Dry Hopping A Coopers Pale Ale

[Slartibartfast]

Hoping for something nice and easy to drink over summer, I put down a Coopers Pale with their recommended beer enhancer/sugar mix and some recultured Coopers bottle yeast. Fermented at 19C, and now it's been sitting at 1006 for a few days, so I figure it's done. But tasting the beer out of the hydrometer jar, it just seems a little sweet, so I'm wondering if dry-hopping would help - and if so, with what, and for how long etc?

 

[mckenry]

Hoping for something nice and easy to drink over summer, I put down a Coopers Pale with their recommended beer enhancer/sugar mix and some recultured Coopers bottle yeast. Fermented at 19C, and now it's been sitting at 1006 for a few days, so I figure it's done. But tasting the beer out of the hydrometer jar, it just seems a little sweet, so I'm wondering if dry-hopping would help - and if so, with what, and for how long etc?

Dry hopping is not going to balance sweetness. To balance sweetness, you need bitterness. Next time ditch the recommended enhancer - and boils some POR hops (15g should do) up with straight malt - about 1kg is a good start.

 

[Adamt]

You may notice that a lack of carbonation gives the perception of sweetness, or literally lacking the tartness that comes with carbonic acid.

 

[cdbrown]

I just put down a CPA on Sunday
1 can coopers pale ale
1kg BE#2
250g LDME
20g POR for 20mins
Recultured yeast - 1L starter
Topped to about 24L (forgot to take into account the starter)
OG 1.040
yesterday 1.032 and already is tasting quite nice

 

[buttersd70]

Dry hopping is not going to balance sweetness. To balance sweetness, you need bitterness.

ummm....yes and also not quite to this. Dry hopping won't add any actual bitterness, but it will add flavour and aroma. If the beer is only just over the edge on sweetness, the additional flavour and aroma may be enough to push the perception of the sweetness back enough. Carbonation will help contribute with this as well, as adam said, and will add a slight carbonic bite, which again, will push the perception of the sweetness down a little.

But if it's too sweet for this to have enough effect, then what you can do is do a short boil (10min ish) on the hops, in water, instead of just making a tea with it. That should give you a couple of IBU to play with, which should be enough to bring it more to your tastes. Bear in mind also that CPA is far from bitter....

edit....love the avatar, adam. Theres a man that likes his hops.

 

[seemax]

The CPA can is one of the better kits around, Big W had them on special for $9.50 last week!
If you used the BE1 (dextrose only) it may be a little sweet, but not overly so.

I did my 3rd batch of CPA last week..

Can of CPA
500g LME
250g dextrose
100g pils malt
100g wheat malt
15g POR @ 20mins
15g POR @ 0mins
US-05 yeast

Tastes very little like the real thing, but a good drop none the less for a kit. Best after 4-6 weeks in the bottle.

 

[Slartibartfast]

Dry hopping won't add any actual bitterness, but it will add flavour and aroma. If the beer is only just over the edge on sweetness, the additional flavour and aroma may be enough to push the perception of the sweetness back enough.

This is what I was thinking, although I didn't realise carbonation would help as well.

Thanks for your help, I'll give it a go.

 

[matti]

The answer to the Universe is 42
oh shty[p my baalblke fish k\k
k k;msliipin m' out of my ]pkear

 

[Cube]

My two fav's for this kit are:

Amarillo and Galaxy.

Trying a galaxy hop one now at 7 days old in the bottle and WOW.... love it. No dry hopping, just a 20min, 10 minute and flame out addition, all 10 grms each. Might be too hoppy for some as galaxy is very powerfull say compared to cascade.

Get into boiling hops with malt and dex.

You'll improve this kit by about 52^10

 

[boingk]

My Dad is a pretty big fan of this and the Sparkling Ale kit on offer from Coopers...I've only done the APA once though, in a ditch effort to get stores up quickly. I've been meaning to do it again with 500g LDME, 300g Dextrose and 200g grain, plus some...not sure...er...Pride of Ringwood I guess, haven't used that for a while

As above, a boil for 20min in even a half litre of water will give a bit more bitterness and flavour. I also dry-hop and usually do that at least 3 days before bottling so the hops have time to settle out. Preferably, however, I leave them in for 5 to 7 days.

After that, try a bit of grain for the next brew...even just some generic Brewcraft 'Light Grain' (what I'm using at the moment due to its low price and availability :s ) will help - 200g brought slooooowly to the simmer whilst given the occaisional stir, then the liquid strained into the fermentor, will give a good (and cheap) improvement for your brew. :icon_cheers:

Keep on keeping on - boingk

 

[st3v3]

I've recently done a CPA with US-05, Malthouse Ultra (from memory it's mostly LDME, with some Dextrose and Corn Sugar), and a teabag of Saaz hops...

Nothing like CPA, but it tastes alright to me... I like the extra bitterness and dryer finish than the standard CPA. I overcarbed it a bit at first, and am now waiting on a new gas bottle before I can get it back to the right level, so haven't been able to get a second opinion on it yet... bit flat for most of my mates!

I've seen CPA used as a pretty good base for Little Creatures clones too...

st3v3