Coopers, English Bitter

Markus · Sep 5, 2013

I put this on on Monday. Brewed short to 21 litres. Blew clean out the airlock on Tuesday. Had to replace the lid. Very active, even moreso than other Coopers I've done.

Brewed with 1kg medium DME and a little muscavado and demarara sugar, 100g or so of each cos they were laying about.

sdgtiger · Sep 15, 2013

Got one of these on yesterday. Noticed in instructions that it only asks for 500g DME? I did it with 400g light DME and 500g Dextrose as thats what i had lying around and ive always added at least a kilo of other fermentables to a 1 can kit. Got an OG of 1040. Do you reckon this will affect the taste badly? :wha:

Remf · Sep 16, 2013

Just opened my first bottle of this brew,and I like it. very nice taste with a great head on it. Now I will leave it some time to get even better, as it is only been 1 month in the bottle.

Alan : cheers:

TRXnMe · Sep 16, 2013

sdgtiger said:
Got one of these on yesterday. Noticed in instructions that it only asks for 500g DME? I did it with 400g light DME and 500g Dextrose as thats what i had lying around and ive always added at least a kilo of other fermentables to a 1 can kit. Got an OG of 1040. Do you reckon this will affect the taste badly? :wha:

Not too badly, my first one was made up with household sugar and got drunk without any problems :)

The DME makes it 'feel' better in the mouth than the ordinary sugar, but doesn't seem to make a huge difference to flavour. If you want to really change the flavour then you get into hop tea and infusions of specialty grains :)

PD · Sep 16, 2013

found a large litre bottle of this at the back of my stocks....brewed 07/2012....... :party: :party: My notes at the time says the rest of the beers were " very good " !

sdgtiger · Sep 30, 2013

High hopes for this one....Temp was perfectly stable at 21 C for 16 days. Kegged most of it and bottled a few and its crystal clear already. Didnt bother trying it as due the crappy head cold i wouldnt have tasted anything anyway. Hopefully i'll be able to leave this alone for a while as well :whistle: Onwards with Dasher the Flasher now!

Markus · Sep 30, 2013

This came out with the lowest FG I've seen yet. Made even more remarkable by the fact that I forgot to put in yeast nutrient. The brew I did before this had yeast nutrient and it stuck at 1.020. Nutrient is a scam man. Or Coopers are just superior brews.

Remf · Sep 30, 2013

Just finished the last of this brew, and it is on my list of ones I will Brew again.

Alan : cheers:

TRXnMe · Sep 30, 2013

Markus said:
This came out with the lowest FG I've seen yet. Made even more remarkable by the fact that I forgot to put in yeast nutrient. The brew I did before this had yeast nutrient and it stuck at 1.020. Nutrient is a scam man. Or Coopers are just superior brews.

Or Cooper's yeast is superior

I dunno if that's true, but my Cooper's kits have all fermented out to rather high ABV values :)

While rooting around my shed I found two of these kits along with two lots of brew enhancer from the Tesco clearance ages ago, I'd better get them brewed before they go out of date :)

Bezza · Oct 4, 2013

Brewed this as my first brew as it came with my kit.

Managed to balls up at the first hurdle and forgot to add sugar! Thanks to the guys on here I saved it and its now in the keg waiting to go into the cool for clearing.

Starting gravity was 1038, brewed short (by accident) to about 21.5litres and only had 850g white granulated sugar to add.

Final gravity was 1006 so with the temp correction calculator it works out around 4.2%!

Nice taste straight from the bucket, added 8g sugar per litre to prime per the instructions, which seems a bit much but hey, we'll see!

It's a bit sweet form me at the moment, not much body to it and a bit thin but the taste is nice and stays in the mouth, which is not unpleasant!

Hoping it will get even better after a few weeks!

sdgtiger · Oct 11, 2013

Well tried this last night, first pint from the Keg and have to say out of the 9 brews i have done so far it is easily the best (even better than the wherry). Dont know how i have done it but it was crystal clear after a week in Keg and Bottles and has a fantastic creamy head which lasts all the way down and is a gorgeous pint. Reminds me of a Worthingtons Creamflow but with a much better taste. Only thing different on this brew than the others is i know for a fact the temperature all the way through was steady at 20 C. It took off slow and i left it in primary for 2 weeks. OG was 1040 FG down to 1010. Definately one to do again...and soon! :party:

Markus · Oct 11, 2013

Great to hear. :thumb:

I have 2 of these kits conditioning. One went into bottles, the other the king keg. Looking forward to December.

TRXnMe · Oct 11, 2013

I've got two of these in the shed with BKE, I really must stop doing AG and get them into an FV and then drunk, this is the time of year to brew, cool but not too cold.

I enjoyed the ones I did back when I started this thread, and I'm sure the kits will go out of date at some point if I don't brew and drink them, honest love

:)

Bezza · Oct 18, 2013

Been sampling mine on and off since I kegged it, its been kegged for two or three weeks now and the taste has changed massively since!

I think I over-primed so it's turned out quite carbonated, which actually makes a nice taste. It was perfectly clear after about a week.

Seeing as I used standard white sugar and ballsed up, I'll definitely be making this kit again! Can only get better :thumb:

Mreddster · Oct 18, 2013

Brewed this last Christmas. Was a cracking brew! Left it for about 2 months and it was even better (although only 15 bottles lasted that long)

GavH · Oct 22, 2013

Would anyone suggest a hop addition for this kit?

Getting a KK and want to do an easily drinkable ale to put in it but also use the opportunity to have a play with Dry Hopping. My current plan involved Coopers or St Peters IPA with around 40g of Cascade, but now wondering if this would be a better alternative?

Markus · Oct 22, 2013

Any time I've heard about Coopers IPA hopped it's been really good stuff, Gav. It's actually next on my list as it happens, but probably bottle it. And cascade seems to be the way to go.

Markus · Oct 22, 2013

By that I neant I'll probably bottle it. Haven't kegged an IPA yet so couldn't comment on that.

Markus · Oct 22, 2013

Tell you what tho, I have the Bitter kegged and bottled both so I'll do a little taste test next month and report back.

GavH · Oct 22, 2013

Thanks Markus, sounds like my original thought remains a goer then!

Coopers, English Bitter

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