Two Can Screamer

[The Big Burper]

Dave: yes, just as is from the LHBS and only use one of the yeasts or some Nottingham if I've got a spare bottle in the fridge from an ale brew. Haven't got one left at the moment or I'd drop one round to chez vous - I'll pm you when I do one next and we could do a taste test if you are interested (basically I will be doing them right through the summer for my 'lager' brews with the odd partial inbetween times)

BG,

In the next week or 2 , I will be decanting (from the keg) Davo's Special Bitter, in the fine style of a Watney's Red Barrel (just joking).

If it tastes any good, I'll invite you round for a coldie or two. It is a Coopers Bitter kit,
with some special additions.

cheers
Dave

 

[Bribie G]

Dave, sounds brilliant. The Mrs can drop me off - she hates beer and has a scotch and dry once a year whether she needs one or not so she won't be participating. Seeing as it's local I'll bring round a bottle (i.e. a 2L PET) of my toucan stout 8 or 9 percent (feels more like 9 percent) and then we'll see what toucans are all about Cheers, Michael

 

[jarryd]

I can absolutely swear by a plain twocan of Coopers original series lager and by all means put in some finishing hops, but no bittering required.
It comes out around the same bitterness as VB - the lager is the lowest IBU in their original range according to the website. I've made three of them and the last one prompted a buddy to zoom round to his LHBS and take up brewing himself.

It will certainly be a screamer, just use one kit yeast because every one I have done has blown through the airlock. It also tastes great when young.

I often think that this particular recipe highlights what Coopers could produce as a 3.5k kit if they had a mind to. However more profit in K&K and enhancer type brews I suppose.

Hope you get this before you head for the supermarket!

Iv'e only recently started doing toucans, i put down two cans of coopers lager yesterday, am looking forward to seeing how it come's out.
I also picked up two cans of Coopers Draught, how do you think this will turn out
2xCoopers Draught
300gm honey

 

[buttersd70]

Iv'e only recently started doing toucans, i put down two cans of coopers lager yesterday, am looking forward to seeing how it come's out.
I also picked up two cans of Coopers Draught, how do you think this will turn out
2xCoopers Draught
300gm honey

Fairly bitter imho, but the honey will help cut that back a little. If you like bitter beer, it should be OK, but it might need a little extra time in the bottle to melllow a little, imo.

 

[jarryd]

Fairly bitter imho, but the honey will help cut that back a little. If you like bitter beer, it should be OK, but it might need a little extra time in the bottle to melllow a little, imo.

Cheer's for the reply
Iv'e got a lot to drink through so by the time i get round to trying a bottle i think that it should have well and truly mellowed out!

 

[davidsmith]

Hey Bribie,
As i Love stout I'm going to give your twocan coopers stout a go
cheers dave-Bob

 

[fergi]

i have made up as mentioned in the original post a two can of coles lager, plus steeped 30 grms of cluster hops in boiling water for about 10 mins,it has all but finished fermenting out but as i suspected it is a bit bitter,any ideas how i can take some of the bitterness out before i put this brew into a keg. i am thinking a kilo of honey or dry malt into the fermenter and let the yeast go to work on the fermentables again,maybe then adding a touch more sweetnes to the finished brew, and toning down the bitterness
cheers
fergi

 

[buttersd70]

i have made up as mentioned in the original post a two can of coles lager, plus steeped 30 grms of cluster hops in boiling water for about 10 mins,it has all but finished fermenting out but as i suspected it is a bit bitter,any ideas how i can take some of the bitterness out before i put this brew into a keg. i am thinking a kilo of honey or dry malt into the fermenter and let the yeast go to work on the fermentables again,maybe then adding a touch more sweetnes to the finished brew, and toning down the bitterness
cheers
fergi

If I had a choice between the two, I would go for the malt. As you said, it would then ferment again, but should leave a bit more residual sweetness. Or, there are a couple of other options.

Option 1 is to add lactose. Lactose is unfermentable and sweet, so this would immediately cut the bitterness down. Usually in beer, it is added before fermentation, but for cider, lactose is quite often added at the end of fermentation, so that you can tell how much to add to balance it. It is about 1/3 as sweet as normal sugar, from memory. So you would just boil it in some water (or some of the beer) for 10 mins, cool it slightly, add it to the bottom of the keg and rack onto it. probably 250g? If you try half a teaspoon in a 200ml sample, it should give you a rough idea if 250g would be right.

Option 2 is to blend the beer. If you have some of a prior batch handy that is a little too sweet, you could try mixing the two. Again, you could do it in sample size, and just scale it up. Blending can give you great results if it's done right. I have one at the moment that is a little lacking in body and flavour, and 5% stout added to it seems to be the magic number. So when I keg it, it will get about 950ml of stout into the keg with it.

 

[davidsmith]

Hi Butters,
for the twocan of coopers stout are you saying add 200mg-250mg of lactose to balance out the bitterness- sweetness ratio?

 

[buttersd70]

Hi Butters,
for the twocan of coopers stout are you saying add 200mg-250mg of lactose to balance out the bitterness- sweetness ratio?

Umm, I was actually referring more to fergis specific problem with excessive bitterness. Bribie's recipe had extra ldm in it to start with, and he said in hes earlier post that it was enough in his opinion. But as it all comes down to a matter of taste, you could add some lactose to a stout. I personally find normal stout too bitter for my tastes, even if done as a single tin, or commercial. But thats a personal thing. You could definately add some lactose to a stout kit. You've maybe heard of 'milk stout'....Milk stout doesn't have milk in it, it has lactose, which is also known as milk sugar (the main sugar component in milk is lactose). Be aware that lactose will not only add sweetness, it will add a hell of a lot of body as well. Personally, stout made with lactose is the only stout I will drink on its own (without blending), but as said, it all comes down to personal taste and preference.

