Coopers Ipa

[hoppy2B]

slash, I'm guessing he's unfamiliar with your method of aeration. Do you have pics of your wine degasser?

 

[slash22000]

slash, I'm guessing he's unfamiliar with your method of aeration. Do you have pics of your wine degasser?

I don't have any pictures of my own, but . Aerating wort, same method. You need a powerdrill that can take a 10mm fitting and away you go. According to Google it takes about 5 minutes of constant "degassing" to completely aerate the wort, which is a lot faster and easier than having to pick it up and shake it etc (break your damn spine).

It's an American company who makes that specific model, I got mine off eBay for about $20 including postage (I can link to their eBay store if that's not against the rules or something). You should be able to get similar types of things from brewshops, not sure what the price is domestically.

 

[hoppy2B]

Yeah had a look at that video. Some might call it controversial. If it aerated your wort I would be concerned about it oxidizing ones wine if used in the manner that it is in the video. It might also lead to reduction of aroma and flavour in wine. :huh:

 

[Brewman_]

WTF?? :lol:

Hey Dude,
I don't give a F! What number of beers come in the pack. I am talkning about the beer?


Fear

 

[hoppy2B]

Yeah, the joke was that they do come in a 6 pack.

 

[bignath]

Not sure what you are WTF'ing there? Now I'm concerned I did something wrong! :unsure:

slash, I'm guessing he's unfamiliar with your method of aeration. Do you have pics of your wine degasser?

yep, have never seen that before. Learn something new each day i guess.

Whilst it may work to some degree, there's just something about it that i wouldn't be comfortable with......not sure.

You could do the same with a paint stirrer in a drill i 'spose.

Do you ferment in glass? I can see how this would be of a benefit to glass carboy brewers as you lose the ability to pour into carboy from any great height due to the small opening.

If using glass to ferment in, another option would be to compile your beer into a standard fermenter, then transfer via hose and one of Siphon Spray Wort Aerator! into the carboy.

Either way, you have something extra to clean and sanitise. I'm AG brewing, and i no chill, so i pour my cube of wort into my fermenter SLOWLY (convinced it makes a difference) from as high as i can comfortably handle. Get what appears to be very good aeration, and most fermentations kick off inside 12hours.

Would be different if brewing with cans.


EDIT: Yay, i finally worked out how to add a "link" to a post!

 

[james82t]

Hey everyone, I was pretty keen on brewing a relatively standard toucan but have had an enlightenment of sorts in a bottle of Vale IPA. I understand that it may not be considered a true IPA but that intensely fruity hops aroma is what i'm really digging atm. To cut a long story short I've ended up with a Coopers IPA kit, 1.5kg of LME, some DME and dextrose. As well as some amarillo and cascade hops.

I would just like to see what you all think of this recipe. It's my 3rd brew but first real venture away from a standard K+K style brew. Using ianh's spreadsheet (huge thanks man!) I've ended up with a recipe that fills in the requirements for an American IPA but wanted to see what you all think. Without further ado...

1.7kg Coopers IPA kit
1.5kg Morgans Pale Lager LME
500g DME
500g Dextrose
Filled to 23L

I was then thinking of boiling the DME in 5L of water and adding 10g of cascade and 10g of amarillo at 10mins and another 10g of each at 5mins. I will then dry hop 20g of each ~7 days before bottling. Also I'm using US-05 yeast and will try to keep temps around 18-20C.

According to the spreadsheet, It ends up at 1.059 OG, 1.013FG, 44.4IBU's and 6.3% abv after bottling.

I should probably add that I tried a Sleeping Giant IPA and found it pretty bad. Fair amount of bitterness upfront (which i didn't mind), too much maltiness and hardly any aroma to speak of. May have been brewed to a more english style but I really didn't enjoy it so i definitely don't want to end up with something like that.

Cheers.

can you report on how this goes, im a big fan of the vale ipa and would like something that come close. actually i dont mind the sleeping giant ipa, its only average not the aroma of the vale. its the only ipa at my local!! shit eh

 

[awall]

I actually just bottled it today. I followed my original plan and everything seems good. I had a small glass straight from the bottling bucket to "test" and I don't think that it will be similar to the vale IPA, but in a few weeks we'll see. I wasn't trying to copy that beer, but really enjoyed it when I had it. I wanted to make something that had heaps of that fruity?, hoppy flavour/aroma.

The Amarillo aroma is very strong atm and it seems dryer than either of those commercial IPA's. If you wanted to copy the Vale using a kit it's probably not a bad place to start. I'd probably add more DME and less dextrose. Then use the hops they use (Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin and Citra). But i don't really know what i'm doing so that's just a guess. I'm sure someone will be able to point you in the right direction.

I'll report back in a couple of weeks when it's properly carbed, but i'm pretty happy with how it has turned out so far.

Thanks everyone for the help!

 

[431neb]

I actually just bottled it today. I followed my original plan and everything seems good. I had a small glass straight from the bottling bucket to "test" and I don't think that it will be similar to the vale IPA, but in a few weeks we'll see. I wasn't trying to copy that beer, but really enjoyed it when I had it. I wanted to make something that had heaps of that fruity?, hoppy flavour/aroma.

