Best Kit And Kilo Recipes

[wiggins]

I'd have to say coopers canadian blonde with 1.5 kilo's of brew enhancer 2 as my best to date.

 

[bindi]

Can of Canadian Blond and Grumpys Windjammer Dutch lager bag, did this over a year ago yum, frement long and low 12c I think it was and cc for 4 weeks.

 

[PistolPatch]

Nice to see this thread and the number of replies. It gives me some balance! This site has revived my previous enthusiasm of home-brewing tremendously however, in my enthusiasm, I found myself getting a little off-topic! I was forgetting the basics - temperature etc. and what I actually wanted.

I have tasted some pretty good beers of home brewers just doing the most basic stuff. I've had heaps of experience in beer tasting and I know what I like. I don't like Pale Ales (a few exceptions here), am over wheat beers, and I dislike stouts. I do like easy drinking beers such as Asahi. In fact, easy drinking beers for me is what beer is all about. If they're hoppy, even better and now I'm getting older - lower strength.

My aim in getting back to home-brewing was to brew a Haagen Premium Light. Yet, I have been so side-tracked reading everything about beer, that I have lost sight of my original plan! This is a great light beer but is so hard to find. I actually rang the rep and told him to put the price up so it would be recognised! (It sells for $20 a carton.)

I think I'll look at some of the above, add a little Hersbrucker, relax and just enjoy my beer!

I hope I don't offend the AG'ers as I am very interested in reading all the AG stuff. I think it is great actually and one day I would like to get into it - one day when I have a little more time and space. But, in themeantime, it is nice to see this thread as sometimes I do get a little bewildered!

Oh, and good on you, PostModern! When a moderator contributes to a Kit and Kilo post I reckon it gives all of us a little more confidence!

This could possibly be my last ramble for the night!

Cheers
PP

Oh, and so as not to be totally off-topic my favourite recipe is....

 

[Mr Bond]

Hey PP,
here is a quick and dirty low alc. beer.

1x can of coopers lager
20 gms hersbrucker or hallertau 15 min boil.

Fill to 18 litres and pitch with a good attenuating ale(coopers reculture or saf us56) or lager yeast if temps can be kept low.
should give you a clean/crisp light bodied beer of around 3.5%.

 

[Boozy the clown]

Wyeast 3787 belgian
coopers lager kit
2x kilo coopers brewing sugar no2
500 gms brewiser sugar
200gms honey
and about 500gms of liquid malt extract

low temps, camden winter brew.

Started at 11.00, bottled the Sugar Monster at 10.35

Not a quick fermenter, took about 6 weeks i think, very cold weather though...

Tasted great.

 

[Charlie]

My best so far is based on the Kit recipe for an APA from the Grain and Grape website.

Coopers Aussie Pale Ale kit
1 kg LMDE
250 g of Crystal steeped in 65 deg water for about 20min
50 g of cascade steeped in boiled for 5
fermented with the kit yeast

very happy with the results. Going to try a variant on the w/e using the Real Ale kit but fermented with US-56

Also looking at trying G&G's Russian Imperial Stout with a few additions

 

[Finite]

Coopers Heritage Lager Kit
1kg DLME
250g Dex

use the supplied yeast
Ferment at 18-20c

Scrubs up very nice.

 

[Thommo]

My best was probably a Coopers Heritage Draught, Ultrabrew, and 12gms Cluster for 10mins, SO4 dried yeast, to 23 litres. Bit low on SG, but bottle primed and turned out at 4%. Very easy drinking.

 

[deebee]

My standard brew these days is to mash 1.5 - 2kg of malt, boil for an hour then just as you turn out the flame add an ounce of aromatic hops and a kit. Stir to dissolve. Chill and add to a fermenter with pre-boiled and cooled water to make up volume. Ferment.

Favourite combos are
*Munich malt, with some caramunich or melanoidin and a stout kit no need for hops but you could use something English.
*Pils malt, light kit like a blonde or lager, hersbrucker/hallertau.
*Trad pale ale malt with some crystal malt and an ale kit with 30-50g of EKG, and a little extra extract.
*Rauchmalt with some caramunich and a dark ale kit and a blend of cascade/EKG. Yum.
*Coopers Bavarian lager kit, melanoidin, light munich malt, lots of saaz.
(Use appropriate yeasts.)

No calculations. No missed targets. No large boil. Quick chilling time. Surprisingly good beers for a little extra effort.