 

[seemax]

My most recent twocan was Coopers Lager ($9 special) and Homebrand Draught ($8 special). I did a quick boil/soak of Fuggles leftovers and fermented with Nottingham yeast for about 2 weeks @ 18C.

I was warned about drinking it young and it was true. At 2 weeks it was carbed nicely but just plain horrible. Now at 10 weeks its turned into a good beer, really good in fact. The Lager cans are approx 20IBU so with a 23L batch it's probably closer to 40IBU overall, but the malt manages to keep it balanced. It compares to VB in bitterness.

For a cheap, all malt brew the twocan option is hard to beat.

 

[Bribie G]

...It compares to VB in bitterness.

For a cheap, all malt brew the twocan option is hard to beat.

That's the impression I get with a toucan Coopers Lager, there is a background bitterness at the back of the tongue that, as you say, is very reminiscent of brews such as VB. I think that is maybe because Fosters main-swill beers don't use hops in the kettle but add hop extract on the way to the packaging dept. If, like you did, you add extra flavour and aroma hops - fuggles being grassy and earthy and supplementing that background bitterness, you actually end up with something that a regular VB drinker would probably pay extra dollars for if you sold it over the bar :icon_cheers:

 

[fergi]

buttersd,i think your calculations are probably spot on,i just finished doing the two can screamer and og came out at 1050.i had to use coles brand lager as they were out of coopers so i just thought i would try it,dont really know why i am wasting my time ,i guess now that ive got a keg system i want some quick backup.anyway two cans went in to the fermenter,with 21 litres water, i used a pkt of coopers pale ale yeast with it,the thing that i did wrong was i put 30 grms of cluster hops into a cup then filled it up with boiling water,let it sit for 15 minutes then tossed it into the brew.now im not sure wether that will make it really hoppy but when i did the og i tasted it and it was like razor blades slashing my tongue,thinking about it im not sure wether it was the stuff on the bottom that may have been a bit stronger,what do you think about the hops,have i killed this batch off
cheers
fergi

well its sunday lunchtime and i was taking another fg reading on my two can brew,its been on 1012 for about 3 days so i reckon its finished,tasted the wort and initial taste was that it was surprisingly good,now half an hour after i can taste the slight burning of the lips and pallet,so i think it is slightly over the top with the hop addition,so i have boiled 1 litre water added 400 gms of ldme and will cool this down and throw into the fermenter,now this may or may not start the fermentation process but i am thinking it will add a bit more sweetness to the brew and maybe tone down the hop flavour.
cheers
fergi

 

[buttersd70]

so i have boiled 1 litre water added 400 gms of ldme and will cool this down and throw into the fermenter,now this may or may not start the fermentation process but i am thinking it will add a bit more sweetness to the brew and maybe tone down the hop flavour.

If it was OK out of primary,this should be enough then. Just give it another couple of days at fermenting temps, then check the fg again 2 days in a row to make sure its done. Will probably now end somewhere in the 1014 ish area, give or take.

 

[fergi]

If it was OK out of primary,this should be enough then. Just give it another couple of days at fermenting temps, then check the fg again 2 days in a row to make sure its done. Will probably now end somewhere in the 1014 ish area, give or take.

ok so ive added the 400 grms xtra ldme to the wort,within 5 minutes it is going berserk, from a finished ferment this thing is bubbling about40 /50 times a minute.@18 deg. wondering if i should add a further 2 litres of water to it to further soften the hop bite,started with 21 litres in original recipe,added another 1 litre with xtra malt,what do you think about the added water. OG was 1050.fg 1012.now as you said this will now finnish a bit higher with the malt addition
cheers
fergi

 

[buttersd70]

six of one, half a dozen of the other, at the moment I think. an extra litre isn't going to make much of a difference to the bitterness, so I'd just leave it alone now, and let it do it's thing.

It's good that it's going off like it is, that will help counteract any possible ill effects from late addition into the fermenter. From what you're saying, it'll probably be done by tommorow pm. Just make sure the hydro is steady again before bottling. Any toucan will take a bit of time to smooth out in the bottle. As long as it isn't undrinkable going into the bottle, it should settle down to a nice drop given time.

 

[fergi]

six of one, half a dozen of the other, at the moment I think. an extra litre isn't going to make much of a difference to the bitterness, so I'd just leave it alone now, and let it do it's thing.

It's good that it's going off like it is, that will help counteract any possible ill effects from late addition into the fermenter. From what you're saying, it'll probably be done by tommorow pm. Just make sure the hydro is steady again before bottling. Any toucan will take a bit of time to smooth out in the bottle. As long as it isn't undrinkable going into the bottle, it should settle down to a nice drop given time.

thanks butters, this is going into a keg eventually,thats why this ended up a bit of a mismatch.i needed to get another quick brew on the way and it was a sunday so no lhbs available only coles,probably put in a cube for a couple of weeks b4 its needed in the keg. but if it turns out too crappy ill use it as a line flusher
cheers
fergi

 

[buttersd70]

If its going in a keg, it won't need as long to smooth out as it would in a bottle....2 weeks in a cube, and then 2 in a keg, and it should be sweet.

And if its not the best, think about it before ditching......if you can spare the keg, you can always use it as a mixer for something that could do with a bit more flavour.