Coopers kit tweaks/mini mashes

HarrowBrewer · Aug 9, 2015

Evening all.
Would anyone be interested in posting successful recipes for brews using Coopers kits? I now do mostly ag stuff, but I like to do a mini mash with a coopers and try out hop additions and other stuff with them. They seem to be the best one can kits, and very easy to stock up on when Tesco have their discount on.

baggybill · Aug 10, 2015

The one that's caught my eye is the Coopers English Bitter kit used over at CraigTube to make a 'Young's Double Chocolate Stout' clone:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxixrzoLWSI[/ame]

Never tried it but it will probably be my first mini mash...

Spapro · Aug 10, 2015

Given the number of members (me included) Clibit has converted to the dark side it would appear to make sense to have a thread with recipes for partial mashes all in one place.

I am drinking this one at the moment and it is superb:

Cascade Centennial American Pale Ale (IBU: 40, Colour is 7.3EBC)

Fermentables:
Coopers Draught kit (1.7kg can)
2kg of Pale Ale Malt Grains
235g of Carapils Malt Grains

Hops:
21IBU's gained from the cooper kit.
10g of Cascade leaf hops at 70 mins
20g of Cascade leaf hops at 15mins
20g of Cacade leaf hops at 5mins
50g of Centennial hop pellets - dry hopped for 4 days at the end of primary fermentation just before bottling.

60 minute mash at 67ÃÂ°C (in 8 litres of water).
Dunk sparge in 4 litres of water at 75ÃÂ°C
70 minute boil (I start ith around 12-13litres of wort in my stockpot).
teaspoon of irish moss at 15 mins end of boil
US-05 yeast sachet ppitched at 20ÃÂ°C

Dump Coopers Draught can into FV and then dump the partial mash cooled wort down on top. Top up to 23 litres with chilled water - aiming for 20-23ÃÂ° pitching temp.

Starting Gravity 1044

Ferment at 19ÃÂ°C

stevej · Aug 10, 2015

I like the idea, i have made this thread a sticky:thumb:

HarrowBrewer · Aug 10, 2015

Here's a stout mini-mash I knocked up in May, very drinkable now. I think I'd add a few hops if I went for it again, as it could do with just a bit more bitterness.

1.4kg Maris Otter
220g Crystal Malt
200g Roasted Barley
50g Chocolate
50 g black malt

Mashed in six litres at 66 for 60 minutes

Dunk sparged in 8 litres of water at 80 degrees, boiled for an hour

Boiled for an hour, Added to FV, Coopers Stout tin stirred in and topped up to 19 litres. Got an OG of 1050 and used the kit yeast.

Redron · Aug 10, 2015

Spapro said:
Given the number of members (me included) Clibit has converted to the darrk side it would appear to make sense to have a thread with recipes for partial mashes all in one place.

I am drinking this one at the moment and it is superb:

Cascade Centennial American Pale Ale (IBU: 40, Colour is 7.3EBC)

Fermentables:
Coopers Draught kit (1.7kg can)
2kg of Pale Ale Malt Grains
235g of Carapils Malt Grains

Hops:
21IBU's gained from the cooper kit.
10g of Cascade leaf hops at 70 mins
20g of Cascade leaf hops at 15mins
20g of Cacade leaf hops at 5mins
50g of Centennial hop pellets - dry hopped for 4 days at the end of primary fermentation just before bottling.

60 minute mash at 67ÃÂ°C (in 8 litres of water).
Dunk sparge in 4 litres of water at 75ÃÂ°C
70 minute boil (I start ith around 12-13litres of wort in my stockpot).
teaspoon of irish moss at 15 mins end of boil
US-05 yeast sachet ppitched at 20ÃÂ°C

Dump Coopers Draught can into FV and then dump the partial mash cooled wort down on top. Top up to 23 litres with chilled water - aiming for 20-23ÃÂ° pitching temp.

