10 Litre Coopers Real Ale

[JimC]

G'day all,

In the hope of moving to AG sooner rather than later, I want to use up the lonely last tin of Coopers Real Ale goop in the cupboard. I don't really want to waste too many other ingredients on this, since I've brewed a couple of recipes using this tin in the past and have found that they ended up a bit too twangy and took ages to mellow out for some reason. (Hence the urgency to go AG perhaps?)

Anyways, I've recently got my hands on an 11.5 litre glass carboy and was wondering if just chucking the tin in (without the extra kilo of LDME you'd normally use for a full batch) and topping it up to about 9 or 10 litres would make for something drinkable. Or do you reckon any so-called "twang" would just be stronger without any LDME? Also, would a full sachet of Safale S-04 be the way to go?

I was pretty much thinking of steeping a small handful of crystal, boiling the kit, and maybe dry hopping with a about 8g of fuggles. Seems like a cheap and easy way to use up the kit without having to drink a full 21 litre batch if I don't like the final product.


Edit: Just realised i didn't post this in the "Kits" section! Mods feel free to move the thread

 

[Lodan]

I was pretty much thinking of steeping a small handful of crystal, boiling the kit, and maybe dry hopping with a about 8g of fuggles. Seems like a cheap and easy way to use up the kit without having to drink a full 21 litre batch if I don't like the final product.

How much is in the handful of crystal?

Something along the lines of the above is best I think. Use a bit of extra malt (say 500g DME) to balance the bitterness from the can.
Don't boil the can, savour any aroma and flavour hops that it might have. Flavour and aroma hop with fuggles.

Do it right and it might be classed as some form of kit Imperial IPA

 

[Wolfy]

I want to use up the lonely last tin of Coopers Real Ale goop in the cupboard.

If you really didn't like how it turned out in the past, save the goo and use it to make yeast-starters after you have your AG brewing organized.

 

[krusty_oz]

It will be a lot more bitter that a stout made up to that volume, ~90 IBU. Expect the FG will to be ~1.025 so that sweetness may help balance out the bitterness and 'twang'.

If you want something that will work, a popular brew (amoungst my mates) I have on tap at the moment is
1 Real Ale can
500g crystal malt
1 box Coopers Brewing sugar
500g LDME
20g Cascade (could go Amarilo) hop added mid way fermentation (if you keg, dry hop the keg with a tea ball)
fermented with supplied yeast plus a few spare ale yeast packs I saved from other brews (from memory I had 1x Tooheys, 1x Homebrand and 1xCoopers)

 

[Nevalicious]

If you really didn't like how it turned out in the past, save the goo and use it to make yeast-starters after you have your AG brewing organized.

Exactly what I was thinking...

If it turned out not to your liking before, use it for something else and not for beer making.

Nev

 

[glassgrenade]

+1 to starters. You need malt extract for starters anyway. Plus once you got a whole cupboard full of tasty AG brews you won't be drinking any of your kits brews, especailly a kit brew that you don't like. OR you could take advantage of this. Make up 6L of coopers barley wine and let it age for a few years.

 

[JimC]

Thanks for the replies.

@Lodan - It's about 60g of leftover crystal i wanted to use up

Using it for starters isn't a bad idea. There's no risk of the starters taking on any of the flavour of the Cooper's kit and imparting it to any beer I pitch it into, is there? And if I'm not using it all at once, is there a way to store the leftover liquid extract for later use? I've always just used dry malt for starters in the past.

Yeah, I dunno why I haven't had great success with this kit in the past. It seems to have a reputation as being a pretty versatile recipe base. For example, I made the following:

Coopers Real Ale
750g LDME / 100g dex / 100g maltodex
20g Goldings (Steeped 10mins)
100g crystal
Munton's Yorkshire Bitter yeast packet
OG 1.045 FG 1.015
Storage temp: 21 C

Seems to me like it should have been a decent drop, but to my taste it always had some kind of vague hot alcohol / nail polish remover aftertaste, and was overly bitter. It was one of my earlier brews, so perhaps temp control was an issue.

In any case, right now i don't really fancy the idea of a super bitter, high gravity IIPA or barleywine as suggested by a couple of folks, so I think using it for starters might be my best bet.

Cheers

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

The tin by itself at 10ltrs will be bitter and unbalanced.....

Using it for starters is not a bad idea, or use it as part of an AG brew

 

[pcmfisher]

The tin by itself at 10ltrs will be bitter and unbalanced.....

Using it for starters is not a bad idea, or use it as part of an AG brew

No more unbalanced than a toucan in 20 litres

 

[Wolfy]

Using it for starters isn't a bad idea. There's no risk of the starters taking on any of the flavour of the Cooper's kit and imparting it to any beer I pitch it into, is there? And if I'm not using it all at once, is there a way to store the leftover liquid extract for later use? I've always just used dry malt for starters in the past.

If you let the yeast settle out and decant the spent starter wort and pitch only the yeast there is no flavours added to the beer you pitch it into.
I store the left over goo in the fridge with a bit of cling-wrap over it, have not had a problem storing it like that for months (it gets boiled when making the starter anyway).

 

[JimC]

If you let the yeast settle out and decant the spent starter wort and pitch only the yeast there is no flavours added to the beer you pitch it into.
I store the left over goo in the fridge with a bit of cling-wrap over it, have not had a problem storing it like that for months (it gets boiled when making the starter anyway).

Great, thanks Wolfy - looks like that might be the go. Now I can put the spare carboy to better (and hopefully tastier) use, and feed a bunch of starters to boot

 

[bigandhairy]

No more unbalanced than a toucan in 20 litres

I once made a 12lt batch from a can of Thomas Cooper Heritage(?) Ale and a few hundred grams of ldme+hops boil thinking this will come out like a toucan all the guys a raving about....Obviously I did something wrong cos it was faaaarking woeful, I could not drink it (and I will drink VB if nothing else is on offer :lol: ). I know the guys that make toucans wouldn't deliberatly make something that tasted like that, so something must have gone astray somewhere. My logic was it was a 'mini' toucan, half the cans/half the quantity, but for some reason it just didnt work. I did two of them (similtaneously) too, was gonna fill a couple little party kegs, alas they are still dry .

bah

 

[JimC]

My logic was it was a 'mini' toucan, half the cans/half the quantity, but for some reason it just didnt work.

That was sort of my thinking as well, but something about it didn't quite sit right with me. From the sounds of your brew I should be pretty glad I checked on here first!

 

[yandy5000]

from my experience with toucans you end up with a ton of bitterness, not necessarily a nice integrated bitterness just a foul aftertaste. I did a coopers real ale with can of amber malt and english flavour hops (EKG). It was with two sachets of s04. Came out alright, nice hoppy flavour but it does have a rubbish after taste. There is a certain extract flavour which is always there, dry hopping masks it well and using better malt (or dry malt?) might have better results. ESB malt is quite good and smooth, with no real twang.. it still has a signature extract taste but a nice round sweetness to it. I found with coopers the malt was a bit more on the confectionery sweet side.

Yandy