Kit Question - Cooper's Pilsner

[Hop Me]

Posted this in the wrong place previously....

Hello Everyone. Been awhile since I've been on. I'm still an extract brewer with a keen interest in starting into AG. I did pickup two cans of the above because something about them caught my eye. Maybe they were just pretty. Anyway... What I don't have a lot of experience in is spicing up kits to make them taste better than they are supposed to, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this particular product, and more to the point, successes with making it better. Thanks!

 

[Andrew Coleman]

Well there are many of things you could do, you could make one of the following by adding different ingredients as well as the can...

A. For A Chzech style pilsener (which is all grain no dextrose for full flavoured lager), add 1.3kg of Liquid Malt Extract (coopers is fine[this is a light malt with no hopps or anything else added]) and try adding 15g Saaz Hops (disolve in boiling water and stir over stove until fully disolved and add to the rest of the ingredients at the end of boil, so you just get the aroma out of them). Use a true lager yeast, SAFLAGER S23 or DCL 34/70 dry yeast will do and try ferment around 10 - 15C, 12C for best results

PS. also if you want try adding a small amount like 50g of cracked crystal grian for a little extra flavour, colour and aroma to your beer.

B. For An Aussie Pale Ale (like little Creatures) this kit works well having saaz in it already so try adding either Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 or 500g Dextrose, 250g Dry Malt Extract and 250g Dry Corn Syrup (which is the same), and try adding 10g Cascade Hops (disolve in boiling water and stir over stove until fully disolved and add to the rest of the ingredients at the end of boil, so you just get the aroma out of them). Use an ale yeast US 56 or Danstar Nottingham Ale Yeast would be good for now, Try fermenting close to 15C for best results, or atleast under 20C

Keep in mind the kit your working with is a light malt extract hopped very well with saaz hops, Saaz is a fantastic hop and this kit captures its characters fantastically, Belgian style ales, German lagers and ales, Czech pilseners, and a fair few aussie beers even use these hops.

So what kind of beer where you thinking of making by chance?

 

[krusty_oz]

If you want to take a small step to AG you could try it as a partial biab in addition to the kit (I did it as a partial as I didn't want the malt extract adding too much colour),
2kg Premium Pilsner malt and 0.25kg Carapils, Mashed at 67C for 80min and batch sparged at 75.
To the boil I added 10g Summer Saaz (4.7%AA) for 10min
Fermented with Saflager W-34/70 at 12C (pitched at 22 according to Fermentis instructions) - I kept the kit yeast for a homebrand lager I wanted to try.

When done I dropped it to ~2C for a week (added finings) and then kegged it and kept it cold. I dry hopped the keg with a sock with 10g of Saaz as the fermentation drove off some of the aroma. After a couple weeks the Saaz started coming out as intended. Would have been a clear yellow beer if I had some Polyclar to get rid of the chill haze.

 

[boingk]

I'll second what the guys above have said. I've only done it once but had fairly good results even though I didn't ferment quite low enough. Hole on while I grab my brew book...

...here we go:

"650g LDME, 300g Dextrose, 10g Saaz @ 15min and 5g Saaz @ 2min. 20'C ferment produced a flavoursome and refreshing beer, not bad at all."

From memory it was a lighter-bodied beer, quite clear and definitely a good thirst quencher. The hops were a bit subtle, well suited to a session beer though, so double those amounts if you want to add a bit more flavour. I believe the kit comes with a true lager yeast, so if you can run it down to a 15'C ferment it'll be a blast come drinking time.

Like the fellows above have mentioned, adding some grain such as Crystal, Munich or Vienna will give you some more complexity to the brew and be well worth your (minor) effort in preparing it.

Cheers - boingk