Coopers IPA review

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I brewed this the other night and added 15g of simcoe (boiled for an hour) along with another 15g added for the last 10 mins. I used the coopers beer enhancer 1 with the kit. smells amazingly hoppy. I am planning to dry hop with another 20g of simcoe once its fermented for a few days. Time will tell if ive overdone it - first time working with hops.

forgot to say how I got on with this one. the end result was really quite bitter. over time it settled out into a nice balanced flavour. if I did this again, I would probably not boil any of the hops, instead steeping them or dry hopping with them. id also be tempted to try it with a less bitter hop than the simcoe.
 
I think I made a mistake with boiling some of the Saaz hops before brewing this up (one of Craig's only bits of advice that I now disagree with). Combined with the dry hops (also Saaz) I now have a very crisp but extremely dry IPA. So dry it is almost completely useless for quenching my thirst.

Still, it came out around 6% so who cares?!:drunk:
 
I went full Coopers on this one - using BKE 2 and carbonation drops. Only addition was some late hopping with Citra. Two weeks in the warm and four weeks in the garage, this has turned out to be a lovely brew. Slightly maltier than I'd have liked but nice stuff. Anyone made this with BKE 1 instead of 2 and does that make it less malty?

Also - the drops are designed for 330ml bottles and I use 500ml bottles. So one doesn't quite work but two would probably be too much. Sugar next time I think
 
Hi,i have done this kit with Amarillo,Cascade and Citra before and looking to add a different hop.
Brewed last night with 500g Amber dme and 600g dextrose to 20l
Anyone added Nelson Sauvin to this before?
Or i have Styrian Goldings
Not sure,im not aware what beer most uses Nelson,any comments welcomed.
Cheers
 
Hi,i have done this kit with Amarillo,Cascade and Citra before and looking to add a different hop.
Brewed last night with 500g Amber dme and 600g dextrose to 20l
Anyone added Nelson Sauvin to this before?
Or i have Styrian Goldings
Not sure,im not aware what beer most uses Nelson,any comments welcomed.
Cheers

I've done this with bramling cross (in a mini mash and then dry hopped)and it worked pretty damn well.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice
 
I think Nelson and Styrian Goldings would both work well.

Thornbridge Kipling uses Nelson as an aroma hop, and is a lovely beer. If you boil Nelson you get a lot of bitterness, it's a high alpha hop with a strong flavour. Steeping or dry hopping with them provides a really good flavour/aroma.
 
I've brewed this kit three times now, twice with 1kg of Muntons brew enhancer and once to make a deliberate low alcohol meal time brew with only 125grams of Muntons BE. The last one was put in a keg and carbonated with a further 125 grams of Muntons BE. I used 25 grams of citra dry hopping in one of the stronger brews and 25 grams dry hopping of Cascade in the other stronger brew. Both were lovely to drink and well received by my sons and neighbours. The five gallons of low strength beer was daffied up with a hop tea boiled for 45 minutes as a litre of final volume with 10 grams of citra and dry hopped with the end of the packet - 12.5 grams just chucked in the keg to float on top. I REALLY enjoy the low strength brew and have a pint at lunch time (retired) and at night with dinner.

I really like this kit. Soon I might try doing it with a ten litre simple AG brew instead of the additional sugars using Clibit's simple AG recipe doubled up to produce ten litres. Another possibility might be to use 1kg of DME rather than the part DME part sugar mix of the brew enhancer products.
 
I've brewed this kit three times now, twice with 1kg of Muntons brew enhancer and once to make a deliberate low alcohol meal time brew with only 125grams of Muntons BE. The last one was put in a keg and carbonated with a further 125 grams of Muntons BE. I used 25 grams of citra dry hopping in one of the stronger brews and 25 grams dry hopping of Cascade in the other stronger brew. Both were lovely to drink and well received by my sons and neighbours. The five gallons of low strength beer was daffied up with a hop tea boiled for 45 minutes as a litre of final volume with 10 grams of citra and dry hopped with the end of the packet - 12.5 grams just chucked in the keg to float on top. I REALLY enjoy the low strength brew and have a pint at lunch time (retired) and at night with dinner.

I really like this kit. Soon I might try doing it with a ten litre simple AG brew instead of the additional sugars using Clibit's simple AG recipe doubled up to produce ten litres. Another possibility might be to use 1kg of DME rather than the part DME part sugar mix of the brew enhancer products.


Really interesting post Tony, I've currently got a John Bull IPA on with 1kg of BE and 300g of honey and 25g of German Cascade hops on a 20 min boil and then added to the FV for the duration. It’s got an OG of 1060 and will probably be quite strong. I brew most of my beers about 6-6.5% as I only drink Friday and Saturday night (I can’t deal with the morning after when I’m working) so I’m looking for a big bang for my buck and I’m brewing my beers accordingly. But I do find your post of brewing a hopped IPA but at a lower strength really interesting and I can see how it would be a post lunch and dinner beer that didn't lay you out.
I have to say that I am looking at Clibits ten liter simple AG brew to add to a kit and to brew on it’s own in two DJ’s at some point in the near future. I've not tried the Coopers IPA but the next time Tesco have their sale I may well follow your example and add the hops and drop the BE amount to produce what you've described as I can then have a pint on a week night without the typical morning after head.
 
