Coopers Canadian Blonde

Hi all,

So I have started on the one-can-kit brews (thanks Tesco and your sale), and having looked at some of the one can pimping options posted by others on the forum, I plumped for the Coopers Canadian Blonde. Tales of how others have amended their kits have been a real inspiration. :thumb:

I followed the instructions as closely as possible, but added 150g light spray malt and a further 50g brewing sugar in an effort to raise the final ABV (both my previous brews have been lower ABV than expected). I was going to add 250g LSM and 100g brew sugar but chickened out. In theory the extra fermentables should raise the ABV, and I intend to add a hop tea after initial fermentation.

Also added brew enhancer 1 as recommended on the tin, but riddle me this Batman - I had two cans of Canadian Blonde, but both with different packaging and both recommend different brew enhancers (see pics). Have I been ripped off with inferior copy-cat merchandise somewhere, or did Coopers just change their packaging and ingredients? :-?

All seemed fine until the central heating packed in overnight, so the FV was at a temperature of about 17 degrees c, and has been until this evening. I moved it to a warmer part of the house where the temperature (central heating working or not) is more of a constant 20 deg c. The Coopers instructions recommend a fermenting temp of around 22. Slooow stuff possibly.

Plan to add 30g Citra hops in a tea in about a weeks time.

Ok, so the central heating debacle continues. We've not had central heating for a week now - the warmest place in the house is the airing cupboard, which varies between 15 deg c and 18 deg c (when the immersion heater is on).

I thought this would really hold back progress, but took a sample reading today, and after only a week, the gravity has dropped to 1012. Am I the only one surprised at this? What with the low fermenting temperature and the additional sugars (see op), I thought it would take much longer to get to this stage.

There seemed to be what I can only describe as unused yeast sitting on top of the wort (small grains like you'd get out the packet, not clumps). The colour is a lot lighter than my previous two brews (the St Peter's Golden Ale and the Muntons Continental Pilsner). It tastes ok, just a little sweet still.

I decided to add my dry hops, 50g Challenger weighed down in a muslin bag. Heating should be back on this weekend. Hopefully this will give it a final push over the line to eliminate some of the sweetnessand take the gravity reading down to 1010 or less.

All being well, plan to bottle Monday evening, by which time it'll have been in the FV for 12 days, with dry hops for 5 days.

Coopers have recently changed their range (check out their website). You have one can of the old range (LHS in the piccy) and one from the new range, although the contents are probably the same. Assuming you are UK based, the new can may be one of the first to arrive from Oz.
Coopers yeast is quite forgiving and although the temperature is lowish it has obviously performed. I usually brew at 19*C ish in a water bath and Coopers kits are pretty much done in 4 -5 days.
In spite of this and given the temperature, I would make sure that your SG is stable for two or three days at the end of your dry hop, to avoid any bottle bombs or PB overpressure.

During the early part of fermentation the yeast can raise the temp of your fermenting wort by a good few degrees above the ambient temp the vessel is sat in so at 18 degrees its actually a nice decent temp in. Sometimes raising the temp a little towards the end at aid attenuation is done but I think what you have done is fine..

I think this kit and others have reported (done vanilla) actually had some weird slight sweet aftertaste so it may not be to do with attenuation.. The dry hops will help, challengers a nice hop a little spice to it

Well, everything seems to have gone well. Bottled 10 days ago, final gravity reading 1010, giving approximate ABV of 3.9%. It's been in the bottles for 12 days indoors, and I've now put them outside in the shed.

I just couldn't help myself and have had two bottles of it already! :whistle: It's not ready yet, but even now it tastes fine. I added 50g of Challenger hops towards the end of fermentation, and there is a discernible aroma from them. Not sure if this will increase with conditioning or not.

All in all, very pleased. Even more excited about my Lightning Strike and Coopers Guesswork APA now, as this Coopers Canadian Blonde kit was quite vanilla compared to the mods I've made with the other two. Hoorah! :grin:

starkid721 said:

It's not ready yet, but even now it tastes fine. I added 50g of Challenger hops towards the end of fermentation, and there is a discernible aroma from them. Not sure if this will increase with conditioning or not.

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My experience of dry hopping is that the effect slowly diminishes over a period of weeks. That's why I generally drink all my beers between one and four months on from bottling, since most of them are dry hopped.