Coopers Lightning Strike

Hi all,

It's official, I've got the brewing bug - this is my fourth brew in about 8 weeks, and I've now got a second FV. Thanks to all the advice, experiments and information posted on this forum, I felt confident enough to try a recipe from the Coopers website.

Coopers Lightning Strike is apparently modelled on Hopback's Summer Lightning, one of my favourite beers anytime of year, especially so in summer. SWMBO was unexpectedly out for the evening, so I took my chance. In hindsight, I should have done a little more planning than I did....:whistle:

The recipe and brewing guide tells you to bring some water and 500g of LDM to the boil, add the first portion of hops, boil for 5 minutes, add the remaining hops then take off the heat and let stand for 25 minutes.

The Coopers recipe calls for 1.5kg of light dry malt. On investigation I only had 1kg of LDM, so I decided to take a chance and top it up with 500g of Coopers Brew Enhancer 2. According to the packet, this consists of dextrose, LDM and maltodextrin. How wrong could it go? (Answer: very, mildly, not a gnats chuffs difference?)

This wasn't the first oversight. I didn't check the weight of the hop packets I'd ordered, and ended up adding a full 50g of East Kent Goldings, rather than the 25g the recipe recommends. Silly boy. I did continue to add the 25g of Northern Brewer hops the recipe asked for. I like a hoppy beer, but hope this doesn't result in a head-blower. To compound this tired/in a hurry error, I also didn't have a muslin available to strain the mix through when adding it to the FV. I used a colander which, rather surprisingly to me, seemed to catch a lot of the hop sludge (I'm sure there's a more technical term for this), but more of the sludge than I'm sure is desirable entered the FV.

Added the can of Coopers Canadian Blonde, topped it up to 22 litres, and gave it a good thrash before adding the yeast. I decided to short-brew it (only by a litre) as my previous 3 brews have all come out lower ABV than anticipated/advertised. OG of 1040. :-?

Having done some yeast research, I used a Safale S-04 yeast, as I thought this looked similar in attenuation and profile to the yeast the Coopers recipe called for. (Eight weeks ago before joining the forum I just thought that yeast was, you know, yeast!) I rehydrated and then added rather than sprinkling on. Not sure if this was sensible as the recipe said to sprinkle on dry.

The Coopers recipes look good to a noob like me as they provide opportunities to add and/or change things in lots of areas, which in time will help me to understand the interaction of the different ingredients. However, next time I will plan properly, and take a little more time! :smile:

If summer lightning is one of your favourite beers and you plan on doing the coopers recipe again. To get you even closer to the original, summer lighning is bottle conditioned. So you could culture up the hop back strain to put in lightning strike, should you make it again.

Here's my bottle culturing guide

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=53567

MyQul said:

If summer lightning is one of your favourite beers and you plan on doing the coopers recipe again. To get you even closer to the original, summer lighning is bottle conditioned. So you could culture up the hop back strain to put in lightning strike, should you make it again.

Here's my bottle culturing guide

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=53567

Click to expand...

Why do I get the feeling I'm being sucked ever further into the homebrewing vortex?! Thanks for this, :thumb: I didn't know that Summer Lightning was bottle conditioned, it does give me an excuse to go and buy a few bottles! :grin:

starkid721 said:

Why do I get the feeling I'm being sucked ever further into the homebrewing vortex?! Thanks for this, :thumb: I didn't know that Summer Lightning was bottle conditioned, it does give me an excuse to go and buy a few bottles! :grin:

Click to expand...

No escaping now. Your on the event horizon of an infinateHB black hole

As for the rehydrating. No problems there. Your yeast will perform better after a rehydration than just sprinkling it on dry.

Thanks for all the replies on this and my other threads, they increase confidence!

So, after 12 days in the FV and the gravity readings down to 1010 on two consecutive days, decided to bottle last night.

Although it at first seemed a little cloudy (I was worried about the amount of hop sludge that had made its way into the FV), by and large it had cleared reasonably well. How much of that was to do with the S-04 yeast, I'm not sure. As I neared the bottom of the FV, the trub did all seem amazingly well compacted, more so than my last 3 brews (all made with kit yeast).


It smelt good, looked good, and the half-pint or so left in the FV at the end and then decanted into my half-pint jug tasted good too! ABV should be in the region of 4%, a lot weaker than the Coopers recipe suggests, but what the hey. An inability to match the forecast/promised ABV has been a feature of all the brews I've done so far, but 4% makes a good session beer.


First time using a capping machine (only for a dozen or so bottles, I ran out of Grolsch-style bottles), and it makes me a little nervous! The lids on the Grolsch style bottles inspire confidence, the crown cappers look a little flimsy! All the bottles will sit under the stairs for 10-14 days at around 19 deg c, before going out into the shed. Looking forward to drinking it in a couple of weeks (as usual, if I can wait that long, which I can't).:

MyQul said:

No escaping now. Your on the event horizon of an infinateHB black hole

Click to expand...

You been reading SH no doubt:thumb:

starkid721 said:

This wasn't the first oversight. I didn't check the weight of the hop packets I'd ordered, and ended up adding a full 50g of East Kent Goldings, rather than the 25g the recipe recommends. Silly boy. I did continue to add the 25g of Northern Brewer hops the recipe asked for. I like a hoppy beer, but hope this doesn't result in a head-blower.

Click to expand...

I think you'll be fine - as it wasn't the Northern Brewer that you overdid.

I was bitten you the same HB bug about 6 months ago and have been experimenting with dry hopping barrels of kits that in retrospect I now find a bit bland.

My EKG/Citra/Cascade additions have always worked a treat but a 10l barrel that I added 20g of NB to ended up tasting like drinking a Christmas tree - weirdly resin-flavoured. It mellowed a bit and I forced it down [emoji12][emoji481] but never again!!!!

After 8 kit tweaks in 2 months I ordered a 30l boiler and have been all graining like a fox in a chicken run. Just about staying married [emoji1]

I've just done my own lightning strikes. I used the Canadian blonde kit can and a can of light liquid malt extract. I used Hallertau as I didn't have any Northern Brewers. I used an S-04 yeast too. I made a 1l starter with some DME. Had a little taste of it last night, it's coming along nicely.

I'm bottling mine tomorrow. Tasted it last night, not blown away by it...it's quite bland for my taste. Definitely more of a malty tasting ale with quite a sweet note of honey there too. I think I'll bottle half of the 23L as it is and then dry hop the remaining beer in the FV with Cascade or possibly try out the Saaz (might split it into 2 batches and do both). It finished up at around 4.4%