Help with Cooper's Dark Ale

[BMacD]

Hi guys. I am about to make a Cooper's Dark Ale in the next week or two. I'm just looking for some advice as to get the best beer with the limited supplies my brewshops have around here.

I plan on using the included Coopers yeast. I do not have access to grains, hops, etc and have no plans on doing online ordering at this time. Here is what I have available to me.

Dextrose
500g Light Dry Malt (Muntons)
500g Dark Dry Malt (Muntons)
Brew Enhancer (Muntons - I think this is a 50/50 blend of Dex/DME)
Hi Malt Glucose (Muntons)

I don't drink dark beers very often and just want to try something different. I usually drink lagers, blondes and other lighter style beer.

I would like to make it in the 4.5 - 5.5% alcohol range ideally. What would you guys suggest?

I'm thinking about :
Brew Enhancer or 500g Dark DME + 500g Light DME + 200g Dextrose

Thanks in advance,
Brad

 

[frozt]

You might want to consider at least ordering hops online or somewhere. It won't really be beer without them

Also, based on your ingredients, I don't think you can get much gravity out of just those. With 2.2 lbs of DME and .44 lbs dextrose the gravity on a 5 gallon batch should be:

( (2.2×43) + (1.1 × 45) + (.44 × 46) ) ÷5 = 32.868 = 1.033

You'll probably want to obtain more DME and some hops one way or another. Unless you plan on doing some kind of medieval ale

 

[ronclark]

You might want to consider at least ordering hops online or somewhere. It won't really be beer without them

The Coopers cans are pre-hopped.

 

[unionrdr]

The Cooper's dark ale is one of the Original Series,bittering only. I brewed it to be aged a little on bourbon soaked oak chips. But it's like a dark cream ale without it. I used;
1 can Cooper's OS dark ale
3lbs Munton's plain amber DME
1oz East Kent Golding
1oz German Haulertauer
OG-1.050
FG-1.010
Gives a 5.86%ABV by cooper's formula,tastes like a dark cream ale sort of thing to me. Has a dark brown color,that glows like ruby where the light shines through it. This should give an idea of what to do with it. Just keep in mind it's not intended to be a porter or a stout. Just a dark ale.

 

[BMacD]

So I decided to keep it simple. I ended up going with the Muntons Beer Enhancer (50% DME - 50% Dextrose). The OG was 1.040 - 1.042 range.

What should the FG range be? I'm guessing around 1.01? That would give me about 4.2% ish right? then about another 0.2-0.5% when primed.

Thanks, if I like this (I'm sure I will) then I'll bump it up to 3# DME

 

[unionrdr]

An FG between 1.008-1.010 would be a safe bet on this recipe.

 

[mpc88]

Hi guys. I am about to make a Cooper's Dark Ale in the next week or two. I'm just looking for some advice as to get the best beer with the limited supplies my brewshops have around here.
Brad

I just made a batch of Dark Ale and I can attest that it does have that "Cream Ale" taste to a point. It's dark and I really didn't expect that taste at all, but I really should've added more carbonation drops. I did to some Grlosch bottles and it came out tasting great to me. hope your batch comes out nice. I don't think I'll do it again as I lost too much in my regular batch to try and risk it again unless I find that batch in a sale, lol....but good luck,