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Hi all,

Went to Safeway today and I noticed they had their kits on sale. Variety was poor - the usual stock standard of coopers and tooheys, for a little over $9.

So I got to thinking....Maybe I could get 2 coopers bitter kits and make a really bastardly strong beer, something that will be somewhere near the 8-9%

I would of course add the usual suspects of malts, etc... maybe even steep some crystal malt as well...

But my question is: what type and amounts of hops would someone recommend?

Or you could just do a twocan brew. Most popular one I've seen is Stout+Dark Ale, but you could certainly do two bitters if you like the hops. Just add some finishing hops, maybe some goldings or fuggles, say 10g @ 5 mins or at flameout?

Yeah, I thought of the darker stuff.... but my brews thus far have been darker ones, and I've had some call from folk to do a lighter, paler beer...

I realised of course, I still have a pilsener kit to get going as soon as I have a spare fermenter, and as soon as the weather cools down a bit.

Thanks for the hops suggestions, though....

EK Goldings and/or Fuggles would work equally as good in a paler ale. English bitter comes to mind. 2 cans of coopers lager with hops added for flavour/aroma would come out nice. The lager tins are bittered to about 21 IBU so a 42 IBU english bitter isnt far off. Leave it for a few months and it will mellow.

I'd go willamette, goldings or fuggles. And lots of nice dark or maybe amber malt.

I was thinking of lighter malts, but it may be interesting to add Dark dry malt.

with crystal malt i'd wanna try and keep the lighter colour. or maybe i should bugger the requests for 'pale' beer and make what i want!

for a lighter brew, go with some hallertau.

I'm sure I saw this posted somewhere else (I'll go have a look).

I could always go for a black+tan, mix a dark ale or stout kit with a bitter/lager/pale ale kit....

I better make my mind up, before these kits sell out or go back to their usual price.... damned Ginger Beer, its holding up my production line.... hahaha

light crystal wont add much colour to your beer, and can only make it better.

Sounds like you are in 2 minds DP. Always a problem when you are trying to please others. Anything with hops in it will be better than megaswill.

Search for Boonies LCPA clone in the recipes section. I was thinking you could convert that into a 2can with 2tins of lager and a similar hopping schedule. Relatively light in colour altho having almost finished it i reckon it could do with some crystal and swapping the chinook and cascade around (think someone suggested that). Ooops, off topic slightly,.

Lots of ideas from lots of people DP. Have a crack!

Cheers
DrSmurto

You could do a draught plus real ale can and make something up like this recipe (you're just replacing the LDME with the draught can).

Mountain Goat Hightail clone 1

* 1.7kg Coopers Real Ale tin (Pale ale if doing Mtn Goat Pale Ale)
* 1kg Light dry malt extract
* 100g Crystal malt (steeped for 20 minutes)
* 100g brewing sugar
* 25g Amarillo hops for the Pale Ale or Goldings/Fuggles for the Hightail, steeped for 10 mins with the LME.

Method:
1. Crush the Crystal in your mortar and pestle, add to grain sock and steep at 70-80°C for 20 mins, or use a coffee plunger.
2. Put the liquor from the Crystal into a pot, top up to 2L, add the LDME, bring to boil.
3. When the LDME is fully dissolved, add the hops, turn off the heat, put on the lid, and wait for 10 minutes.
4. Half top up your fermenter with cold water, and pour the contents of your pot into it, then top up to 23L.
5. Pitch yeast. Ferment as close to 18°C as you can.

I can vouch for the stout + dark ale - yummo!

However my pale ale + real ale was exceptionally ordinary - I even used safale s-04

Cheers

rwh wrote: Mountain Goat Hightail clone 1

* 1.7kg Coopers Real Ale tin (Pale ale if doing Mtn Goat Pale Ale)
* 1kg Light dry malt extract
* 100g Crystal malt (steeped for 20 minutes)
* 100g brewing sugar
* 25g Amarillo hops for the Pale Ale or Goldings/Fuggles

What would you do if you didn't want to add brewing sugar? Replace it with something, or just leave it out. I'm trying to get away from using dextrose/etc, and keep to malts.

Which brings me to another question:
What is the difference between using liquid malts and dry malts? (in terms of the fermenting process). The LME cans are usually over 1kg aren't they?

I dont think I've tasted MG's Hightail, but the recipe sounds yum!

Cortez: are you a fan of lighter-coloured beers? I prefer my darker ones personally. My mate makes a nice ale, and I think thats the best I've drunk so far. But as far as commercial beers goes, the nicest, palest beer I've drunk has been a pilsener! Having said that, microbrews are generally nice (grand ridge and mountain goat are the only ones that come to mind, but i dont remember which ones they were).

I will continue to browse around for recipes, but any ideas are more than welcome!

The Carbonator wrote:for a lighter brew, go with some hallertau.

I'm with The Carbonator - the hallertau addition is nice if you want to steer the pale ale towards the Hahn Premium style...

Cheers,
TL

dragonphoenix73 wrote:Which brings me to another question:
What is the difference between using liquid malts and dry malts? (in terms of the fermenting process). The LME cans are usually over 1kg aren't they?

Liquid and dry malt extracts are the same in terms of fermentation - where they differ is their relative strength. Liquid malt extract is about 20% water compared to dry malt extract. So 4kg of Dry Malt extract has roughly the same sugars as 4.8kg of Liquid Malt extract.
You can readily purchase 1.7kg kits of Liquid malt extract and your local HBS should supply 500g and 1kg tubs / packs of liquid/dry malt extract that's typically unhopped.

Cheers,
TL

rwh wrote:You could do a draught plus real ale can and make something up like this recipe (you're just replacing the LDME with the draught can).

Mountain Goat Hightail clone 1

* 1.7kg Coopers Real Ale tin (Pale ale if doing Mtn Goat Pale Ale)
* 1kg Light dry malt extract
* 100g Crystal malt (steeped for 20 minutes)
* 100g brewing sugar
* 25g Amarillo hops for the Pale Ale or Goldings/Fuggles for the Hightail, steeped for 10 mins with the LME.

This (the Hightail) is a great recipe. I have some that's about 3 months old and will be even better when the winter really kicks in.
But the brewer at MG told me that they use Cascade in the Hightail not the English style hops. Will try with Cascade next time and maybe use some US-56 or 05 or whatever they call it now....

Cheers,

Tim

Thanks TL!


Dry is cheaper too.

Really?! You're doing very well if you can find dry malt extract that costs less, per kilo, than liquid malt!
Buy heaps before the HBS realises their mistake and changes the prices!

Trough Lolly wrote:Really?! You're doing very well if you can find dry malt extract that costs less, per kilo, than liquid malt!
Buy heaps before the HBS realises their mistake and changes the prices!

But liquid malt contains water thus reducing the amount of actual malt - 1 kilo of LDME has more malt in it than 1 kilo of liquid malt

You may be right there TL....

For some reason I thought the DME I bought recently worked out cheaper than LME - then again, the only time I've bought LME is in a Brewcraft kit, so technically I wouldn't know. I'll verify my statement next time I go to my HBS.....

Pale_Ale wrote:

Trough Lolly wrote:Really?! You're doing very well if you can find dry malt extract that costs less, per kilo, than liquid malt!
Buy heaps before the HBS realises their mistake and changes the prices!

But liquid malt contains water thus reducing the amount of actual malt - 1 kilo of LDME has more malt in it than 1 kilo of liquid malt

....yep, methinks we're in violent agreement here!