Hops In Coopers Kits

[syd_03]

Hi I am new to the homebrew scene; I got my homebrew kit in late January and have since only done three brews.
My first kit was a disaster, I tried a lager kit in March with no way to keep cool, and that one went down the sink.
Next was an apple cider kit for the GF, it went ok, but lacked flavour and sweetness for her desire.
Last was another lager same as first batch but was able to keep cool with water bath and frozen water bottles. It turned out quite well I think for my third brew and even got praise from a friend who has done home brewing for a few years.

I have purchased some Coopers kits and LME to put down my next two brews.

First is a Coopers Pale Ale and second is a Coopers Bavarian Lager. I want to keep fairly simple still as I am very new to this so was wanting to add just 1 KG of LME to the kits and some finishing hops for aroma.
I was wondering if anyone knows the hops varieties used in the Coopers range of kits and the form present: I.e. isohop (or hop extract) or if whole hops are used and still present in the kit?

I did email Coopers and got the following response:

Hello Jason. Sorry, we don't publish that data. I can tell you we use POR for bittering in all of our brews (except Cerveza which uses no bittering hops) and at the moment we use Saaz, Hallertauer and Cascade extracts in various brews.

Cheers, Frank.

Frank Akers
Home Brew Advice
Coopers Brewery
461 South Road
Regency Park
SA 5010

Ph: 08 8440 1800

From this I am assuming that all kits use a Pride of Ringwood hop for bittering except the Cerveza which uses an isohop extract.
The Pale Ale would have Cascade extract for flavour and aroma and the Bavarian Lager would have Hallertau extract.
Does this seem correct?

I think therefore that I would use 12g of Cascade for the Pale Ale and 12g of Hallertau for the Bavarian lager, both steeped two minutes.
Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Steve]

Afternoon Syd

Have a look on here for some suggestions, do a search for those two kits that youve bought:

http://www.hbkitreviews.com/

Cheers
Steve

P.S. Glad you are using 1kg of malt instead of sugar.

 

[Hutch]

Welcome aboard Syd,

I have to recommend you try a little more than 12gm cascade, as these kits have bugger-all aroma/flavour, and even 12g will not contribute a great deal more. Many recipes you'll come across on this forum run into the 100++ grams per batch, and are immensely drinkable.

Since you're starting out, I'd suggest maybe 10gm boiled in a little water for 10minutes, and the remaining 10gm chucked in in the last minute. This will contribute a balance of flavour and aroma, and won't be over the top.

Once it's finished fermenting, you can decide whether it's got the flavour you're after, and possibly chuck in a little more steeped hops a few days before bottling (a lot of the aroma is driven off by the CO2 during fermentation).

With hops, experimentation is half the fun.

One other thing (since you're obviously keen to make better beer) is to ditch the yeast packet under the lid, and use a safale S-04 or S-05 instead, fermented as close to 18-20 deg as you can manage.
Possibly the worst thing with kits is the yeast and the poxy instructions under the lid!!!

Good luck. :beer:

 

[snagler]

Cooper bavarian lager is possibly the best coopers kit I have done. More like an ale than a lager in my opinion though.
As a beginner, I stuck to ales as they were more forgiveing,

 

[0M39A]

off topic a little, but dont forget that the bavarian lager actually comes with a a real lager yeast, not an ale yeast like most of the other coopers cans (well, all of them actually except the pilsner).

this means you have to keep it at true lager temps (10C-12C will do nicely)

and if you really want some true hop flavour, do a mini boil on your stove.

get a couple of litres of water and throw in a few hundred grams of your malt extract.

bring to the boil, and throw in say 20g of cascade, and let it go for 20-30min, and then right at the end of the boil, throw in another 20g or so, then remove from heat, and strain into your carboy with the can of goo and the rest of your malt.