The Amarillo aroma is very strong atm and it seems dryer than either of those commercial IPA's. If you wanted to copy the Vale using a kit it's probably not a bad place to start. I'd probably add more DME and less dextrose. Then use the hops they use (Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin and Citra). But i don't really know what i'm doing so that's just a guess. I'm sure someone will be able to point you in the right direction.

I'll report back in a couple of weeks when it's properly carbed, but i'm pretty happy with how it has turned out so far.

Thanks everyone for the help!

I'm banging on about this one a lot at the moment because it's one of the best beers I've ever made*. It was a Coopers Canadian Blonde kit with the coopers brew booster and some Hallertau and Citra hops. The Citra (I'm tipping from the smell in the packet) have given this beer a massive floral note, like a goddamn fruit salad. People ask if there is fruit in the brew yet it is not offensive or out of place. I'm a big Citra fan now. I'll post more information if anyone is interested. Really enjoying the outcome of my cheap beer experiment which I'm Calling the "Bitter Blonde" (Plagiarised). I'll not be buying any $50+++ kits for a while. Just put down a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and some of the hops with that (Magnum was one) smell like horse-shit in comparison. I'm sure it will play it's part in the PA but they are chalk and cheese.

*Not the greatest claim to fame as by brew count would probably only be a about 20.

Incidentally , I plan to Visit the Matilda Bay Brewery for a meal and a tour soon so I searched AHB for references and this thread is the second time I've read about what sounds like infected bottles from them. Fat Yak is one that I have had a few times and really enjoyed. I was surprised to hear it criticised - hence my comment on infection... I bought a 4 pack of Alpha there yesterday which is great and packs a hop punch (unsurprisingly) but my Bitter Blonde is better.

 

[unclebarrel]

Incidentally , I plan to Visit the Matilda Bay Brewery for a meal and a tour soon so I searched AHB for references and this thread is the second time I've read about what sounds like infected bottles from them. Fat Yak is one that I have had a few times and really enjoyed. I was surprised to hear it criticised - hence my comment on infection... I bought a 4 pack of Alpha there yesterday which is great and packs a hop punch (unsurprisingly) but my Bitter Blonde is better.

I agree with you 431neb. I cant say I am an expert on anything beer related but you may have read correctly on the bottle infections. I am a bit of a fan of fat yak. But I have definitely had a couple of slabs that I had to return to point of purchase because it tasted like out if date mass produced rubbish beer.

I am only 5 brews into the world of home brew, and I already prefer to drink my own !!


UB

 

[431neb]

I agree with you 431neb. I cant say I am an expert on anything beer related but you may have read correctly on the bottle infections. I am a bit of a fan of fat yak. But I have definitely had a couple of slabs that I had to return to point of purchase because it tasted like out if date mass produced rubbish beer.

I am only 5 brews into the world of home brew, and I already prefer to drink my own !!


UB

I discussed this topic with a very knowledgeable brewer the other day and his opinion on crook stubbies from Matilda Bay was that their newfound popularity meant that they needed to make and store a lot more beer. ie Improper storage of real beer = shit beer.
Wheras commercial beers are more forgiving. Seemed plausible to me.

 

[jdsaint]

Yeah I agree with you awall, The Sleeping Giant IPA is a bit heavy on the caramel maltiness. Perhaps a couple of years in the cellar would improve it. I recommend you try a Fat Yak, they are pretty nice.
Good luck with your brew.

fat yak is awesome but its a starter for whats out there, fat yak got me into hoppy beer and now ive been forking out $50 after $50 for fat yak to save bottles to get back into the brew game, ive been gone for 5 years, now beer price has risen time to get creative

 

[Stuwort]

Dude I think Fat Yak comes in a 4 pack. :lol:

Definitely six to a pack.

 

[awall]

Hey everyone, it's only 2 weeks since i bottled, but thought i'd give an update. Unfortunately rather that being a hop-bomb it's turned into a bit of a fusel-bomb. It has a pretty nice aroma and smells almost like a strawberry jam which i was very pleased with. It tastes quite nice upfront and has a solid bitterness, but has a very strong alcoholic bite at the finish. I also find I get slight headache pretty quick after only half a glass.

Definitely a lesson learnt in yeast comfort (should've listened to you waggastew ). I couldn't cool the beer any less than ~27 degrees before i pitched and looking at the calculators I underpitched by about half a pack of dry yeast. I kept it around 18 degrees while fermenting but those first few hours were probably quite a bit higher and supposedly that's when the bad flavours are produced.

I'm going to try something similar again soon, but sub in more DME and less dextrose. Then make sure I pitch the correct amount of yeast at the correct temp. I might try and add some specialty grains to pimp it a little bit too.

It's unfortunate because it's a nice beer until the fusel twang finish and impending headache <_< . Cascade and amarillo are a great combo and for anyone wanting to step out of K+K land it's probably not a bad place to start if you can sort out the yeast issues.