Coopers IPA kit modification

Hey everyone. My second batch of beer is going to be Coopers IPA kit. I'm looking to kick it up a bit, so I bought 1# of Pilsen light DME and 1oz of Kent Goldings hops, and am going to boil for at least a bit. I wanted to make sure that I was approaching this correctly.

Since the kit is prehopped extract, I was thinking maybe only a 30min boil on the Kent Goldings hops. So I was going to bring about 2L of water to a boil, mix in the can of extract and the DME, then put in the hops for a 30min boil. Is this a good plan? Would the hops have enough time to put in some decent flavor? I want to get more than just the bitterness out of the additional hops, because I really enjoy the Kent Goldings flavor. Also, is adding the extra DME at the beginning okay, or will it change things up for the better if I add the extra extract later in the boil?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Prehopped kits are not designed to be boiled. If you want hop flavor just mix your water, hops and DME together and boil for about 10 mins. After the boil then add your kit.

I understand they aren't designed to be boiled, but was interested in what the 30min boil would do. I'd imagine it would take out some of the flavor and leave just the bitterness from the hops that were used in the extract? To me this wouldn't be a necessarily negative thing.

shanecb said:

I understand they aren't designed to be boiled, but was interested in what the 30min boil would do. I'd imagine it would take out some of the flavor and leave just the bitterness from the hops that were used in the extract? To me this wouldn't be a necessarily negative thing.

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You would boil out the hop bitterness as well as the hop aroma in the beer kit. Also, you would darken the beer. The hop bitterness of the kit is fine already. You may want to add more aroma to be in line with an American IPA. The Coopers IPA was made to replicate a British IPA.

I mixed 3# of M&F DME with a can of the Coopers IPA, and the beer was really really good. Not as hoppy as I'd like, but you get what you get with prehopped extract. If you're gonna boil 30 minutes with Coopers, you'd be better off getting unhopped extract, hops to suit your taste, and extending the boil to 60 minutes.

tomheff said:

You would boil out the hop bitterness as well as the hop aroma in the beer kit. Also, you would darken the beer. The hop bitterness of the kit is fine already. You may want to add more aroma to be in line with an American IPA. The Coopers IPA was made to replicate a British IPA.

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What would be the best method for adding the hops as aroma without boiling out the original hop profile? A short boil? Dry hop?

i would say dry hop.

Any case, boiling canned hopped extracts is always a bad idea since all the manufacturer's hard work of adding aroma to the can will all be wasted.