Coopers, Australian Pale Ale Review

[Rwilts]

I bottles mine on Friday. Made with 1kg of Muntons Bear Enhancer. Used 500 ml bottles and one Coopers drop each. Will leave for a month or so based on advice here :

 

[Rich747]

I bottles mine on Friday. Made with 1kg of Muntons Bear Enhancer.

Scary!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Rwilts]

Beer ... :whistle:

 

[fbsf]

I quite like the idea of a Bear enhancer... maybe it would help those days that my wife says "you've woken up like a bear with a sore head"... :lol:

 

[Brewing Boilerman]

So i have this kit ready to brew but i am unsure what sugars to use. Should i go for 1-1.2kg of light spray malt, a kilo of brewing sugar or the recomended brew enhancer that it states on the side of the tin.

Also what temps would you recomend? As it is getting a little colder now will it be ok a room temp or should i break out the heater?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[fbsf]

I went for a kilo of Brew Enhancer 2 which seemed to suit it well. Try to keep the brew between 18 and 22 degrees if you can (whether that's room temp for you I'm not sure...)

 

[Brewing Boilerman]

Will do thanks. i am using an immersion heater with my FV submerged in a bucket of water to keep my temps up.

 

[barry44]

bottled mine on the 10th of September and left them in the warm(ish) for 2 weeks prior to putting into brew fridge at 10 degrees.

i sampled one bottle as i was doing so and was really impressed!!

needless to say, i have been dipping into them relentlessly since.

drinkable after 2 weeks in the bottle, can't argue with that!!

 

[plumpton]

I found this beer confusing. :shock:

Sounds odd statement that but I feel this beer has not decided whether it is a Lager or an Ale.

I would definitely go with the latter but also found the beer a little boring. :?

Came out great but not flavoursome enough...maybe a good beer to tweak.


: :

 

[fbsf]

If you've had a brewery Coopers APA (rather than homebrew), you can sort of see where they are trying to get to with the kit. There was more crispness in the genuine version, and more hops so it might benefit from a dry hop perhaps.

I'd love to buy some over here to remind me of my time down under earlier in the year, but the cheapest I can find on t'interweb is nearly £30 (inc shipping) for 12. I'm not that desperate for it...!

 

[Rwilts]

I have to agree with plumpton. Quite a nice drink but drunk at room temp it fells like it should be chilled and cold it feels like it should be room temp :wha:

Won't do this one again. Was hopping for something like their ipa. :

 

[anthonyUK]

If you look at the IBU rating for this kit you'll see it is significantly less bitter so nowhere close to an IPA.
It is a bit bland but is a great kit as a basis for hop additions etc.

 

[Pearlfisher]

If you look at the IBU rating for this kit you'll see it is significantly less bitter so nowhere close to an IPA.
It is a bit bland but is a great kit as a basis for hop additions etc.

I wonder how it would come out with a can of IPA and APA mixed? :hmm:

 

[anthonyUK]

If you look at the IBU rating for this kit you'll see it is significantly less bitter so nowhere close to an IPA.
It is a bit bland but is a great kit as a basis for hop additions etc.

I wonder how it would come out with a can of IPA and APA mixed? :hmm:

Quite bitter I think. Two cans of APA might work well though.
The IBU of the IPA works out about 50 whereas the APA is 25ish.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Started this brew a month ago with 1kg of light spraymalt, and 2 litres of fresh elderflowers - I made it specifically because I wanted an elderflower ale, so this is as much a report on the kit as its suitability for doing fun stuff to. Other than using elderflowers and spraymalt (the instructions say to use beer enhancer) I followed the kit to the letter: I brewed for eight days, which is how long it took for the SG to stop dropping, then strained off the elderflowers, and primed and bottled as usual. Accounting for bottle conditioning, the ABV came in at 4.8%.

I opened up a bottle after a week, and it tasted like dishwater, with a heavy dose of cheap washing up liquid. Not pleasant at all. Fortunately I wasn't expecting it to be fantastic that early, and knew these things can change radically over time, so I didn't throw the lot away.

It's a good thing I didn't, because I opened a second bottle last Sunday (three weeks after bottling) and it tasted very different and much more pleasant. Each bottle I've opened since has tasted better than the last, and yesterday I shared a few bottles with my uncle and cousin, both of whom really liked it. They're builders and had been working outside all day repairing the stonework on my aunt & uncle's house, so I think a pint of light ale was very welcome. My uncle said it reminded him of Abbot & Edmunds (his favourite beer, being a half-pint of each) so maybe the sun had got to him a little. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what it'll be like in a few weeks.

Re. the elderflowers, I got the balance exactly where I wanted it on my first try (beginner's luck eh?) with the elderflower coming through nicely but not overpowering at all. If anyone is wanting to do an elderflower ale without going down the BIAB/all-grain route, this is definitely the way to go.

Reading through this thread, others' experience with this kits seems to be that it can turn out bland or insipid, and I can well imagine that being the case if I'd not used spraymalt and elderflowers. It definitely looks like a kit that's best suited as a base for playing around with, rather than an ale on its own merits. Pcrofts27 used it as the basis for a citrus ale, and I suspect that peach, nectarine &/or apricot juice might also work well, as would ginger and possibly cinnamon. It's certainly one I'll be experimenting with again.

 

[nhenson22]

I will be bottling this one tomorrow and have a couple of questions for everyone that has done it.

The cooper's instructions say to use sugar for priming at a rate of 8g per litre, that would be 184g for the whole batch. I am quite happy to go for this as I like a good fizz and remember the retail version of this being very fizzy anyway, but noticed a lot of you only priming with 1000-120g. Am I going to cause any explosions by priming with this much?

The other thing I picked up on, is some say it could be a bit more hoppy, would anyone say it is worth mixing in a hop tea just before bottling?

Cheers :

 

[Doive]

Bottled mine about two weeks ago with two carb drops per pint. Cracked one open a couple of nights ago, plenty of fizz as expected, still tastes slightly yeasty and needs more bottle conditioning, but it's showing promise. It's a strange one this, tastes like an ale that thinks it's a lager. Instructions recommend 12 weeks maturation, so I'll see in about ten weeks.

 

[dom2599]

I checked a bottle of this after 5 weeks in the garage, very nice pint...blenty of bubbles, lovely colour and flavour, will be doing another next month for xmas

 

[Paulie Sk.]

One of my favourite kits, I've done this one about ten times. Do remember it's an Australian pale ale, so don't expect it to turn out like an IPA (for instance.) It's quite light, and more like a lager consistency with a slight 'pale' taste to it. This is the kit that most tastes like the commercially bottled version, which I had (lots of!) in Australia a few years ago. I therefore wouldn't mess around or experiment with it too much. I simply use packet sugar to ferment and prime.

 

[Monkeybrew]

Just finishing one of these, I used 1.5kg BE and dry hopped with Cascade, a nice light, slightly hoppy summer ale.

I am planning a coopers EVA for xmass next :grin: