went to lhbs very negative about coopers

[petep1980]

Or you could just buy hops, bulk extract, whatever yeast you want, some grains for steeping. I just don't understand the desire to make a dung pile smell like roses. Drink and brew what you want, it just doesn't make sense to me when superior products exist (IMO).

The pre-hopped kits suit alot of us looking for convenience. I bought 1# of cascades of all hops and around 10oz I'll never use.

When you don't brew often it's tough to buy in bulk.

 

[Shooter]

the people that know how to read the date stamped on the bottom of the can know how long

Exactly, I've made plenty of other extract kits and they are great, but the one Coopers kit I did try was pretty easy and made a fine beer. It was a fresh can of extract and I did use a mix of LME and dextrose and not just sugar as the additional fermentables. I have a Sparkling Ale can that I need to make soon. It's still very fresh. I certainly wouldn't limit myself to Coopers kits, but if I was looking for a quick easy brew day to put some beer in the pipeline, I would definitely consider a Coopers kit.

 

[ManyBrews]

Or you could just buy hops, bulk extract, whatever yeast you want, some grains for steeping. I just don't understand the desire to make a dung pile smell like roses. Drink and brew what you want, it just doesn't make sense to me when superior products exist (IMO).

i try to make dung smell like roses. i just need to build up my pipeline and do it before the wife gets home on a weeknight AND have dinner made...not to mention my stove is not capable of boiling over 2 gallons.

this week i did a coopers real ale (30 ibu) w/ 1# steeped crystal 20 and 1/2 hour boil w/ 3# dme and 1oz cascade and 1 oz willamette at different additions. added coopers can, dumped in with 4 gallons chilled water in fermentor and it was already under 80 degrees.

wife gets home, pitch yeast, pull eggplant out of oven...all done in less than hour and a half

 

[dontman]

This has not been a campaign against extract brewing. It is simply making the case that there are options for buying extracts and there are usually better options than the coopers extract upon which to base your recipe.

In a vacuum where I had no choice I would probably try to make coopers work for me. But for me, I ALWAYS have the option to buy unhopped fresh extract and refrigerated hops by the ounce and fresh refrigerated yeast, whether dry or liquid. And in the case where I have the choice I will always choose the better ingredients.

 

[Shooter]

This has not been a campaign against extract brewing. It is simply making the case that there are options for buying extracts and there are usually better options than the coopers extract upon which to base your recipe.

In a vacuum where I had no choice I would probably try to make coopers work for me. But for me, I ALWAYS have the option to buy unhopped fresh extract and refrigerated hops by the ounce and fresh refrigerated yeast, whether dry or liquid. And in the case where I have the choice I will always choose the better ingredients.

Agreed, but sometimes an easy brew day or trying something different can be relaxing and fun. If I get beer out of it, all the better! I like good Mexcian food, but it doesn't mean I'm not sometimes up for eating at Taco Bell. Mmm, yo quiero Taco Bell, right NOW!!!!

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Well said dontman. That was my point, albeit I think my oratory skills failed me here.

 

[Shooter]

i just need to build up my pipeline and do it before the wife gets home on a weeknight AND have dinner made...

I understand this sentiment! For me, brew/bottle time is usually during nap time on a Saturday or a Sunday afternoon. I haul down gear about an hour before hand and, when the kids hit the beds, I fire everything up. With a full boil, clean up and everything else I often am frantically rushing to finish up when they are waking up and wanting to get into everything.

I do love doing a good kit and hauling out the chiller and feeling like I'm a "real" brewer, but I still enjoy occasionally doing a Coopers or a Mr. Beer kit, doing something beer related and being able to take my time and enjoy it.

I think it's all about what works for you and the enjoyment you get out of it!

 

[Loweface]

I'll start by saying it's two am here and I've been drinking so excuse the typo's...

