Coopers Wheat Beer Review

[shaunmcm]

Looking for a bit of advice on storage of this one
Bottled the brew and it went into the airing cupboard at a temperature of 22-23 degrees for 2 weeks
Have now put the bottles in the beer fridge on its lowest setting - so thats probably about 8 - 10 degrees. They have been in there for 2 weeks, and sampled one last week and it was good.
How do I store these from now? I've read that 12 - 14 degrees may be best but I don't have anywhere at that temperature. Its either in the house at about 20 or the fridge. Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[dad_of_jon]

Looking for a bit of advice on storage of this one
Bottled the brew and it went into the airing cupboard at a temperature of 22-23 degrees for 2 weeks
Have now put the bottles in the beer fridge on its lowest setting - so thats probably about 8 - 10 degrees. They have been in there for 2 weeks, and sampled one last week and it was good.
How do I store these from now? I've read that 12 - 14 degrees may be best but I don't have anywhere at that temperature. Its either in the house at about 20 or the fridge. Thanks in advance for the advice.

well the erdinger,fransikaner & weihenstephener in adsa,tesco et al sit on the shelves at around 20 or in majestic, for how long is hard to know but doesn't seem to harm them keep out of direct sunlight and in brown bottles. I've not stored my wheat's for a long time at either of your temps. down the shed at 12-22 dependant on the British weather.

 

[AndyTraill]

Put on another one of these tonight though this time with ~500g of wheat spray malt, 150g of sugar and... White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale Yeast (did a starter for the first time).

Quite hopeful for this. The starter definitely had something similar to the franziskaner smell to it. Completely different to the kit yeast. I've kept a bit of it back to hopefully produce another batch out of the same vial.

 

[shaunmcm]

Have sampled a few and I think that they are too sweet. You can definitely get the impression its a wheat beer (used the recommended yeast rather than the one supplied), though lacks the body of the real stuff. Have just come back from Munich/Austria so have sampled more than a few draugth wheat beers.
I used 450g brewers sugar as well as the wheat spray malt. Maybe too much sugar?

 

[DrewRev]

Hi there.

I brewed up a honey wheat beer a few months ago using this kit, and I was pretty happy with the results, it all went quickly as well!

Recipe;
1 x Coopers Brewmaster Wheat Beer Kit
300 - 500g Orange Blossom Honey
500g - Muntons Wheat Spraymalt
11.5g - WB06 Dried Wheat Beer Yeast
20g Pacifica Hops

I made a hop tea, boiling 10g of hops and the spray malt in about 3 litres of water.
After 15 minutes I added the other 10g of hops and boiled for a further 5 minutes.
After turning the fire off, I added the honey.
This mixture was put into the FV, and mixed with the kit.
I topped up to 20 litres with cold water, bringing the temperature down to about 24 degrees celcius.
OG = 1.038
After pitching the yeast, I left in the FV for two weeks at around 25 degrees celcius, in an attempt to create a stronger, banana-esque yeast flavour.

The brew was primed with 200g of granulated sugar and bottled up.

I left them bottled in about 23 degrees for just under two weeks, and then stored them in a pub cellar at around 12 degrees for another week or so.

The end result was surprisingly good, the beer had a nice creamy white head, that stayed for most of the glass, but was as others have said clear, until adding the yeast from the bottom of the bottle.

It tasted good, although the taste of the honey wasn't very apparent, it did make the beer quite dry though, and not at all sweet.

 

[gordy]

hi I put this kit on today using 1 Kilo of brew enhancer which gave a sg of 1.040 temp of 23.7 as being almost brand new 3 months [kit 6] is this about normal reading or do i need more sugars ta.
Gordy

 

[AndyTraill]

Have sampled a few and I think that they are too sweet. You can definitely get the impression its a wheat beer (used the recommended yeast rather than the one supplied), though lacks the body of the real stuff. Have just come back from Munich/Austria so have sampled more than a few draugth wheat beers.
I used 450g brewers sugar as well as the wheat spray malt. Maybe too much sugar?

Trying mine just now and seriously is very, very nice. Think like you say the key is to keep the sugar a bit lower. Ok bit less booze but taste better.

 

[crgrob]

Trying this for the second time round. First time (& first ever brew) I used:
Coopers wheat kit
500g Spraymalt light dry malt extract (LDME)
300g of beer enhancer#1
Kit yeast.

Was very happy with it after conditioning for 3-4 weeks. Very cloudy, great taste not much in the way of head retention but I did accidentally make it to 24lt. My temperature control was....well not very controlled. It was at about 18 degrees for the most part.

For the second batch I have just ordered the kit, 500g of wheat dry malt extract, WB06 yeast. I was planning to use 350-400g of leftover dextrose (beer enhancer#1) but reading the post would it be better to replace the dextrose with 500g Light dry malt extract or Wheat dry malt extract?

 

[mereside]

I have just finished this kit with
300g Crushed Crystal Malt
100g Crushed Wheat Malt
As another poster on this thread it has turned out nice although I used the kit yeast which is definitely not like a wheat beer but pleasent, I have decided to give it a dry hopping to lift the brew, I know it's not going to be like a wheat but hopefully will give it a boost going with perle for a nice note, I have an AG wheat ready to bottle so going to be interesting for my guests to taste back to back, Atb Wayne

 

[H0PM0NSTER]

Here's the recipe I used which was based on various forum threads here:
1 x coopers wheat beer kit
1 kg Muntons wheat dried spray malt
40g orange zest (grated peel of 5-6 Seville oranges)
25g coriander seeds (lightly crushed)
Safbrew t-58 yeast (this is Belgium style yeast which is more spicy/ peppery rather than banana flavours).

