First Post, and questions about Coopers Kit

[Stavrogin78]

Hi folks!

I've been brewing from the Brew House kits (which are great, but super simple) for about four years, but I've just done a Coopers kit, which threw me for a bit of a loop and took me out of my very narrow element. The Brew House kits that come with 15L of concentrated wort are simple - you just top up with water, pitch your yeast, and go. I know the Coopers cans aren't really considered complicated, but they're more complicated than what I've done before, so bear with me.

I did the Coopers IPA kit, which comes in the can and makes 23L of beer. I was half guessing on what to add to it. The kit instructions just said to dissolve the can and "other fermentable sugars" in 2L of water. I added 454g (1lb) of the Briess malt extract and nothing else. Pretty sure that was guided by some internet advice somewhere. Then I topped up with water, checked temperature, pitched the yeast, and left it in the corner of the kitchen.

The first question I've got is about open vs closed fermentation. My primary has no lid, so I just put a clean towel over it to keep flies out and let it go. Kit instructions say to let it go 4-6 days and go by the hydrometer. When I first started this, I was told that the foam created by the fermentation seals the wort against oxygen in the air, but once it breaks, it's exposed. But I've also been reading lately that some brewers leave their beer in the primary for a couple of weeks, which is totally contrary to any kit instructions I've ever read. So is it advisable to do a primary fermentation beyond the 4-6 days when you're doing it open, without an airlock?

Second question: the addition of the sugars. This is actually the first kit I've ever brewed where I've had to add sugars to the wort. I am completely clueless on this. Can anyone advise me on the relationship between added malts and the final product? Should I be mixing malt extract and dextrose? How much should I be adding? The kit instructions list "Recommended Ingredients" as 500g of Light Dry Malt and 300g of dextrose. I wasn't sure on this, but I read that as 500g of DME in the boil and the 300g of dextrose for the priming sugar. But now that I'm thinking about it, I'm wondering if that recommendation was assuming that one was using carbonation drops in bottling... it recommended 8g/L of sugar for priming, which only comes out to 184g, which is what I used when it was time to bottle. I didn't use any dextrose at all when I boiled the contents of the can. I just added the 454g pack of DME. So maybe I screwed that up... Any guidance there would help.

SG before pitching yeast looked suspiciously low, around 1.032, but I thought (after some more reading) that perhaps I hadn't stirred the mixed wort enough when I took the reading, which I also took right off the top as I don't have a proper thief.

So any help on any of that would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance, and I look forward to meeting you all.

Stavrogin

 

[Ogri]

A relatively quick reply.

Do you have access to clingfilm/saranwrap, or anything of that nature?? I always seal the top of my fermenting buckets with a couple of overlapping sheets of this, punch a few small holes with a fork, and let my fermentation get on with things. Keeps unwanted things from falling in, unless they're really heavy or have a mind to get in there, and let's the excess CO2 escape. It's the CO2 that forms a protective blanket over your fermenting beer and stops O2 from oxidising the batch. I've experienced no detrimental occurences so far using clingfilm/saranwrap over the bucket to semi-seal in 5 years of brewing. My feeling is this would be a more efficient/safer way of covering the top of your fermenter than just a towel, but hey....beer has been being made successfully for millenia under all sorts of, slightly less than sanitary, circumstances, so who's to say.

As for sugars and your OG. If you went 23 litres into the fermenter with just a coopers kit can (1.7kg of HME if I'm not mistaken) and only 1lb/454g of DME then an OG of 1.032 wouldn't be too far out of the ball park. Adding only malt extract will sweeten the wort as there are a certain amount of unfermentable, or more difficult to ferment, sugars created during the extract process, so depending on the amount you add and the beer style you're shooting for, or your personal tastes, you might want to consider bittering/flavour and aroma hop additions. Generally, simple sugars, cane sugar, white sugar,and to a slightly lesser extent light brown and darker brown sugars, will fully ferment leading to a dryer finish than when you use only malts. I'm not sure regarding your question on dextrose, as I've never used it, but that might well be what the Coopers priming tabs are so maybe the instruction regarding dextrose was indicating to use for priming when bottling.

I've made a few batches using canned kits where I went about 21 to 23 litres into the fermenter, using 500g to a kilo of DME, various additions of light and brown sugars, bittering, flavour and aroma hop additions, that turned out pretty damn good.

Getting a little experimental, within reason, usually yields some pretty good results, especially if you have your wort cooled to optimum temp for pitching, yeast in same range, the first few days of fermentation controlled regarding ferm temps, sanitisation wired and the patience to let the process roll for the necessary time before interference.

Hope this is of some help. Give me a shout if you want and I'll see if I can dig out some of the recipes I did using Coopers can kits, although I can't guarantee they'll suit your palate perfectly I'm pretty sure I enjoyed every one of them.:fro:

 

[Ogri]

OK, for example, here's one recipe I did using a Coopers kit can.

Coopers selection India Pale Ale - 1.5kg
Coopers LME light 1.5kg
Dark brown sugar 180g
light brown sugar 800g

Volume into fermeter 19.75 litres

OG 1.065

Nugget @ 13% aa, 30g for a 30 minute boil
Cascade @ 6%AA, 52g for 5 Minute boil

(boil done with only the brown sugar and some of the LME in about 12 litres of liquor. HME and remainder of LME were added at the end after flame out)

Safale S-05 dry yeast, 1 pack, rehydrated. And I think I used the Coopers packet yeast from the kit as yeast nutrient, chucking it into the wort near the end of the boil.

 

[RM-MN]

It's time for some study so you understand what your are doing and why. Going in blind, you don't ask the right questions because you don't know the questions to ask. Read this book (free, online) before your next brew session. Learn about temperature control during the fermentation too as that gets your better beer. www.howtobrew.com

 

[Stavrogin78]

Thanks, everyone, for the replies! RM-MN, I think you've hit the nail on the head. While the Brew House kits are great, they don't give you much for actual understanding of what you're doing. Thanks for the link. I'll give that a good read before I throw on the next batch. In all likelihood I'm going to drink whatever comes out of the bottle on this batch (though from what's been said here, it sounds like I kinda blew it with the added sugars and it'll probably be a little weak). I've been stuck drinking Lucky for the past year and a half, and anyone who's ever had it knows that not much can be worse than that. But the book looks like exactly what I need to understand the mechanics behind the process. Thanks!

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks, everyone, for the replies! RM-MN, I think you've hit the nail on the head. While the Brew House kits are great, they don't give you much for actual understanding of what you're doing. Thanks for the link. I'll give that a good read before I throw on the next batch. In all likelihood I'm going to drink whatever comes out of the bottle on this batch (though from what's been said here, it sounds like I kinda blew it with the added sugars and it'll probably be a little weak). I've been stuck drinking Lucky for the past year and a half, and anyone who's ever had it knows that not much can be worse than that. But the book looks like exactly what I need to understand the mechanics behind the process. Thanks!

Don't worry too much about it being weak. I sometimes deliberately make a batch with low alcohol because I may need to work with equipment and don't want to be impaired but want the refreshment that beer provides.

 

[Stavrogin78]

Don't worry too much about it being weak. I sometimes deliberately make a batch with low alcohol because I may need to work with equipment and don't want to be impaired but want the refreshment that beer provides.

That might work out just perfect. I'm a machinist with a home shop, and I've often wanted to have a brew while working, but I don't want to risk losing digits to a spinning cutter. So this batch may be useful after all, even if it's less than optimal.