My Australian Monster

[Random Badger]

Like Doctor Frankenstein I am seeking to combine and reanimate the dead!

I've posted previously that I came into possession of an out of date Coopers Australian Lager kit and was pondering what to do with it. I found some information from someone who has tried brewing old kits and reported that they are still OK to use (in my case the can itself looked in good condition) but fermentation may take longer and have a higher finishing gravity. Using it to bulk up another beer seems a safer bet than fermenting it on it's own (doubtless things like hop flavour will have diminished over time) so I decided to go with an Australian theme and last night I brewed up:

Morgan's 40 Pint Australian Bitter 1.7KG
Coopers 40 Pint Australian Lager (out of date) 1.7KG
800g Dextrose
Brew length 21.5 Litres

The gravity reading was 1064. Depending on how far down it does ferment I can imagine the ABV landing somewhere between 5.5% and 7%. Pitched the yeast last night and today it's vigorously bubbling away.

Will it be a hideous monstrosity or a full bodied taste sensation? Presuming it doesn't climb out of the fermenter and murder its creator, I will post updates.

 

[DocAnna]

There is a Coopers Spreadsheet with combined kits - I used to use it for modifying kits, all the hyperlinks go to the Coopers Australian site which sadly you will need a VPN to access as it blocks IP Addresses not from Australia. however it does give most of the information on the spreadsheet. I'm not the author of the spreadsheet, Seamus O'Sean on the Coopers site updates it regularly, but again you'd need a VPN to access it and register on the forum.

It doesn't list an Australian Bitter as kits since it only covers Coopers kits. However, there is a Bitter with light DME recipe for Battleship bitter which would in principe be similar though does have some hops added. It's actually one of the combined kits I made a few years ago and it was rather lovely though a wee bit of a kit twang at the time but I think that was my inexperience in temperature control. The principle of combining a bitter and a lager kit looks fine - the lager would seem v likely to be very lightly bittered and so work like Light LME.

I'm not sure if this is permitted but I've attached the spreadsheet from May 2021 here for UK viewing, though clearly I take none of the credit for the hard work with this.

Anna

 

[Random Badger]

There is a Coopers Spreadsheet with combined kits - I used to use it for modifying kits, all the hyperlinks go to the Coopers Australian site which sadly you will need a VPN to access as it blocks IP Addresses not from Australia. however it does give most of the information on the spreadsheet. I'm not the author of the spreadsheet, Seamus O'Sean on the Coopers site updates it regularly, but again you'd need a VPN to access it and register on the forum.

It doesn't list an Australian Bitter as kits since it only covers Coopers kits. However, there is a Bitter with light DME recipe for Battleship bitter which would in principe be similar though does have some hops added. It's actually one of the combined kits I made a few years ago and it was rather lovely though a wee bit of a kit twang at the time but I think that was my inexperience in temperature control. The principle of combining a bitter and a lager kit looks fine - the lager would seem v likely to be very lightly bittered and so work like Light LME.

I'm not sure if this is permitted but I've attached the spreadsheet from May 2021 here for UK viewing, though clearly I take none of the credit for the hard work with this.

Anna

Thank you Anna. As I understand it the Morgan's Australian Bitter kit does produce a fairly bitter beer so as you say hopefully they will go well together. I believe the Coopers Australian Lager kit comes with an ale yeast anyway (obviously didn't use it as it's unlikely that the old yeast will still be any good) so aside from any issues relating to the age of the Coopers kit, they should ferment out nicely together.

 

[Random Badger]

It seems to have stopped trying to climb out of the fermenter and is now bubbling away in a more controlled fashion. I've also got a Youngs American IPA on the go and the room smells great!

 

[Random Badger]

A week in and the airlock is producing hearty bubbling every five seconds. Whatever comes out at the end will certainly contain some alcohol.

 

[Random Badger]

Airlock bubbling seems to have almost stopped so took a reading and it's down to 1016 from 1064, so a cheeky 6.3% ABV. Colour is currently a very murky dark orange and from the fermenter it certainly has plenty of malt flavour - I might well have taken it to be some sort of stout in a blind tasting. Think I'll give it another couple of days before bottling to make sure it really has finished.

 

[Random Badger]

Three days on from the reading of 1016 it is now 1014, so I'm thinking the fermentation is reaching the end. Although still murky it is definitely a bit clearer in the sample tube than last time. The ABV should be around 6.6% and the taste is still very malty. I'm thinking that it wouldn't hurt to maybe thin it it down a tad by adding a litre of water to the fermenter now and then bottle it in a few days time.

 

[Random Badger]

Bottled this today. Now getting quite clear and revealing what looks to be a lovely deep red colour. I suspect this is a beer that will benefit from some time to mature, so as well as PET bottles I filled a dozen glass 500ml bottles with the intention of keeping them for autumn/winter. We'll see how that works out!

 

[scomet]

Toucan Wombat Special Bitter, she’ll be a bloody little ripper mate…

 

[An Ankoù]

I've got a Woodford's Wherry kit hidden away and I keep forgetting about it. Just going to check the expiry date.

Best Before July, 2016. Well that's what they say, but they've clearly not hear of pre-conditioning your beer!

Well it can stay there until I'm too old and feeble to lift sacks of malt. It should be nicely ripe by then.

I think I got it on a special offer in Wilkins and thought it would make a good medium for yeast cultures and then forgot all about it.

 

[Random Badger]

Still a while before I give it a taste, but the beer is now crystal clear in bottle and the colour is beautiful. I just hope some bitterness comes through to balance out the strong malt flavour it had at bottling.

Also, I'm now fully aware that Toucan brewing is a thing and have ordered some Morgans kits with which I will be doing some more dabbling in this field.

 

[scomet]

Toucan brewing is great fun, I made some great ToucanBeers before I went all grain, Cheers....

 

[Random Badger]

Thought I would give a bottle of the Australian Monster an early assessment.

Crystal clear with a nice deep red colour
Not much on the nose
Initial flavour hit malty/toffee/caramel
Once you get past this it's quite fruity with a bitter finish that seems to build up as you get further down the glass.
Overall the beer it puts me most in mind of is Otter Head, although admittedly with all the lockdown shenanigans it was sometime back in 2019 that I last drank one.
The buzz afterwards suggests that it is fully as strong (about 6.5%) as the starting and finishing gravity readings indicated.

There is certainly a lot going on flavour wise, although at the moment I'm not sure that I like all of it. Will be interesting to see how it matures.

 

[Random Badger]

Decided to knock out another Australian Toucan, not least to use some damaged cans that I received from Brew2Bottle as I don't think they should be kept hanging around.

Morgans Dockside Stout 1.7KG
Morgans Ironbark Dark Ale 1.7KG
1KG Brewing sugar
23 Litres brew length
1 sachet Coopers yeast
1 sachet Morgans yeast
Pitched at 22C
OG 1058

Used the two different yeasts based on a suggestion from Pirate_Pete

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

you should change your name to Doctor FrankenBrewer!

 

[Random Badger]

you should change your name to Doctor FrankenBrewer!

 

[Random Badger]

AM2 (Morgans Dockside Stout & Morgans Ironbark Dark Ale) has got off to a hearty start by climbing out through the airlock and over the fermenter, requiring a clean up and replacement airlock today.

 

[Random Badger]

Had some fun with the AM2. Yesterday morning the airlock was bubbling away but in the evening there was no activity. Today there was not a bubble to be seen, no matter how hard I stared at it, so I decided to check the gravity. When I opened the tap for a sample it came out under pressure and extremely gassy - my sample tube was mostly froth and had to be left to settle and then carefully topped up to get enough liquid. Reading was 1016 so it's come a long from starting at 1058 on Saturday - already up to 5.5% ABV. The good news is that whatever was causing the pressure build up/airlock blockage seems to have gone away (perhaps because I drew off some beer) as the airlock is now bubbling away in a normal manner again.

Is it possible to get an airlock in your airlock???

 

[Random Badger]

The AM2 was reading 1014 a few days ago and I thought it was done and intended to bottle it today as this is two weeks in the fermenter. However, on taking another reading it's now down to 1012, so I think I'll give it another day or two then test it again to be sure it really has finished. Currently up to a solid 6% ABV and tasting quite promising in a smooth, roast malt sort of way with plenty of body.