Pimping a Coopers Kit with a Partial Mash

[Dementedchook]

Having stumbled across this recently, I've been inspired to try it. I'll be doing a cooper's sparkling tin, cooper's wheat malt tin, and kilo of 2 row. Maybe what's left of a bag of medium crystal.
Be interesting to see what it's like.

Well, taste during bottling yesterday was very malty. I probably should have used a yeast with higher attenuation. However it was still pretty good.

 

[Scottye]

I too was inspired by this post. I had put together one partial using LME and had recently put down my first Lager basically a kits and bits. So I decided to Pimp the Coopers European Lager kit. I went with 2.3 kg of Pilsner and 200g of Carapils, the Coopers can and some Saflager W-23/70. I have only just tapped this keg and what I am drinking is the best Lager I have ever tasted.

:super:

 

[Bribie G]

Good choice of kit and also yeast, the Coopers Euro Lager, Cerveza and Canadian kits are quite lightly flavoured and coloured, so the kit doesn't fight against being pimped up.

 

[Scottye]

Thanks for the feedback Bribie G
Perhaps my other pimps won't be as successful? I hope they are!
I have
Coopers EB can with 1.5kg of Maris Otter, some spec grain and late Syrian Goldings
Coopers Pils can with 2kg Joe White Pilsner
Coopers APA with 1kg Maris Otter, crystal and late hopping (bottled this one looking for an early quaffer)

Pretty much hooked on grain even before I tasted this one.

Cheers

 

[Dan Dan]

Good choice of kit and also yeast, the Coopers Euro Lager, Cerveza and Canadian kits are quite lightly flavoured and coloured, so the kit doesn't fight against being pimped up.

My last brew was a pimped up coopers Cerveza, and it turned out really nice. It was also my first kegged batch, so all in all, very happy with the results.

 

[menoetes]

This is a great thread and it has me very interested! Say ,can you do this method with unhopped malt extract?

I know you went down the simple road for all us beginners Bribie and I thank you for it, but could someone replace the kit with say, 2kg of liquid malt and do the one hour hop boil to control the hops themselves?

 

[lukiferj]

This is a great thread and it has me very interested! Say ,can you do this method with unhopped malt extract?

I know you went down the simple road for all us beginners Bribie and I thank you for it, but could someone replace the kit with say, 2kg of liquid malt and do the one hour hop boil to control the hops themselves?

Sure could. This would then just be a standard partial mash. Only thing you would need to allow for is the bitterness you would lose by using unhopped extract. Some extra early hops would fix that.

 

[yum beer]

This is a great thread and it has me very interested! Say ,can you do this method with unhopped malt extract?

I know you went down the simple road for all us beginners Bribie and I thank you for it, but could someone replace the kit with say, 2kg of liquid malt and do the one hour hop boil to control the hops themselves?

what you describe is 'extract brewing' replacing kit can with straight malt, you then add your own hops for bitterness, flavour and aroma.
Just swap out your kit can for an extract can. You will need a bigger pot for full extract....10 litres or preferabble 19/20 litres. 19 litre stockpot from Big W is around $20.

 

[Bribie G]

Believe it or not I'm doing more or less the same today but on a much bigger scale. I have a 60L fermenter and do double batches over the summer because I only have one fermenting fridge. I can't be bothered much to do a double batch today, so I'm doing a single BIAB full volume mash in urn, with 5.5 Kg of base pilsner grain. Then, into the fermenter: two tubs of maltose syrup and a tin of .... Boom- tish....... Coopers Canadian Blonde that I picked up from Big W. Brewing to 43L to get two kegs.

I can't decide what hops to use, probably US as I'll by using two sachets of BRY-97 so it will be a "Cream Ale" type brew. I'll do one addition in the urn and an aroma addition as hop tea into the fermenter.

@menoetes - Malt extract plus extra hops would be excellent if you can get fresh stuff, otherwised LDME.

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

I just came across this thread, and its got me thinking about partial mashes again (due to time and financial constraints)

 

[FirkinFantastic]

Thanks for the post, it is a great into to grain brewing and I will definately be doing AG beers from now on. I have two questions: DO I put the lid on during the boil and how agressive is the boil. I aimed for a nice rolling boil without it being too angry or too slow and had the lid mostly on.

 

[menoetes]

I ended up try this yesterday. The cooler waterbath method is great! An hour in there with one top-up of 70'c water about 30min in and the mini- mash barely shifted in temperature at all. Though I think my efficiency must be a bit low, my OG ended up being about 5 points lower than Brewmate predicted it should be (or I am not using the program correctly).

I corrected that by dissolving another 400g of LDME in 800ml of water and pouring that in. It's a bit of a cavalier move I know and it messed about the temperature/volume of the wort a bit (after pitching) but we'll see how it goes.

 

[indica86]

Thanks for the post, it is a great into to grain brewing and I will definately be doing AG beers from now on. I have two questions: DO I put the lid on during the boil and how agressive is the boil. I aimed for a nice rolling boil without it being too angry or too slow and had the lid mostly on.

No lid on during the boil. I can't remember but there is some stuff that needs boiling off.

 

[Matt Browne]

Hi guys,

Pat at absolute homebrew has put this page together.

I'm currently working through the list and have been very impressed.

Hope it helps!!

https://absolutehomebrew.com.au/index.php?route=news/article&ncat=59&news_id=8

 

[menoetes]

Do NOT wring out? Damn, I tried another mini-mash last night and gave the bag a good squeezing.

Ah well we live and learn...

 

[lukiferj]

That's a personal preference that there has been much debate on. I'm a squeezer and have never noticed any difference in my beers.

 

[Doug2232]

I ordered the Unhopped Light Malt Extract 1.7kg from Daves HomeBrew before i saw the note regards the Coopers Pale Ale Can for this recipe http://aussiehomebrewer.com/recipe/1032-jets-fat-yak/

Will this cause an issue or is this Extract good enough?

 

[stephenaf]

Hey I have a 1kg of grain left over from my first biab attempt. I wanna try this technique to use it up. Just a quick question. Most the the tins call from sugar, do we skip this because we are getting all the sugars from the grain instead?

 

[Bribie G]

You'll get some sugars from the grain, but not all. That's why in the Original Post I also used the kilo box of Brew Enhancer 2 that I'd been given with the tin. The grain gives more body and flavour - for a kit plus grains with no sugars you'd need to mash around two to three kilos of grain, which you don't have in your case.

Depending on what style you are after you could substitute a kilo of light dried malt extract for the BE2.

 

[Dae Tripper]

Can anyone tell me why we need to boil for 1 hour after the mash? I had only been boiling for the length of my hop additions and I did a 10min IPA the other day!