best kit and kilo

[oznewbie]

Hey guys, im a complete novice. And looking for a decent k&k recipe.
Im not a high end beer drinker, so think il be easily pleased..

at the minute I have on a tooheys classic dry goop tin, standard yeast and 1kg dextrose. Made up to 23litres.... As recommended by the local store. Its at 22*c. Been on for a week so far... will this be drinkable ? Lol

anyway, until I get my head around the basics of cleaning, sanitising, the process and equipment ...im on the k&k's.

anything I can upgrade in terms of brew enhancers, yeast etc to make a decent pale ale or larger?

thanks in advance. ... go easy on me guys

(Oh and I did try to search, but the search function wouldnt work properly on my tablet )

 

[TheBigD]

The sooner you go to unhopped extract and learn to do a hop boil the better

I've done a few very successful coopers tins but my all extracts have been much much better and closer to commercial brews.

I've only done coopers tins but the best have been the darker beers stout and English bitter with specialty grain additions however the best pale beer was coopers apa with Brew inhanser 2.

 

[oznewbie]

I Know I need to up my game, but im eager to practice on some easy stuff whilst Iearn it all and get used to timescales of cleaning, setting up, bottling etc

thanks for the reply. But im really wanting to get a few brews done, before upping my workload.
I know its not going to be top quality....but if I can get anywhere close to near xxxx, extra dry, superdry, budweiser etc..... il be happy for now

 

[menoetes]

Replace the kilo of sugar with a kilo of dry malt and find somewhere cooler in the house to ferment (somewhere under 20'c if possible - maybe with a wet towel wrapped around the fermenter) and you should notice a pretty big improvement in any kit brew.

Adding dry or boiled hops to this will just improve it hugely too.

I've made some very respectable kit brews that might not be as good as the top shelf craft beers but certainly kick the ass of your average megaswill. They don't take long to knock out either.

Basically using malt instead of sugar, keeping it as cool as possible and adding some simple hops right at the end are a few super easy steps that will make a massive difference to your Kit brews.

 

[bricho]

When I was doing kits, i thought Coopers International English Bitter with Light Dry Malt was alrite for a simple kit as it has Styrian Goldings, good yeast and temp control and you will have a alrite drop.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Coopers PAle Ale kit done with the correct brew pack an fermented under 18*c is prob the best of the lot.

 

[oznewbie]

Could I add some hops to my current brew now? Like what ? At what amounts? For how long?
its been on a week tomorrow. And the hydrometer is telling me its nearly ready.

next brew il ferment cooler 2.im in brisbane, so could be difficult coming into summer, but I have a few ideas/areas to try

thanks for the advice, stuff like that is exactly what im after!!

 

[4KingAle]

I think you should
Try pale ale with be2 and some dry hopping with Amarillo and or cascade.check out Gash slugg on YouTube.
Buy or Aquire a ferment fridge with temp control I.e. Stc 1000 or similar.
Steep some crystal grains into your wort.
Try these and see how you go.

 

[oznewbie]

How low can you ferment? Il see what my beer fridge is sitting at on warmest setting, and turned off also

 

[TheBigD]

I found the pale kits I played with to much turned out to be my worst brews. As said the best improvement is to go all malt and no sugar and if you were to add things such as crystal and hop additions I found less is more.
I think the kits are balanced as they are and changing them drastically hasn't been to successfully for me.

 

[panzerd18]

Depends on the yeast in terms of temperature.

Ale yeasts need a higher temperature, anywhere from 15-24 and Lager yeast need a much lower temperature, anywhere from 8-15.

 

[oznewbie]

Ok..so

coopers pale ale tin
1kg malt or be2
at a lower temp
dry hop 20g (?) Cascade finishing hops when the bubbles slow/stop for a further week?

and il never look back to tooheys etc

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I think you should
Try pale ale with be2 and some dry hopping with Amarillo and or cascade.check out Gash slugg on YouTube.
Buy or Aquire a ferment fridge with temp control I.e. Stc 1000 or similar.
Steep some crystal grains into your wort.
Try these and see how you go.

about 6g SAAZ boiled for 5-10mins is Da Bomb for this kit

 

[panzerd18]

Ok..so

coopers pale ale tin
1kg malt or be2
at a lower temp
dry hop 20g (?) Cascade finishing hops when the bubbles slow/stop for a further week?

and il never look back to tooheys etc

I would purchase the Coopers Pale Ale Tin, and a Tin of Coopers Light liquid malt extract.
18 degrees with US-05 yeast.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I would purchase the Coopers Pale Ale Tin, and a Tin of Coopers Light liquid malt extract.
18 degrees with US-05 yeast.

Hard to go wrong there

 

[oznewbie]

I would purchase the Coopers Pale Ale Tin, and a Tin of Coopers Light liquid malt extract.
18 degrees with US-05 yeast.

Then leave out the pale ale yeast?

the malt extract is replacement for the sugar, malt, brew enhancer I assume? Because its fresher than the powdered?

thanks guys.

Im actually learning here (even though its the most basic of basic)

There are a couple I want to try now.
with dry hopping, how much, and for how long?

 

[menoetes]

You could dry hop 20g of hops on day 5 or 6 of fermentation.

Alternately you could drop 20g of hops into a liter of hot water for 5- 10 minutes and then add this 'hop tea' to your fermeter at the same time you add the tin and malt. Strain or don't strain the solids out - it's a personal choice.

Cascade hops are a popular choice for the Coopers Pale kit.

 

[DU99]

"coopers" blonde fairly easy to make with a good result...

 

[BrosysBrews]

If your after that iconic Australian beer flavor (vb, Carlton etc) you need to be using pride of Ringwood hops.

Maybe give this a go, won't be a true lager but us-05 is pretty clean and crisp at low temps

1.7kg can coopers Australian pale ale
1kg DLME (dry light malt extract)
15g pride of Ringwood hops - boil for 1 min in 400g or DLME and 4lt of water, take off heat, sit with lid on for 20 min then strain into fermentor
Get temp to around 20c by adding cold water
Pitch us-05 yeast and try and keep it between 17-18c while it is fermenting, don't let it get to cool as it can stall the yeast

 

[oznewbie]

You could dry hop 20g of hops on day 5 or 6 of fermentation.

Alternately you could drop 20g of hops into a liter of hot water for 5- 10 minutes and then add this 'hop tea' to your fermeter at the same time you add the tin and malt. Strain or don't strain the solids out - it's a personal choice.

Cascade hops are a popular choice for the Coopers Pale kit.

7

boiling hot?
standard yeast? Or better with us-05