adding hops to Coopers Dark Ale?

I got the Coopers Kit last Christmas and I brewed the Lager that came with it pretty much by the book and it came out pretty good.

For my birthday I was given the Coopers Dark Ale kit so I decided to tweak things a bit. I went down to the local brew store for the first time and I was totally overwhelmed by the selection. One of the guys working there helped me pick out some stuff:

2lbs sparkling amber DME
nottingham brewing yeast
1Oz U.K. Kent Golding Hop Pellets

So I'm replacing dextrose in the kit with the DME and swapping out the yeast but what should I do with the hop pellets? (by the way this will be my 2nd batch so I'm still pretty new)

Golding s are pretty versatile on the boil, try amping them up for flavor and aroma, in the true English style, ie: last 15-1 min of the boil, save some for a casual dry hop if you're keen. Best of luck

I'd split the hops 50:50 at 15 and 5 minutes.

Thanks for the tips, although it leads to another question: I've heard that the coopers kits malt extract is pre-hopped and boiling it will boil off a portion of the hoppyness.

Would the 1oz of Goldings be enough to make up for the lost flavor or should I get some more? I enjoy some pretty hoppy beers myself but I'd like to keep this mid-range so my friends can enjoy it as well.

maybe just do a half hour boil adding dme at 30, 1/2oz hops at 15 and 5. at flameout add the coopers kit. i have a coopers ipa right now and it's too low on hops. i may have boiled it for 15 mintues. i'll definately be adding some steeping grains and hops to next coopers can. i like them b/c i can make a quick beer on a weeknight if a fermenter is sitting empty too long.

good luck, sounds like a great beer.

Wow, this made me realize I need to get a bigger pot, I almost had a boil over a few times at the beginning.

I did a 30 minute boil with the DME added at the start, hops at 15 and the coopers malt extract at 5. I forgot to split the hops like ManyBrews mentioned, just got too caught up in the process.

Don't even bother boiling it, just dry hop it instead.

what i would do is to make up the kit as usual and in a serarate saucepan boil the golding hops for 8 mins to add some flavour, you could also do 50:50 for 15 mins and put the rest in with 5 to go. Thats how ive done it so far and it works great

Thanks for the advice, I don't plan on using any of the coopers kits in the future, I figure this as my transition from the no-boil kits to partial extract brews (I hope I can snag a stainless steel turkey fryer from Wal-Mart after Thanksgiving).

My first brew was a lager so I was surprised by the vigorous fermenting of this Ale the next day. I think everyone should start with a Lager, it teaches patience! or not, I think I was lucky to have poor insulation in my last apartment that kept the guestroom closet at a steady 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

Final update:

There was alot of hops sediment in the fermenter, I was using the Cooper's kit that has a spigot on the bottom so every time I took samples to check the gravity it was full of hop particles.

I went to my LHBS (named myLHBS) and picked up a better bottle for a secondary and an autosiphon. Siphoning it off to the secondary helped clear things up, later I used the coopers kit as my bottling bucket.

The beer came out OK but not great, it has the funny aftertaste I noticed from my first kit beer and a really week head.

I'm not discouraged though, I kind of winged it with this recipe. The next brew will be an IPA, which I should of done all along since that's what I usually drink.

in closing, here's a picture of me on bottle day taken by my GF's cellphone