Coopers English Bitter

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DrunkCanuck73

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My 3rd Batch. I like to tinker with everything, and my beer is no exception. Here is my recipe:Jan.20th

Coopers English Bitter-1(1.6kg)can
Medium Dry Malt Extract-500g
Brown Sugar-500g
High Malt Glucose Liquid-300g
Honey-150g
(23Litres total wort)

OG-1.043
Coopers Yeast-7g(made a starter 2 days before, I know I didn't need too)
pitching temp-23*C
fermented like crazy(had to install a blow off tube after 24hrs.)
Jan.29th SG-1.010
Jan.31st FG-1.010
4.3% ABV

Jan.31st bulk primed with 7/8 cup of dextrose and 1/8 cup of molasses. Carb. temp. was 68*F. Feb.8th well carbonated, but kinda sweet. Didn't really like that.Left in basement at 13*C. Feb.15, taste amazing, not sweet, in fact a bit bitter, but I guess that is what it should taste like. This is good, I will do this recipe again.
 
Looks like a lot of sugars to me. And the Cooper's English bitter is good.but they're more malty than hop bitter. Can't understand why they call a malty ale a "bitter". No dry hop,not much hop flavor traditionally.
But good,especially with pit bbq. Or beef dishes. I used plain light DME in mine,& the color & flavor were good. Pic in my gallery. I'm def gunna make the English bitter again. Nice malty session beer.
 
Yes it was alot of sugars, and the reason I did so was the"bitter" scared me. Not trying this beer before, I thought maybe balance out the hoppiness. Didn't realise the bitter came from the malt. like I said after a few days in the bottle it tasted way too sweet. Thank goodness it is more balanced now.

Ill brew it again but next time maybe with 2.2lbs/1kg of light DME.
 
I made a nice Coopers English Bitter with 1.5LBS of malt and 1.5LBS of Liquid Malt. Made a little review video of it - beer turned out nice.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I made a nice Coopers English Bitter with 1.5LBS of malt and 1.5LBS of Liquid Malt. Made a little review video of it - beer turned out nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jKI-iFOIgc

Was it comparable at all to the Propeller ESB? Love that stuff. I made the Cooper's IPA, but it seems closer to a bitter to me than an IPA. Thinking I might tweak that to come up with a bitter.
 
Tom at makebeer.net told me you add 2 Cooper's light DME packages to it with 1oz EKG for a Fuller's ESB clone. That sounded good to me.
 
I did one of these by the recommended package and was not very impressed with it. It could simply be the style, which I'm not familiar with. It was alright, but I would definitely modify it somehow if I were to brew it again.
 
Hey LT - it doesn't quite turn out like the propeller ESB - but its not totally off. I love the propeller ESB and their Porter. Give er a try even if its not like propeller its a solid kit. Cheers
 
I'm thinking when I try the Cooper's Bitter I'll throw in a Willamette hop tea. According to Propeller's site they use Willamette and Warrior in their bitter, so I'm assuming the Warrior is bittering and the Willamette is flavour. Pretty pleased with the result of the IPA I made, and I used a KG of the Munton's Brew Enhancer for my sugar Kilo. Hope to throw this together St. Patricks Day weekend-ish.
 
I also found it pretty easy to get a very clear beer out of the Cooper's English bitter can. The Cooper's 15g ale yeast packet would be great with this. Midwest & NB have them,& with US style dating,very fresh too. I gotta order more of the 15g packets at the end of the week. Got a pipeline to fill. Use at least 2lbs of plain light DME with the Cooper's English bitter can. The cooper's light DME box I used is 500g,or a lil over one pound,which is 454g. This gave mine OG 1.030,FG 1.009,so that's 3.3%. I was sure I mixed them well,but this was before I got my fine mesh strainer. So mixing & aerating were harder. So I think the OG should've been more like 1.038 or so. The 2lb of plain DME will fix that. Use the 2lb od light DME in the partial boil for the hop addition you mentioned. 20 minutes will be great for flavor. Traditionally,English bitters don't have much hop flavor,sp take it easy with 1oz max. I think that'll be fine,done that before. Also,no dry hop,as they don't have noticeable hop aroma,just malt mainly.
 
