Coopers selling full kit & bits recipe packs with free postage.
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Unfamiliar with Steam Beer or californian common. I'm thinking I'll give it a shot though, I'm looking at doing another for Jan/Feb drinking.
Although I was really hanging out for the Chubby Cherub, still sold out unfortunately. Boss said that he's done many 'Real Ales' before, so I'm thinking about doing it just so he can see what difference a little bit of malt, grain and hops and yeast can do compared to his standard kit and kilo mix.
Although I was really hanging out for the Chubby Cherub, still sold out unfortunately. Boss said that he's done many 'Real Ales' before, so I'm thinking about doing it just so he can see what difference a little bit of malt, grain and hops and yeast can do compared to his standard kit and kilo mix.
mwe
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Would anyone happened to have taken a copy of the Chubby Cherub recipe they could pass on to me? I'm getting a page not found error on the Coopers website when I try to download it.
I've just ordered the Steam beer kit but wouldn't mind trying the Chubby Cherub by sourcing the ingredients from my LHBS.
I've just ordered the Steam beer kit but wouldn't mind trying the Chubby Cherub by sourcing the ingredients from my LHBS.
indica86
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Yep thanks Indica, pain in the ass here at work, most alcohol related sites are blocked. Fortunately coopers store and aussiehomebrewer work, not much else.
I've emailed my LHBS about Chubby Cherub ingredients:
1.5kg Thomas Coopers Amber Malt Extract
1.5kg Thomas Coopers Light Malt Extract
500g Light Dry Malt
2 x 25g Chinook Hop pellets
25g Cascade Hop Pellets
25g Nelson Sauvin Hop Pellets
11g Danstar BRY-97 Yeast (or American Ale yeast of your choice)
They're not amazingly competitive on price so I'm curious to see what they can offer. And I'm guessing I'd need to buy 110g packs of hops anyway. So 10 bucks each probably.
I think it'll end up being 65-70 dollars.
I've emailed my LHBS about Chubby Cherub ingredients:
1.5kg Thomas Coopers Amber Malt Extract
1.5kg Thomas Coopers Light Malt Extract
500g Light Dry Malt
2 x 25g Chinook Hop pellets
25g Cascade Hop Pellets
25g Nelson Sauvin Hop Pellets
11g Danstar BRY-97 Yeast (or American Ale yeast of your choice)
They're not amazingly competitive on price so I'm curious to see what they can offer. And I'm guessing I'd need to buy 110g packs of hops anyway. So 10 bucks each probably.
I think it'll end up being 65-70 dollars.
menoetes
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Well done to WWDWD for beating me to the new recipe of the month, it's a steam beer eh? It looks like it has the option of low temp brewing, a bit like lagering techniques (which I haven't tried yet, not being a huge fan of lagers) but is otherwise a pretty simple kit and bits recipe. I'm sorry to say I'm not as excited about this one as I have been about some of their other. Still decent value though, if not as good as some of their previous packs.
Bax I'm a little surprised you price comes out so high at your LHBS, I jumped on the website for mine and it came out to $55 (and that's buying 100g hop packs from my ebay supplier but switching the malt to 2kg of light and 1kg of amber of the stores own variety instead of the coopers). Bearing in mind you'll be saving the most of the hops for later brews you could probably drop your estimated brew price down to around $50.
That chubby Cherub was very good value for money
Bax I'm a little surprised you price comes out so high at your LHBS, I jumped on the website for mine and it came out to $55 (and that's buying 100g hop packs from my ebay supplier but switching the malt to 2kg of light and 1kg of amber of the stores own variety instead of the coopers). Bearing in mind you'll be saving the most of the hops for later brews you could probably drop your estimated brew price down to around $50.
That chubby Cherub was very good value for money
I'm only estimating, but they charged me 7.50 for US05 and about 7 dollars for their home made brew enhancer pack. Call it 15ish per Malt extract and it's getting up there quite quickly. I did email them, so I'll see what they come back with.menoetes said:
You're right about the Steam Beer though, as nice as the image looked, I was 2 seconds away from ordering it, but changed my mind last minute. I've ordered a heap of hops from National Homebrew last night, I just need the DME and the malt extracts and I'll be good to go. Probably around 50 bucks worth for the entire kit which is quite good considering it was 45 from coopers. And I ordered 100g hop packs.
blackbeard2
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Hi there, first time posting so please go easy ;p
So I've ordered and am patiently waiting for my "Steam Beer" recipe pack to arrive, and since I've also just started playing with the "Kit and Extract Beer designer" spreadsheet, I thought I'd plug the recipe into the spreadsheet for something to do.
Unless I've somehow entered the recipe into the spreadsheet wrong - it seems that the resulting beer may not be very true to style. I played around with the spreadsheet a bit and it seems that by adding 0.5Kg of Dextrose and 0.2Kg of dark DME I will get a beer which is a lot closer to the style (California Common).
Wondering what others thought of this recipe, and would the above extra additions be beneficial or not??
So I've ordered and am patiently waiting for my "Steam Beer" recipe pack to arrive, and since I've also just started playing with the "Kit and Extract Beer designer" spreadsheet, I thought I'd plug the recipe into the spreadsheet for something to do.
Unless I've somehow entered the recipe into the spreadsheet wrong - it seems that the resulting beer may not be very true to style. I played around with the spreadsheet a bit and it seems that by adding 0.5Kg of Dextrose and 0.2Kg of dark DME I will get a beer which is a lot closer to the style (California Common).
