My Experience So Far

[Clownfish]

Since I started brewing almost two years ago, I have completed 39 brews. Of these, all but two have been Coopers kits. The two fancier ones were supposed to be clones but tasted nothing like what they were supposed to and were disappointing. Most of my brews are kegged, but every now and again I do a total bottle one. All the bottles are Coopers PET. So far I have not lost a bottle due to leakage etc (still using the same caps). I tend to make with less than recommended dextrose (etc) to lower alcohol content.

My experiences with each kit have been as follows:

• Coopers Cerveza - crap - will never make again
• Coopers Pale Ale - I make with less than the recommended enhancer 2 - all have been excellent
• Coopers Pilsner - made with less than recommended enhancer - all have been excellent - probably the crowd favourite
• Coopers Real Ale, Draught and Lager - now make them with 500 g of honey instead of dextrose - very nice, with a lot of flavour and colour
• Coopers Bitter - not my type of beer
• Coopers Blonde - very nice and refreshing when it is hot
• Coopers European Lager - first one was excellent, got better as it aged - second one was pretty poor, had a funny taste

Brewery is under the house, so temperatures are lower than outside in summer and higher in winter. I use only wet towel to cool in summer if needed. I leave for a long time, at least two weeks, to clear before kegging/bottling. I use plain sugar for secondary fermentation in bottles, one teaspoon per bottle.

From each brew, I put two bottles in a "bank". These are kept till some special occasion and drunk then. This lets me age bottles way beyond normal. So far the longest has been about 13 months. I have noticed no problems with the PET bottles leaking gas etc. Some beers have aged very well, none have got worse and only the second European Lager stayed the same.

All in all, I have only had to throw away two bottles, I think I sucked in too much gunk when bottling.

I have no intentions of getting into any more fancier brewing. All I want is beer that I like at a good price. I think I am getting that and so do my friends. At yesterday's Australia Day party at our place, a keg of Pale Ale and Real Ale with honey were very popular and almost totally finished off.

Posted for information of new brewers.

 

[kelbygreen]

nice I have gone away from kits just after 3 brews. Now doing extract hope to put my first down tomorrow . I worked out it be about $30-35 a brew doing extract wich I dont mind if it give a good beer its about the same to buying a good kit and the hops and a good yeast but least you can experment more

All the kits I tried arnt to much chop (heat was the main problem first 2 batches) Last is alot better but used wrong hops to my liking its very drinkable but is spicy and dont think could have a big night on it. I used all challenger hops (should read the description) but you learn lol prob be alright for a late hop (or smaller quantity) to make a drier feeling beer but thats my thought others might be different

 

[datou]

Great post!

Your experiences with the coopers kits are fairly similar to mine, although I quite like the bitter, and the two 'lagers' I have done have been horrible.

If you are brewing beer you enjoy, keep it up I reckon!

 

[Flash_DG]

I have no intentions of getting into any more fancier brewing. All I want is beer that I like at a good price.

You have no idea what your missing out on :huh:

 

[Gulpa]

Nice post clownfish. You should try the coopers dark ale. Some of my best kits were made with this one.

cheers
Andrew.

 

[fuddnuddler]

Nice post clownfish. You should try the coopers dark ale. Some of my best kits were made with this one.

cheers
Andrew.

Hey mate, been looking at trying a coopers dark ale myself - any suggestions ie what has been the best you have made with it.
cheers

 

[Gulpa]

Hey mate, been looking at trying a coopers dark ale myself - any suggestions ie what has been the best you have made with it.
cheers

Can + 1kg BE2 + 0.5kg LDME is the base I always used with this kit. Proabably make most brown styles with this. Best was an American Brown Ale when doing kits and bits

Base + 150g Crystal Malt + 150g Chocolate Malt + Cascade hops
Steep the grains, drain, boil, add hops and boil for 2-3 minutes. You could probably try it without the grains but I never tried it.

cheers
Andrew.

 

[fuddnuddler]

Can + 1kg BE2 + 0.5kg LDME is the base I always used with this kit. Proabably make most brown styles with this. Best was an American Brown Ale when doing kits and bits

Base + 150g Crystal Malt + 150g Chocolate Malt + Cascade hops
Steep the grains, drain, boil, add hops and boil for 2-3 minutes. You could probably try it without the grains but I never tried it.

cheers
Andrew.

Sounds great, it's on the to-do list...thanks!

 

[Mickthe]

That sounds perfectly reasonable Clownfish - great post.

As long as you and friends are happy with what you are drinking then happy days.

I am up to only Brew 9 so far, and have done slightly fancier things in my last three like using a hop teabag in Pale Ale, and steeping grains for a Stout.

So you can stick to plain kits and also do some extra little things at very slight costs just to compare the difference, you may be surprised.

