Amarillo And Cpa Kit

[levin_ae92]

Evening all,

as I work at coles i got to get some fresh coopers pale ale kits while theyre on special (oh btw, for those who dont know coopers kits are on special this week in SA)

Was thinking about doing a kit amarillo APA style recipe, but modified to use the pale as the kit, with the following

1x Coopers Pale Ale kit
1x Coopers Pale liquid malt
250g light crystal
20g amarillo @ 20 mins
10g amarillo @ 10 mins
10g amarillo @ flameout
10g amarillo dry hopped at about 4 days

made up to 20L, probably use US05 i reckon

sound good? please feel free to tell me it sounds awful!!

cheers,

colby

 

[bum]

sound good? please feel free to tell me it sounds awful!!

You will find many people telling you this sounds awesome - and it may well be. I made almost an identical brew in April (no dry-hopping and 200g of crystal) and quite frankly I'm finding it only drinkable now as I down the last few bottles. I love Amarillo, I just don't think it gels with this kit. All IMO, obviously. If you've used Amarillo with this tin before and liked it give it a bash and make sure to post the recipe in the DB if it turns out great. As the recipe stands, it looks well formed but I'd think about either winding back the crystal a touch or adding a bittering element to your hop boil.

Good luck with it!

 

[glaab]

looks good to me, I been doing some similar kits and extracts lately. I don't think it needs the dry hopping either, and some more bittering would suit me to. Theres SFA bittering in those Pale Ale tins, under 20IBUs. That 20min add will give you around 10 extra IBUs but 30mins would add another 5-6.
Please let us know how it turns out however you do it, Cheers :icon_cheers:

 

[glaab]

looks good to me, I been doing some similar kits and extracts lately. I don't think it needs the dry hopping either, and some more bittering would suit me to. Theres SFA bittering in those Pale Ale tins, under 20IBUs. That 20min add will give you around 10 extra IBUs but 30mins would add another 5-6.
Please let us know how it turns out however you do it, Cheers :icon_cheers:

 

[levin_ae92]

Thanks Guys,

I put the whole lot as outlined before in Ianh's spreadsheet, and it came out to 38.1 IBU

maybe i'll change the hopping to something to like this?

10g @ 30 mins 8.25 IBU
10g @ 20 mins 6.5 IBU
20g @10 mins 7.74 IBU
10g @ flameout

for a total of 43.7 IBU

 

[Eyelusion]

I put down basically the same and it turned out beautiful and was very drinkable after 4 weeks (bottled).
Am now brewing it again but instead of amarillo I'm using cascade.
YUMMO!

 

[WarmBeer]

Taste is all subjective, and you need to put your own tastes first, but remember one thing...Balance, balance, balance (oops, sorry, that's 3 things )

I reckon drop the 10 min and the dry hop additions, and you'll be on a winner.

The CPA kit is designed to be done without any hop additions, and while it might bore most of us as a vanilla kit, it doesn't need that much to make it rock.

Adding hops for both flavour (20 mins) and aroma (flameout) will give a real nice beer, without making your non-homebrewing friends gag becuase they think you've poured them a cup of potpouri.

YMMV, but I will just re-iterate my first point: Taste is all subjective.

 

[RobboMC]

Remember the phrase ask 2 brewers and get 3 answers, well here it comes.

Balance needs to be in moderation. I had a comp brew criticised once for being too well balanced.
Yes balance is needed to make something drinkable, but something has to 'win' the battle
between the flavours to give the result a memorable character.

Don't forget the kit balances about 3/4 of the liquid malt can so no need to go overboard with the
bittering, 20 min boils are plenty when using a kit like this IMHO.

Be clear on whether you're making a bittered hoppy beer like an IPA or a malty beer with hop aroma
and flavour like a Brown Ale.

 

[levin_ae92]

My aim is to make an APA, my favorite style i reckon, mostly for my own enjoyment over the summer, most of my friends dont really drink beer lucky for me, although my step dad and father in law both enjoy my home brew so far.

My favorite commercial is coopers sparkling, so i kinda want to make something along these lines but with the APA character of amarillo

im not overly fussed about being that balanced, i like a malty beer and i like a hoppy beer, i thought this might be a nice compromise with the focus shifted slightly towards the hops.

the kit gives about 21 IBU @ 20L so i figured an extra 15 or so would put it into a nice place as far as that goes.

 

[usastman]

I would definately culture some Coopers yeast. I used a fresh wort kit with recultured coopers yeast. The yeast really gives you the coopers taste.

I added cascade - aroma and flavour. Looking at doing the same but using Amarillo.

When first tasted I was concerned with teh clash of the cooper yeast taste with the hops. The cascade hops came across as quite strong hoppyness - clashed a bit with the coopers yeast flavour.

After about 2 weeks hops smoothed out a bit - was a great beer. I think beer would be fantastic after 4 weeks of conditioning - Only problem is I drank the 20 litres I had - so will never know!

 

[levin_ae92]

okay so at this point, after all your advice, ive decided to go with a bit more with what warmbeer and robbo have suggested and try

20g @ 20 mins
10g @ flameout

sound a bit better? give an approx value of 34 IBU.

 

[bum]

For my palate, 250g of crystal would need a little more bittering (especially with that kit, the 200g I used was pretty overbearing) but if this isn't the first time you've used that much you'll know what you want.

 

[levin_ae92]

the last beer i did was

1x Sparkling Ale
1x Coopers wheat malt
250g caramalt
15g styrian goldings flowers 15 mins
15g styrian goldings flowers 5 mins
15g styrian goldings flower dry hopped at four days

was a very nice beer, but was way too sweet, as you said, but im hoping since amarillo is higher in AA it should balance a bit better?

 

[bum]

Do you know how many IBUs that brew came in at for a comparison? If much lower than the 34 you're expecting for this brew then your thinking should be sound.

 

[levin_ae92]

according to calculations about 37 IBU, due to the sparkling ale being a more bitter kit than the pale ale. i reckon given this thought i should aim for between 40-45

 

[bum]

Yep. Or conversely you could just wind back the crystal. Both would work. Finding the balance you're after is the trick.

 

[levin_ae92]

is there much difference in the fermentability of cara and light crystal?

 

[bum]

Someone else will have to give you the specifics on that one - I'm not inclined towards the scientific end of brewing right now. But I do know that I personally found 200g of light crystal much too sweet in this tin with late boil additions only. Two cents and all, of course. Other brewers will have done the same and loved it. Only one way to find out. Play with your recipe based on your experience and refine on the next one if you don't nail it.

 

[levin_ae92]

yeah i think thats the best plan, thats all part of the fun of the hobby

i think il leave it as is, and decide once ive drunk some of it what course of action ill take

will have to leave brew day til sunday, too warm this week

 

[levin_ae92]

Ok so its been in the fermenter a couple of days now

went with 125g crystal and the amarillo 20g @ 20 and 10g @ flameout

tasted it and i think im in love with amarillo hops!! i dont know how im going to wait 4 weeks after its bottled to drink it.