First brew - Coopers Australian Pale Ale

[SoreNEIPAs]

Hi - love browsing the site as I’m a newbie and the expertise here is *chefs kiss*

I think I may have done something silly and looking for advice!

Starting with a real basic kit (Coopers Australian Pale Ale) and got a bit carried away by adding 50g of Galaxy hops to the fermenter on day 4 (literally just dropped the pellets in thinking I was a dry hopping pro ). Question is, should I expect a monstrosity or just a very bland beer with the smell of hops without any real punch (also could be considered a monstrosity).

I am reading heaps about boiling the wort and adding bittering hops before pitching the yeast, which I will have a crack at next time..my excitement just got the better of me this time

 

[philrob]

OK, you are having a little bit of confusion between brewing with a kit of extract, and brewing All Grain from scratch.

When brewing with a kit as you have done here, the mashing of the malts (grain) and boiling of the wort has been done for you by the kit brewer. The tin you buy is in fact the concentrated product. Usually it will also already have hops added, unless you are using a tin of unhopped extract. You have exactly done what you thought, that is dry hopping, by dropping the 50 gr of Galaxy into your fermenter. I've not used Galaxy for some years, so can't really remember how mine turned out, but whatever, you will have a tasty brew. Don't fret, and carry on, you have not created a disaster.

All Grain brewing is what I and many others do, and that is to start from scratch. In my case, I design my recipes on BeerSmith 3 software. I select and mill the malts (grain) on my mill, and then mash it for the appropriate time and temperature before running off and sparging the liquid into my kettle (really a big stockpot). That's generally boiled for an hour or so, and hops added at the appropriate time before chilling the wort and running it off into the fermenter. From then the process is the same as you've just done.

Maybe a friendly more experienced brewer on here from Perth might help you out with your next brewday to show you the ropes. I don't know of any homebrew clubs in Perth, but if you find one, it is definitely worth catching up with one.

By the way, I spent 3 years in Perth in the 1990s for work, Lived in Doubleview. Lovely city.

Any other questions, just ask.

 

[Brads Biabs]

Welcome to the forum.
Doing coopers kits are OK but suggest you visit a good brewshop brewmart in Bayswater are truly an awesome place to visit and will help you out.
They stock a great range of additional gear and advice to get your kits up to your desired brews.
Steeping grains into hops is like making a cup of tea that's a great add on to kits as you gain head retention an mouth feel plus your desired hop combos.
Hope this helps rember sanitation and temp control to begin with also yeast selection are a must for any Brewing style.

 

[SoreNEIPAs]

Awesome guidance both and super helpful - thank you! I have a lot to learn and feel like now I’ve started going down the rabbit hole it’s going to be hard extracting myself

 

[Paddy Melon]

Hi - love browsing the site as I’m a newbie and the expertise here is *chefs kiss*

I think I may have done something silly and looking for advice!

Starting with a real basic kit (Coopers Australian Pale Ale) and got a bit carried away by adding 50g of Galaxy hops to the fermenter on day 4 (literally just dropped the pellets in thinking I was a dry hopping pro ). Question is, should I expect a monstrosity or just a very bland beer with the smell of hops without any real punch (also could be considered a monstrosity).

I am reading heaps about boiling the wort and adding bittering hops before pitching the yeast, which I will have a crack at next time..my excitement just got the better of me this time

Hi S, Good to see more Perth Brewers on the Forum.
Below is a Hop slam I made from a Coopers Pale Ale and it was absolutely delightful. Colour, Taste, mouthfeel....etc brilliant, (for me and my mates anyway).
Thought I'd share it with you as it was simple to make and as I said the result was magic.

63. Coopers Pale Ale - Hop Slam

Sunday 23 October - 27 November 2

Product details

OG = 12 Brix - 1.048 (23/10/22)

FG1 = 7.0 Brix (27/10/22) (Day 4)

FG2 = 6.0 Brix (1/11/22) (Day 9)

FG3 = 6.0 Brix - 1.014 (2/11/22) (Day 10)

ABV = 5.2%

Ingredients

1 and 1/4cans Coopers Pale Ale

1 x 250g Light Dry Malt

1 x 800g Dextrose

1 x 250g Maltodextrin

1 x 250g Carapils Malt

1 x 300g Quick Oats

Harvested Saflager 34/70 Gen 2.

