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I had a brew recipe book once, but I just buy a recipe kits from my local HBS. First time round I find out what I like and what needs changing. Usually, it's just adjusting the hop schedule, as most are middle of the road. I started on AG because I've a long relationship with the shop and they...

100%. Worst EB I ever made was with molasses, go really easy. I did about 300g from memory and ended up with a beer that tasted like rusty nails. Undrinkable. I always preferred boosting my EB kits with LDM and Demerara. I'd go the grain, but you'd need to work out how much would = malt...

Submerge the unopened tin in hot water for 15min or so, it will be more liquid and you'll get more out. Empty it into the fermenter then top up with hot water, stir and pour.

Starting out, I brewed kits in my laundry in Summer for a few month, with no controls and the temps were all over the place. Beer was still made and drunk. Coopers know most people starting out have having no brew gear, the yeasts they provide have that in mind.

For my entire brewing history? Brewing doesn't work like that, bad practices trip you up quickly. If mine were bad, it would have happened already. If an area's tap water is suspect, it would be known and addressed after an issue occurred. OPs issue is an odd one, I wouldn't discount the...

That's different. But as he said, it's treated, not straight off the roof. But in this case, some sort of further treatment might be warranted. But it's only a recent issue No, we shouldn't, not if it's tap water. Not seen any brewing guides mention this - it's not seen as a risk as you claim...

Said who? I've never seen this advised on any forum anywhere, or in brew books. I never did it in 5 years of kit brewing. Never an infection. Whatever the issue is here, I very much doubt unboiled water is it. Unless you're living in Bali, where you can't drink the stuff.

Gave this a go with an ESB recipe. Thought 29l might be a bit large, so went 27. Everything went well, had to fiddle with the temp to get it settled, as I found the strike temp needs to be closer to mash temp with the extra water in there. I found it easier to hold the temp with the extra water...

I think it'll be fine once it gets to temp. AFAIK, the yeast will simply be inactive below ideal temps. It's pitching too hot that's more of an issue.

I just moved to AG from kits and partials, with a simple digiboil setup and BIAB. I buy my grain premilled and go with store recipes. I've done 2 brews in the Digiboil and screwed up everything (differently) on each one. Wrong mash temp, failure to maintain it, boils that resulted in reduced...

THis sounds more likely, but my cooper hydro was binned years ago. Are you sure? I've never had a kit brew get down that low. It's rare mine have gone under 1010. Even so, 8 days fermenting is going to be done. Brews don't take 2 weeks, even though some brewers will leave them all that long...

Just brewing at a higher temp is the go anyway. Home brewing a true lager is just too hard IMO. You need a lager yeast, temp control, temp rest and then store it cold afterwards. Every kit lager I did with ale yeast did a passable job, without the fuss. I'll never make a decent Pilsner Urquell...

You do if Coopers put a lager or hybrid yeast in the lager kit. They use hybrids a lot as most beginner kit brewers have no temp control. Hybrid covers all the bases. But if they are saying to drop the temp, they would have provided a yeast to do it.

I found same. The PETS are fine, but results did vary. The carb drops were useless IME. I switched to sugar dosing and that made a noticeable difference to carb levels and consistency. I only use swing tops now and a flattie is very rare. Now I rack off my finished brew into a 2nd fermenter with...

Brilliant spreadsheet. I used it for years, for all my Kit n kilos and the steeps and tweaks I brewed. Was good to see where I was on style and IBUs. Every recipe I plugged in came in on the numbers produced +/- 1. Now using your BIAB version for my AG brews. I've not hit the numbers yet, but...

3.7% out of the fermenter. Add another 0.5% for the sugar dose in the bottles to carb them. Also dependent on where your final gravity reading end up. Most kit and kilos will make 4.2-4.5% beer.

Thanks for this. I thought a full vol mash was as per the recipes I've been using so far - usually 19l, then sparged to 28l before boil. If a 29l mash is more efficient and avoids a big sparge, I'll give it a go. Bag sparging is a pain and messy. I'll probably get the malt pipe upgrade at some...

Which kit are you doing and how are you fermenting it, any temp control at this stage?

I guess if you're used to beer that light then give it a go. I'd add half of the Be2.

I don't think it will taste that good at that low an abv, without the additives. Many coopers kits are quite thin and bland even with be2. I often used Be3 or dry malt.