Coopers Bitter Recipe

Heals · Post by **Heals** » Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 6:05 pm

I just threw this one down - the first time I've just come up with my own recipe!

Can of Coopers Bitter
150g of Crystal Grain steeped @ 62 deg for 60 mins
1kg of Coopers BE2
200g of Dry Wheat Malt Extract
Filled to 21.5L
Safale S04 pitched @ 24 deg

It's nothing flash (I don't think), any thoughts on what it might turn out like though?

warra48 · Post by **warra48** » Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 6:09 pm

Looks OK to me. Maybe dry hop with an appropriate hop to give some balance for the crystal and wheat?

Heals · Post by **Heals** » Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 6:15 pm

Yeah I wasn't sure what to do with the hops, I figured the kit can may already have much of the bitterness required to balance it out - I think I still have about 15 or so grams of PoR in a jar in the fridge, not sure if that's going to taste any good though.

When you say dry hop, you mean, throw in the hops a few days before you're ready to bottle yeah?

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 6:17 pm

It will definately need some bittering, the coopers kit is not bitter enough from the get go, once you add extras it gets worse!

I would suggest you add at least 20g to the full boil. I am pretty sure all of the wheat malts need to be mashed.

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 6:19 pm

Heals wrote:Yeah I wasn't sure what to do with the hops, I figured the kit can may already have much of the bitterness required to balance it out - I think I still have about 15 or so grams of PoR in a jar in the fridge, not sure if that's going to taste any good though.

When you say dry hop, you mean, throw in the hops a few days before you're ready to bottle yeah?

Don't dry hop this one, put all of that POR in the boil for at least 60 min (that rolling boil then start timing) once the original mash has completed. Also since you have to mash you may as well bump the additions up a little

Heals · Post by **Heals** » Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 7:01 pm

I probably should have posted before I threw it down then eh..

Bit late to add things to the boil now it's already in the fermenter!

The wheat malt is powdered, like LDME, didn't think you had to mash it?

Can the bitterness be saved somehow?

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 7:06 pm

Heals wrote:I probably should have posted before I threw it down then eh..

Bit late to add things to the boil now it's already in the fermenter!

The wheat malt is powdered, like LDME, didn't think you had to mash it?

Can the bitterness be saved somehow?

I am sure it will be fine, just not a true bitter as such.

if the wheat was extract then there is no need to mash it no.

What exactly did you do with all that?

Heals · Post by **Heals** » Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 7:13 pm

Well, basically, like I said in the first post, I steeped the grain for just over an hour at about 62 deg, strained out all the grain, added the wheat malt extract and the BE2 and brought it up to a rolling boil for around 10 minutes, on flameout I added the kit can and stirred it through.

Then I just threw that mixture into the fermenter with cold water and pitched the yeast.

I figured I didn't really need to boil it for any particularly long period of time because I wasn't adding any hops, just enough to dissolve the sugars and have it hot enough to dissolve the kit can (but not destroy its bitterness).

mobydick · Post by **mobydick** » Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 7:17 pm

Coopers Bitter has an IBU of 32 - I reakon it'll be just fine.

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 7:33 pm

mobydick wrote:Coopers Bitter has an IBU of 32 - I reakon it'll be just fine.

Agreed - the bitterness of the kit is should be sufficient.

There is not an awful lot of malt in there anyway, I suspect it will be bitter enough as is.

A few finishing hops may have helped to add some perceived bitterness but overall it should be a nice drop!

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 7:34 pm

You can't destroy th bitterness by boiling the kit, the only reason not to boil a kit is to keep from removing any (if any) added aroma or flavouring hops.

You did well with it but it will not really be a bitter beer. It will actually be pretty well balanced and should be very nice to drink!

Sorry about missing the fact that the wheat malt was extract, that messed up my diagnosis a bit

If you do it again I strongly suggest a good shlug of POR in a long boil as even at 32 IBUs (I thought it was closer to 35) it will probably not be what you expected with those added ingredients.

Heals · Post by **Heals** » Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 7:44 pm

Nah fair call Kev, cheers for the input!

I'm actually tempted to throw down a straight can of bitter with just a bag of BE2 and see how it comes out, just to understand the taste of the base kit, then try a few more variants.

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 8:09 pm

Heals wrote:Nah fair call Kev, cheers for the input!

I'm actually tempted to throw down a straight can of bitter with just a bag of BE2 and see how it comes out, just to understand the taste of the base kit, then try a few more variants.

If you want to understand the taste of the base kit, use only the base kit and make it up to 12L.

drsmurto · Post by **drsmurto** » Thursday Sep 13, 2007 11:38 am

Heals - will make a nice enough beer but if it was me i would dry hop with 20g of East Kent Goldings hops. Will give it a subtle fruityness, similar to an ESB. And next time, all malt instead of the BE2.

Heals · Post by **Heals** » Thursday Sep 13, 2007 2:35 pm

Yeah man, I had a kilo bag of malt extract but I got sick of looking at the bag of BE2 that's been sitting on my brewing bench for about 3 months!

Next time, next time.

drsmurto · Post by **drsmurto** » Thursday Sep 13, 2007 2:45 pm

i know how that feels - i used my very last bag of BE2 up a few months back to bulk prime with. I still have a bag of BE1, i have no idea how i acquired it but was using it for bulk priming too but decided that lifes too short so ditched it and forked out for some dextrose. Plus - using mixed bags required more clalcs and i do more than my fair share of thinking at work, dont need that extra hassle for something as simple as priming!

warra48 · Post by **warra48** » Thursday Sep 13, 2007 4:44 pm

So the summary of these posts is that you should end up with a nice beer. Just enjoy the brewing experience, and enjoy your beer. Whatever you did, look on it as part of your learning experience.
I've made my share of mistakes and miscalculations, but I'm still enjoying my beer, because it's different, and mostly better than commercial mega brews. (sips another slurp of Boonie's LCPA)

Heals · Post by **Heals** » Saturday Sep 15, 2007 10:14 pm

Cheers warra.

Just a thought though - what percentage do you estimate i'll end up with in the end? Around 4.5%? I was unsure as to how much the extra wheat malt extract would ferment out.

Zuma · Post by **Zuma** » Saturday Sep 15, 2007 11:43 pm

Did one recently with EKG and fuggles.

The ekg were added to the boil fuggles last 10 mins, dry hopped with some extra fuggles.

warra48 · Post by **warra48** » Sunday Sep 16, 2007 7:01 am

Heals wrote:Cheers warra.

Just a thought though - what percentage do you estimate i'll end up with in the end? Around 4.5%? I was unsure as to how much the extra wheat malt extract would ferment out.

Have a look at this link:
http://www.liquorcraft.com.au/wa.asp?id ... etails=107

Looks like about 5.7%.