Coopers IPA

[el gringo]

Hi All, Just kegged my Coopers IPA,

I made it to 23l with a full kilo of DME as suggested above, 500g light and 500d hopped light and gave it 13days in the FV. Also seeing as my first brew (wherry) was the best one so far and the only thing i did differently was use spring water, i've gone back to this for the IPA to give it the best chance.

One thing that struck me is there wasn't much aroma to it even with the hopped spray malt, smelt very citrusy and the little taster i had was very nothingy with a bitter note right at the end.

Started around 1044-45 and ended 1003-4, does this sound about right, temp was a steady 23-24oC.

I probably should have dry hopped or made a hop tea but i'm only just getting into this so i didn't want to deviate from the plan too much.

Also, and its the same question i had when i did a Coopers Cerveza, the instructions say to prime at a rate or 8g per litre which would work out at 184g which seems a bit much to me. I can understand for a fizz one like the Cerveza but an IPA? I know conventional wisdom dictates 85-90g for an Ale. I pitched it somewhere in between at 135g. What do you reckon?

It's now gone back to the warm for a week,

Cheers

Chris

 

[31bb3]

Never done a coopers kit but the gravity is more than likely done you have done well to get it to drop that low

 

[Rwilts]

Best kit I have done. Still in mourning now it's all drunk

 

[PD]

I think 6-8gms of priming sugar to each litre is about right...I use 500ml bottles and most get a half cooks tsp which is 3 gms.
I sometimes play a game of Russian Roulette and put 6-8 gms in one 500ml bottle..... round and round she goes and nobody knows..... :party:

 

[el gringo]

Cheers guys,

Well whatever i did it worked, too well.........

Had a check of the keg in the airing cupboard when i got hom and found it damp round the bottom and the keg had massive ammounts of pressure.

I don't think it's split the barrel but it didn't look like it was coming from the tap either, released a bit of pressure so will check later.

This is exactley the same problem i had with my first brew, massive over pressure not being released by the CO2 cap which caused my first cheapy barrel to split on the seam.

Hopefully i've caught it in time.

Getting a tad p**sed off with this home brewing lark - every single time i've done everything as well as i possibly can and it's still gone wrong.

 

[LeedsBrewer]

Stick with it mate, it can be very frustrating when it goes wrong, it can also be very rewarding when it goes right :drink: :thumb:

 

[el gringo]

Cheers Chap,

Hopefully disaster averted, check last night and it doesn't appear (fingers crossed) to be leaking anywhere, still got a good pressure build up, certainly more than was left in it after i vented some of it.

I'm thinking it might have been a bit much all in one go, i made the priming sugar up with warm water and then put it straight back in the airing cupboard with the boiler flat out at the time, might just have been too warm maybe?

As i say fingers crossed.

 

[mak]

You can definately have it too warm mate.

You want about 20 degrees really, so choose a room in the house and if not heated all day just wrap up in a blanket for 5 days or so. Don't put next to a radiator! Good luck!

 

[lovelldr]

Other thing, pressure barrels can only handle a certain amount of pressure... If it's one of those cheaper pressure barrels, they can only really handle about 90g sugar. If king kegs, they can handle approx 110g max sugar...

 

[mak]

Yeah.. you can also get a release valve for the top, which will prevent explosions in the future :)