Coopers Home Brew

You're definitely right about 'anything Ozzish', so, as a non-Aussie living here, I can tell you that in my experience, Cooper's HB is alright (though the main thing that I'm talking about is the yeast, as that's really what separates most "kits" from others). Not great, possibly not even 'good', and absolutely not excellent. That said, it's not bad either (and just fine if you use decent yeast), but I'm known by my friends as being a bit of a beer snob, so take this with the proverbial grain of salt.

Cheers, Joe.

Coopers is a wonderful brewery, turning out some classic, world class products.

Yes, it's true that Ozzies are a bit (very) one eyed about anything Oz, and are no different when it comes to their beer, Coopers in particular.

Interesting then, that the 'Old Man Cooper' studied all about beer brewing at Birmingham University, in the UK.

THAT'S why his beer is so good!!!!

They seem to be great there, but they also do not seem to travel well. A lot of cidery tasting beers have been traced to old extract in Cooper's kits.

--------->Denny

Aussie aussie aussie...OI OI OI

the brewery is wonderful, the red green gold and brown or something. very nice beer. but he was asking about the home-brew ingredients, which from my experience, are basically the same as any of the other $9-10 brewing tins.

In article , samuel mcgregor writes

Yes, I have to agree with you there. I was letting my enthusiasm for the bottled beer cloud (get it!) my judgement.

Of course, if you want a top home brew, you have no choice but to source your own malted barley, and mash it yourself. Do it right, and the results are incomparable, and you will never go back to using kits again!

I just wish we could get the Coopers Sparkling Ale here in the UK a little more easily. That and the Matilda Bay 'Redback' wheat beer are both very fine beers, as I remember.

Cheers, Ian

understandable. your forgiven. but maybe not for the pun.

how much more effort does it take to do it that way??? maybe i'll give that a shot soon. i have final school exams in the next month then off for about

3 months, so that should be sufficient time to try out some new brewing methods.

yes, i am quite partial to the redback aswell. lovely drop. pity all you can get is fosters hey.

Which of the Coopers are you referring to - the original Thomas Cooper, who started out as a stone mason and turned his hand to brewing at the request of his wife?

and click on History, then Brewery for a little more info.

Cheers

It takes a fair bit more time. I can whip out an extract batch in 2 hopurs, but an AG batch takes about 5. And that's after optimizng my equipment and brewing space...figure 7 hours for a batch until you become familiar with the techniques. The results are well worth it, though...you have access to a much broader range of ingredients, you have more control over the process, and I really enjoy the whole brewing process itself.

----------->Denny

I find the kits a good starting base. I wouldn't follow the kit instructions which recommend the addition of one kg of sugar and a final volume of 22 litres. Without extras the beer is very plain I usually add a kilo of dry malt extract, crystal grains or equivalent and some extra hops for bittering, flavour and aroma to suit my tastes. This results in a beer of approx 5% ABV (maybe a bit less) and medium SG The yeast provided with the kit is OK, especially if you can only ferment at higher temps maybe up to 25 degrees C. It actually seems to hibernate at 18 or less (or work very slowly). Personally I've been very happy with WLP002 English ale yeast when used with some of the coopers kits. cheers rb

Coopers is good as a basis for a beer but it does need some malt and hops to get a good flavour. I also tend to add maltodextrin for a bit more body

two hours??? i can do it in about 30 mins. is there something i am missing???

You're probably doping a no boil kit...I'm not. Boiling for an hour, cooling it down after, setting up and putting away...about 2 hours. As I remember...it's been years since I've doen anything but all grain.

------------>Denny

Once you have a routine worked out, you can mash, sparge, boil and get

25 litres ready for yeast pitching in half a morning. The satisfaction is enormous, I can assure you!

You do need to give a little thought to the logistics of the process though. Mash temperatures are critical, the closer you can get to the temperature specified in your recipe the better. I use an electric urn, originally designed for fruit preserving and bottling, and a hand held thermometer!

After mashing, I have a system which works for me quite well whereby I have a barrel of hot sparging water at high elevation, which gives a good head of pressure to my sparging arm, and hence a good spin, whilst at the same time I am running off the sparged wort out of my mash tun (which is at an intermediate elevation) into my fermenter, which is on the floor.

I urge you to try it, believe me, you won't look back!

Good luck.

What a great web site.

I will dig out the publication I read that bit of information about Birmingham, but it may take me some time to find it, but I seem to remember it was immediately post WW2. Who was Coopers MD at that time?

Watch this space!

Ian London.

I have used a few Coopers kits and first thing is to get rid of the yeast, it is way too aggressive, I have used a safale yeast and had much better results. I will soon be using some liquid yeast. The Coopers wheat beer pack is good. I don't use sugar either I double the amount of malt extract and get good results. Buy from your local brew shop as the cans you find in supermarkets are generally old and close to their use by date. This was noted by another poster too.

Thanks all - I used to brew from raw ingredients, but my wife wasn't a fan of the aroma that used to permeate the house. The one I liked best was "London Pride" from a small book of recipes I had at the time. {18 years ago - sigh}

{I didn't mind it at all!}

Bob

Hi,

I have just made and sampled a Coopers Heritage Lager made with light liquid malt and it came out great....better then I expected and my mates wanted more so that is always a good sign. I have tried one other Coopers Draught that I didnt particularly like.

G'Day Bob I have been brewing Coopers kits for fifteen years now. They were one of the original home brews on the market in Australia. I have made every product they have on the market and have enjoyed them all. They are well suited for kegging purposes. I have two kegs on the go, one with a Coopers beer in all the time and the other I experiment with. As far as making the beer from a Coopers kit, they are a no fuss brew to make. I guess you could experiment with the basic kits until you make a consistent product, then you can start adding extra's like hops, honey or what ever takes your fancy. Oh yes, I am also a bit biased towards Coopers as I only work a couple of kilometers away from their brewery.