Cheers

Mick.

 

[mborja]

Nice post. I'm in somewhat the same boat, getting started this year with a few batches of extract brewing. I am already a big fan of the Coopers extracts that I've tried so far. I'm planning on doing a batch of the Coopers International English Bitter. I think I'm really going to like this one - cross my fingers!

 

[mfdu]

yeah, fine post. i'm the same with my feelings about stepping beyond the kit + a bit. i've done many interesting things using morgans specialty extracts, honey, rice malt, saunders malt extract etc and am now growing my own hops.

i stck up on good yeasts and hops when i make it to the HBS, but also happily brew with the kit yeast (2 x sachets, thank you very much - and at 16 or 18 degrees)

i've tried kits other than coopers, and some have been great (the black rock pilsner suffered a stuk ferment and came out far too sweet) but being able to send SWMBO to do the weekly shop and have her return with kit + malt or honey or whatever is great!
lager is the most common base goo, but the real ale sure hits the spot too.
but the house beer is 'spotswood black', always being some variation on the coopers dark (+ honey, + malt, + flavour / aroma hops)

with a 10 month old son, time is the issue and the results i get from a kit + bits brew is just awsome given i can get a brew into the fermenter in abou 30 minutes if i have to.

sometimes i feel like the poor cousin on this forum, doing only kits + bits, but i'm still brewing and folks love my produce. therefore, i feel valid in what i do.

i now have a dozen dozen bottles (well, 10 crates, and each crate is 16 longies) so i have capacity to age my darkies (porter, coopers dark, black rock bock)


keep on brewin', chum!!!!

 

[troublebrewing]

You didn't mention if you used the kit yeasts or anything fancier? I'm guessing kit, but...

 

[Bribie G]

The reason I went all grain was to recreate my beloved Real Ales from my time in the UK. Seriously you just can't do that with a kit or extract. On the way I have branched out into Aussie Sparkling ales etc and can now produce ales as good as commercial varieties. I also do a pleasant Aussie Lager Carlton style clone.

However looking back there was nothing wrong with such brews as (opens Red Book from 2008)

Coopers Lager
500g Brew Enhancer 1
500g Light Dried Malt Extract
Saaz hop teabag

kit yeast
20 degrees
Bottled straight from primary after a week.

Such brews were great lawnmower / quaffers especially when matured for a month then drunk really cold. If you compare the sheer effort and time to make an Aussie lager (6 hour brew day and cleaning up, two or three weeks in primary with a lager yeast, even a warm fermenter such as S-189 - at least three weeks in cold conditioning to get rid of the sulphur produced by the lager yeast - a month in the bottle till it comes good. ) you are really getting into the swings and roundabouts territory for your quaffing or party brews. If I do a lager it ends up as the 'special reserve' keg at the bar and is only served occasionally, the quaffers being the house ales which are a lot quicker to crank out.

One of my top three favourite brews still remains my toucan headbanger 2 cans Coopers Stout, 1kg dex, 1kg LDME, handful o hops
20 mins prep, two weeks in fermenter, two weeks in bottle then get stuck in.

 

[Phoney]

Two of my favourite kit beers were this:


Coopers Pale Ale tin
1.5kg Morgans Wheat LME
Amarillo hop teabags x2 (1st on day 1 2nd on day 4)

Tastes like James squire golden ale

Coopers Pale Ale tin
1kg LDME,
200g steeped crystal,
cascade hop teabags x2 (1st on day 1 2nd on day 4)

Very nice hop character in that one.


Then I went to extract, now im on AG...

 

[Parrothead]

yeah, fine post. i'm the same with my feelings about stepping beyond the kit + a bit. i've done many interesting things using morgans specialty extracts, honey, rice malt, saunders malt extract etc and am now growing my own hops.

i stck up on good yeasts and hops when i make it to the HBS, but also happily brew with the kit yeast (2 x sachets, thank you very much - and at 16 or 18 degrees)

i've tried kits other than coopers, and some have been great (the black rock pilsner suffered a stuk ferment and came out far too sweet) but being able to send SWMBO to do the weekly shop and have her return with kit + malt or honey or whatever is great!
lager is the most common base goo, but the real ale sure hits the spot too.
but the house beer is 'spotswood black', always being some variation on the coopers dark (+ honey, + malt, + flavour / aroma hops)

with a 10 month old son, time is the issue and the results i get from a kit + bits brew is just awsome given i can get a brew into the fermenter in abou 30 minutes if i have to.

sometimes i feel like the poor cousin on this forum, doing only kits + bits, but i'm still brewing and folks love my produce. therefore, i feel valid in what i do.

i now have a dozen dozen bottles (well, 10 crates, and each crate is 16 longies) so i have capacity to age my darkies (porter, coopers dark, black rock bock)


keep on brewin', chum!!!!

