Nice simple kit beer, trying to build up stock

[wbosher]

Hi guys,

I seem to be drinking my AG beer faster that I can make it at the moment, and need to try to build up a few months stock. My problem is the time required to do an AG brew, I can only do one of these about once a month due to wife and kids wanting my undivided attention.

I plan to alternate BIAB and kit brews for a little while, allowing me to get a brew on every two weeks rather than four, as kit brews only take about 20 minutes rather than 5 hours. I don't have the fermenters or fridge space to do two brews at once.

I'm not interested in doing anything complicated like boiling up extract and hops, or I might as well just do an AG brew, looking at simple kit, DME, and maybe steep some crystal or something...nice and quick is the goal here.

Anyone got any suggestion for a good kit beer? I've already got a Coopers IPA on the go, that's quite a nice drop. Looking at mainly IPAs, pale ale (US, UK or NZ) and English bitters.

Cheers

 

[Nibbo]

Not sure whats available to you but fresh wort kits maybe up your alley?

 

[wbosher]

My LHBS don't supply those AFAIK, so probably gonna have to just do kits and bits. Just really out of touch with the whole kit beer world.

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

I recently brewed the 3kg dme and crystal steep (500g?) apa kit from keg king (no affil), it did have hop additions but was very easy and has easily been my favorite brew to date. Highly reccommend!

My only gripe was the head of the beer had a funny artificial taste to it and it sat clumpy in the glass instead of being a dense layer above the beer, it was my first keg and I force carbed it so I'd put it to something that went wrong there opposed to the recipe. Thats the problem being so eager and combining new things into the process, hard to pin point issues or differences.

 

[wbosher]

Don't think we have keg king over here (NZ), mainly the usual suspects like Black Rock, Coopers, Mangrove Jacks, Cascade, Muntons, Brigalow etc...

 

[RelaxedBrewer]

If you like Hefeweizen.

Try my - Daisy the easy Hefe
1 can coopers wheat beer
1 can coopers wheat lme
1 pack of wyeast 3068
make to 20lt

Ferment at 17-18C and do not use a starter.
(This yeast produces both clove and banana when used like this)

This is a regular in my brew schedule. I often make it while I am waiting for my mash to finish on another brew.


RB

 

[Liam_snorkel]

I'm not interested in doing anything complicated like boiling up extract and hops, or I might as well just do an AG brew, looking at simple kit, DME, and maybe steep some crystal or something...nice and quick is the goal here.

If you're going to steep crystal you still need to give it a boil to kill any bugs.. might as well chuck a hand full of aroma hops in.
You can make passable APAs this way if you cover the kit twang with crystal & hops.

 

[wbosher]

If you like Hefeweizen.

Try my - Dasiey the easy Hefe
1 can coopers wheat beer
1 can coopers wheat lme
1 pack of wyeast 3068
make to 20lt

Ferment at 17-18C and do not use a starter.
(This yeast produces both clove and banana when used like this)

This is a regular in my brew schedule. I often make it while I am waiting for my mash to finish on another brew.

RB

Never tried it, might give that some thought.

If you're going to steep crystal you still need to give it a boil to kill any bugs.. might as well chuck a hand full of aroma hops in.
You can make passable APAs this way if you cover the kit twang with crystal & hops.

Yeah, I'm happy to do a short boil like 10 - 15 minutes, just not a full boil or it defeats the purpose of doing this. Any ideas?

 

[Liam_snorkel]

Yeah, I'm happy to do a short boil like 10 - 15 minutes, just not a full boil or it defeats the purpose of doing this. Any ideas?

The is not a specific recipe but I used to just use 1 kit, 1kg dex, 200g of crystal. Boil the crystal liquor on the stove for 20mins (to kill bugs) and throw a fist full of cascade or whatever in at various stages. Fill the fermenter to 21 litres and away you go.

Ianh's kit & extract spreadsheet was very handy at the time. There are also a few threads (may have been an article) regarding "how to pimp a kit".

 

[pist]

The coopers IPA was my pick when I did K & K...
The coopers international series pale ale also makes a good base for a APA. These 2 were regulars for me to do.

Both kits I still got the twang with and still made a terrible beer despite hopping them up, hence why I BIAB now, but as said previously you could use some steeped grains and a short hop boil to hide this.

