Who has experimented with 2 kit brews?

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

BrewOnBoard

Member
Joined
5/12/12
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
Location
Anacortes (near Seattle) Washington USA
I've looked at the recipe database, and while many brews look great, I'm specifically looking for brews that don't use any hops. I found a couple, but didn't see any 2 kit brews. Cooper's website has a couple, but I'm curious to find out more.

Right now, just for a baseline experiment, I've got a coopers IPA, plus a coopers Real Ale + 1 cup of sugar in with 23L of water. I'm guessing that because the kit is supposed to have enough hops in it to balance a kilo of other fermentables that it'll come out pretty hoppy, but that should be good by be. I'm "hoping" it'll turn out more like the IPAs from around here which are stronger on the hop flavor than I suspect the cooper's kit is by itself. It also might come out wicked bitter.... We'll have to see....




Who here has tried putting 2 coopers kits in the fermenter? Anyone have some good recipies for guidelines?


BrewOnBoard
 
This is a good place to start looking. If you search toucan (get it, pretty funny stuff) you'll find heaps of info.
Welcome aboard AHB. Hopefully the jokes will get better... :)
 
I am open to correction here, but.
If you need shelf stable product, why not try hop oil additions post fermentation for flavour/aroma.
I think it can last up to a year stored in its bottle in a cool dry place.

That is of course if you want extra hop flavour.
Good luck with your toucan BoB !
 
My all time favourite 2 can brew is Thomas Coopers Irish Stout, just 2 cans of the black goop and both yeast satchets into the fermenter. Can't get much easier than that and the results are awesome.
 
I am gonna have to try one of these toucan stouts.
Why are stouts always coming up as the most popular toucans ?
I'm fairly new here and I'm sure there is a thread explaining why, but haven't looked.
 
unclebarrel said:
I am open to correction here, but.
If you need shelf stable product, why not try hop oil additions post fermentation for flavour/aroma.
I think it can last up to a year stored in its bottle in a cool dry place.

That is of course if you want extra hop flavour.
Good luck with your toucan BoB !
Great idea! I'd seen those hop oils in syringes before but had forgotten about them. Looks like another fun item to play with....

Thanks for the reminder.

BoB
 
How's things on the Sloop John b. B)

Couple of killer toucan recipes:

2 Cans of Coopers original Stout
1 kg dextrose
1 kg Light dried malt extract
30g aroma hops into the fermenter on day 4, Cascadian hops would work fine, say Chinook.
Just use the kit yeast.

That one came mid-field in a National Competition a few years ago.

Also:

2 cans Coopers original series lager
1 kg dextrose
use ONE kit yeast as it froths like you wouldn't believe

Let it mature out for about a month and you'd swear you were drinking one of those "volcanic" superlagers from Europe or a more hoppy Malt Liquo'

Welcome to the forum
 
Bribie G said:
How's things on the Sloop John b. B)

Couple of killer toucan recipes:

2 Cans of Coopers original Stout
1 kg dextrose
1 kg Light dried malt extract
30g aroma hops into the fermenter on day 4, Cascadian hops would work fine, say Chinook.
Just use the kit yeast.

That one came mid-field in a National Competition a few years ago.

Also:

2 cans Coopers original series lager
1 kg dextrose
use ONE kit yeast as it froths like you wouldn't believe

Let it mature out for about a month and you'd swear you were drinking one of those "volcanic" superlagers from Europe or a more hoppy Malt Liquo'

Welcome to the forum
2 cans of Stout plus 2kg fermentable sugars? To what volume is this recipe for? Might give it a go myself.
 
When I was using kits I used to skip the sugar and just use two cans which would give me a maltier brew. Don't be so hesitant with using hops, its not hard and you will be amazed how much better your beers will be. If you have a freezer then your set up to use hops. Your decision but I would check out YOBS site in the retail section, I'm sure he will help you choose a hop to suit your IPA. Hops come vacuum sealed and you just keep them in the freezer and add can add them a few days into ferment which will give you a lovely hop aroma and flavour to balance out the bitterness. Really is easy.
 
mmmyummybeer said:
When I was using kits I used to skip the sugar and just use two cans which would give me a maltier brew. Don't be so hesitant with using hops, its not hard and you will be amazed how much better your beers will be. If you have a freezer then your set up to use hops. Your decision but I would check out YOBS site in the retail section, I'm sure he will help you choose a hop to suit your IPA. Hops come vacuum sealed and you just keep them in the freezer and add can add them a few days into ferment which will give you a lovely hop aroma and flavour to balance out the bitterness. Really is easy.
He's in the States myb..

:icon_cheers:

ed: FWIW, I dont think Goop cans on their own make a nice/balanced beer and all cans can do with additions of various sorts.. well Ales and IPA's especially.. dunno about wheats and Lagers as I tend not to brew them.. However I do understand the OP's constraints though but personally would still look at having a hops supply in the hold. Small single brew Vac. sealed packs.
 
Absolutely right about the pellet hops making all the difference. My local store just started selling all of them in vacuum packed mylar bags. I bet those puppies will keep nicely and I'll definately have a stash of them in the bilges. Half of my "limited ingredients experiment" is practical, and half is just for a bit of a challenge and variety in my brewing. Trying to keep the possessions to a minimum so I don't want to kit up for all grain and I'm getting a little bored with extract and steeping grains.

