Brew day plan

[Tinlife]

Hi All

Tinlife here! Planning my brew day and here’s what I’m thinking - any pointers much appreciated:

1 x coopers draught
1kg light dried malt extract
300g brewing sugar
25g Amarillo hops.

my plan is to do the hops as a tea in the empty coopers can - 20mins in the can and then throw in the liquid.

I’ve never done this before so just following posts from others. Any thoughts, advice etc much appreciated

 

[crowcrow]

Sounds great. This will increase the bitterness and add some more aroma. If you just want more aroma I'd go for a dry hop - might want twice as much for a dry hop, but will be fine for a hop tea.

 

[Tinlife]

@crowcrow - great, thank you.
Can I ask - when dry hopping should I just put it in a sterilised bag and throw 50g in the fermentation bucket at the start?

 

[crowcrow]

But this is exactly how I started tweaking my kits - I really like a good kit beer, but they are def better with malt, hops or other sugars (I loved treacle and golden syrup in a stout)

 

[crowcrow]

For dry hopping you want them in the wort/beer about 3 to 5 days - so let the beer ferment out for a week or more then throw in the hops. If you have a way to cold crash, I'd just thrown them in loose, and they will drop out in the crash. But if you don't then a sterile bag is great. Go bigger than you think as they swell and weigh down by throwing a teaspoon or two in the bag.

 

[Tinlife]

Brilliant. Thanks for the advice. Not sure about cold crashing. I brew in my shed with an immersion heater to regulate heat. If I turn that off it would go pretty cold!

 

[Clint]

Go 50g or more with the amarillo if you can!

 

[Tinlife]

@Clint I’ve a brand new unopened 100g bag so could go higher than 50g. I would prefer it over rather than over hopped in first attempt though. Do you think 50g is enough to start with or should I go for 75g?

by the way - I’m planning to use bottled water this time. The tap water round here is awful to drink so I imagine it hasn’t helped my brew taste.

 

[crowcrow]

A cold shed will help, but the real 'magic' of cold crashing happens about 0.5 to 1c.

 

[Clint]

The bottled water is a good shout. Treating your tap water with Camden tabs will also help...
Try the 50g and see what you think.

 

[Tinlife]

Thanks for all the advice. Brew is now on. As you can see in the pic, I brew in my shed using the coopers bucket which doesn’t have a traditional airlock. I cut a hole in the top for a bung and drop my immersion heater through that. Currently at 23 degrees and holding steady.

 

[Tinlife]

SG 1042

 

[damienair]

Good luck. Let us know how it turns out. I’ve only done 1 coopers kit, it was a Hefe Wheat kit and I used wheat DME and some brewing sugar. Turned out to be a lovely beer.

 

[jof]

Have you done the kit before by just following the instructions?
Just wondering as it's often good to compare to see what difference your changes make

 

[Tinlife]

@jof - yes, I’ve done the same kit twice before. The first two times I just followed the instructions to the letter.

 

[Tinlife]

Bang on 24hrs since first picture. Steady at 22 degrees, lively, lighter colour today - though the pic doesn’t do it justice.

 

[Tinlife]

48hrs

 

[Tinlife]

Hi All - Tinlife here!

Ok. Time for an update.

I brewed for 6 days and then added the 50g of amarillo in a bag - weighted down with a spoon inside.
On day ten I bottled the lot and brought it inside to condition. I was surprised to see how massive the hop bag had become but also pleased to see none had managed to escape into the beer.
The bottles will be ready to drink (according to the instructions) a week on Thursday (it's tuesday today), but I've just cracked one to check.

...this is YOUNG but after so many rubbish brews I wanted to check everything was ok.
1. The brew is very, very clear.
2. It has really good head retention and is very well carbonated already.
3. the hop smell and taste is clear. At the moment there's a bit of a bitter hop aftertaste which I didn't expect from dry hopping - it's nice though.
4. I'm SURE the decision to use bottled water was right - the taste is so much cleaner than I've had from London water in the past.