Starting Gravity 1044

Ferment at 19ÃÂ°C

Agreed. As a recent convert to grain brewing and with still a few kit cans of various quality in my stash I would be interested in some recipe ideas before I decide how I'm to proceed with the all grain, ie BIAB or down the 'three vessel route'.

HarrowBrewer · Aug 12, 2015

Canadian Blonde Amarillo Pale Ale

Maris Otter 1.5kg
Crystal Malt 80EBC 300g
Torrified Wheat 150g

Mashed in 7 litres of water at 68 degrees for 90 minutes
Batch sparged in 8 litres of water at 70 degrees.
Boiled for an hour
15g of Amarillo leaf added at 40 mins
15g Amarillo leaf added at 55 minutes
500g of light DME added, then mixed in the FV with a Coopers Canadian Blonde Kit.
Safale US-05 yeast.

Dry hopped after two weeks with 20g of Citra pellets and 15g of Amarillo leaf, bottled four days later.

I tried a taster last night, its only had two weeks in the bottle, but very promising, quite a hop hit. Citra a little dominant at the moment, but I expect that to fade after a bit. It came out at 6.5%, so it'll last a while!

Spapro · Aug 12, 2015

Cooper Stout Partial Mash

Not really a stout fan but decided to do this kit as it got such good reviews as a kit - did this without any hop additions which makes it a nice simple partial mash for anyone just starting out, figured the bittering in the kit itself must be pretty good due to the reviews.

Drinking this now and it is very, very good. Dark velvety loveliness and has turned me on to stouts in fact.

So here is my recipe:
Coopers Stout Kit - 1.7kg
2kg Pale Ale Malt
150g Pale Crystal Malt
100g Chocolate Malt
100g Porridge Oats (for head retention)

Mashed for 1 hour at 67ÃÂ°C in 8 litres of water.
Dunk sparged bagged grain in a seperate FV with 2 kettlefulls of boiled water to wash maximum sugars off.
1 hour boil.
1 tsp Irish moss added at 15 mins.
Cooled the 10 litres of post boil wort in an ice bath in the sink (took 25 minutes to get it down to 38ÃÂ°C)
Added to a FV plus the Coopers Stout Kit and topped up with 6 litres of fridge chilled water and some cold tap water to make 23litres @ 22ÃÂ°C. Pitched kit yeast at 22ÃÂ°C.
Starting Gravity was 1044 .

Here is a pic of the grains:

Hops_and_Dreams · Aug 12, 2015

Spapro said:
Given the number of members (me included) Clibit has converted to the dark side it would appear to make sense to have a thread with recipes for partial mashes all in one place.

I am drinking this one at the moment and it is superb:

Cascade Centennial American Pale Ale (IBU: 40, Colour is 7.3EBC)

Fermentables:
Coopers Draught kit (1.7kg can)
2kg of Pale Ale Malt Grains
235g of Carapils Malt Grains

Hops:
21IBU's gained from the cooper kit.
10g of Cascade leaf hops at 70 mins
20g of Cascade leaf hops at 15mins
20g of Cacade leaf hops at 5mins
50g of Centennial hop pellets - dry hopped for 4 days at the end of primary fermentation just before bottling.

60 minute mash at 67ÃÂ°C (in 8 litres of water).
Dunk sparge in 4 litres of water at 75ÃÂ°C
70 minute boil (I start ith around 12-13litres of wort in my stockpot).
teaspoon of irish moss at 15 mins end of boil
US-05 yeast sachet ppitched at 20ÃÂ°C

Dump Coopers Draught can into FV and then dump the partial mash cooled wort down on top. Top up to 23 litres with chilled water - aiming for 20-23ÃÂ° pitching temp.

Starting Gravity 1044

Ferment at 19ÃÂ°C

How long did you leave yours to condition? I made a partial mash with coopers APA and it's been in the bottle about 4 weeks and it's not great.

Spapro · Aug 13, 2015

Hops_and_Dreams said:
How long did you leave yours to condition? I made a partial mash with coopers APA and it's been in the bottle about 4 weeks and it's not great.