Wondering what others thought of this recipe, and would the above extra additions be beneficial or not??
menoetes
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Hi Blackbeard,
Welcome to brewing, your life is about to change
Playing around with recipes can be fun and get some good results and isn't that spreadsheet great? I'd encourage anyone to tinker with it, especially the new brewer. I still use it and find it a massively helpful tool.
It's true that the recipe probably isn't 100% true to style for a steam beer and this is because it's using a pre-made kit as the base. These recipes are lovingly referred to as 'Kit & Bits' which essentially means that you are just altering and enhancing a simple inexpensive beer kit to taste like something much better than it usually might with the help of a few easy additions.
The clever boffins at Coopers have created this recipe to be pretty damn close to the genuine article in taste and appearance but they also want to keep it simple enough for everyone to make which is probably why it isn't spot of for a califoria common.
Whether you should make the extra additions is completely up to you, I think the changes it will make are minimal but I'm also a bit lazy. The dextrose will up your alcohol level in the beer, thinning out the body a little to be closer to the style and the DME will alter the colour a little (though I think the difference 200g of DME will make will be pretty minimal) but by all means give it a crack.
Some extra effort and you enjoy the taste (and bragging rights) of something as close to a california steam beer as you could personally make it. Otherwise you'll just have a beer that tastes very nearly the same but might not have been so much fun to make without your own personal touch.
Do whatever is going to make you happier sir.
Welcome to brewing, your life is about to change
Playing around with recipes can be fun and get some good results and isn't that spreadsheet great? I'd encourage anyone to tinker with it, especially the new brewer. I still use it and find it a massively helpful tool.
It's true that the recipe probably isn't 100% true to style for a steam beer and this is because it's using a pre-made kit as the base. These recipes are lovingly referred to as 'Kit & Bits' which essentially means that you are just altering and enhancing a simple inexpensive beer kit to taste like something much better than it usually might with the help of a few easy additions.
The clever boffins at Coopers have created this recipe to be pretty damn close to the genuine article in taste and appearance but they also want to keep it simple enough for everyone to make which is probably why it isn't spot of for a califoria common.
Whether you should make the extra additions is completely up to you, I think the changes it will make are minimal but I'm also a bit lazy. The dextrose will up your alcohol level in the beer, thinning out the body a little to be closer to the style and the DME will alter the colour a little (though I think the difference 200g of DME will make will be pretty minimal) but by all means give it a crack.
Some extra effort and you enjoy the taste (and bragging rights) of something as close to a california steam beer as you could personally make it. Otherwise you'll just have a beer that tastes very nearly the same but might not have been so much fun to make without your own personal touch.
Do whatever is going to make you happier sir.
menoetes
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...and thanks for the heads up on the free postage Bax, I'm definately going to pick up a few tins of liquid malt for some all extract brews as Coopers $11 for 1.5kg is much better value than my LHBS $9 fo 1kg when you take away the postage costs.
Update on the cherub,
I cleared it through the week with gelatin and kegged on Friday, a little shake rattle and roll and my god, what a tasty treat on tap.
I'll definitely reproduce this one again. Very proud of this being my first beer. The only problem I have had is not kicking off another brew in time, keg feels about half full (must be optimistic here) and is only 3 days in. Oops.
So much for the xmas batch.
I have a brewcraft pure blonde on the bubble for swmbo, who likes beer, just tasteless boring ones, but still good for a pint when put and about. I might give the steam beer kit a go, but the cherub certainly struck me with love.....
I cleared it through the week with gelatin and kegged on Friday, a little shake rattle and roll and my god, what a tasty treat on tap.
I'll definitely reproduce this one again. Very proud of this being my first beer. The only problem I have had is not kicking off another brew in time, keg feels about half full (must be optimistic here) and is only 3 days in. Oops.
So much for the xmas batch.
I have a brewcraft pure blonde on the bubble for swmbo, who likes beer, just tasteless boring ones, but still good for a pint when put and about. I might give the steam beer kit a go, but the cherub certainly struck me with love.....
brad81
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Just read the recipe for the steam beer. I'm confused as to why you would steep the grains in the refrigerator overnight. What does this achieve?
blackbeard2
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Hi there Menoetes, thanks for the welcome and the words of wisdom. I agree that the boffins at coopers are very skilled at coming up with quality kit+bit recipes, I have been doing heaps of reading of their "how to brew" page looking for inspiration.menoetes said:Hi Blackbeard,
Welcome to brewing, your life is about to change
I have no doubt that the recipe as they have sold it will produce a pretty good result but I think I'll be making some additions to up the SG and FG in line with the spreadsheet recommendations for the style, largely because I think that ~4.8%ABV is a little bit on the weak side for a "craft ale".
blackbeard2
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I'm also curious about this method of steeping vs the more common method of steeping of hot water for 30 odd minutes?brad81 said:
OzPaleAle
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Just read this in the Coopers newsletter.
From the 13th of November Dan Murphy's across Australia will be stocking Coopers DIY Beer Kits, just in time for Christmas! To celebrate we're giving away a free mini tool kit with every purchase*.
Edit: turns out its just the kit with fermenter etc not recipe kits\packs.
From the 13th of November Dan Murphy's across Australia will be stocking Coopers DIY Beer Kits, just in time for Christmas! To celebrate we're giving away a free mini tool kit with every purchase*.
Edit: turns out its just the kit with fermenter etc not recipe kits\packs.
I had a quick google earlier, but most sites are blocked here unfortunately. It seems as though cold steeping helps avoid any harsher acrid tastes from dark grains. Don't take my word on this as I'm only paraphrasing what I read earlier.blackbeard2 said:
And on the same note I read another post that mentioned hot water is a lot more soluble, and that you'd need more water, and the end result would be more likely to have less sugars extracted from the grains.