Really interesting post Tony, I've currently got a John Bull IPA on with 1kg of BE and 300g of honey and 25g of German Cascade hops on a 20 min boil and then added to the FV for the duration. It's got an OG of 1060 and will probably be quite strong. I brew most of my beers about 6-6.5% as I only drink Friday and Saturday night (I can't deal with the morning after when I'm working) so I'm looking for a big bang for my buck and I'm brewing my beers accordingly. But I do find your post of brewing a hopped IPA but at a lower strength really interesting and I can see how it would be a post lunch and dinner beer that didn't lay you out.
I have to say that I am looking at Clibits ten liter simple AG brew to add to a kit and to brew on it's own in two DJ's at some point in the near future. I've not tried the Coopers IPA but the next time Tesco have their sale I may well follow your example and add the hops and drop the BE amount to produce what you've described as I can then have a pint on a week night without the typical morning after head.

You definitely won't have any problem with a fuzzy head after a pint or two of what I described. The Cooper's kit and 125 Muntons BE in 23 litres produce an OG of 1025. Mine both fermented to 1008 at 22C in 2 days. The one I am now starting to drink, went into the barrel with about 100 grammes of Muntons BE on the third day after I started it. It isn't clear yet at day 9 in the keg, but it tastes fine. I think it is probably about 2.4% ABV allowing about 0.1% for the hundred grammes of Muntons used for carbonation. Anyway, whatever its exact alcohol content, it is a very low alcohol beer, but it has bags of flavour - mostly from the kit, but also from a long boiled 10g citra hop tea. and the citra dry hopping.

NB. Not sure I was wise to chuck loose hops into the keg. Although they seem to float like cork when you are trying to sink them with marbles in a hop sock, Yesterday I found a small leaf in my beer. I don't car about the aesthetics of that, but I don't want a blocked tap....
 
Last night I opened my last Coopers IPA bottled on 08/01/15 (now six months on) and I have to say I was a bit disappointed. It had mellowed to a very bland beer, and there was still a hint of the home brew twang. It was brewed with 500g of hopped light DME, and 330 g Dextrose, so should have had a better kick to it. Perhaps it was just too old. :-(
However tonight I opened my last BrewMaker IPA (admittedly 'only' three months old) and it was much better, although a few weeks ago there wasn't much to choose between them. So I may do that again.
That said, I do like the Coopers English Bitter (especially when in the Tesco sale) so maybe I'll stick with that. :thumb:
 
I've picked up a can of Thomas Coopers IPA today.

I was thinking of 1kg dme and a cup of sugar brewed to 20l.

I might also dry hop but not too sure what to try. I have some ekg hop oil from the Malt Miller so might put a few ml of this in at the end.

What do you think? Anybody modified this kit?
 
Dry hopped it with citra - 20gms. Worked well.

Have gone over to AG brewing since and would never ever go back.

I've not used the oils you mention. Go carefully I think. Might be easy to over do it. You can probably get recommended dosing from the seller or manufacturer.

In doing AG I have learned to be cautious about over hopping. I have some pretty dodgy stuff where I was a bit cavalier about putting in a bit more of the hops. Not all are as nice as some. I am going to stick with goldings and such like from now on. I like them - and citra.
 
Don't give up trying hops Tony. You can always try single hop commercial beers to see if you like them. Or get MyQuls hop tasters.
 
Don't give up trying hops Tony. You can always try single hop commercial beers to see if you like them. Or get MyQuls hop tasters.

I have made the mistake of brewing full sized brews with hops that I find really not great. Fortunately, my over cooked (no chill) brews with admiral in at 20g as a sixty minute hope are moderating a bit as they get older, but I have 15 gallons of that....... At a month in the barrel it is just about tolerable to me, but I really don't like it much. It may come good in time.

. My Greg Hughes, English IPA is looking great. Goldings and progress. I know where I stand with them.

My impressions may be personal, or maybe down to the fact that I brewed these dodgy brews before I got a chiller and they spent too long at high temperatures. Anyway - I am back on track now, albeit that I have a lot of 'iffy' stuff to drink my way through.
 
I hear what you're saying but for me brewing is about learning and trying things. Which is why I make small batches. But I also read a lot and taste commercial beers. I've discovered hops I really like and hops I wouldn't use again. Same with grains and yeast. And I've drunk everything. :-)
 
I've picked up a can of Thomas Coopers IPA today.

I was thinking of 1kg dme and a cup of sugar brewed to 20l.

I might also dry hop but not too sure what to try. I have some ekg hop oil from the Malt Miller so might put a few ml of this in at the end.

What do you think? Anybody modified this kit?

The Coopers IPA is pretty bitter so I think you're right to go down the dry hopping route. Personally with this kit I'd do 'English' hops; e.g. EKG, Fuggles, Progress, Bramling Cross or Aurora.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice
 

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