Moving on from Coopers kits

[gredawarha]

Hello all

I have just bottled my fourth Coopers kit.

Kit one Australian came out surprisingly good.
Kit two Canadian came out sweet with very little carbonation, drinkable but not great.
Kit three Mexican tastes good although perhaps a little over carbonated.
Kit four Australian is currently conditioning.

I would love to really expand my brewing but I am limited as I dont have a garage or other area to "expand" into. The wife is just about happy with a vat in the corner of the kitchen and a cupboard full of conditioning/stored bottles

So my question is untill we upsize the house what can I do with my kit to either get better result and/or different results bearing in mind I dont have space. I have thought about doing the European lager but as this appears to use a tru lager yeast I think I will struggle with temperature control.

Appreciate any comments.

 

[donny_1972]

Move onto the two can kits, thats what I have done.

 

[doghouse gav]

Ive just made a coopers lager and added lemon and lime to it for a couple of days. Tried my first bottle last night and in impressed! Can't wait to finish work and try a few more!!

 

[StubbsPKS]

Two can kits are the next step. After that, if you can manage to get away with one more container, you could do Brew In a Bag which is an AG that doesn't require a mash tun as you mash in a bag in your boiler.

 

[gredawarha]

Thanks for the help, can anyone recommend a two can kit? Just to add I'm a lager drinker.

 

[StubbsPKS]

Hmm, only two can kits I've done are Wherry bitter and the Milestone Raspberry Wheat.

The Raspberry Wheat came out really nice and it closer to a lager than the bitter... Others may come along with suggestions closer to a lager though :thumb:

 

[seanipops]

You could always tweak the Coopers kits. Buy some Saaz hops and make a hopped tea for one of the lagers.

The Aussie Pale ale is pretty good too, slightly maltier than a lager.

I'd definitely recommend the Brewferm Pils and Gold kits too although I would do them with a lager yeast and lager them for 28 days (for which you would require a brewing fridge or winter)

Nunfa1 did the Brupaks Special Lager which iirc didn't need fermenting at a low temp and was lovely. Ale wise you could do Great Eastern (Woodforde's) or Linthwaite Light /Fixby Gold (Brupaks).


Hope this helps
Sean

 

[luckyeddie]

The Woodfordes 2-can kits are very good (Wherry, Nog, Nelson's Revenge) if you fancy ales for a change. Also, as has been said, the Brewferm kits are absolute quality but many of them are very strong.

They do an excellent Pils and 'Gold' is the stronger pils-style beer, but it's when you move up the range to the 'speciality' type beers that I reckon they come into their own.

Diabolo is a nice gentle introduction - it's styled fairly closely on Duvel which is one of the great world beers. Also worth considering is Tripel and Grand Cru. It's also worth considering doing the Christmas Ale. If you start it off now, it will be utterly wonderful by the time Santa arrives.

 

[GazOC]

I started homebrewing on the Coopers kits about 18 months ago, went to a few 2 can kits and am now back on the Coppers but tweaking them with added hops and malts etc. I wasn't that impressed with the 2 can kits I did, they were OK but not the big step up from the 1 can kits that I'd expected.

 

[gredawarha]

Just found a website that I found interesting and thought I would share it with you guys:

http://webspace.webring.com/people/ms/sirleslie/

 

[gredawarha]

Hello

Brewed the bavarian pilsner as per the recipe in the previous post. Reduced the amount of hops to 12g as I am using pellets and the advice is to use less when using pellets.

I shall report back when tasting begins!

:

 

[degsie73]

I started homebrewing on the Coopers kits about 18 months ago, went to a few 2 can kits and am now back on the Coppers but tweaking them with added hops and malts etc. I wasn't that impressed with the 2 can kits I did, they were OK but not the big step up from the 1 can kits that I'd expected.

+1 for that!
Haven't done a lot of two can kits but the ones I did were pretty dissapointing (and always stuck whilst fermenting)
Have had alot more success with coopers kits and tinkering with them. Try the sparkling ale or APA with added
spray malt and a hop tea - very lager like with plenty of life in but more flavour like an ale!