Coopers Pale Ale Recipe Critique

[Blazar]

[SIZE=medium]G’day Fellas,[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]I’m planning on putting down a Coopers Pale Ale kit on the weekend, and would like some constructive criticism on my planned receipe:[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]1.7kg Coopers Australian Pale Ale Kit[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]1kg Coopers Light Dry Malt[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Handful of Centennial boiled (unsure on how long!!)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Recultured Coopers Yeast[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Dry hop handful of Centennial at Day 7 (or thereabouts)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Ferment at 16 degrees (I have a fermenting fridge with temp control)[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]I have put down this kit twice – first time just basic kit and kilo with kit yeast and the second was a toucan version which isn’t too bad but I’m hoping the use of the recultured yeast will get it pretty close to the commercial product. Only reason I’m using Centennial as hop additions is because it’s all I have in the fridge at the moment (although they have been opened for around three months so it might be risky using them)[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Looking forward to the comments J[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Thanks,[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Ben.[/SIZE]

 

[manticle]

Centennial is very grapefruit like and is quite high in bittering alpha acids.

You will get some kind of fruity american pale ale with some bitterness depending on the length of the boil. Do you like bitter, fruity american pale ales?

Recultured coopers from a bottle?

 

[Blazar]

Yes mate apologies there I should have said that the recultured yeast is from a 6-pack of Coopers PA.

I think the only reason I'd add some hops in the boil is to get a bit more bitterness, to my taste all of the 14 kits I have put down over the last year haven't been bitter enough.

 

[maxim0200]

Im on a coopers pa, with recultured yeast out of 2longies and 1.5kg of lme.
Its clearing right now and the samples have tasted great and so far the recultured yeast was well worth it. I think it definatly needs some more hops than is in the can of goop.

Will be racking it out to bulk prime+bottle and putting down another PA ontop of the yeast cake to keg this weekend.

Tell us how it goes

 

[manticle]

Never used coopers yeast in an apa type but I know husky fermented an apa/aipa we made at a case swap with some and was a fan.

Boil up a bit of centennial with 100g of dry malt in 1 L of water (or that proportion). Longer the boil, the more bitterness, very generally speaking. For your purposes, 20-60 minutes would be the maximum boil time I would recommend. I'd go 5-10g* for 20-30 minutes and adjust next time upwards or downwards.

*Assuming 11-13% aa

 

[Blazar]

Thanks fellas, the AA of the batch I have is 10.4% so might shoot for around the 45 minute mark. Silly question on "boiling" hops......is it literally a rolling boil that you aim for, or more of a "simmer"? Only asking as last time I tried a boil it evaporated down to next to nothing hahaha.

 

[manticle]

Moving boil would be more of an accurate term.

keep an eye, top up with a bit of water if necessary (or turn the heat down)

 

[The_Luke]

My 2nd brew was a re-cultured Coopers Pale Ale. What I've noticed so far is the amazing clarity of this, and how the flavour is pretty much spot on.

I'll check my recipe, but I'm pretty sure I went 500g Dextrose and 500g LDME with the yeast starter needing 100g LDME.

 

[Blazar]

Well I didn't get to put this down over the weekend, the yeast starter hasn't quite taken off just yet. I was flying blind on how to mix up a solution of boiled water and light dried malt, ended up throwing a litre of water and 2 desert spoons of malt on the boil and added most of that into the yeast, I'm not sure if there was enough malt in the mix to wake em up so I'll add some more malt tonight after work as another stubbie worth of yeast just make sure.

I reckon I'll stick to just the kit, 1kg malt and the yeast for my first attempt, just to get a baseline to work with for future brews.

 

[Pickaxe]

Probably not enough malt to get to 1040. Check ians spreadsheet, or other resources. Think is about 100 gms a litre, someone will correct me if I'm wrong I'm sure.

 

[Rocker1986]

Yeah, generally 100g dry malt extract per litre of water will give a gravity around the 1040 mark or close enough to it.

 

[Blazar]

So that "magic number" of 1040 is the ideal number for yeast growth to kick in?

I still haven't added any more malt, just been getting my wife to shake the bottle every so often through the day. Will definitely add more malt to it tonight after work. Should I tip out any of the liquid currently in the bottle or just add to it?

 

[Blazar]

Topped up last night with more malt/boiled water, woke up this morning to definite yeast growth woo hoo!! All going well I'll put the brew down tonight, I'm trying to have it ready for a weekend away on the 23rd/24th November so might be pushing it a bit.

 

[Blazar]

Quick update for those interested:

[SIZE=medium]Finally got the brew down on Saturday morning (5th[/SIZE] October), just the straight kit CPA and 1kg light dry malt (minus whatever I used in the yeast starter). Poured of the “beer” in the starter and emptied the rest into the fermenter, I made sure I stirred the shit out of it to get some oxygen I there. The temperature probe I used to control ferment temps was in the wrong spot in my fridge, and as we were out for the night I didn’t get to check it till Sunday afternoon. Found the temp at around 11 degrees, moved the probe and now sitting at around 14-15 with a decent krausen forming and plenty of trub starting to form on the bottom.

[SIZE=medium]To add to the fun my hydrometer broke so I don’t know what the SG was, I’ll just let it go for a fortnight before bottling anyway.[/SIZE]

 

[mattdean4130]

I'm finding a kilo of malt makes mine a little "heavy" when going for a CPA...
Just copied a recipe i've been working on with ikg of dextrose only as a comparison. I'm betting a 60/40 mix (not sure which way) will probly end up the sweet spot!