Coopers Old Dark Ale, St Peters Ruby Red

[lagerlout]

Has anyone tried the coopers dark ale? I couldnt find it mentioned in the beer kit reviews section but i'm considering doing this next, possibly with one or two modifications. I have been impressed with the early stages of the irish stout so thought a different dark ale would be a good one to try. I appear to have been converted from a lager drinker to an ale head since getting into home brewing, my usual tennents lager in the pub now replaced with newcastle brown and guinness! :shock:

I have invested in a 2nd FV with a view to stocking up on brew over the summer so may do two at once, also thinking about st peters ruby red after reading good reviews and quite fancy the look of it. Can this be improved on or is it best to do the kit as it comes?

Cheers :

 

[PD]

I started a Coopers Dark Ale kit off on the 30 May 2012 I don't know if that's different to your Old Dark Ale ?
Its now 25 June and there's only 8 bottles left.... :rofl:
It fermented out beautifully and quickly ( bottled 6 June ) tasted and smelt lovely as it went into the bottles and since then my neighbours and me have been dipping into the stash. Its lovely. Another one WILL be made, I assure you.
The only (slight ) problem I've encountered is, it does seem to have a rather effective laxative effect, :shock: but I'm hoping that was just me.....

 

[lovelldr]

I've got one of these in the FV right now. Brewed to 23l with 800 sugar and 500g dark dme.

FG was 1.044 and OG currently was 1.006. Dunno whether will drop any further, but gonna leave it in FV probably until the weekend and take a reading again then, and will then keg (time to try out my king keg).

Taste wasn't brilliant from the sample, but then again, it's only been fermenting for about 1.5 weeks... So, hopefully by the weekend (just over 2 weeks) will be nice and clear and tasting better. Could taste nice undertones to it :)

 

[Anigeluk]

I love the Coopers Dark ale kit. It is my go to kit, Got a keg that is just about finished conditioning now and its a nice pint. Lighter and milder than the Craigtube English style porter partial brew that I also have on tap at the moment. My current avatar is of the Coopers Dark ale kit.

I brewed up a keg last year for our wedding and the guests were loving it even the people who normally drunk lager instead of beer were tucking in with a vengeance :) :drunk:

 

[plumpton]

Definitely one of the best 1 tin kits

I brewed it about a year ago and I have posted pics on here of the result :drink:

 

[plumpton]

Forgot to mention on my last post that it was the Dark Ale..

Pic below is of the St Peters Ruby Red I did, and this also is one of the best beers I have brewed.

this is fairly young and the head got a lot better and beer matured nicely

 

[lagerlout]

Thanks for the replies, sounds positive :thumb:

They both look like something i'd like, do you recall how they were primed? So far ive been hit and miss with ales, so i tend to err on the side of caution and add a little more sugar than needed as i can drink a fizzy beer but not a flat one!

Edit - and yes old dark ale is the same thing, it appears that's just how my online place advertises it.

 

[plumpton]

I either primed using coopers carbonation drops or the usual 1/2 teaspoon per bottle.

however that aside I did mini keg some of the Dark Ale and used the Party star deluxe tap with CO2 injectors.

great dispenser: