Thomas Coopers Sparkling Ale

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Tuesday Dec 12, 2006 9:42 am

Hi all,

Plan to put down one of these on the weekend, thought I would gather thoughts on a couple of things.

Recipe:

1.7kg Thomas Coopers Sparkling Ale
1kg Coopers Light Malt Extract
500g LDM
15g Amarillo for 5mins
15g Amarillo dry hopped
Kit yeast (DCL??)

I intend to add the hops and the dry malt to the boil in 1L water and then add the kit and the lme straight into the fermenter.

Then:
7 days primary
7 days racked
14 days cold conditioned
Bulk prime 170g dextrose

So, should be pretty straightforward. But I have a few questions.

1. Is this kit sufficiently bittered? Given the amount of malt, would bittering hops be required? I am not after mega bitter here I just don't want to end up with sweet beer juice. As long as it is bittered for the style that's fine.

2. What I'm hoping to achieve with the Amarillo is a bit of James Squire Golden Ale aftertaste, is what I'm planning going to achieve that?

3. I'm planning to filter about 3 litres of water and put in the fridge to cool down the wort so I can get down to 18 to pitch. Ice is no good I've heard. As long as I sterilise the water jug, I should be right shouldn't I?

4. Does anyone have any input regarding the racking and cold conditioning timeframes?

5. General thoughts/considerations with this kit as I've never used it before.

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Tuesday Dec 12, 2006 9:56 am

I'd go the amarillo for at least 15mins personally.

You probably should consider adding some hops for a bit more bitterness. Something you have stashed at the back of the freezer should suffice.

I'd also use a Coopers re-hydrated yeast.

And 7,7,14 is a good primary, 2ndary, cc schedule.

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Tuesday Dec 12, 2006 10:08 am

Ok,

So perhaps change the hops to

15g Amarillo for 30 minutes
15g Amarillo for 15 minutes
15g Amarillo dry hopped?

Thoughts appreciated

Boonie · Post by **Boonie** » Tuesday Dec 12, 2006 8:25 pm

Brewed 1-Jul-06
Bottled 16-Jul-06
Coopers Premium Sparkling Ale
1.5 kg Coopers"Light" Malt
250g Dextrose
500g of Charlestown Brew Shop Malt (Local HBS malt)
Brewed Yeast From Coopers Sparkling Ale Stubbies on 29/6 at night.
Used on 1/7 5.00pm
Put in 2 Tablespoons BeernGear (Charlestown HBS) Malt in 600ml water then further 2 heaped Tablespoons Sugar
Keg:Boonie
Fish Heater 1/7 @20 Degrees

These notes have been cut and pasted from my brew notes.

This one was very sweet, but nice.

Looking for a clone IE: More bitterness? 10g of Pride of ringwood dry hopped IMO would go OK. No more though as it is very bitter (my taste)

I would definately rehydrate yeast as it does have a different taste to the can yeast.

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Tuesday Dec 12, 2006 8:48 pm

I've got a variation of this in the fermenter at the moment, but I did it the lazy/easy way....

1.7kg kit Thomas Coopers Sparkling ale
1.5kg Coopers light liquid malt

only made it up to 19l with the kit yeast to make it a bit more bitter.

I figure if you make it to coopers spec and need more hops, why not just drop the malt & water content?

yes I'm lazy, see how it goes in Jan when it's ready I suppose

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Tuesday Dec 12, 2006 9:30 pm

Boonie wrote:Looking for a clone IE: More bitterness? 10g of Pride of ringwood dry hopped IMO would go OK. No more though as it is very bitter (my taste)

Not looking for a clone, just hoping to get a nice ale that is something a bit like James Squire Golden Ale, hence the Amarillo.

Wouldn't the dry hopping just add aroma?

Boonie, in your recipe it looks like you didn't use any hops, and you had a fair bit of malt in that one. If it wasn't TOO sweet then I'm thinking maybe 15g at 30 and 15g at 15 is going to provide sufficient bitterness. On it's own without the kit hops it works out to be approx 23 IBUs. With the hops added I think it will be bittered sufficiently.

Chris, your recommendation of Amarillo for 15, that will add some bitterness but will it also add that hoppy flavour?

Ash, I don't want to drop the water content because I want more beer damn it! I'd rather add hops and have my full 23L

pacman · Post by **pacman** » Tuesday Dec 12, 2006 10:20 pm

I'm with you Ash. Am also lazy and look for the simplest ways. Yours should be a top brew with minimum of fuss.

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Tuesday Dec 12, 2006 10:45 pm

I also only have a brew & 1/2 worth of empties left & want to do another brew ASAP - I like the variety more than the quantity.

Boonie · Post by **Boonie** » Wednesday Dec 13, 2006 5:42 am

Pale_Ale wrote:
Boonie wrote:Looking for a clone IE: More bitterness? 10g of Pride of ringwood dry hopped IMO would go OK. No more though as it is very bitter (my taste)
Wouldn't the dry hopping just add aroma?

Boonie, in your recipe it looks like you didn't use any hops, and you had a fair bit of malt in that one. If it wasn't TOO sweet then I'm thinking maybe 15g at 30 and 15g at 15 is going to provide sufficient bitterness. On it's own without the kit hops it works out to be approx 23 IBUs. With the hops added I think it will be bittered sufficiently.

Dry hop would aroma and a little taste IMO.

I did not use hops in that one, you are right. I just followed can as I wanted to test the recipe with the rehydrated yeast. Will add some different hop, maybe the Amarillo too as I like that one, next time.

Cheers

Boonie

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Wednesday Dec 13, 2006 9:32 am

That hopping schedule sounds pretty good.

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Wednesday Dec 13, 2006 10:05 am

Chris wrote:That hopping schedule sounds pretty good.

Excellent. I think I will take out the dry malt too, but the only question then would be whether the beer had enough body for the style

Ash · Post by **Ash** » Sunday Dec 31, 2006 9:39 pm

just a note - my kit + malt in less water thing is a flop, needs more hops badly, too sweet - hope it gets better with age.

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Monday Jan 08, 2007 9:04 pm

Hmmm....I've found with one of my Darks that I overmalted and underhopped, that it does get smoother and more drinkable as time goes on.

It did occur to me that if you are reducing the water volume then you are also increasing the malt content, that is you are using the same quantity of malt in a lower volume of water, which will give higher alc content and more sweetness.

Also I agree with you about the variety thing - I was almost thinking of getting a smaller fermenter so I could use less bottles etc. but then I thought Nahhhh!

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Tuesday Jan 16, 2007 7:28 pm

I've got this one bubbling away finally - I went with:

1.7kg Thomas Coopers Sparkling Ale
1.5kg Coopers DME
15g Amarillo for 30,15 & 5.
100g LDME

Looks and smells like hop juice, and looks like orange juice. Weird!

Boiled the hops in 2L + 100g LDME.

Hope this hopiness dissipates as I'm thinking I might have been a bit excessive with the hops. Time will tell.

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Tuesday Jan 16, 2007 7:41 pm

Yeah, sounds like it'll be a hoppy one. Probably not too excessive if you're a hop head tho.

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Tuesday Jan 16, 2007 8:02 pm

Don't mind the hops, especially Amarillo, could eat it with milk for breakfast!

drsmurto · Post by **drsmurto** » Thursday Jan 18, 2007 2:57 pm

Just ordered some Amarillo so am keen to put this down on the weekend. Did you use a CPA recultured yeast or the kit yeast? Am looking at a brew temp of ~24 altho the week ahead looks cooler so may be able to nudge 22. Is that ok for this brew?

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Thursday Jan 18, 2007 3:17 pm

drsmurto,

I used kit yeast through laziness, however the kit yeast is better yeast than supplied with the normal Coopers range.

I would say with the upcoming weather in SA you'll be fine. As close to 18 as possible. Use ice if you have to. I freeze my own

If you do end up doing this recipe, I'd take the hops down a little as the kit is fairly well hopped. Don't boil the kit either.

My revised recipe would have the hops down to:

5g 30 minutes
10g 15 minutes
10g 5 minutes

I was going for a JS Golden Ale type flavour with mine.I came nowhere near and would add more hops later and les hops earlier if I had my time back.

drsmurto · Post by **drsmurto** » Thursday Jan 18, 2007 3:25 pm

Cheers Paleman

I dont normally boil hops for longer than 10-15 mins with kits so was going to skip the 30 min and do 15, 5 and dry hop with 10g each.

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Thursday Jan 18, 2007 3:39 pm

Then you're a smarter man than I.

And for the record, I am Pale_Ale, who is a different user to Paleman