I'd call myself an extract-brewer but within the last three weeks I bought three "kit and kilo" kits, two of them coopers... Why, because I'm a student and I know that if I brew these "cheap" kits, I can bring a keg or two out to a Christmas party o two in two months and that the quality is, for the price and clientèle (important) not worth my effort to brew a "nice" beer. There is a market for the cheap, effective (not bad at all) beers that a kit and kilo produces...

How often does Craig tube get abuse here, how often does he get defended? It's a simmple fact that "kit and Kilo" kits bring people into homebrewing and in the right conditions produce a perfectly tasty brew...

I must review this thread sober tommorow...

 

[tomheff]

Check out this review of the Coopers European Lager

http://www.fermentarium.com/content/view/329/54/

 

[lady_brewer]

As I sit here and drink my Coopers IPA I find this discussion really interesting. I am guilty of buying kits to start my homebrewing and thinking that was homebrewing was. It certainly was what my Dad did for years. In fact he asked if I was using Coopers when I started brewing (all of 3 months ago). I am not even sure if my LHBS sells hops or any of these other things one should have for actual homebrewing. If it weren't for the internet I wouldn't even know what I was missing!

So, some questions if I may? I am finding that my IPA has an unexpected taste. I had passed it off as a hoppy bitterness, not being very used to hoppy beers (evil commercial beer) but now I am wondering if it is more the "twang" that was mentioned that is more associated with the kits? At this point it has been in the bottle for over 5 weeks, so still not aged a whole lot, but also not very green.

I read in the link that Revvy posted that one could boil the malt from the kit (the extract? Must go find a dictionary of terms, I am sure there is one here in a sticky ) and that would probably cause it to lose the hop bitterness, but that then could be added back in. Am I missing anything in that? Hmm... maybe if somebody could just point me at the "how to brew for dummies"

Either way the dozens of Coopers I have brewed will be drank, and they have inspired me to start looking to step up my brewing.

 

[Msbeer]

lady brewer

Have you been here?

http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

 

[lady_brewer]

lady brewer

Have you been here?

http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

Yes I have, although it is still one of the things I am reading through... have to get around to printing off sections so that I can peruse it while at work Atm I am poking around this site and jumping in where I am tempted to. I fully expect to be redirected, so please continue to do so!

 

[Yooper]

As I sit here and drink my Coopers IPA I find this discussion really interesting. I am guilty of buying kits to start my homebrewing and thinking that was homebrewing was. It certainly was what my Dad did for years. In fact he asked if I was using Coopers when I started brewing (all of 3 months ago). I am not even sure if my LHBS sells hops or any of these other things one should have for actual homebrewing. If it weren't for the internet I wouldn't even know what I was missing!

So, some questions if I may? I am finding that my IPA has an unexpected taste. I had passed it off as a hoppy bitterness, not being very used to hoppy beers (evil commercial beer) but now I am wondering if it is more the "twang" that was mentioned that is more associated with the kits? At this point it has been in the bottle for over 5 weeks, so still not aged a whole lot, but also not very green.

I read in the link that Revvy posted that one could boil the malt from the kit (the extract? Must go find a dictionary of terms, I am sure there is one here in a sticky ) and that would probably cause it to lose the hop bitterness, but that then could be added back in. Am I missing anything in that? Hmm... maybe if somebody could just point me at the "how to brew for dummies"

Either way the dozens of Coopers I have brewed will be drank, and they have inspired me to start looking to step up my brewing.

PM me your address, and I'll send you a couple of homebrews (not at the moment- I'm really low! But in a couple of weeks) and you can see if the "flavor" you get is the same. I have an Imperial IPA that will be ready in about two weeks.

I'm not a fan of cooper's, but I've done many other extract beers with good results. In order to make a good extract beer, you need super-fresh extract (not the canned stuff), some freshly crushed grains, and some hops.

 

[remilard]

As I sit here and drink my Coopers IPA I find this discussion really interesting. I am guilty of buying kits to start my homebrewing and thinking that was homebrewing was. It certainly was what my Dad did for years. In fact he asked if I was using Coopers when I started brewing (all of 3 months ago). I am not even sure if my LHBS sells hops or any of these other things one should have for actual homebrewing. If it weren't for the internet I wouldn't even know what I was missing!

