast on the shelf (it's a Mauribrew 514) but if fermented cool does a good clean job in a dark ale such as this one or Coopers Real Ale, or the Stout. Recently I was stuck without a yeast coming up to a comp and desperately pitched two sachets of Coopers kit ale yeast in an all grain Aussie Dark (Hunter old style) and it got marked well at the comp and just below the winning brews so I was happy. Also it was done and dusted in about four days. Still drinking it and it's turned out bang on style compared to say Tooheys Old.

My 2c


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## petesbrew (23/6/09)

The Muzz said:


> Pretty sure the tempmate has been keeping the temperature right. Its actually set to 18.5degres with differential of 0.5degrees. So in this cold weather, it varies between 18-18.5 degrees.
> 
> So, is that usual for fermentation to start off quickly then slow down to no airlock activity within 1 minute on day 2 of fermentation?
> 
> ...


Muzz, don't trust that airlock. You've already seen the krausen (the white foam on top), and it has bubbled before. It's doing it's job.

But yes, checking wiht the hydrometer will tell you if it's fermenting. Don't forget to taste that sample. It's great to see how the flavour comes along. 
Well, it doesn't change that much... but you can't waste such a precious drop now can you?

Yeast wise, yes that's enough. A satchet is enough to get a brew going.
Next time, have a go at about 100-200g steeping grains (choc malt or roast barley go great with Dark/stout kits). 
It's dead easy. All the gear you need is a large coffee plunger and a strainer.


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## ianh (23/6/09)

manticle said:


> You can steep grains in a pot. You can cold steep (soak overnight in cold water) strain and boil or hot steep (hot water for 30+ minutes, strain and boil). for hot steep it's good if you can maintain temperature - this can be done with a stove on very low (monitored closely and ocassionally turned off) or in a low oven, or even a sink full of hot water. Easy and no real need for any special equipment.
> 
> Just don't boil the grains.



Hi

Sorry for the slightly OT, is there any reason or benefit for starting the overnight steep hot (70C). What I was thinking was say steeping the grains in 5 litres of 70C water and putting it in an Esky overnight. Then sparging with 5 litres of 70C water to make up my 10 litre boil volume. It just that it appears that you either steep hot for 30 minutes or cold overnight. Thanks.


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## Phoney (23/6/09)

ianh said:


> Hi
> 
> Sorry for the slightly OT, is there any reason or benefit for starting the overnight steep hot (70C). What I was thinking was say steeping the grains in 5 litres of 70C water and putting it in an Esky overnight. Then sparging with 5 litres of 70C water to make up my 10 litre boil volume. It just that it appears that you either steep hot for 30 minutes or cold overnight. Thanks.



If you're steeping hot there's no need or benefit to keep it on longer than 30 mins. Most people only do cold overnight steeps if they either dont have a thermometer or dont have time to scratch their backsides.


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