Coopers dark ale

[tomlaw87]

Hello all

I'm going to be purchasing the coppers dark ale kit soon, but I was wondering, with this kit, as it's not lager, do i still need to prime it with the carbonation drops? Or does this specific kit not require that?

Also, I want to make it stronger than 5%. Any tips on how to do so?

Many thanks
Tom

 

[TopherM]

It has nothing to do if it's a lager or not. If you want it to be carbonated, you have to prime it with something, either carbonation drops or some other sugar.

To raise the alcohol content, you add more fermentables - sugar, honey, more extract syrup, etc. Just note that you can't just add alcohol without affecting the taste. The recipes of these kits are made so that everything is in balance. If you add more fermentables to bump the alcohol content, you are definitely going to dry out the beer and lose some body, and you may end up with an alcohol burn in the taste.

If I were you, I'd just leave the recipe alone, especially for a Cooper's kit that isn't the highest quality in the first place.

 

[unionrdr]

Check out my recipe for the Cooper's dark ale can in the recipe section. It's in the English brown section under moonwind dark ale. That'll give you an idea of where to start,flavor,etc. Mine came out to 5.73%ABV. Tasty & very sessionable.