Coopers English Bitter Advice Needed

Noodle · Apr 20, 2017

I just received a Cooper's English Bitter kit. However the kit had no instructions.
I've figured out most of it from online but still have some questions.

The kit came with; the tin of English bitter, yeast, 500g light spray malt and a pack of Cooper's carbonation drops (as I'll be bottling it).

I'd like to get the most out of this kit so;

I've seen online some people add brewing sugar as well as light malt to their brew at the start. Should I do this and if so will I still need the carbonation drops at bottling? I would like a nice ABV for this bitter but don't want to blindly make mistakes and get bottle bombs.
I plan on letting it ferment for about 2 weeks how does this sound?

I'd also like to add to add some hoppiness! A little but not overpowering. Any suggestions on the best way to do this?

terrym · Apr 20, 2017

Suggest you read this.
Basic beginners guide to brewing your own beer from a kit - The HomeBrew Forum
If you have access to more malt extract that would be better than sugar. If you are near a Holland and Barratt you could add one of their 1lb jars of liquid malt which are fine for brewing, or another 500g of spray malt if you have a home brew shop nearby.
If you want to stay with sugar I suggest no more than 500g. You can use either dextrose or golden syrup which is a form of invert sugar and is fine for brewing. Personally I would not use table sugar.
One of the ways of increasing hoppiness is to do a dry hop. See this for more.
A Newbies Guide to Dry Hopping Your Beer - The HomeBrew Forum
A good hop to add to your kit would be East Kent Goldings, I would use 50g as a dry hop.
Crossmyloofbrewery sell hops via ebay and their service is good. Some links posted on here (do a search, top left ).
You will need to consider how you keep the hops out of your packaged beer.
I use something like this over the end of the siphon tube
3 x Home Brew Nylon Straining Bag With Pull Cord Beer Hop Wine Making Spice Herb | eBay
I would not bother with carbonation drops they are only a form of expensive sugar. Table sugar is fine , at the rate of 1/2 tsp per 500ml bottle for your style of beer
Finally you will not get bottle bombs if you let the fermentation finish and of course don't overprime.
And this is what I do so that I get nearly clear beer going into bottles or PB.
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=669498&postcount=5
Hope this helps. :thumb:

Noodle · Apr 20, 2017

Thank you so much!! :grin:

Rob287 · Apr 24, 2017

dry hopping so basically you use the nylon bags like a tea bag? Thats fine for the starter kits. I might give it a go :-)

Tanzanite · Apr 24, 2017

Rob287 said:
dry hopping so basically you use the nylon bags like a tea bag? Thats fine for the starter kits. I might give it a go :-)

If you want the best out of this kit dont use sugar, do has terry says use spray malt 1kg. I would use the tinned malt you have, plus the light spray malt and add 500g of amber spray malt and half a tin of treacle or golden syrup. should give an ABV of around 4.3 abv. also hes dead right with the hop choice EKG. is a lovely Bitter hop i love it. I would use 30g no more than 50g it depends on how hoppy you like your beer. Add for 5 days after fermentation finishes (hop pellets from cross my loof, just fire them in, hop bags are restrictive dont add as much flavour) , then rack through a muslin cloth (wilkos) into a secondary FV for around a week ten days then into bottling bucket for a week then bottle, if you dont have bottling bucket leave in secondary until well clear 3 weeks then bottle . after bottling leave warm for two weeks then cold condition for six weeks or longer before drinking:thumb:

Coopers English Bitter Advice Needed

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