I also found it pretty easy to get a very clear beer out of the Cooper's English bitter can. The Cooper's 15g ale yeast packet would be great with this. Midwest & NB have them,& with US style dating,very fresh too. I gotta order more of the 15g packets at the end of the week. Got a pipeline to fill. Use at least 2lbs of plain light DME with the Cooper's English bitter can. The cooper's light DME box I used is 500g,or a lil over one pound,which is 454g. This gave mine OG 1.030,FG 1.009,so that's 3.3%. I was sure I mixed them well,but this was before I got my fine mesh strainer. So mixing & aerating were harder. So I think the OG should've been more like 1.038 or so. The 2lb of plain DME will fix that. Use the 2lb od light DME in the partial boil for the hop addition you mentioned. 20 minutes will be great for flavor. Traditionally,English bitters don't have much hop flavor,sp take it easy with 1oz max. I think that'll be fine,done that before. Also,no dry hop,as they don't have noticeable hop aroma,just malt mainly.

That's what I'm shooting for. Hope to order the hops this week!
 
The ingredients I mentioned will basically make it an ESB. With EKG,it's said to be a Fuller's ESB clone. The Willamette is floral/nectar herbal sort of flavor I think is really good. Very English too. It seems to me that a video I watched of the history of the Willamette valley in Oregon mentioned it was originally Fuggle that was planted in the 1830's. But our soil & weather conditions,as usual,turn planted hops from elseware into something uniquely American.
 
I also found it pretty easy to get a very clear beer out of the Cooper's English bitter can. The Cooper's 15g ale yeast packet would be great with this. Midwest & NB have them,& with US style dating,very fresh too. I gotta order more of the 15g packets at the end of the week. Got a pipeline to fill. Use at least 2lbs of plain light DME with the Cooper's English bitter can. The cooper's light DME box I used is 500g,or a lil over one pound,which is 454g. This gave mine OG 1.030,FG 1.009,so that's 3.3%. I was sure I mixed them well,but this was before I got my fine mesh strainer. So mixing & aerating were harder. So I think the OG should've been more like 1.038 or so. The 2lb of plain DME will fix that. Use the 2lb od light DME in the partial boil for the hop addition you mentioned. 20 minutes will be great for flavor. Traditionally,English bitters don't have much hop flavor,sp take it easy with 1oz max. I think that'll be fine,done that before. Also,no dry hop,as they don't have noticeable hop aroma,just malt mainly.

With all the sugars I used, my OG was 1.043, my FG was 1.010, for 4.31% ABV. After time this beer just got better, and is now gone.I would brew again, but with some specialty grains, and less sugar.
 
I made a nice Coopers English Bitter with 1.5LBS of malt and 1.5LBS of Liquid Malt. Made a little review video of it - beer turned out nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jKI-iFOIgc

Love the vids.I watched this one and the Craigtube one on the English bitter, I think it was the one where Craig went"holy&*^%". It made me laugh,and I knew I had to try it. It is good,will definately brew again. Yours had substantially more head than mine, but I think it was due to all the sugars I used.
 
Was it comparable at all to the Propeller ESB? Love that stuff. I made the Cooper's IPA, but it seems closer to a bitter to me than an IPA. Thinking I might tweak that to come up with a bitter.

Propeller ESB is one of my favorite beers, you ever use any hops or anything with the coppers kit to get it to a clone?
 
The Cooper's English Bitter can be tailored to emulate the darker copper colored " ordinary bitters". Buy using some plain light Munton's DME & UK/EKG, it's said to be close to Fuller's ESB. Basically again, if you brew it to about 3-4%, it's considered an ordinary bitter. If you get to around 5%, it's an ESB (Extra Special Bitter). They tax'em over there by alcohol content.
So the Cooper's is at the darker end of the spectrum of bitters. Being like a Fuller's, it typically looks like this one;

Whereas the Morebeer! extra special bitter kit is the more atypical color & flavor;
 
The Cooper's English Bitter can be tailored to emulate the darker copper colored " ordinary bitters". Buy using some plain light Munton's DME & UK/EKG, it's said to be close to Fuller's ESB. Basically again, if you brew it to about 3-4%, it's considered an ordinary bitter. If you get to around 5%, it's an ESB (Extra Special Bitter). They tax'em over there by alcohol content.
So the Cooper's is at the darker end of the spectrum of bitters. Being like a Fuller's, it typically looks like this one;

Whereas the Morebeer! extra special bitter kit is the more atypical color & flavor;

I assume your kinda answering me. Are you saying that using the basic kit will give me only 3-4%?
 
Basically, yes. That's what it's designed for. You can make it higher, &/or add hops to make it an ESB, rather than a ordinary bitter.
 
Basically, yes. That's what it's designed for. You can make it higher, &/or add hops to make it an ESB, rather than a ordinary bitter.

Ok thanks, so adding probably an extra 1.5lb of malt or sugar will give me 5-6%? And using UK east golding hops for an ESB sytle? Which is probably my favorite! :)

When would you add the UK EKG to the boil? Or even dry hop which i never done before.
 
They tax'em over there by alcohol content.

:off:

While this is in part true it plays no role in the tax rate of an ordinary bitter or an ESB.

The bands of taxation on beer are fairly broad and there would likely be no difference in the duty due on an ESB or a mild assuming both fall in a range of 2.8% to 7.5% ABV.

https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-shopping/alcohol-tobacco

There are multiple states in the USA that use similar approach for taxation of beer. Kansas, Idaho, Oklahoma being 3 examples.

http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/beer.pdf
 
Ok thanks, so adding probably an extra 1.5lb of malt or sugar will give me 5-6%? And using UK east golding hops for an ESB sytle? Which is probably my favorite! :)

When would you add the UK EKG to the boil? Or even dry hop which i never done before.

I use a 3lb bag of Munton's plain light DME with an ounce of UK/EKG @ 15 minutes left in the boil. Sometimes, I'll use an ounce @ 20 & another ounce @ 10 or 15 minutes left. Here's a handy conversion chart for grains-extract-sugars that may help, since the amounts by weight are different; http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html
 
I use a 3lb bag of Munton's plain light DME with an ounce of UK/EKG @ 15 minutes left in the boil. Sometimes, I'll use an ounce @ 20 & another ounce @ 10 or 15 minutes left. Here's a handy conversion chart for grains-extract-sugars that may help, since the amounts by weight are different; http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

Thanks uniondr, i was thinking of using british 2 row instead of DME. I was going to put 4lbs in a grain bag and mash it in a cooler for 60min, then sparge it with some hot water in my brew kettle for 10min.

From the book i have - its looks like about 5.5 liters for the mash for 4lbs. What about the sparge water? Its says 2 gallons in the book.

How would you go about it? so many different approaches.. :)
 
@ 1.50 quarts per pound of grain, that's 1 1/2 gallons (USG) for the 4lbs of grist. Crushed of course. Then I'd sparge with 1.5 to 2 gallons to get to boil volume of 3-3.5 gallons. Sparge water should be 168F, or 75.56C.
 
@ 1.50 quarts per pound of grain, that's 1 1/2 gallons (USG) for the 4lbs of grist. Crushed of course. Then I'd sparge with 1.5 to 2 gallons to get to boil volume of 3-3.5 gallons. Sparge water should be 168F, or 75.56C.

Thanks i guess you still boil the wort for 60min?

I just ordered a coppers kit, 4lbs of 2 row and 1oz of williamette hops. They didnt't have east kent..
 
Yeah, 60 minute boil, but only if you're adding bittering hops. Otherwise, if you're just going with the bittering in the Cooper's can, just use the willamette as a flavor addition @ 15 minutes left in the boil. Then add the Cooper's can @ flame out & stir well.
 
Yeah, 60 minute boil, but only if you're adding bittering hops. Otherwise, if you're just going with the bittering in the Cooper's can, just use the willamette as a flavor addition @ 15 minutes left in the boil. Then add the Cooper's can @ flame out & stir well.

How much water would you use in total? I really like to get close to %5abv. Anything less is not my cup of tea. :)

I was thinking of using 21 liters instead of the 23 liters that is suggested.

Thanks for all the tips! I really can't wait for my order, its on the island so i hope to have it by Friday! And its free shipping!
 
Hm, well, 19L equals 5.016 USG. that'd raise the ABV a bit. After mash & sparge, you should have 3 to 3 1/2 gallons boil volume. Chill hot wort to 75F (23.89C), then strain into fermenter & top off with well, chilled spring, distilled, or RO water to recipe volume. 19L if you want 5 gallons, 23L if you want 6 gallons. This should get it down to 65F, or 18.33C. By the by, in my reply #25, I meant doing the 15 minute hop addition with only, say, a 20 minute boil, adding the hops @ 15...
 
Hm, well, 19L equals 5.016 USG. that'd raise the ABV a bit. After mash & sparge, you should have 3 to 3 1/2 gallons boil volume. Chill hot wort to 75F (23.89C), then strain into fermenter & top off with well, chilled spring, distilled, or RO water to recipe volume. 19L if you want 5 gallons, 23L if you want 6 gallons. This should get it down to 65F, or 18.33C. By the by, in my reply #25, I meant doing the 15 minute hop addition with only, say, a 20 minute boil, adding the hops @ 15...

Hey uniondr, what is your usual final gravity? Man what a huge krausen i have! Its what i just read sometimes called a califlower foam head.
 
My Typical FG for this recipe is about 1.010 for 6 gallons, or 23L. Cooper's yeast is high flocculation, so it should drop quite clear when it's done. I got some of mine in the fridge a couple days ago for Thanksgiving.
 
My Typical FG for this recipe is about 1.010 for 6 gallons, or 23L. Cooper's yeast is high flocculation, so it should drop quite clear when it's done. I got some of mine in the fridge a couple days ago for Thanksgiving.

Agree. My batch is only 3 days old and the foam is falling already, its has less foam then a 9 day old inspired apple juice ale aka graff. Using Safale 05
 
:off:

While this is in part true it plays no role in the tax rate of an ordinary bitter or an ESB.

The bands of taxation on beer are fairly broad and there would likely be no difference in the duty due on an ESB or a mild assuming both fall in a range of 2.8% to 7.5% ABV.

https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-shopping/alcohol-tobacco

There are multiple states in the USA that use similar approach for taxation of beer. Kansas, Idaho, Oklahoma being 3 examples.

http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/beer.pdf

It can make quite a difference. If you buy a 5.5% strong bitter it will include almost twice as much tax than a 3.2% bitter (55p a pint vs 32p a pint). When the expected supermarket price of a beer is around £1 to £2, that could be about half of the cost of the bitter going into tax (therefore it's more expensive).
 
Agree. My batch is only 3 days old and the foam is falling already, it's has less foam then a 9 day old inspired apple juice ale aka graff. Using Safale 05

That means initial fermentation is finishing up. It'll then slowly, uneventfully creep down to a stable FG. Then settle out clearer after that.
 
Unionrdr

What volume of water do you use in your DME + Hops 15 min boils when doing the Coopers can kits?
 
That measn initial fermentation is finishing up. It'll then slowly, uneventfully creep down to a stable FG,. Then settle out clearer after that.

Yeah its one of the fastest times i can remeber the foam dropping. I really don't think i got good effenicy out of the mash - it was 61-62C after an hour. I will just leave it in a pot next time so i can heat it up.

And this will be the last time i don't take OG reading. I might put in a pound of sugar so it has a decent abv. But of course i'm running blind. :(

I mashed 4lbs of british 2 row for 60min with an inital temp of 65-66C. (The 60min mash started at 152f and ended @ 144f)
Brought to a boil with 8oz of light DME and 1oz of hops for 15min and added the coopers can at flameout.

Edit: Well i just read a lower mash temp would increase the ABV.. lol My sugar addition is scrapped. :ban:
 
Unionrdr

What volume of water do you use in your DME + Hops 15 min boils when doing the Coopers can kits?
I still use the same SS 5 gallon (20 qt) kettle I started with. I try to use 3 1/2 gallons, regardless of brewing style ( AE, PM). I use 3lbs of plain DME in the boil. Adding the Cooper's can at flameout to preserve the boiled-in hop bittering, flavor, etc.
Yeah its one of the fastest times i can remeber the foam dropping. I really don't think i got good effenicy out of the mash - it was 61-62C after an hour. I will just leave it in a pot next time so i can heat it up.

And this will be the last time i don't take OG reading. I might put in a pound of sugar so it has a decent abv. But of course i'm running blind. :(

I mashed 4lbs of british 2 row for 60min with an inital temp of 65-66C. (The 60min mash started at 152f and ended @ 144f)
Brought to a boil with 8oz of light DME and 1oz of hops for 15min and added the coopers can at flameout.

Edit: Well i just read a lower mash temp would increase the ABV.. lol My sugar addition is scrapped. :ban:

Well, when the rapid bubbling slows or stops, only " initial fermentation" is usually done. The krausen will begin to recede & it'll finish fermenting from there to a stable FG. You can also try insulating the mash tun to retain more heat for a more stable mash temp.
 
I had some of the English Bitter (brewed more like a Fuller's ESB with my recipes, as I understand it) for Thanksgiving yesterday. Crystal clear, makes a thick, pillowy head with many bottles, others a finger or two. The plain extra light Munton's DME allows more of the Cooper's can's bittering to shine through. The malt flavors are of toasted bread with caramel under that. The 1oz of EKG @ 15 minutes just adds a bit of complexity to the over-all flavor. Carbonation seems to be just right, finally, at 2.1 Vco2.
Cell phone pic;

This shot looks lighter being backlit. Sitting on the table, it's basically coppery/amber to brown.
 
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