'battle Of The Toucans'

[TheBigD]

Ive had a couple of testers of my Coopers stout,dark ale with 1kg Dark dry malt made to 21L with an ABV of around 8-9% Its an awesome robust stout cant wait to crack the keg for the family at Xmas. In fact I've just put another bottle on ice to have later tonight then ill put the last 5 bottles away to age for 12 months or longer

 

[user 37368]

My first toucan came out a treat, thanks to everyone that has posted results.

2x cans Home Brand Draught
500g LDME
200g CaraRed Malt and 50g Roasted Barley (Red ale grain pack) - steeped 20 mins @ 70c
25g Centennial in steep @ half way
Filled to 23l
US-05 @ 20deg, ~8 days
25g Centennial when krausen drops, @ 21.5deg for 3 days.
3 days cold crash @ 1 deg. Gelatin after 1 day
Straight out of primary into keg and gassed.

1.057 to 1.014

Awesomely bitter, keg is almost empty so I'm going to do it again with Citra/Centennial mix and only 20l.

d.

 

[Benn]

Got my first Toucan in the FV at the moment,

1x Coopers Australian Pale Ale
1x Coopers Canadian Blonde
500g Carapils
500g Crystal
25g Cascade at 60min
25g Cascade at 0 min
US-05
18 deg.
21L
1:046 OG

 

[NikZak]

I'm inspired to try my own Toucan soon folks thanks to finally getting through all 36 pages and getting lots of ideas. I'm thinking I'll get whatever is on special when I find it on special and adding a bit of BE2 and some extra LDME and pitching onto the US-05 yeast cake that comes out of my next brew (American Pale Ale). Surely this will be enough yeast to sustain a toucan

 

[NikZak]

Out of these cans what do you guys suggest for something different? I'm going to the LHBS tonight after work so can pick up some things to add if you suggest but I have he following:
2× home brand draught
1× Tooheys special lager
1× Cooper's Australian Pale Ale
1× Cooper's dark Ale
1× BE2
The yeast packets from each can
1× US-05
Lots of EC-1118

Will be pitching on an active US-05 yeast cake mixed with Cascade hops put in as a dry hop when I rack the currently brewing Pale Ale to secondary so there should be enough hop juice left in there to give some extra hoppy goodness to this brew.

I'm thinking of making this a Christmas beer so will probably dump some cinnamon and star anise in there as well as a vanilla pod and whatever else people suggest

Currently thinking the Australian Pale Ale and the dark Ale with the above adjuncts but what are other people's thoughts?

 

[Mattrox]

Dropped into the local Foodland and they had Coopers tins on special.

I picked up 2x Coopers Pale Ale and 2x Real Ale and a kilo of dex.


I'm going to make 2x Extra Strong Vintage Ale recipies. Undecided on hops yet. I'll probably do the '13 and '15 styles as I'm an odd kind of fellow.

 

[NikZak]

I decided to get my Toucan Julebryg or Christmas Beer down a few days ago, it smells amazing, haven't tasted it yet but here's what I went with:

1x 1.7kg Coopers Australian Pale Ale
1x 1.7kg Coopers Dark Ale
100g Maple syrup
60g Brown sugar (it's all I had left)
1.5 Star anise
1 Tbsp Cloves
1 Large vanilla pod
2 cinnamon sticks
10g Cascade hop pellets
Both kit yeasts pitched into 28 degree water for 30mins prior to pitching

Method

Put the spices, maple syrup, brown sugar and hops into a saucepan with about 2.5L of water and bring it to the boil
While this was coming to the boil, clean and sanitise fermenter and all other tools (spoon, seive, airlock, can opener) and put both cans of Coopers goo into sink of hot water
Simmer spice mixture for 20 mins then let cool for 30 mins with the lid on the saucepan
Open cans of goo, pour into fermenter and rinse cans with boiled water into fermenter
Strain spice mixture into fermenter
Stir well to dissolve the extract
Pour one saucepan full of water through strainer into the fermenter to extract as much tasty goodness into the mixture then continue to top up to about the 20L mark
Check temperature (mine was at 24 degrees at this point, just perfect) and OG (mine was 1.053)
Pitch yeast, put on lid and airlock, fill airlock with water/fluid of your choice and leave to do its thing in a dark cool spot

By the next morning, I had a 5" krausen on it and the airlock was going totally nuts with a huge bubble every second, that evening the krausen hit the top of the fermenter but didn't come out the airlock. The smell was delightful

I've now left it for the last 6 days and will be racking it into a secondary to get it off the yeast cake and trub and let it finish off nicely

 

[boingk]

Can't believe this thread is still going after starting it in 2007! Awesome stuff.