 

[simplefisherman]

Coopers cans are pretty hard to beat if you pimp them up a bit, a bit of crystal or even a quick partial mash ( not overly worried about high eff, just for flavour you could shorten the mash & boil times up and use smaller pot, less ramp times etc ). More modified malts like Munich, Vienna should avoid dms issues with shorter boils and give nice flavour & colour. Coopers recultured yeast can also cover up any twang issues, and of course as much hops as you like.
I recently gave my FIL 2kg grain to mash which he added to a coles draught can ( yes I did a face-palm ), but awaiting a taste test so who knows? From memory it worked out around 1049 @ 70% eff + the can, so even with lower eff you can always top up with extract or dex etc.
Another option is get a couple of 10l cubes, do an ag batch and use a cube of ag to pimp up a can brew...
As for other can brands, only used malt shovel, which was nice but I think no longer available ( made in NZ iirc ), not sure what else is available in Aotearoa, the black rocks cans seem popular from what I've read...

 

[bum]

The coopers IPA was my pick

Yep, chuck some crystal and a blend of EKG/Styrian at it. Pretty not bad.

 

[wbosher]

Already got a Coopers IPA on the go. Steeped some crystal but didn't add any hops. Might try that next time...what sort of quantities and times would you recommend bum?

Anyone done a nice English bitter kit?

 

[WarmBeer]

Coopers Stout can
500gm Dex
500gm LDME
500gm Brown sugar
200gm Roast Barley - Steeped then boiled
200gm Choc malt - steeped then boiled
Reuse any decent yeast, preferably English

Gives you a nice, easy Foreign Extra style stout, with about 30 mins worth of work.

 

[wbosher]

Coopers Stout can
500gm Dex
500gm LDME
500gm Brown sugar
200gm Roast Barley - Steeped then boiled
200gm Choc malt - steeped then boiled
Reuse any decent yeast, preferably English

Gives you a nice, easy Foreign Extra style stout, with about 30 mins worth of work.

Might add that one to the list of beers to try. Haven't had a stout for years.

 

[bum]

Already got a Coopers IPA on the go. Steeped some crystal but didn't add any hops. Might try that next time...what sort of quantities and times would you recommend bum?

Anyone done a nice English bitter kit?

I find that kit underbittered for an IPA so I'd do a 60 minute boil plus late additions (which you seem to wish to avoid), so in your circumstances I'd just do a 50/50 blend of those hops at 10 minutes to get the IBU I was after. Would be a little more hoppy than an on-style English IPA if you're looking to add a lot more bitterness like I would but that's a fine thing, IMO.

 

[mwd]

Toucan 2 x Coopers Draught
1Kg of BE2 or 1
any hops you fancy for about 10 mins makes a cracking American PA style. Dead easy and can be knocked out in about 30 minutes.

( make up to 23l or 24l no problem )

 

[givemeamash]

quick and easy get a Morgan's blue mountain lager or for something different the cascade porter works well, ask which malt mix works best. 10 min job for each and result is very good for kits

 

[wbosher]

I find that kit underbittered for an IPA so I'd do a 60 minute boil plus late additions (which you seem to wish to avoid), so in your circumstances I'd just do a 50/50 blend of those hops at 10 minutes to get the IBU I was after. Would be a little more hoppy than an on-style English IPA if you're looking to add a lot more bitterness like I would but that's a fine thing, IMO.

I've brewed the IPA to 20L rather than 23L. If you believe the IBU calculation on the Coopers site, that increases the IBUs from roughly 37-47, up to about 42-54. But you're right, it's still a little on the light side.

 

[mosto]

One that has pretty much become my 'House' Pale Ale is:

1 tin Coopers Australian Pale Ale
1kg Light DME
200g CaraPils
Re-cultured Coopers yeast
20g Galaxy @ 10 min
20g Galaxy dry hopped

Made up to 20L

It's my twist on an Aussie Pale, sort of Coppers Pale Ale, meets Stone & Wood Pacific Ale


Although not one of the styles you asked for, I've just polished off a keg of this:

1 tin Cascade Chocolate Mahogany Porter
1kg Amber DME
200g Choc malt
10g Northern Brewer @ 10 min
White Labs WLP005 British Ale

Will definitely make this again

Cheers,