Still, I'll probably have hops on hand for a long time in the voyage, and in this age of FedEx/DHL I could probably get another years worth delivered to my favorite palm frond island. With a big stash of DME and canned kits (grains would be harder to keep fresh I'd think) I'd be pretty well set up. Maybe I should pay more attention to all the good recipes here on AHS that use a few pellets here or there....

BoB
 
Bats said:
2 cans of Stout plus 2kg fermentable sugars? To what volume is this recipe for? Might give it a go myself.
Normal 23L brew, it comes out around 9% ABV and is wickedly rich, I entered it as a RIS. Might make a batch this winter :)
Also It's quite drinkable after a couple of weeks in the bottle.
 
BrewOnBoard said:
Right now, just for a baseline experiment, I've got a coopers IPA, plus a coopers Real Ale + 1 cup of sugar in with 23L of water. I'm guessing that because the kit is supposed to have enough hops in it to balance a kilo of other fermentables that it'll come out pretty hoppy, but that should be good by be. I'm "hoping" it'll turn out more like the IPAs from around here which are stronger on the hop flavor than I suspect the cooper's kit is by itself. It also might come out wicked bitter.... We'll have to see....
BrewOnBoard
Thanks to IanH's awesome brew calculator I calculated up what I've got in the fermenter and it told me that I'm looking at 69 IBUs and a pretty average OG at 1.049. Hmmm.... I really like hoppy, and I want an IPA-ish beer, but thems a lot of IBUs, Hops, yes, but super super bitter, not sure I want that....

Just as I was starting to fret, I got the idea to sample the brew. It's been fermenting for 6 days and rarely bubbles in the airlock, so I should be able to get some idea of the bitterness/hoppiness to malt balance. Turns out that the taste was actually pretty darn good. Much better than I was expecting actually. Further tasting revealed that while good, the bitterness was a little too high, and was bordering on metallic. It is still drinkable, but only a 1/2 pint a time or perhaps whole one if you had it with something heavy and greasy/salty.

I decided to see what I could do to fix the beer more to my liking. I have added 500gm of amber DME, 250g sugar, and 4 more liters of water. According to the calculatons that keeps the ABV in the same ballpark and knocks down the IBUs by 10. We'll have to see what we get! My only regret, now that I'm thinking about it, was that I didn't bottle a couple before making the change for a proper comparison.

BrewOnBoard
 
Avast there, BrewonBoard!

If, as you say, your preference is for India Pale Ales then that's the way to go.

IPA beers were first brewed in the days of Empire to withstand the sea voyage from England to India.

How much bilge space do you have? Enough for say six, easy to handle, 9 litre corny kegs?

Just thinking that if you brew the IPA yourself (or get a buddy to do it for you), keg it up and stow onboard you'd be set. As for resupply, there are homebrewers everywhere. Make contact through the internet and ask someone get a brew organised for you to re-keg when you go ashore. I'm sure people will help if you offer to cover costs. If you ever get to the east coast of Australia I'm also sure that some of us land lubbers will help out too.

I remember reading Sir Franis Chichester's book Gypsy Moth Circles the World (in the 1960s he was the first to circumnavigate the earth from west to east via Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope), and I think he had kegged beer onboard (His book is a bit of a dry read. The best sailing book I've ever read is Riddle of the Sands - a wonderful story of life in a small sail boat in big seas, and makes one want to go and do what you're about to do).

(Another thing, Sir Francis also painted the tops and rims of his cans (of food) with varnish to prevent them from rusting in the salty conditions. You might want to do the same thing if you take cans of Coopers kits (or whatever). And mark them with an permanent marker pen - the paper labels might fall off in the damp bilge.)

Shit I envy you. Bon voyage.
 
Feldon said:
Avast there, BrewonBoard!

If, as you say, your preference is for India Pale Ales then that's the way to go.

IPA beers were first brewed in the days of Empire to withstand the sea voyage from England to India.

How much bilge space do you have? Enough for say six, easy to handle, 9 litre corny kegs?

Just thinking that if you brew the IPA yourself (or get a buddy to do it for you), keg it up and stow onboard you'd be set. As for resupply, there are homebrewers everywhere. Make contact through the internet and ask someone get a brew organised for you to re-keg when you go ashore. I'm sure people will help if you offer to cover costs. If you ever get to the east coast of Australia I'm also sure that some of us land lubbers will help out too.
Going 'round the pacific and Terra Australis stopping port by port to take on provisions brewed up by AHS members. Now THAT sounds like fun! :D :chug:

I've got room in the bilge for beer, but unfortunately it's not just a matter of turning my 60 gallon water tank into a keg. I plan to be out for 3-5 years, and I plan to drink (and give away) a lot of beer in that time. Further complication is that every time you cross a border they want you to have less than a couple liters aboard or pay duty, thus the joy of brewing aboard. There was this one guy who loaded up on cheap (but quality) rum in the Caribbean and put it all in a tank labeled "stove fuel". Apparently customs never figured it out...

BrewOnBoard

PS Brew tried to climb out of the airlock today. Guess 27 liters and adding more fermentables to a full yeast cake is pushing it..... :lol:
 
Back
Top