I boiled up 2ltrs of water and added the orange zest and coriander seeds, then used this to dissolve the spray malt before adding to the kit in the FV. I've not ever brewed the kit using the standard instructions so can't really say how much my additions changed it, but it turned out really well - very much like hoegaarden. If I would do anything differently it would be to perhaps add more coriander seeds - I could smell them on brew day, but the taste is very subtle from the bottle.

Remember to blanch your oranges in boiling water and dry them with paper towel before grating the zest off them. This helps remove the wax off the peel - I found it impossible to find unwaxed oranges.

 

[Rafael]

Hi all, this is my first post on this forum and I'm completely new to brewing beer, so please bear with me if I say something silly :)

I've purchased a Coopers DIY beer kit and my first brew will be Coopers Wheat Beer. After reading this thread back and fourth a few times, I still have a few open questions in my mind... By the way, thanks for the excellent information already provided here!

The recipe I'll be following is slightly different from the standard, I've picked a few ideas from the discussion thread, I like my wheat beer Hoegaarden style so I reckon the below will help towards this goal:

*Beer extract (the thing that comes in the tin, called "wort" I guess?!)
*WB-06 yeast instead of kit supplied yeast
*1Kg of Muntons Foil Pack Spraymalt Wheat instead of sugar
*toasted coriander seeds (to be added to the fv)
*dry orange peel (to be added to the fv)

Now the open questions:
1 - Do I need any other ingredients in the fv, for example sugar?
2 - Will the spraymalt substitute the sugar altogether?
3 - Do I need to prime the bottles even with the extra added spraymalt?
4 - If yes, shall I add 1 or 2 Coopers Carbonation Drops to each 500ML bottle?


Thanks in advance!
Rafael

 

[Covrich]

Sounds like you're going for some kind of Hefe / Witbier, your additions sound nice

1) not if you're happy with the strenght that your tin plus 1kg of malt extract will give you.. I am guessing it will be about 4.7% when done..
2) Yes, you can of course like I said above add a little bit of sugar if you want to boost the ABV, personally the more malt you put in and the less sugar the better
3) Yes, you prime seperately after fermentation is finished, try to leave your beer in the primary fermenter for at least 2 weeks is general good advice
4) I don't use carbonation drops so I do not know.. I batch prime and would for that style add about 5-6 grams per liter

 

[Rafael]

Sounds like you're going for some kind of Hefe / Witbier, your additions sound nice

1) not if you're happy with the strenght that your tin plus 1kg of malt extract will give you.. I am guessing it will be about 4.7% when done..
2) Yes, you can of course like I said above add a little bit of sugar if you want to boost the ABV, personally the more malt you put in and the less sugar the better
3) Yes, you prime seperately after fermentation is finished, try to leave your beer in the primary fermenter for at least 2 weeks is general good advice
4) I don't use carbonation drops so I do not know.. I batch prime and would for that style add about 5-6 grams per liter

Many thanks for the prompt advice! One extra question --> Are there any risks in adding the coriander seeds and orange peels to the fv? Could it spoil the brew somehow? My intention is to boil both ingredients first and then mix it in.

 

[Covrich]

Many thanks for the prompt advice! One extra question --> Are there any risks in adding the coriander seeds and orange peels to the fv? Could it spoil the brew somehow? My intention is to boil both ingredients first and then mix it in.

Not sure, I would boil them to be honest. or Even heat them up to pasturise them, I only made my first witbier at the weekend and these went into the boil for the last 5 minutes (this was all grain so it was a full boil not a kit) but would have been strained out after chilling.

 

[cornyandy]

I'd go with Covrich show them some heat to sterilise the orange peel and spices but for no more than a couple of minutes I wouldn't want to overcook them and drive off the flavours

 

[Rafael]

Just to ensure I got it right, shall I heat both ingredients (orange peel+coriander) for a couple of minutes to pasteurize them, strain and add the liquid to the main mix in the fv? Would a couple of litres of water do the job?

 

[IainM]

Hi Raphael,
Yours sounds very close to what I did, which was Coopers Wheat with 1kg wheat spraymalt, Brewferm Blanche yeast, amber candi, crushed coriander seed and dried Curacao orange peel. After searching around I decided to simmer 25-30g each of the coriander and orange for 5mins in a muslin in about 4l of water, then left it to cool for 20 mins, stiring it occasionally like a tea bag. I then removed the muslin and used the lovely orange spiced water in the brew. I'm drinking it now and it is very nice. The flavors are subtle, but this is a good thing. Generally, with spices in beer, the idea is to enhance the flavor without being immediately discernable.

 

[Rafael]

Sounds excellent, many thanks for the feedback!

 

[Rafael]

Day 1 and 2 pictures, does it look alright?! The colour changed a lot from first to second day... Is ok to open the FV to have a quick look inside on a daily basis?

 

[IainM]

Looks good. Although its tempting, its best to take the lid off as little as possible.