The Coopers kit I used for the basis of my American Pale Ale was the 'Draught' can, although I've used various coopers kits for partial mashes and all have ended up good.

I always give mine 3 weeks in FV, 2 weeks in the warm to carb up and then put away for 2-4 weeks before trying.

Worth leaving yours another 2-4 weeks as some of the rough edges will smooth out with a bit more time in the bottle

Hops_and_Dreams · Aug 13, 2015

Spapro said:
The Coopers kit I used for the basis of my American Pale Ale was the 'Draught' can, although I've used various ccoopers kits for partial mashes and all have ended up good.

I always give mine 3 weeks in FV, 2 weeks in the warm to carb up and then put away for 2-4 weeks before trying.

Worth leaving yours another 2-4 weeks as some of the rough edges will smooth out with a bit more time in the bottle

Cheers Spapro, it still tastes quite kit like at the moment, I will try to be more patient!

Slid · Aug 21, 2015

Spapro said:
Given the number of members (me included) Clibit has converted to the dark side it would appear to make sense to have a thread with recipes for partial mashes all in one place.

I am drinking this one at the moment and it is superb:

Cascade Centennial American Pale Ale (IBU: 40, Colour is 7.3EBC)

Fermentables:
Coopers Draught kit (1.7kg can)
2kg of Pale Ale Malt Grains
235g of Carapils Malt Grains

Hops:
21IBU's gained from the Coopers kit.
10g of Cascade leaf hops at 70 mins
20g of Cascade leaf hops at 15mins
20g of Cacade leaf hops at 5mins
50g of Centennial hop pellets - dry hopped for 4 days at the end of primary fermentation just before bottling.

60 minute mash at 67ÃÂ°C (in 8 litres of water).
Dunk sparge in 4 litres of water at 75ÃÂ°C
70 minute boil (I start ith around 12-13litres of wort in my stockpot).
teaspoon of irish moss at 15 mins end of boil
US-05 yeast sachet ppitched at 20ÃÂ°C

Dump Coopers Draught can into FV and then dump the partial mash cooled wort down on top. Top up to 23 litres with chilled water - aiming for 20-23ÃÂ° pitching temp.

Starting Gravity 1044

Ferment at 19ÃÂ°C

I am going to say that this is a "blueprint" for success on this way of brewing.

The recipe is sort of borrowed from the Greg Hughes book pp116-121.

My suggested tweaks are:

Having a 15L pot (actually 12.75L to the "line" that indicates a safe boiling volume) using slightly more more mash water and adding 2.5kg (say 2.3-2.7) grain in total to the pot - no bag involved yet.

Mashing in the oven at 50C (lowest setting).

Using an FV to drop the contents of the pot into the bag, lining the spare FV. You get maybe 7-8L at this stage.

Sparging in the original mashing pot, maybe 4L is enough.

Sometimes a second pan with a couple of litres makes the boil a bit quicker and enables you to top up the boil as it progresses.

Slid · Aug 21, 2015

As regards recipes:

Maris Otter only and 25g each of Fuggles and First Gold for flavour / aroma (Pale Ale).
MO and 200g each of Roast Barley and Chocolate Malt plus any bittering hop at the start of the boil (Stout Porter).
Different "Single Hops" on GH's recipe- I did Marynke, for example.
Mixing English hops for a very English IPA - Challenger, EKG, Northdown, Bramling Cross, Cascade, plus the F & FG as above (and many, many more!). The new varieties must be worth a punt.

