Coopers Pale Ale Kit

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Boots

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Picked up one of the brand new Coopers pale Ale kits on the weekend, and put it down with a Goliath "Aussie Pale Ale" kit, and the kit yeast.

Topped up to the suggested 23L which left me with a OG of 1042. Bit low for my liking, but I was interested to see what I'd end up with by following the instructions (except for temp).

Anyone else put one down? I noticed the yeast sachet had a "PA" stamped on it after the use by date. Are they using a different yeast for these kits?

I'm hoping this will be a good beer to give those people who are afraid of hops, and dark beers - you know, the ones that say, "Can't you make one that tastes like <<megaswill>>"

Will let you know how it goes.
 
I did the SPARKLING ALE and it is 100% great. From memory my OG was 1052 because i added the extra 500grams of dry malt + 300 of dextrose. My FG was 1012 but from what the boys have said on this site it does not go much lower than that. I also used the kit yeast and it took a while to fire up but when it did it went like a bomb. Its only been bottled for 2 weeks now, and i had my first tester last night and it was tops, just like from the pub. I think i bottled 21 litres with 180 of dex. Perfect (for me).
Let us know how it goes.
 
i have a kit of coopers pale sitting here, i checked my yeast pack and it doesnt have anything stamped onto it except the expiry date. pretty sure they are using the same old yeast.

i got told from the guy at my local HBS that morgans make these kits, along with sparkling and some others???

I will brerw this kit with some extra pale malt extract, but cant decide which hops to use, either POR or cascade.
Which way would you go??
 
I would use POR if you want a coopers pale ale....

or use Cascade to go towards the Cascade Pale Ale...

Ken....
 
Racked this straight from primary to CC last night and had a taste. Quite nice, really has the Coopers PA smell - even my missus recognised it by smell. It has probably come out a bit more bitter, and not as malty. FG 1006.

Without putting the mockers on it, looks like it will be a good session beer
 
I have a few more questions.

Feedback from a number of others in other threads is that the kits have a residual sweetness that is not at all like the original. I am going to try this kit out at some stage soon and was wondering about:
  • Should I reculture some real Pale Ale yeast from the bottle or will the supplied yeast do the job just as well?
  • Rather than use dextrose I was thinking simple cane sugar - about 250g? Isn't this what Cooper's use themselves?
  • To balance out the sweetness I was thinking of using a partial mash of about a kilo of JW Trad Ale malt mashed at 65oC with about 4L/kg - I have a little 6pack esky that gives 5L capacity and does this amount nicely
  • I was going to add some extra POR to the mini-mash boil. Not much but about 10g for 60mins.
The thinking is that the mini mash will be dry and that and the cane sugar should help get the FG down lower. I took a reading from a bottle the other day and it was 1004. A lot of folks said they got low teens.

With the yeast I want to use the recultured but I am worried that it won't like the extract too much and I may have better results with the supplied.

Any comments?
 
Can't speak for other's but mine has NO residual sweetness. If anything, I think it's a bit dryer than the commercial product. I'd say look at aeration etc if it's finishing too high in the teens.

- mine has worked well with the kit yeast nice aromas and tastes, but I've heard people have had mixed results with the bottles ie. some people say it's great others not so good, I guess it comes down to yeast management.

- duno? Personally I wouldn't though.

- would work great I think, but I would imagine you'd get a lot maltier end beer than the commercial (better though)

- i wouldn't do a 60 minute hop boil. THe goliath booster kit i got had a small quantity of POR pellets which boiled for 10 minutes. As I said, i think mine is more bitter than the commercial. You prob would want to add extra hops with the mini mash, but maybe not for such a long boil.

It would definitely be less stuffing around using the kit yeast, but you could get good results culturing. Guess it depends on how much time / energy you have.

i'm sure someone who has cultured will reply for you
 
well gmk i would not think for the cascade pale ale they use cascade as i never tasted it unless ur doing an apa
 
I need a quick brew while I dither about getting equipment set up!

And someone gave me one of these as a birthday present - so, be going the boots way and doing it pretty much by the book this weekend.

Though I may dry hop with some POR. Been trying to reculture pale ale dregs, as per Grumpys instructions, this week - with no great success

The sparkling kit came in for a fair bit of flack, but had it's supporters too.

Rubes - this is brew is gonna be the "Oor Wullie's Pail Ale" - "hand crated, oan a bucket"!, Wullie looks good centreing a black and white label -

Jings, crivens help ma boab!!!
 
Stu! I have spent the last 40 minutes looking for ma Broons annual and I can't find it now. :(

Damn, damn, damn!
 
Rubes said:
Stu! I have spent the last 40 minutes looking for ma Broons annual and I can't find it now. :(

Damn, damn, damn!
Rubes

Jings, crivens. help ma boab!!!

what else can ye say?

whae's like us, dam few, an' their aw deed

ne'er mind, we're a' jock tamsan's bairns

(the non Scots can ignore this last post and return to the pale ale kit subject matter)
 
I made one up

Thought it was close to the real Coopers PA, but a nice bittersweet balance. That was with just my Aust. Pale Ale Pack and the Morgans POR finishing hops, simmered with the wort from the Pack for 5 mins and left to steep in the hot wort 10mins. Wonder if maltodextrin would leave the sweetness some talk about in the Sparkling and PA kits?

A good one to wean your mates away from swill and towards HB!

Jovial Monk
 
Bobby said:
i got told from the guy at my local HBS that morgans make these kits, along with sparkling and some others???
Why would Coopers outsource the production of their sparkling and pale kits when they have their own malting and kit production on site?
 
Yeah thats what i thought. But i noticed while looking around on the morgans website they had a newsletter in it advertsing coopers sparkling kits???
JV should know the score?
 
I put on one of the Pale Ale kits this evening. I was going to make it exactly according to their directions to see how true to form it was, but changed my mind at the last minute. The brew is as follows:

21 litres
Coopers Brew Enhancer #2
extra 150g DME
finishing hops from grumpy's colonial mild irish stout (fuggles? goldings?), added to dissolved extract and held at 75C for 5 minutes.

It worked out to an SG of 1042, which seemed a little low.
 
Coopers own 60% of Morgans, I believe, so not surprising Morgans boost Coopers kits.

The PA kit looks nothing like a Morgans kit.

Heh! Don't believe everything these HBS guys tell you :)

Jovial Monk
 
Just re-hydrating the dried yeast that came in the kit. I haven't used Cooper's yeast for a while but this one looked different to me. There looked like a mix of 2 yeasts? One was the tiny dried granules you normally see and the other looked like little pellets - about 10 times the size of the smaller ones. There seemed to be about a 50/50 split.

Is this normal for Cooper's yeast? Or have I got the one with the rat shit in it? ;)
 
I have one in my hot little hands as of today , will give it a go as per instructions first

I would like to find a nice and easy K&K to do between AGs

I was disappointed in my Sparkling Ale , I did taste some good ones on the tour , I think it was Bens , maybe wrong
 
Well i will put one of these on as soon as possible. Probably in a couple of weeks.
Hope it better than the Sparkling Ale.

cheers
 
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