Coopers + hops recipe?

[shacked]

Micko, when you did your hop boil did you just use water or did you add some malt extract to your water?

If you boil in water, you can extract some harsh flavors from your hops. Best if you do the boil at a gravity of around 1.040 which is roughly 1L of water per 100g of dry malt extract. Doing a 5L boil is a good starting point.

Also, as an aside, boiling the kit is also not a good idea.

 

[Micko71]

Ok. Yep I think 'harsh' is def the word for it. Lol.

It might be easier to just use a dry hop teabag in my case. I just want it to be simple but tasty. Maybe Amarillo all the way. Thanks so much for the info.

 

[GNU]

Next top try a hop tea. Boil 3 litres of water and add your hops to the water, cover and leave to stand for 30mins. Then strain into your fermenter.

With getting your gravity up for a boil, add 100g of dry malt for every litre.

 

[Micko71]

Will do. Thanks mate.

 

[menoetes]

Next top try a hop tea. Boil 3 litres of water and add your hops to the water, cover and leave to stand for 30mins. Then strain into your fermenter.

I'm not sure you need a whole 30min boil for the hops when you are using a pre-bittered kit. Remember, the longer you boil (or soak the hops in extremely hot water) the more bitterness you are adding. Adding 15g of amarillo (for instance) that has been boiled for 30min could add +10 IBUs to your already bittered beer, making it extra bitter.

A safe rule of thumb is 15 - 20min in boiling water are all you really need to get flavour out of hops 0 - 5min for aroma.

+1 to what shacked said about using a little malt and trying a 5lt boil. It's a little more effort but the difference is pretty startling.

One of my favourite coopers recipes is their Cheeky Cherub and it comes with full instructions on how to do the 5 litre boil and use the hops with unhopped malt. Its a golden ale that (to me) tastes something like a cross between a fat yak and a little creatures pale.

Best of luck my brew brother.

- Meno

 

[GNU]

I'm not sure you need a whole 30min boil for the hops when you are using a pre-bittered kit. Remember, the longer you boil (or soak the hops in extremely hot water) the more bitterness you are adding. Adding 15g of amarillo that has been boiled for 30min could add +10 IBUs to your already bittered beer, making it extra bitter.

A safe rule of thumb is 15 - 20min in boiling water are all you really need to get flavour out of hops 0 - 5min for aroma.

+1 to what shacked said about using a little malt and trying a 5lt boil. It's a little more effort but the difference is pretty startling.

One of my favourite coopers recipes is their Cheeky Cherub and it comes with full instructions on how to do the 5 litre boil and use the hops with unhopped malt. Its a golden ale that (to me) tastes something like a cross between a fat yak and a little creatures pale.

Best of luck my brew brother.

- Meno

I think you misread what I wrote. I wasn't suggesting boiling the hops for 30min, but to steep them in water that had been boiled for 30min. First did this when doing coopers fruit salad ale.

I tend to do 15min boils now with a kit can or a full extract boil. But the hop tea gets done when I'm in a rush

 

[Micko71]

Awesome info guys. I get it. Also I'm adding 500m to 1 l of lme to my brews ATM. so if I just boil 3 l water. Turn off the heat, add 500 ml lme mix er up and steep hops for 20 odd mins, add my aroma for 2 or so then strain all Into fermenter , I should be close to the mark ?

Also, take my bubbly out before drawing for gravity test !

Cheers micko.

 

[menoetes]

I think you misread what I wrote. I wasn't suggesting boiling the hops for 30min, but to steep them in water that had been boiled for 30min. First did this when doing coopers fruit salad ale.

I tend to do 15min boils now with a kit can or a full extract boil. But the hop tea gets done when I'm in a rush

Fair enuf...

Micko, we seem to be causing some confusion between steeping and boiling here. Personally I boil hops and steep grains but I won't say you can't steep both. Here's a simple method you can follow that's pretty fool proof though.

If you have 500g of light dry malt, dissolve that in 5lts of hot water (100g of dry malt per litre will give you the SG of 1.040 that you want for hops) and bring it to the boil in a stockpot or whatever you have handy. Keep an eye on it as it can boil over.

Set a timer (or keep an eye on your clock) for 15 minutes and add your favour hops, when the timer goes off after the 15 minutes add your aroma hops. Give it all a good stir then turn off the heat and pour the lot into your fermenter (you can strain if you like, I don't bother as the hops will drop to the bottom eventually) then stir in the kit with any extra malts/sugars you have.

They should all dissolve in the hot wort if not add some more hot water from your kettle to help it along. Top it up to your desired volume with clean tap water (please don't use the garden hose) and wait until the temp gets below 21'c before pitching your yeast.

Try and keep the temp below 20'c as much as possible, especially in the first 3 days when the yeast is throwing off most of it's flavors. Ferment until it's done. Lemon Squeezy.

Hope this helps.

- Meno

 

[Micko71]

Great thanks heaps.

 

[Matplat]

I just tasted the blushing blonde + citra after a week in the bottle, despite the very light flavour of the beer, I can't taste the hops at all. While I'm on it, the fruit lends a 'very weak cordial' flavour to the beer which is crap.

I steeped 30g hops in 3l of water just taken off the boil for 30 mins...

 

[eungaibitter1]

Micko, pretty much what menoetes said. If you boil your ldme 100gm to the litre and then add your hops. I found 20min to be long enough and or a 0min addition.
1 can lager
1kg ldme
10g Cascade @ 20min
20g Cascade @ 0min
Kit yeast
Was an old favourite.

 

[Micko71]

Thanks guys. This is all going into the brain. I'm getting a bit of an idea now !

Sorry to be off topic but I'm a bit worried. I just smelt one of my current brews. Muntons Scottish heavy ale. It smells like hcl. Should I be worried ??

 

[Jazzman]

This is what l do for my cheap and easy APA/IPA "clones"

1 tin coopers pale ale and 200g dextrose to dry it up a bit and increase alcohol a bit

Brewed to 10 litres if I want a 7%, or 14 litres for a 5% after bottling (roughly). This way l get good bitterness from the tin and dry hop for flavour/aroma, and the beer is nice and 'malty'.

Then I can experiment with different flavour hops. My favourite is Citra at the moment. Next batch will be 2g/litre, and I'll add some galaxy too. I hop toward the end of the ferment coz I like having some CO2 above the wort. I've been told this is not needed, but l like the security. I use tea bags with marbles, and l got some big stainless tea strainer ball thingies I use too

No boiling. Just mix up a batch. I also use a smaller paint tin type bucket from Bunnings with a GOOD tap.

This way I can try different beers, it's easier to move down to the shed, and I only have to fill 28 Grolsch bottles at most instead of 45, and if I don't like them its only 15 or so bucks worth. I tried the last batches with Coopers Real Ale, but they're too bitter for my tastes (still drank em!!!)

Anyway, that's where this Noob is at now. Hope it helps.

 

[peekaboo_jones]

Nice one Jazzman! I like your thinking.
How do you find the bitterness for the APA tin at 14L?
Do you get much flavour from the dry hop or just aroma?

 

[Jazzman]

I reckon the bitterness with the coopers green is perfect. And when I brew to 10 litres for an IPA its great.
Thats why l won't be using the Real Ale tins- they are too bitter for me.

Some of my dry hop experiments didn't have enough flavour/aroma but that was before I read about the 2g/litre ratio. Some where i just chucked a heap in came out great. I don't think you can really put too much in with dry hopping BUT l use the much less bitter hops of the American kind for flavour/aroma only.

Give it a go!

 

[Jazzman]

I did the sums again tonight and I've over estimated the alcohol (I'm usually drinking something when doing this stuff!!!) More like 6% for 10 litres and just under 5% for 14 litres after bottling.
Also, with regard to bitterness, Coopers green isn't very bitter at normal strength (pretty weak really), so to brew to 14 or even 10 just makes a normal strongly bittered beer (if that makes sense).

There is talk of "The Extract Tang" but l don't know what it is and l haven't been bothered by it. Eventually I'll start BIAB but for the moment my Povo IPA is working for me!
Whotcha don't know, don't hurtcha!

 

[peekaboo_jones]

Cool it's the only way, I've been known to do that too!
I agree it's not very bitter, way too easy to drink!!
I've never tasted that 'extract twang', I reckon some people have different tastebuds and can pick the home brew yeast a mile away. I had a few mates taste several of my brews over the weekend and none of them mentioned any 'twang' . neither of them had homebrew before too.

I was thinking of halving one Coopers green can between 2 fermenters, 10L each, 500g dry malt and trailing some different hops but might grab 2 cans and try your method!
I'm using specialty grains now, cold steeping overnight and boiling on brew day and dropping hops in at 5-10 mins from end of the boil and then drop more in when that time is up and take it all off the heat. It seems to work well and tastes nice. Plus doing a dry hop around day 10 and bottling day 13-14.

I want to do smaller batches cause I can't drink it fast enough! Otherwise I'll end up with too much stockpile.
Trying to keep somewhat fit in the meantime is proving difficult with this hobby too!

Cheers
Nick

 

[Jazzman]

Also, what I like about the green is it comes out a lovely golden colour whick looks great in the glass.
I just put 2 fermenters on last night, One at 10 and one at 14. 1 can and 300g dextrose, and about 12g of Galaxy in each (coz I had that much). a bit of that aroma will escape through the S bend, but thats OK. They will both cop at least 2g/Litre of Citra in a few days. Then they'll be in the bottles fot 2 whole months(which never happens with my beer!!) as I'll be in Europe.
Will be nice to come home to!

I've never entertained the specialty grain thing. It looks like too much work. I think BIAB is the next step for ne. It looks pretty straightforward. I've got the big pot from BigW and my wife will make me a bag.

Regards
Brad

 

[peekaboo_jones]

Sounds delicious Brad, very good maturing time it's a good test for you compared to your other batches. Specialty grains are an easy way to add complexity without doing biab.
I'll give the 14L recipe a try soon and let u know how it turns out.
Cheers

 

[Jazzman]

Rock on, Peekaboo!
And sorry (nah, not really) for the thread drift, OP. (but is it really drift, l mean.........