The whole point is that the PM approach is very forgiving of experiments and will almost certainly give you drinkable and interesting beer. Using the brewing software will be very helpful and will help to keep you on the "straight and narrow", as it were. :hat:

HisDudeness · Aug 23, 2015

This is based on one of the most popular AG recipes on the beersmith website, it is very very nice and dangerously drinkable as my sore head this morning will attest to :drunk:

I originally made this with a youngs Harvest Pilsner can but should work well using a Coopers Lager kit, I have slightly adjusted the recipe accordingly as follows:

23L Batch

1.7kg Coopers Lager
0.95kg Munich Malt
0.95kg Wheat Malt
0.3kg CaraMunich II
0.2kg DME

Aim for about 10 IBU from Hop additions
20g Amarillo @ 15
Irish Moss @ 15
30g Amarillo @ 0
40g Amarillo @ 5 days dry hop (This is optional and is not in the original recipe)

Yeast US05

OG 1.046
FG 1.008
ABV 5%

Here is a link to my record of brewing this beer
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=54281

MyQul · Aug 23, 2015

Lovley looking pint. How long did you condition it for. Also why did you use DME instead of some more grain seem as though your were mashing anyway? Using up some left overs?

tollbeer · Oct 10, 2015

I have complete the coopers stouter stout recipe and it is coming in at 6.5% which is a bit over the top. A lovely stout but a 'wee heavy' feel to it.

Slid · Oct 17, 2015

A Coopers stout kit with 2.2kg of Maris Otter, 175g each of Roast Barley and Chocolate malt. 30g Northdown for bittering at 60 mins and 30g of Progress at 15 mins, just because I had opened them today for a dry hop on another brew (Wherry).

US 05 - last of the 11 starter bottles from a brew pitched on 31 May.

Brewday went well, but overshot the start of the rugby, due to lying in bed too long this morning.

baggybill · Oct 17, 2015

Slid said:
A Coopers stout kit with 2.2kg of Maris Otter, 175g each of Roast Barley and Chocolate malt. 30g Northdown for bittering at 60 mins and 30g of Progress at 15 mins, just because I had opened them today for a dry hop on another brew (Wherry).

US 05 - last of the 11 starter bottles from a brew pitched on 31 May.

Brewday went well, but overshot the start of the rugby, due to lying in bed too long this morning.

Nice, I have a Coopers Stout in hand and plenty grain so may try this too. Seem to be heavy on Stout stock atm (about to bottle 22L of Black Sabbath) so could be a while!

Did you do a PM with the Wherry? Or split the tins etc.? Also have this on hand...

Slid · Oct 18, 2015

baggybill said:
Nice, I have a Coopers Stout in hand and plenty grain so may try this too. Seem to be heavy on Stout stock atm (about to bottle 22L of Black Sabbath) so could be a while!

Did you do a PM with the Wherry? Or split the tins etc.? Also have this on hand...

I did two PM brews with a 2 can kit and a grain bill of 1.5kg to 2kg. The kits were Wilko beer kits (Golden and Real). These were when I was basically getting used to the "brewing with grain" thing, and both were brewed to 6 gallons rather than 5.

Now, I would use more grain and less extract. A grain bill with 2.5 - 2.7kg is perfectly manageable with a 15L pot and can be cooled down in a sink. This, with a 1.5kg can from a Wherry kit is going to give you good beer for sure. Maybe not the best, but good. The Irish Moss protafloc thingy at 15 mins makes a huge difference to clarity as well (to be sure!).

HarrowBrewer · Dec 17, 2015

Coopers Draught Partial Mash
Just cracked open one of these and I'm very pleased. Lots of nice hop flavours at the moment although it needs another week cold conditioning.

2.5kg Maris Otter
300g Crystal
150g Torrified Wheat

Mashed in 7 litres at 67 degrees
Batch sparged in 8 litres.

10g Simcoe at boil
15g Nelson Sauvin at 50 minutes

Made up to 20 litres in the FV with the can of Coopers Draught.
Safale S-05 yeast
OG 1065

Dry hopped after 10 days with :
10g Cascade
10g Citra
10g Hull Melon

Bottled 5 days later, batch primed with 85g of sugar and added a 1 litre hop tea of 5g Cascade, 10g Hull Melon, 5g Citra.

Coopers kit tweaks/mini mashes

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