Coopers canadian light

[johnrich85]

Alrite. Just bought some of this and need some help. Doesnt say how much sugar to add when adding the contents of the can to the fermenter.

What would be a good or normal amount? 1kg?

 

[shawnbou]

Coopers recommends using their Brewing Sugar pack, which is 1kg of dextrose. So 1kg or approximately 2.25lbs is about right.

However, I would recommend using a couple of pounds of Extra Light DME instead of dextrose (Coopers brewing sugar) or sucrose (table sugar). My first 4 brews were Coopers kits + dextrose, and although they were drinkable, they weren't very good ... every one of them came out very cidery, even after 3 weeks in primary and 3 weeks in bottles as opposed to the 1-2 method suggested by the kit instructions.

Some people disagree, and say that the Coopers kits are made to have plain sugar added ... this school of thought says that using DME instead of sucrose/dextrose would make the beer too malty.

Like many things in brewing it appears to be a matter of personal preference.
So it's up to you what you want to do (of course), but that's just my $.02 based on my experience. If I had it to do over again, I would have tried DME instead of sugar.

 

[jturie]

Do yourself a favor and use 2-3 lbs of light DME. My first 3 batches were Coopers Lager (came with their microbrewery kit), the Stout beerkit, and the IPA. Used the sugar on the first two--the lager was good, but there's just that little something missing from the body--a slight cidery taste. The stout was heavy enough to mask the sugar--it was great and continues to improve with age. I dumped in 3 lbs of Munton and Fison DME with the Coopers IPA, and the beer is absolutely phenomenal. The difference with the DME compared to the sugar is clearly recognizable.

I've got their Traditional Draught in the fermentor now--I used a can of unhopped Coopers light LME. So....go with DME, you won't regret it.

 

[Shooter]

I do add some dextrose to Coopers kits, but I use a mix of 1 lb Light DME, 1 lb Dextrose (Corn Sugar) and 1/4 lb of maltodextrin to add a little body.

 

[johnrich85]

just went for 1kg of brewing sugar this time, ill see how it turns out and if its no good i think ill try the same lager again but go with your suggestions instead

 

[jturie]

Just to keep it in perspective, brewing sugar will be just fine....your beer will be at least 50x better than MillerCoorsBud.

 

[shawnbou]

Just to keep it in perspective, brewing sugar will be just fine....your beer will be at least 50x better than MillerCoorsBud.

Amen to that.

 

[johnrich85]

haha thats if i manage to get it right. My first brew went to crap, saying that i did add 2kg of sugar....