I agree, great thread. No reason to feel like "the poor cousin" in my opinion. In fact, you guys "down under" seem to appreciate kit brewing much more than the vast majority of homebrewers here in the States. Go on some of our HB forums, and you'll REALLY feel like the poor cousin! :lol: I think maybe I sense more of an acceptance of kit brewing from the Aussie forums I've been on due to the sheer number of kit beer producers in Australia. In the US we have zip- none. Plenty of great supply houses that produce some great "kit" beers [in the US parlance], but nothing like Cooper's, Black Rock or Morgan's. At the risk of repeating myself, I've been brewing for about 11 years, and went from kits to extract with grains to all grain. Made some really good beers with all methods, and some bad ones too. But right now time is an issue for me, so using a kit [mostly Cooper's], some specialty grains and some hops, and I can make a right fine beer in an hour. Right now I have the Cooper's European Lager in secondary, the Heritage Lager in primary, and the original Cooper's Lager ready to go once I can free up fermenter space. Like as has been said elsewhere in this thread, it's all about what satisfies you!

 

[rendo]

Clownfish,

Fantastic email. Here's CHEERS for us K&K brewers

I brew the coopers euro lager a fair bit and I love it. I brewed it once in summer....NEVER AGAIN...its a LAGER...its should be brewed cold. This tin is one of the only ones that come with a true lager yeast. Last winter I brewed it three times, all at about avg 11 degrees. 2-3 weeks to brew.

If you can boil water, then you can use hops. One brew i added 20g cluster hops to (10min boil in 1 litre of water) another one, I added 10g Hallertau and 10g Saaz hops (again 10min boil, 1L)....amazing the difference between the two. One tastes like a euro lager, the other like an aussie lager. Both were EXCELLENT beers. The one without extra hops was good too...but not as good. I used 1kg of BE2 in all of them. Let them age for 3months in the bottle. (at least wait 1 month)

FWIW, I recommend two things to you my K&K friend. Get into hops, but more importantly, dont brew when its mega hot, unless it doesnt get hot under ur house, even when its 30+ degrees outside. OR...get a fridgemate (I am just about to do this) so u can brew in a fridge by controlling its temperature by the fridgemate. Temp makes such a difference.

Cheers,

Rendo

 

[Brewman_]

Clownfish,
Sounds like your making some beer you and your friendfs are happy with. That's what it is all about. your doing well.

keep doing it and you might find you start liking other styles and are more interested in other ingredients too.

While your doing some good beers, if you don't already have temperature control on your brewing, start thinking about that.

Fear_n_Loath.

 

[mfdu]

re. temp control,

my temp control consists of an old 1950's fridge in the garage with a power timer and a 2nd thermometer inside on the top shelf - timer clocking on 15 mins every hour or so will hold 16 degrees at around 30 external.

sure it takes a bit of experimentation to figure out how to hold a temp, and i need to keep an eye on the forcast (so i know if i need to adjust the timer for more or less 'on' time)

but i can even hold it at 11 for a lager if i want. damn lagers take too long, though.

 

[rendo]

Hi MFDU,

Why not make a fridge mate....can buy the dig thermostat for $35 on ebay, plus a few more extras that you will need..say $20 tops and u have a temp control on your fridge, set at exactly what u want.

See here Fridge Mate HOWTO

and here Ebay - Digital Thermostat

also AHB Thread - Digital Thermostats

I just ordered mine today....but you need to be handy/confident in doing this sorta stuff, otherwise get an electrician buddy/relo to do it for you.

rendo

re. temp control,

my temp control consists of an old 1950's fridge in the garage with a power timer and a 2nd thermometer inside on the top shelf - timer clocking on 15 mins every hour or so will hold 16 degrees at around 30 external.

sure it takes a bit of experimentation to figure out how to hold a temp, and i need to keep an eye on the forcast (so i know if i need to adjust the timer for more or less 'on' time)

but i can even hold it at 11 for a lager if i want. damn lagers take too long, though.

 

[antains]

+1 for rendo's suggestion.

Fridgemate is brilliant.

Clownfish,
Great post. I might try your honey suggestion for a Coopers Lager. I'm determined to get this kit to be free of those little taste aspects of kit beers, so I'm currently lagering that one using Safale lager yeast (S-04?).

Admittedly, I'm slowly accruing components for all-grain, but I don't intend to stop k&k. There's nothing like drinking a beer that took little over an hour to prepare (except for bottling).

My tip for a "recipe" is a toucan: 1x Coopers Dark Ale and 1x Coopers Stout. Each one knocked off the disappointments in flavour that each has on its own.

I would add that I do "fancy up" my kits by always using different yeast than that supplied by Coopers.

Cheers,
Ant.