Coopers Kit Tweak Recipes

[Little Rock Brewing]

Planning my next brew and want to do the Coopers Abbey Blonde, from their excellent recipe website. https://www.diybeer.com/au/recipe/abbey-blonde.html
This is the next step in my brewing "career" as it involves the use of a grain addition to the kit. The recipe says to soak 200g of crystal malt in cold water for 24 hours, then strain and boil the liquid but not the grain. Surely it would be better to boil the grain in a bag to extract the full flavour and sugars. Or am I running before I can walk?

 

[YorkieBrew]

If you boil the grain you will likely extract tannins and affect the flavour.

It depends what grains you are using, but the temperature affects things like enzyme action and flavour so I should stick to the recipe for now.

That's not to say don't do it though, much of the fun in this hobby is trying stuff out to see what happens.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Thanks for the advice. I'll stick to the recipe, for now.

 

[Pirate_Pete]

I've only steeped Choc Malt for 24 hours like it says in that recipe. And I only did that once.
I've never done it with light crystal.

I usually steep the grain in 70C water for 30-40 minutes.
Remove the grain & boil the liquid for 10 minutes.

As I said I only did it the once with Choc Malt and I wouldn't bother again.
I'd do the steep & boil.

But just follow the recipe.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Cheers Pete. I'll follow the recipe. There are loads on that Customize Your Coopers site, so much choice.

 

[Pirate_Pete]

Cheers Pete. I'll follow the recipe. There are loads on that Customize Your Coopers site, so much choice.

Yeah, that's OK. I probably won't, but hey ho, that's just me.
To be honest I thought all the recipes on the Coopers site would say to steep grain like I suggested.
I hadn't seen that one. I have no idea what difference it would make.

 

[Sandimas]

To be honest I thought all the recipes on the Coopers site would say to steep grain like I suggested.
I hadn't seen that one. I have no idea what difference it would make.

Me neither, never heard of steeping grains for 24hrs. 30-40mins in some hot water <70C is fine, temp is not important as these grains don't require mashing.

And boiling, just no point, won't make any difference, in fact could do more harm than good (tannins) Worth reading up on the different types of grain and what to do with them. The Right Way to Steep Specialty Grains

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Thanks for the link, great site with lots of info. Not much work getting done today now!

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Started the Abbey Blonde last night. Following the recipe by steeping the grain in the fridge for 24 hours. Checked it this morning and it smells fantastic. Next stage, boiling with the hops and DME tonight.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I made a American Wheat beer wth a Coopers kit plus 1000g DME Wheat and 500g DME Pale. Made on 21/6/21 dry hopped today with 38g of American hops I got with a Range IPA kit last year.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Really satisfying doing a bit of boiling and hop addition, rather than just opening tins! It's fermenting nicely, with 2 x 11g packs of yeast I'm not surprised. Plus I added 500g of dextrose to get the OG up to 1.06.
A step towards all grain brewing. Luckily a 20 litre pan came up for sale on Facebook marketplace, so it's meant to be!