Any ideas what to do with a Cooper's lager kit?

[Minitrue]

Hello all,

A friend of mine gave me a 4lb can of Cooper's lager (pre-hopped) liquid malt extract (LME). I am not a big fan of lager, and I don't have the yeast or cooling equipment to make a real lager. I'm guessing this Cooper's can is just a basic light LME with some unknown bittering hops. Any ideas how I can make a decent pale ale out of this thing.

I have to following ingredients on hand:
- 2-row malted barley
- Malted wheat
- Malted rye
- Chocolate malt
- Crystal malt
- Dark dry malt extract (3lbs)
- Fuggle hops
- Cascade hops
- Saaz hops
- Columbus hops
- Safale s-04 Dry ale yeast
- Dark brown sugar
- Dextrose
- Table sugar

Any recipes, recommendations, or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot!!

 

[lebucheron]

I'd basically treat that can of LME as your flameout addition in an extract brew session. Dark DME might make this quite dark though. Maybe a black IPA? Hit it with your Columbus and Cascade hops and steep a combo of some of those grains to give it a fresh taste? One of my favorite beers I've made was a totally improvised APA.

 

[unionrdr]

Which Cooper's lager is it? I have recipes for 2 of them that could be adapted to what you have via partial mash. Those cans work good that way.

 

[Minitrue]

Hi Unionrdr... I have the Australian Lager. Thanks for any help!

 

[Minitrue]

Thanks for the tips! I think I might make two smaller batches (3 gallons each) and experiment a bit. A black IPA sound intriguing!

 

[unionrdr]

You could use the Australian Lager can to make my Twilight delight hybrid lager with a small partial mash.
1/2lb Weyerman's smoked malt
3.5oz chocolate malt
1.75oz carahell
Maybe also add 1lb pale ale malt
1lb Munton's plain extra light DME
1/2lb Munton's plain light DME
1lb Munton's plain amber DME (lhbs out of plain light,so subed this)
1oz German Haulertaur hops,20 minutes
1oz Cezech saaz hops,10 minutes
Mash 1 hour @ 152F in 1 gallon water. Sparge with 1.5 gallons @ 168F. Add about 3/4 gallon of water to this in BK for about 3.5 gaallons in 5 gallon BK.
Added 1lb extra light & 1/2lb light DME's to the boil. Haulertauer in @ 20 minutes. Saaz in @ 10 minutes. Then stir in 1lb amber DME. Remove from heat & stir in Cooper's can. Cover & steep for a few minutes to pasteurize. Since it's still boiling hot when the can is added,& pasteurization happens about 160F,it'll be ready to chill after that few minute steep. Then chill in ice bath down to 75F or so. Strain into fermenter. Top off with chilled water that's been in the fridge a couple days to 23L (6.072 USG). Pitch vial of White Labs WL029 German ale/kolsh yeast. Keep ferment temps between 65-69F for this yeast. It'll give the beer lager-like qualities in that ideal temp range.

 

[Minitrue]

This recipe sounds great.... thanks a lot! I'm definitely going to give it a try. Just a quick question. What kind of color is the final product? I'm not concerned about it... just curious.

 

[unionrdr]

Let me dig out a pic;
http://[URL=http://s563.photobucket.com/user/unionrdr/media/PICT0003-2_zps0ba1bdaf.jpg.html] [/URL]

 

[Minitrue]

That is beautiful. I hope it tastes as good as it looks! Thanks again for all your help.

 

[unionrdr]

The flavor balance is very good with the Heritage Lager can I used. The one you have should be really close. It has a nice crispness when cold from the German yeast & smooth spicy hops traditionally used in lagers. I think you'll find it good after yard work,workin on the tuner,etc. Not heavy at all,but not too light either. I'm def gunna brew it again. I have some other recipes that don't use grains for Cooper's cans that you could experiment with. For instance,Hopped & Confused v2 could sub the Cooper's OS Lager can for the DME. That partial mash recipe is another German/Euro sort of hybrid lager in flavor.