Hops x Sazz, Cascade and Citra.

Hop schedule – 30-minute boil. At start add 15g Sazz. After 20 minutes add 10g Sazz + 15g Cascade + 20g Citra. After final 10 minutes (@ flameout) add 35g Sazz, 35g Cascade and 50g Citra.

Steeped Carapils Malt and Oats for 30 minutes @ 75°C.

After steeping began boil with wort from grains + Dextrose, LDM and Maltodextrin.

Began Hop schedule.

Oxygenated fermenter and added Pale Ale extract. Filtered Boiled wort into fermenter and added yeast topped to 26 litres.

Set Temp to 16° then after 5 hours set to 14°, following morning set to 12°

Day 4 (Thursday) Dry Hop. 40g of each Hop. (used Hop sock)

At Day 9 fermentation activity @ 6.0 Brix.

At Day 10 fermentation was still @ 6 Brix so transferred to second fermentation vessel to remain until return from 3-week trip.

Bottled (27/11/22).

This brew used 200gms/26 litres Dextrose (Dissolved in 250ml water


While Briess Carapils® (Dextrine-style) Malt can be mashed, it can also be steeped. For best results steep at 72-76°C and “dunk” or somehow agitate the grain and water to improve the extraction for 30 minutes.

 

[Drubbing]

Doing coopers kits are OK but suggest you visit a good brewshop brewmart in Bayswater are truly an awesome place to visit and will help you out.

I can vouch for Brewmart, huge range and they have some knowledgeable people there. Well worth investing in temp controlling your fermenter, especially in perth.

I started on Coopers kits, even though my local shop wasn't keen on them, I made some very good beers from these. All kits needs some extra hopping IMO and I'm no hop beast by any means. Coopers website has some good recipes to do this. Spend some time getting to make extract brews to get familiar with the process. If you want to go AG, the beers are much better. Cleaner and fresher.

Brewing can be as simple or complicated as you want, but I stayed simple and got a single vessel to mash grains in, then transfer wort to fermenter, where everything from that point is the same as tin brewing.

 

[SoreNEIPAs]

Thanks for the tips all. I had a spare old fridge and got the INKBIRD wifi controller which has worked a charm.

Had my first taste of the brew after 18 days ageing in the bottle and I was pleasantly surprised. Had a taste I couldn’t put my finger on but it was clean and bubbly with a nice aroma from the dry hops. Reminded me a bit of the Henty St Ale by Rover but that strange taste had me stumped…it could have been because I used washing detergent with an odour when I cleaned out the fermenter rookie error.

Now have way too many bottles of beer but guess I’d better get drinking next up I’m going to try the Pride of London English Bitter kit from Kegland for a bit of nostalgia..seems a bit more advanced in terms of technique but I’m up for it!

 

[Eddy Monsoon]

Had my first taste of the brew after 18 days ageing in the bottle and I was pleasantly surprised. Had a taste I couldn’t put my finger on

Regarding your Galaxy Hops

Advice I received that I followed, is that they shouldn't be in there more than 3 or 4 days before giving off a grassy taste

If you had put them in a hopsack, they could be removed at the time of your choosing

 

[SoreNEIPAs]

Regarding your Galaxy Hops

Advice I received that I followed, is that they shouldn't be in there more than 3 or 4 days before giving off a grassy taste

If you had put them in a hopsack, they could be removed at the time of your choosing

Ah right, thanks for the advice. So the fact I threw them in loose will mean any remnants in the ageing bottles will increase the grassy taste? I did have them in the fermenter only from day 4 to day 8 when I bottled so hoping not much made it’s way out of the fermenter…

 

[Drubbing]

I did have them in the fermenter only from day 4 to day 8 when I bottled so hoping not much made it’s way out of the fermenter…

A lot of brewers go 'commando' with their dry hopping. It's not a big deal. The taste you have is probably the aftertaste that seems endemic to kit brews. I never got it that much and 2 weeks in the bottle would see the beer smooth out, but everyone tastes differently.