coopers kits with enhancers

[stephent]

I have been mainly brewing coopers kits with sugar and brewing sugar. Going to try the enhancer with the next kit. How has everyone else got on with them? has it made much of a difference in taste?

 

[Grumpy Jack]

I've had good results with spray malt, my latest brew is a Coopers English Bitter with Beer Enhancer... not tried it yet but it had very good aroma and colour, though the alcohol was a little low for my usual tastes so I'm not certain if the sugars were fully used up... they do recommend using it and in my experience, so far..., finding some wood to touch quickly..., Coopers have been bang on the money every time!

 

[abeyptfc]

I've done a good few of the coopers kits, to be honest I've not noticed a difference between the kits with normal sugar or the brew enhancer, because of that I've bought myself some light hopped spraymalt and am giving the tom caxton kits a try to see if they are any better.I bottled my tom caxton real ale at the weekend, that was with normal sugar, I made up the tom caxton lager at the weekend aswell with the spraymalt so we'll see what happens.

 

[philip5660]

I'm going to try their strawberry blonde recipe with be1. Although I have no clue where to buy strawberry clover honey. I'll just use something else

 

[Bribie]

I don't know what Coopers brew enhancers would cost in the UK but I expect they are pretty savage, and you could make your own up for far less cost.
The BE1 is Dextrose (glucose) plus maltodextrin (also called corn sugar in the USA I believe)
The BE2 is Spray malt, Glucose and maltodextrin

In my kits days I used to use BE2 plus an extra half kilo of dextrose for a lighter style such as Lager, or an extra half kilo of spray malt for a darker brew such as their Real Ale. Definitely lifted the kit compared to plain sugaz. However a better yeast such as US-05 or even S-23 lifted them even more.

Off topic but it's not widely realised that S-23 can be run at 19 degrees and still give good results, sounds like heresy but I know of at least one commercial that does it all the time, plus a good two week cold crash near freezing to polish up the beer afterwards.

 

[norlettdriver]

I made up a Coopers Stout a few months back, I used their beer enhancer and it was spot on, I would strongly recommend it.

 

[Grumpy Jack]

Ditto. My Coopers English Bitter is cracking, bang on the money and on that form, I'd use the enhancer again... interesting comments from Bribie though. :thumb: