Coopers Extracts, not using the brew enhancer/using honey or corn syrup instead of the enhancer?

[vevenson]

Hello, I was going to try out one of the Coopers extracts, but the brew enhancer they tell you to get with it is fairly expensive. I was thinking using either honey or corn syrup to bring the gravity up with the extract might be alright, but I am unsure. Has anyone else given this a try?

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Honey and corn syrup are both close to 100% fermentable, so you'll end up with a much drier, more alcoholic, thin bodied beer. I'm surprised that honey is cheaper for you than brew enhancer!

The most cost efficient option is to make up your own 'brew enhancer'. They are just various combinations of dry malt extract (light dry malt), dextrose and maltodextrin. Buying each individually will cost (per batch) less than buying brew enhancer. Personally, I'd just use dry malt extract with a little bit of plain white table sugar.

 

[vevenson]

Thanks, I'll get some of the dry malt extract, and mix either table sugar or honey with it depending on what flavour I'm going for.

I'm surprised that honey is cheaper for you than brew enhancer!
.

Honey is $10/kg where as brew enhancer is $20/500g

 

[SKBugs]

Search for braggot, there’s plenty of recipes around. The honey adds a nice taste if that’s what you’re looking for. I haven’t found mine to be thin bodied, but def drier and higher ABV. But then again I make meads so that is my default.

 

[Robert Pace]

Hi. I didn't want to post this recipe until I tasted it, but it goes down really well.
Honey is cheaper for me too.

1 can Coopers family secret pale ale
500g medium spray malt (Munton's)
2.75 kg honey
3 teaspoons Tronzymol yeast nutrient.
Tube of clarity ferm (gluten intolerant).
Mixed to 23L

US 05 pitched at 23deg C
Fermented at 21deg C, 2 weeks
Finished at 17deg C, 2 weeks
Cold crashed at 3deg C for 1 week then
Bottled direct from Fridge 8g/L brewing sugar(I like them lively), no "secondary" no mixing bucket.

SG 1065
FG 1008
Around 7.5% abv plus priming sugar.

Very happy with it, excellent head retention, medium/light bodied but flavourful, clear as a bell, not too sweet, dangerously easy to drink, may try some cirtrus dry hops on the next one for a bit more nose and finish.

You should give the honey thing a try, as long as you make sure that the yeast has plenty of nutrient for the honey element of the fermentation, you can't really go far wrong.

Good luck.

 

[frankvw]

Brew Enhancer or Brew Blend are typically blends of dextrose (corn) sugar, maltodextrin and (optionally) DME.

It serves two main purposes when used in combination with a beer kit. It reduces the cost of the fermentables (corn sugar is much cheaper than malt extract) and it increases the fermentability of the wort. An all-extract wort made with extracts that have a medium to low fermentability (and the Coopers extracts fall into that range, IMO) will have a higher OG and therefore less alcohol and more sweetness than a beer brewed with brew enhancer; the latter will be drier, lighter in body and higher in alcohol. All in all I find the beers brewed with enhancer a little more drinkable.

I tried to brew a dry stout both with a beer kit and LME and with steeped grains and two tins of LME, and the sweetness and FG are both too high for the style. Replacing one tin of LME with brew enhancer fixed that quite nicely.

If I had had access to better LME with a better fermentability, the flavor of the beer probably would have been better than what I got out of brew enhancer. But I don't, so Brew Enhancer is the answer in this case.

 

[Crashbuster]

Even a cheaper way to do it I used a kg of pure brown sugar for a coopers draft and it turned out great for the price
Kg of sugar was 3 bucks Canadian
Coopers can was 15 bucks
It gives it a nice smell still and also sticks to the glass
I even tried the same a second time but with bear heading powder it is cheap stuff and use only a couple teaspoons per batch makes it retain the head better

I do not recommend useing table suger for any batch my friends tried it and it turned out horrible because it is not refined well u could get your beer to turn off and u are stuck spending more money in the long run
Plus table sugar stinks

 

[MaaZeus]

I made a Coopers lager kit with 1kg of honey. It was quite nice. It was quite thin obviously but it had a subtle honey flavor that I really liked. Got to make it again some day when I do not feel like doing an all grain BIAB.

I haven't had much luck with Brown sugar myself with kits. But then again I always used the Coopers Real Ale kit for those and that kit ended up not to be for my taste after many tries (not just brown sugar I mean).

 

[Crashbuster]

 

[Ramp_Rat]

Just bottled a Cooper's Dark Ale kit made with 1kg Light DME, 450g Coconut sugar and 250 g Molasses added for the 23L Batch. OG was 1.050, FG 1.010. The Coconut sugar was an impulse buy at the grocery store. Label said it was similar to brown sugar, couldn't really taste coconut. I could get just a hint of the molasses flavor in the pre-bottle sample. Not too bad, IMHO. We'll see in 3 weeks...

Did a Cooper's Real Ale with 500g Light DME and 750g Honey. OG 1.039, FG 1.011. Slow to carbonate (bottled Dec. 15, drinkable Mar 10) but my basement is +/-60 degrees F.
Nottingham yeast for both, got a box (5packs) for the price of one packet ($5.95 CAD)- the manufacturer had the same UPC code on the box as the individual packet, So I bought 2 boxes And it's still within the use by date.

There was another post I read suggesting cheap maple-flavor pancake syrup as a fermentable. Basically it's flavored corn syrup, but a hard pass for me as maple just doesn't spin my wheels for beer. YMMV

Cheers

 

[RM-MN]

I made a Coopers lager kit with 1kg of honey. It was quite nice. It was quite thin obviously but it had a subtle honey flavor that I really liked. Got to make it again some day when I do not feel like doing an all grain BIAB.

I haven't had much luck with Brown sugar myself with kits. But then again I always used the Coopers Real Ale kit for those and that kit ended up not to be for my taste after many tries (not just brown sugar I mean).

Next time you want to add honey flavor to your beer steep some honey malt, then add the honey. It will enhance the honey flavor.

So I bought 2 boxes And it's still within the use by date.

Dry yeast will be fine for brewing well past its "use by" date. If you can still get that deal, stock up.