Coopes pale ale improvement

[James85]

Hi guys
Im going to be puting a coopers pale ale on this week. Just looking for a few easy tweaks for improvement. Mabey some hops or different fermentables. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[slcmorro]

Not sure what your setup is but...

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/72607-pimping-a-coopers-kit-with-a-partial-mash/

You could also do the simple things like using dried/liquid malt instead of dextrose or the brew improver packs (usually 50/50 dex/DME), and do a little bit of reading about how to steep hops, and dry hopping. Lot of info on here to learn how to.

 

[Yob]

All malt, no Brew enhancers.. Add a dry hop (25g cascade or Citra.. Or both..) at 7 day's in a bag (stocking / chic cloth etc) if you can't cold condition, drop em in free if you can.

Bulk prime to 2.2 volumes

 

[James85]

I have a pretty simple set up at the moment, one fermenter and I bottle. Going to try and get a better set up as time goes by

 

[Yob]

Definitely dry hop in a bag / stocking / chux then, you don't want to block the bottling wand

 

[wereprawn]

1 bottle?

 

[slcmorro]

1 bottle?

1 fermenter and I bottle, as in he bottles his beer.

 

[wereprawn]

Hahaha. Fair enough.

1 fermenter and I bottle, as in he bottles his beer.

hmmm.....yes I am clearly seeing the difference between 1 and I now. DOH !

 

[hoppy2B]

Steep 30 to 50 grams of dark crystal malt or caraaroma. They're pretty much the same thing but a different brand. And culture up some of the yeast from a coopers stub. If you can ferment in the low to mid 20's C then you should get some nice pear esters happening.
Alternatively, the 30 to 50 grams of crystal and some hops as per Yob's advice. You'll need a different yeast, maybe BRY-97 to highlight the hop flavours. And ferment in the mid to high teens if you can.

 

[citizensnips]

Take it you re culture the yeast? that's the biggest improvement you can make

 

[James85]

Would 3 tallies be enough to re-culture the yeast from?

 

[Yob]

I'd not recommend that process to begin with mate, will take a goodly amount of extra time, by all means go ahead if you've read up on it and feel confident about it, it's my experience that most people (myself included) will underpitch by a goodly amount and the Brew can suffer from doing so. That said, 3 tallies is plenty.

 

[James85]

I might just buy some better yeast this time it's only a couple extra dollars. And go all malt instead of brew enhancer

 

[yum beer]

I might just buy some better yeast this time it's only a couple extra dollars. And go all malt instead of brew enhancer

Good idea for now.
Read up on hop additions while this ones brewing and look to adding hops next batch to sense the difference, Cascade, Simcoe, Centenial make a nice mix with the Pale kit.

 

[mosto]

Galaxy is a nice addition to this as well.

 

[James85]

Thanks for the help guys. Decided to go for an all malt brew with us-05 yeast. Then see how I can improve that in the next brew.

 

[maxim0200]

Im planning a coopers aswell, i will be going with liquid malt, and coopers yeast. If you google you will fing a thread on the coopers forum on how to reculture their own yeast.
From memory it was basicly let a 6pack settel for a week, decant the beer off then add suggar water +cap with gladwrap and rubberband; shake every day for a week then pitch into wort.

The other biggest hurdle/factor im dealing is temp control, i think 21 deg is reccomended.

Do update us with how it goes.

 

[James85]

Well I went ahead with the brew and borrowed a 2nd fermenter from a work mate (pity I have to give it back tomorrow) so I did a double batch. Fermented very well and even smelt better than a standard coopers kit while fermenting. Bottled yesterday (see my thread about priming sugar to see the drama I had). So now I'm thinking about my next brew...... What to brew what to brew?

 

[Alex.Tas]

Depends what type of beer you like. If you like pale ales, then have another crack at one. if you like malty beer without too much hop have a go at a hell, or if you like bitter beer maybe try an ipa.

All the advice in this thread is good. Seems like you have 40-50l of beer to get through too...
Like the other posts above, I would use the same recipe as you have done, but try some hop additions. Boil some cascade and it cluster, then throw in some more after a few days into the fermenter.
Have fun!

 

[RobboMC]

If you like Coopers Pale Ale then search around here for Dr Smurto's Golden Ale.

I have a batch nicely mature batch of bottles of it now and everywhere I take it people just go "Wow, how good is that!"

The basic kit receipe goes like this:

1 can Sparkling Ale
1 can Wheat malt
0.5kg dme
0.3 kg Crystal grain steeped
20 to 30 g Amarillo Hops
US-05 yeast

Don't over boil the hops, keep the boil shortish ( 5-15 min ) and even dry hop some of it.