resources/PRODUCT REVIEWS
Cooper's Brewery Micro-Brew Kit
Cooper's new Micro-Brew Kit is an updated version of the old kit, with the main upgrades being a new fermenter and the inclusion of 30 plastic bottles so you can get brewing straight away.
In summary
Many homebrew shops package up their own starter kits for homebrewers with generic equipment. But the Cooper's kit is the best that we've seen. For the beginner brewer it's the obvious choice to get into brewing. The kit contains all the beer and ingredients you need to brew your first beer and the exclusive Cooper's fermenter is absolutely fantastic. For those already brewing their own beer, this kit is worth it just to get your hands on the fermenter. And the first beer it produced is not bad either!
What you get
- Video
- This tells you the basics of brewing your first beer. A great idea to be able to see exactly what to do rather than just read it in the instruction manual. And can we please see more of Lisa! (Although, does she really like beer?)
- Instruction manual
- This contains basically the same information as the video, plus with a few helpful hints and troubleshooting guide.
- Fermenter
- Well, what can we say about this? It's the best fermenter we've ever seen. In fact, Geoff described it as “absolutely bloody terrific, an absolute winner”.
Aspects we loved that we haven't seen before include:- Unlike most fermenters that are 25 litres, this one holds 30 litres, which if your beer ferments rapidly will stop stop it foaming out the top. And believe us, this does happen and it's not fun to clean up sticky liquid. It doesn't seem any bigger than our current fermenters, because it's slightly squatter.
- It has a wide neck that makes it easier to pour water in. If you're pouring from a saucepan, it's pretty easy for the flow to miss and spill all over the floor or bench. And if you start doing some more-complex brews, such as boiling your own malt and hops, you run the risk of spilling the the sugary wort, creating the same problem as above with clean-ups.
- A clear lid, which lets you see how the beer is progressing. However, condensation can impede your vision.
- A scale on the side so you can see when you've filled it up to the correct level of 23 litres. This is also helpful if you start brewing beers that require a non-standard volume, such as 18 litres, which you may come across from time to time.
- The handles are very well designed and will help stop your hands slipping when you're carrying the fermenter full of beer (just imagine!).
- Bottles
- Thirty 740ml brown screw-top PET bottles are included. This is a great idea and allows you to start brewing immediately instead of scrounging around for bottles or drinking 30 long-necks. The screw-tops also mean you don't need any special equipment. Other pluses over glass bottles are that they're far lighter and take up significantly less room, which means you need less room for storage (or you can keep more bottles!). We haven't used plastic bottles before, so we'll keep you updated on our thoughts. Apparently they're not an option for the long-term storage of beer because they very slowly allow gas to escape. But if you drink the beer within a year or so, there shouldn't be any problems.
After a few drinks recently, Geoff suggested that “PET bottles are to bottling homebrew what the euro is to currency”.
- Carbonation drops
- An interesting concept. Just about every homebrewer would be familiar with priming bottles with a measure of sugar crystals to promote secondary fermentation and give the beer bubbles. Carbonation drops make this job simple. Essentially they are a measured dose of sugar in the form of a barley sugar-sized “lolly” that is dropped into the bottle before it is filled. They are a great idea.
- Brewing sugar
- We'd seen these one kilogram packs around, mainly in supermarkets, but had never used it. It adds body and alcohol content to your beer. It's not as sickly sweet as straight glucose or dextrose that some homebrewers might be familiar with. An equivalent quantity of glucose that you might buy from your homebrew shop will boost the alcohol of your beer, but won't improve a watery body. This will. It's the consistency of icing sugar and dissolves well, not like some additives that tend to clump. Geoff commented: “This stuff might be all right.” The brewing sugar was developed by Cooper's scientists and sugar company CSR.
- Lager concentrate
- Your typical concentrated malt and hops mixture.
- Hydrometer
- An optional piece of brewing equipment. Geoff doesn't use one, but Oliver wouldn't be without his. Cooper's suggests using the hydrometer to test whether the beer is finished fermenting and ready for bottling. But it can also be used to take specific gravity (SG) readings at the beginning and end of fermentation to give a fairly accurate calculation of the beer's alcohol content.
- Airlock
- Standard homebrew equipment that allows carbon dioxide created during fermentation to escape and prevents air and contaminants flowing back in.
- Little Bottler
- Another standard piece of homebrew equipment that is attached to the tap and has a valve on the bottom that opens when the bottle is pushed against it.
- Plastic spoon
- Just the right length for the fermenter.
Preparing the wort
We followed the instructions to the letter. The whole thing took the two of us about half an hour. It's a very simple process: Sterilise everything with boiling water, add the can of concentrate and the brewing sugar to the fermenter with boiling water, mix well, top up with cold water, add the yeast and in about a week you've got beer.
Fermentation
It was coming into spring, so temperatures were low, meaning fermentation took place at about 18ºC to 20ºC (64ºF to 68ºF), not the 21ºC to 27ºC (70ºF to 81ºF) recommended in the instructions. There wasn't much that could be done about this, as Oliver's flat doesn't have heating. But keeping a thick towel wrapped around the fermenter and placing it in the warmest room kept it bubbling along, albeit slowly. The instructions suggest fermentation should take four to six days, but the lower temperature meant it continued for about eight days. We'd suggest you try and keep the brew at the recommended temperature, because our 18ºC is probably getting to about the limit of this yeast being active.
Bottling
What a snap! Could it be simpler? The 30 bottles were rinsed with cooled boiled water, primed with two carbonation drops, filled using the little bottler attached to the fermenter tap and capped with the screw-on caps. The whole process took Oliver less time time than it normally takes both of us to bottle using glass bottles with crown seals. The main time saving was not having to sterlise the bottles (although this must be done in second and subsequent brews) and the carbonation drops, which are much easier to use than using a funnel to put a measure of caster sugar into each bottle. The carbonation drops also taste nice, a bit like fairy floss. Mmmm.
During bottling, Oliver tasted some of the beer that was used to take a specific gravity (SG) reading. The signs were certainly good that this will be a ripper beer.
15.6.01: It's a beautiful golden “lager” color and the carbonation is perfect. This has got a nice bitterness, balanced with maltiness. It's delicious after just two weeks in the bottle and is showing signs of being an excellent beer. As with all the Cooper's homebrew range that we've tried, the head retention is excellent. The sediment of yeast sticks fairly firmly to the bottom of the bottle, so next to no “cloudiness” makes its way into the glass.
In Australia, the kits are available at Kmart and Big W and larger Coles, Bi-Lo and independent supermarkets . A few homebrew shops also sell them. For more information about the kit, see the Cooper's Brewery website. If you have homebrew equipment or ingredients that you would like us to review on this site,Tasting
Where can I get one?
The kits are also available in New Zealand and will be sold in South Africa later in 2001.
Moves are also afoot to get the kit into Canada and the United States.
please send us an e-mail.
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