So, some questions if I may? I am finding that my IPA has an unexpected taste. I had passed it off as a hoppy bitterness, not being very used to hoppy beers (evil commercial beer) but now I am wondering if it is more the "twang" that was mentioned that is more associated with the kits? At this point it has been in the bottle for over 5 weeks, so still not aged a whole lot, but also not very green.

I read in the link that Revvy posted that one could boil the malt from the kit (the extract? Must go find a dictionary of terms, I am sure there is one here in a sticky ) and that would probably cause it to lose the hop bitterness, but that then could be added back in. Am I missing anything in that? Hmm... maybe if somebody could just point me at the "how to brew for dummies"

Either way the dozens of Coopers I have brewed will be drank, and they have inspired me to start looking to step up my brewing.

Boiling hopped extract, if anything, would increase bitterness (if there were un-isomerized alpha acids present from late hop additions). It would severely reduce any hop flavor or aroma present, and this would need to be added back by hop additions to the boil.

I would strongly recommend that you either use hopped extract as directed or by unhopped extract and hops. And I strongly recommend the latter.

Assuming there was 2 weeks before you bottled, 7 weeks is far from young for an IPA. Hoppy American Ales and IPAs are on their way out by then, IMO.

 

[grasshopper1917]

Well I have to say over the past 3 years ive probley made atleast 150 gallons of Coopers beer. I have seen alot of 'all grainers' and 'partial boilers' say that pre hopped kits make an inferior beer.

Presonally Im not a beer expert - just a regular guy who wants a beer that tatses good and I enjoy drinking. I enjoy many types of beers allgrain homebrewer,microbrewed and even regular 'BMC' beers like budwieser.

In my opinion coopers to me makes great beer. I have really enjoyed every kit I have brewed and my friends love them too - All I know is we find they taste good - they are easy and fun to make - and I like to experiment with different things to make the taste different. Coopers is a good product.

I think the only way to know if its for you is to give it a try - I love it

Cheers

 

[EoinMag]

As I sit here and drink my Coopers IPA I find this discussion really interesting. I am guilty of buying kits to start my homebrewing and thinking that was homebrewing was. It certainly was what my Dad did for years. In fact he asked if I was using Coopers when I started brewing (all of 3 months ago). I am not even sure if my LHBS sells hops or any of these other things one should have for actual homebrewing. If it weren't for the internet I wouldn't even know what I was missing!

So, some questions if I may? I am finding that my IPA has an unexpected taste. I had passed it off as a hoppy bitterness, not being very used to hoppy beers (evil commercial beer) but now I am wondering if it is more the "twang" that was mentioned that is more associated with the kits? At this point it has been in the bottle for over 5 weeks, so still not aged a whole lot, but also not very green.

I read in the link that Revvy posted that one could boil the malt from the kit (the extract? Must go find a dictionary of terms, I am sure there is one here in a sticky ) and that would probably cause it to lose the hop bitterness, but that then could be added back in. Am I missing anything in that? Hmm... maybe if somebody could just point me at the "how to brew for dummies"

Either way the dozens of Coopers I have brewed will be drank, and they have inspired me to start looking to step up my brewing.

What fermentables did you add as the kilo part? If you used all dme or lme then it might be down to freshness of extract, otherwise if you used glucose as on the instructions, that'll probably be it. The twang in my experience is normally the extra fermentables added, specifically, corn sugar, cane sugar or glucose, if you use malt extract then you won't get a twang in my experience.

Coopers make some really good kits, their stout made up with malt extract is really really good and they're easy to knock out. I've only just moved onto extract brewing but Coopers kits make a really nice base for experimentation or if you just take the simple kit and kilo approach using malt extract they also make a very palatable easy to make beer.
Don't knock the Coopers, they're not the biggest kit and kilo makers in the world for no reason.