Cooper English Bitter adding mashed grains

[Rumble]

Hi,

I picked up a can of Cooper English Bitter on a sale at the brew store. Instead of using LME I would like to mash 2kg of Maris otter and then add some hops to the boil to increase the bitterness slightly.

I would like to have beer be around 5%. Will the Maris Otter provide sufficient sugars to bump up the OG?

Thinking of maybe adding some oatmeal or molasses.

Any advice welcome!

 

[bradmcm]

Does LME mean Liquid Malt Extract or Light Dry Malt Extract?
You should use this calculator: Extract to Base Grain Conversion Calculator - Brewer's Friend
Depending on your crush, 2kg of Maris Otter should equal around 1.4kg of liquid malt or 1.2kg of dry malt.
You will probably get a SG of 1.040/10P for 23L and depending on your FG, you should get between 4.5-5% abv. If you make it 20L then you will get 5% for sure.
You can add molasses either in the boil or to the fermenter but you need to add the oats to the Maris Otter mash.

 

[Jimmymac]

Go easy on the molasses. Harsh flavours may result. The voice of experience...

 

[Rumble]

Thank you both for your replies!

@bradmcm LME stands for Light dry malt and the Coopers recipe says add 1kg.

So I'm thinking something like this recipe. I'm doing brew in a bag method aiming for 20L in the fermenter.

1 can Coopers English Bitter
2kg Maris Otter
200g Oats
25g US-04

Mash grains in 8L water at 66c for 60mins
Sparge 8L @ 75c

Unsure about the water amounts here.

Boil wort 30min since not adding hops. Or should I add hops. I am unsure. I have 25g Fuggles and 25g Vic Secret.

How does this look guys?

 

[TwoCrows]

The tin of Coopers English Bitter will be hopped and bittered probably high enough not to add hops. Boil your wort from the grains 15-30 minutes and cool to 85 C and whirlpool some hops for aroma/ flavour but go easy 10 g of each maybe.

Coopers club recipes

https://www.diybeer.com/au/catalogsearch/result/?q=english bitter

 

[Drubbing]

Go easy on the molasses. Harsh flavours may result. The voice of experience...

100%. Worst EB I ever made was with molasses, go really easy. I did about 300g from memory and ended up with a beer that tasted like rusty nails. Undrinkable. I always preferred boosting my EB kits with LDM and Demerara.

I'd go the grain, but you'd need to work out how much would = malt extract. I'd go light on the hop, but I reckon it could do with some.

But - if you have the kit to mash 2kg or grain, why not go all out and make your own EB with 5.5kg ?

 

[yankinoz]

Go easy on the molasses. Harsh flavours may result. The voice of experience...

To my tastes I'd go further and say don't use molasses at all.

 

[TwoCrows]

Mash your grains in two batches and pitch the yeast on first batch. Then make the second batch and add to the first. You now have an all grain EB. It is easy to do even if you don't have large pots/vessels for a full batch.

 

[bradmcm]

No need to boil for 30 minutes unless you are going to be adding hops for bitterness. Just boil until you see the protein break. You don't need to sparge with 8L, the sparging should be through in just a few litres and you won't have to boil so much wort. I'm also worried unless you are cooling the boiled wort somehow, your fermenter is going to be quite warm even after topping it up with room temp water.
As for the hops, putting the Fuggles in the boiling wort in the last 5-10 mins of the boil will give a nice authentic UK bitter taste.
I have not used Vic Secret but it's one of those new varieties that is tropical fruit forward, so if that's what you love...
BTW, oats aren't a usual part of pale ale/bitter recipe, they normally go into darker beers where they can soften the harsh, roasty notes of dark grains.
That's not to say you can't or shouldn't try them in a bitter, if it works for you, it works for you!

 

[WHRALR]

Lots of good advice there, i will take note. I know that you did purchase the Coopers as a base, so I will give that a try (as well as the other input) BTW my local (Lower North Shore Sydney) home brew supplier does a cracking English Bitter kit that i love, however will try Coopers as a comparative evaluation.

 

[Maves]

Hi,

I picked up a can of Cooper English Bitter on a sale at the brew store. Instead of using LME I would like to mash 2kg of Maris otter and then add some hops to the boil to increase the bitterness slightly.

I would like to have beer be around 5%. Will the Maris Otter provide sufficient sugars to bump up the OG?

Thinking of maybe adding some oatmeal or molasses.

Any advice welcome!

Lots of good advice there, i will take note. I know that you did purchase the Coopers as a base, so I will give that a try (as well as the other input) BTW my local (Lower North Shore Sydney) home brew supplier does a cracking English Bitter kit that i love, however will try Coopers as a comparative evaluation.

Interested in know what is in the cracking EB kit.

 

[WHRALR]

Interested in know what is in the cracking EB kit.

I do not know the detailed contents however:
- Grain bag (soak 20min)
- Bag Malt extract and ’bittering’ hops and bag contents at boil.
- 2 x Staged additions of EKG, i think one had Irish Moss.
- Morgans ‘Goldings’ teabag 3 days into ferment.
It has a muddy dam water colour, and settled quite quickly into the ferment, start 1055- finish 1014 at bottling.
I don’t know what Morgans Goldings is. A have just assumed that it is EKG packaged as an easy to use teabag dry hop.

 

[Rumble]

100%. Worst EB I ever made was with molasses, go really easy. I did about 300g from memory and ended up with a beer that tasted like rusty nails. Undrinkable. I always preferred boosting my EB kits with LDM and Demerara.

I'd go the grain, but you'd need to work out how much would = malt extract. I'd go light on the hop, but I reckon it could do with some.

But - if you have the kit to mash 2kg or grain, why not go all out and make your own EB with 5.5kg ?

I'll leave out the molasses. I'm doing the kit + partial because I got a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out a AG recipe. I've done AG before for a whisky wash but I didn't have to worry about Hops.

I want to make an AG beer for sure. Most likely a stout or dark ale. Ideally I'd love to make a barrel aged imperial stout as thats what I love to drink.

Thanks everyone for the solid advice.

 

[Drubbing]

I'll leave out the molasses. I'm doing the kit + partial because I got a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out a AG recipe. I've done AG before for a whisky wash but I didn't have to worry about Hops.

I had a brew recipe book once, but I just buy a recipe kits from my local HBS. First time round I find out what I like and what needs changing. Usually, it's just adjusting the hop schedule, as most are middle of the road.

I started on AG because I've a long relationship with the shop and they convinced me to do a mini mash, scaling down a full recipe to 3 or 4kg or grain, as the biggest pot I had could manage that. Made up to a full strength by adding LDM. A good shop can scale stuff up or down if you can't work out ratios yourself.

 

[WHRALR]

Yep, they (HBS) love to help.