 

[KKmaster]

Here's an old beer that is the best beer i have made;
Coopers dark ale
1kg DME
500gms brown sugar
250gms chocolate malt grains( steeped for 20min)
2 plugs hallertau hops
2 plugs hallertau hops

Drain and rinse grains, add liquid to boiler (throw grains out) with can, malt and sugar and about 2lt of water, bring to boil and add 2 plug( I put my hops into bags made from stockings), boiled 20mins turn of heat add the another hops. Throw into fermenter, top up to 23lts.
In fermenter for 2 weeks bottled and leave for as long as possible. But be warned once you start you'll have trouble stopping

 

[DrewCarey82]

A suprisingly beautiful refreshing beer for me has been.

Coopers Bitter.
Coopers Brew Enhancer 2.

Needs about 10 weeks in the bottle but is refreshingly bitter and delicous, for a quick and easy doozy you really cant argue with it.

 

[sluggerdog]

This was the best kit + kilo recipe I did when I was doing that kinda thing..

Now that I have run out of grain I decided to do it again last weekend (still fermenting of course) Am looking forward to see if it still is as great as I remember.

Morgan's Canadian Light
500 Dex - 250 DME - 250 MD
10 grams Halleratu
10 grams Tettanger

Originally done with safale (no fridge back then) but this time around I am doing it with wyeast danish lager

[post="107357"][/post]​

Thought I would confirm this, tasted this the other day and yes it's still a cracker of a kit, comes out super light and refreshing, very easy to drink.

Would be close to some of my AG lagers I have done in the past (I said close ONLY)

Cheers!

 

[hughman666]

there have been some replies in here with people adding 1.5 - 2kg of malt/dext/etc to the 1.7kg can kit and filling up to the 18-20l mark.

does this make the beer very heavy? i typically only throw in around 1kg of extras (malt, dext & hops) to the 1.7kg can kit

im wondering what sort of flavour increase/alteration you would see with the extra 0.5-1kg of extras...

 

[DrewCarey82]

I normally use a coopers brew enhancer 2 1kg, lately I've been tempted to throw in an extra 500g of dried malt to increase its body I have to say.

Some of the amounts of sugars on here I've seen I have to admit border on ridiculous but hey if they work they work.

 

[Mackers]

My standard brew these days is to mash 1.5 - 2kg of malt, boil for an hour then just as you turn out the flame add an ounce of aromatic hops and a kit. Stir to dissolve. Chill and add to a fermenter with pre-boiled and cooled water to make up volume. Ferment.

DeeBee,

Could you desribe your mash procedure, please. Are the grains crushed? I'd like to have a go at this.

 

[Aaron]

im wondering what sort of flavour increase/alteration you would see with the extra 0.5-1kg of extras...

[post="111719"][/post]​

It will depend on what extras you put in. If you add dextrose or other simple sugars you will get more alcohol but thinner more watery beer. A better way to go is to add some malt extract, depending on the beer style, it will add extra malt flavour and body to your beer.

The malt extract contains more complex along with the simple fermentable sugars. These sugars are left behind after fermentation and give added body to your beer. If you do use the simple sugars you will get the alcohol boost but without adding the extra flavour and body. You can also get some off/cidery flavours if you use large quantities of simple sugars.

If you reduce the volume of your beer you will also add to the final body of the beer. Giving it a thicker creamier mouth feel that will suit some styles.

 

[pint of lager]

Mackers, have a read of Cubbie's partial mash topic. Yes, the grains are crushed, then mashed, the resulting malt sugars rinsed out (called sparging) and the resulting solution boiled for an hour.

Warning, this leads to the slippery slope of ag.

 

[hughman666]

another question, is the ccopers brew enhancer 2 comparable to other kits you get from HBS, such as the westbrew kits? i know some of these kits "convert" your can kit to a different type of beer, however if no conversion was required, would the coopers brew enhancer stand up to the task, or is it cheap and nasty. im putting a brew down on saturday and may try one of these....

 

[DrewCarey82]

Your best off using ultra brew available @ big W and kmart for around $6.20.

This contains 500g of light malt, 250grams of dextrose, 250 grams of maltodextrin.

Which is what a lot of boosters at your LHBS contain, and you wont have to pay $8-9 for the privelidge.

For me I rarely have the opportunity to get to big W or kmart and order my kits via a source @ cost price via mail order.

But for Morgans kits Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 works a treat but if you can get UltraBrew go that instead.

 

[peas_and_corn]

I have a honey beer going, it's really easy to make and everyone who has tried it has loved it (been told they prefer it to beez neez, which I consider to be quite a tribute)

Morgan's Wheat Beer kit
500g light dry malt extract
1kg honey (make sure it's processed, as pure honey will have pollens that will mess it up- I use bilo brand honey- good as any, really)

I use the can yeast, but next batch I'm making I will do the same thing but with a different yeast to see what the difference is. I'll be doing that in about a week when my first honey beer is put into secondary, as I can put cubes in a spot the fermenter can't fit.