brewing an extract IPA

I love IPA's I love the tangy hoppy bitter after flavour and would like some advice please.
Today I bought a Coopers IPA from my local Wilko's.....I plan to brew this with brewing sugar (1kg) and muntons spray malt light (500g). I also would like to add some hops to give it that extra hoppy taste.
Can anyone recommend how much of the brewing sugar and light spray malt to use as well as what hops and amount. Also do I just add hops in a dry hop for 2 or 3 days at the end of fermentation or do I boil them in little water etc and add to brew when I make it? For IPA which hops are best?
Also interested in re-using yeast for brew after brew.
Would saving a coopers yeast putting in in jar and reuse be recommended or would a higher quality yeast be preferable. If the later please recommend a decent flexible yeast. After brewing do I just collect all trub at bottom of FV and put in a jar then fridge till next time I brew? How long would it be safe to store this trub/yeast in refrigerated jar before I cant use.
TY. Look forward to your reply':s.

mancer62 said:

I love IPA's I love the tangy hoppy bitter after flavour and would like some advice please.
Today I bought a Coopers IPA from my local Wilko's.....I plan to brew this with brewing sugar (1kg) and muntons spray malt light (500g). I also would like to add some hops to give it that extra hoppy taste.
Can anyone recommend how much of the brewing sugar and light spray malt to use as well as what hops and amount. Also do I just add hops in a dry hop for 2 or 3 days at the end of fermentation or do I boil them in little water etc and add to brew when I make it? For IPA which hops are best?
Also interested in re-using yeast for brew after brew.
Would saving a coopers yeast putting in in jar and reuse be recommended or would a higher quality yeast be preferable. If the later please recommend a decent flexible yeast. After brewing do I just collect all trub at bottom of FV and put in a jar then fridge till next time I brew? How long would it be safe to store this trub/yeast in refrigerated jar before I cant use.
TY. Look forward to your reply':s.

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Best of luck with that coopers IPA done it a few times and is not very user friendly to hop pimping,your better off using the wilko hoppy copper if you want to pimp it up with hops,my rule of thumb is the paler the kit the more pimp friendly it is and coopers IPA is a bit on the dark side

This may be duff advice since Ive never done this kit, but I would have thought a dry hop of 30grams of Amarillo/Citra/Cascade or Chinook would do the trick. If any forumites think Im talking horlicks let me know - I won't be offended!!!

Brewing sugar won't add body to a beer but just ramps up the ABV. Since the kit comes with 1.5Kg of DME for 23 litres, I guess you mean adding an additional 1Kg of sugar and 500g of DME to the existing contents?

mancer62 said:

For IPA which hops are best?

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In some circles that'd be the precursor to a fistfight. It's all down to personal choice. The description says "Its tropical, citrusy, grapefruit notes and toasty amber malt balances the clean, hop filled, bitter finish."

That sounds like mosaic or citra, but it's very hard to say as it could also be a blend. Here's a good link to hop varieties - find an aroma or dual purpose cultivar and dry hop it:

https://ychhops.com/varieties/

Personally, I would go with Chinook (more of a complex, 'piney' citrus), Citra (ramp up that citrus big time) or Cascade / Centennial (floral edge to the citrus). Probably best to add about 50g at most, so you don't overpower the existing citrus flavours. Once fermentation is complete, throw it in a hop bag and leave it for at least 5 days.

Here's a good article on dry hopping:

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4829

YouTube tutorials are a great place to start on re-using yeast. Extract kits are sold on a budget, designed to meet stringent costs and appeal to a wider market than the niche that is AG and specialist brewing. So with that in mind it's quite likely (not guaranteed, mind you) that cheaper kits will sacrifice quality. Some people swear by Wyeast and White Lab liquid yeasts, and these are great when you need a specialist or particular strain of yeast to get that perfect '99% there isn't close enough' flavour. I use Fermentis Saf-Ale US-05 so much that it's a permanent feature in my fridge - it's robust, makes good US style beers and isn't as finicky as some strains about its environment.

As Robin54 said, any combo of those hops would give a nice citrus kick to it. I once tried 25g Amarillo and 25g of Cascade in a Geordie Yorkshire Bitter kit (made up with 1.5kg of LME from Malt Miller) and it was very tasty. From memory, that was a darkish beer like the Coopers IPA.

Use the full 500g of DME, boil this with the water you intend on making the brew with and chuck in some hops, citra, cascade etc, boil for 5 mins then add the can.
Use the brewing sugar to get your OG where you want it around 500g should give you about 5% abv
Switch the yeast to US-05

This has pretty much been my staple beer for the last 10 years or so.
Dry hop if you want that extra aroma, I dont, i find the 5 min boil gives the needed lift.

@Godsdog sorry but I disagree with you, I'v been pimping the coopers IPA kits for time and had some remarkable results the only problem being after buying some grains, hops, US-05 you can be talking upwards of £20.00 to do a kit, Hence why i'v gone all grain.

kit pluss 500g brewing sugar and 1kg light spraymalt then hop tea with 30g of each hop you like id use citra nelson sauvin amarillo and then same dry hop for 5 days

I was disappointed with this kit. It's nothing like an IPA, American or English in my opinion.
I dry hopped mine with 25g each of Cascade and Centennial and it still didn't produce the goods.
I bought two cans of the stuff. Due to my disillusion with the first one, I ended up making the second one into a Porter style which as it happened turned out better than I had hoped.
My advice is take it back to Wilko and get your money back. There's better kits out there.

I had a similar question a while back about the same kit, it turned out lovely. There's definitely better ways of using 200g of hops but as a learning experience it was worth it.

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=65863

craigtube did a pimped coopers ipa check it out on youtube

Alside101 said:

craigtube did a pimped coopers ipa check it out on youtube

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There are two Coopers IPA kits.
-The Thomas Coopers IPA kit which was discontinued about 18 months ago and was supposed to replicate an English style IPA, and is the one reviewed by Craig; this should now be more or less unobtainable (old stock) .
-The new Brew A IPA which Wilko and others now sell, and which seems to me is marketed to satisfy the increased interest in American style IPAs, and which in fact it isn't.
I have made both. The TC IPA was OK, and as I have said above the Brew A IPA was disappointing.
I have also made the John Bull IPA which is an English style IPA and is still available and in my opinion was slightly better than the TC IPA. I also did the Coopers English Bitter and this was also similar to the TC IPA.
So if you want to pimp a kit to make an English IPA buy a JB IPA or a Coopers English Bitter and work on that.
And if its an American IPA you want go and buy the Youngs AIPA kit, which is good to go as it comes and must be in the Top 10 of kits, and doesn't need any additional stuff to prop it up.

terrym said:

There are two Coopers IPA kits.
-The Thomas Coopers IPA kit which was discontinued about 18 months ago and was supposed to replicate an English style IPA, and is the one reviewed by Craig; this should now be more or less unobtainable (old stock) .
-The new Brew A IPA which Wilko and others now sell, and which seems to me is marketed to satisfy the increased interest in American style IPAs, and which in fact it isn't.
I have made both. The TC IPA was OK, and as I have said above the Brew A IPA was disappointing.
I have also made the John Bull IPA which is an English style IPA and is still available and in my opinion was slightly better than the TC IPA. I also did the Coopers English Bitter and this was also similar to the TC IPA.
So if you want to pimp a kit to make an English IPA buy a JB IPA or a Coopers English Bitter and work on that.
And if its an American IPA you want go and buy the Youngs AIPA kit, which is good to go as it comes and must be in the Top 10 of kits, and doesn't need any additional stuff to prop it up.

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i did the john bull ipa with a citra dry hop it was very good