The Coopers Aussie Pale / Dark Ale kit combo sounds like a good one, NikZak, might have to give it a go, or sub a Stout for the Dark perhaps...

Cheers - boingk

 

[peekaboo_jones]

My next Toucan will be:
2x Coopers Canadian Blonde cans
100g Special B grains
1x Danstar Belle Saison yeast
Brewed to 26L

 

[NikZak]

Can't believe this thread is still going after starting it in 2007! Awesome stuff.

The Coopers Aussie Pale / Dark Ale kit combo sounds like a good one, NikZak, might have to give it a go, or sub a Stout for the Dark perhaps...

Cheers - boingk

I was thinking of doing the stout but not everyone likes that and as I was doing it for a Christmas beer I'd like as many people as possible to try it.

On topic though, I dropped a toucan of homebrand draught on the yeast cake of he Christmas beer after it was racked to secondary last night and within two hours I had an explosion of krausen out of the airlock! Popped my volcano cherry

Funny thing is that brew seems finished airlock activity wise in 24 hours! Might just leave it a week to be safe. Didn't take an OG but as long as FG is around 1.010 or 1.008 I'll be safe

 

[ajg]

think my next brew will be a toucan batch as rego just hit. I am thinking using 2 draught tins only and I have 25g of both summer and Amarillo at my disposal for a dry hop.

 

[NikZak]

About 4 nights ago I put down a toucan of homebrand draught and it fermented like crazy pitched on a yeast cake but seems to have stopped already and is stuck at 1.020. Should I be concerned? I'm leaving it for now until at least Wednesday but will be away next weekend from Thursday night. Maybe I'll just leave it until next week to be safe.

I have heard that when putting wort onto a yeast cake it will ferment significantly faster but I wasn't expecting it to be done in 2 days. I may bottle it into PET just to be safe

 

[peekaboo_jones]

Yesterday I put down a quickie:
Lazy Saison
1x Coopers Aussie pale ale tin
1x Coopers Canadian Blonde tin
Filled to 26L
1x Danstar belle Saison yeast
OG 1.041.

Hopefully turns out ok.
Plan to rack another Saison onto this yeast cake in a few weeks. Probably something more traditional, stronger and with specialty grains

 

[ajg]

Just did my first toucan today. Went with -

2 x coopers draught tins
20g cascade steeped in hot water 10 minutes and added to the wort.

Hope it turns out ok.

 

[menoetes]

How many liters did you make it up to Ajg? The volume makes all the difference when it comes to bitterness in a toucan brew. The cascade is a nice addition though sir. I'm sure it'll turn out nice enough...

 

[AlwayzLoozeCount]

Just did my first toucan today. Went with -

2 x coopers draught tins
20g cascade steeped in hot water 10 minutes and added to the wort.

Hope it turns out ok.

http://store.coopers.com.au/recipes/index/view/id/46/

There's this one on the Coopers site, says it has lots of cascade hop character and that's just using the tins without any hop additions. Should turn out nice I reckon.

 

[Lager Bloke]

First couple of brews I made were a tin each of Coopers Dark ale/real ale + 1kg DME=quite nice.Also tried 2x Dark ale tins,licorice extract(15ml's from memory)Lactose + corn syrup = as nice as well,bit more complexity

 

[ajg]

How many liters did you make it up to Ajg? The volume makes all the difference when it comes to bitterness in a toucan brew. The cascade is a nice addition though sir. I'm sure it'll turn out nice enough...

I made it up to 20L

 

[menoetes]

Two Coopers draught tins made up to 20lts? Whoa, that drink is going to be thick, strong and very bitter. My first toucan was a Coopers pale ale & a coopers blonde made up to 26lts with some Amarillo in the end and I found that to be very bitter. You need to remember with a toucan that you are effectively doubling the bitterness by replacing the unhopped malt/sugar addition with another hopped tin of malt and increase the volume to compensate.

However if that's how you like 'em; bitter & chewy then it won't be a problem. It'll kinda be like a DIPA I think... did you pitch both yeasts?

I'm not trying to get you down but maybe taste a sample from your fermented and see what you think. It could be alright after-all...

 

[hwall95]

Just did my first toucan today. Went with -

2 x coopers draught tins
20g cascade steeped in hot water 10 minutes and added to the wort.

Hope it turns out ok.

It should turn out pretty well, two tins according to the spreadsheet only bring the OG to 1.052 @ 50 ibu. Will have a decent bitterness but nothing too extreme, and won't be too boozy. FG predicted at 1.013, so the extra sweetness should balance with the bitterness. It may need some more flavour depending on how you like your hops, if I were you I would dry hop another 30-40g after fermentations finishes either of cascade or another hop that compliments. Make sure it doesn't get too hot and it should be a nice easy beer.