Recommend me a nice next brew kit

[lagerlout]

Ok I'm a bit boring and predictable when it comes to what i drink - pretty much just lager, so my first 2 home brew kits were the coopers lager and mexican cerveza. The cerveza is in the FV now and im looking to buy something a little different for my next brew, so as a relative beer/ale novice I'm looking for suggestions.

I'm not really a fan of the darker ales or stout but am tempted to try something along the lines of the australian pale ale, coopers draught or canadiian blonde (which looks like it may be another lager). The pale ale certainly seems a favourite here, as a lager drinker am i likely to enjoy it? Bearing in mind i'll have 40 pints to get through!

Thanks :

 

[calumscott]

As it goes I'm just supping the first properly ready bottle of Coopers IPA. Its pretty damn good I reckon! Its really quite dry with a lovely bitter note.

It says on the tin to brew it with a mix of light spraymalt and dextrose - I would recommend following that!

Will you enjoy it as a lager drinker? So long as you are up for challenging your pallette I'm sure you will... :)

Sliante!

 

[Wolverine]

Brewers choice ipa is very nice with some honey thrown n for extra kick it comes with hop and grain tea bags to make you feel like your really brewing : )

 

[equiliser]

Hi Lagerlout,

In the lagers i would recommend coopers European lager that i dare say is the best brew i have done so far and that was just with bog standard 1kg silverspoon sugar
However i would recommend any of the Thomas coopers premium range including the pilsner and the IPA ...both are single can kits.

However you could always try a two can premium kit....not only do these taste a lot better but they are easier to make due to not having to add any sugars. they are a little more expensive (around 22-26) UK pounds but find that these kits really do make up for the extra price in the taste ....some even come with little tea bags with hops in to make a hop tea.
Check out the woodfordes range as they get a great review on here and I'm busy brewing the woodfordes Nog & wherry.

Thanks

Dave

 

[shocker]

You may want to try some of the kits that come out at lower lengths ,ie less litres....more quality but less to have to struggle through .You poor thing ,having to drink all that beer - the world is a hard place :grin: :

 

[shocker]

Heres a couple of ranges from the sponsors to choose from that have fewer L's to have to suffer through...

http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk/ind ... Path=1_189

http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk/ind ... cPath=1_10

theres plenty of others that give you the option to brew the kit with no additions to a certain length or add sugars etc to a larger count . Theres quite a few styles to choose from in those ranges so you should be able to find something a little different but not SO different that its outside your personal preference .

Let us know what you decide ! :

 

[mhewitson]

A coopers Wheat beer is a very nice pint after a little while to condition. I gave it two weeks in bottle before i started drinking it and it just gets better every time i have one.

The canadian blonde is also a very decent pint, i have it in a keg just now and must have less than 10 pints left.

 

[lagerlout]

Thanks for all the suggestions, there really are so many to choose from it's difficult to make a decision I'm leaning towards a pale ale at the moment, since i'll hopefully be giving some brew away for christmas gifts and there are some relatives etc who would prefer that to lager. I suspect i'll be given a couple of kits as gifts myself so i'll get through them all eventually!

As I only got into brewing a couple of weeks ago it has been been an expensive hobby so far building up equipment/bottles etc, tho this will calm down once ive got enough to keep rotating brews. I think maybe one more batch of bottles this week then i'll wait till after christmas.

 

[shearclass]

Brupaks - Fixby Gold or Brupaks - Birkby Bitter are both great light ales.

 

[RobWalker]

Pale Ales are good indeed and because you're at home, you can carbonate them. alternatively you could add some hops to a lager/light ale kit to learn a bit about extract brewing and come out with a slightly ale but mostly lager on top!

 

[Wolverine]

Thanks for all the suggestions, there really are so many to choose from it's difficult to make a decision I'm leaning towards a pale ale at the moment, since i'll hopefully be giving some brew away for christmas gifts and there are some relatives etc who would prefer that to lager. I suspect i'll be given a couple of kits as gifts myself so i'll get through them all eventually!

As I only got into brewing a couple of weeks ago it has been been an expensive hobby so far building up equipment/bottles etc, tho this will calm down once ive got enough to keep rotating brews. I think maybe one more batch of bottles this week then i'll wait till after christmas.

Why are you buying bottles ?
Get down the pub and scrounge the old cider bottles !
It's free and you get to go to the pub : )

 

[lagerlout]

I plan to do this once my first couple of brews are out of the way, i like the clear bottles just now so I can see whats going on with the beer. But will buy a capper and get my local to keep bottles aside for me :thumb:

 

[RobWalker]

Thanks for all the suggestions, there really are so many to choose from it's difficult to make a decision I'm leaning towards a pale ale at the moment, since i'll hopefully be giving some brew away for christmas gifts and there are some relatives etc who would prefer that to lager. I suspect i'll be given a couple of kits as gifts myself so i'll get through them all eventually!

As I only got into brewing a couple of weeks ago it has been been an expensive hobby so far building up equipment/bottles etc, tho this will calm down once ive got enough to keep rotating brews. I think maybe one more batch of bottles this week then i'll wait till after christmas.

Why are you buying bottles ?
Get down the pub and scrounge the old cider bottles !
It's free and you get to go to the pub : )

just a heads up, if you do get bottles from pubs etc, you'll need to keep them inside this time of year as the ice can fracture them slightly. add a little pressure and watch the glass/beer fly.

i think my collection has rendered itself useless tonight.

 

[Duncs]

I'm leaning towards a pale ale

As a lager drinker myself, I can recommend the Coopers Australian Pale Ale, it's ready in a little over 3 weeks and very drinkable, even my mate who is a :sick: Fosters :sick: drinker enjoyed a pint of it

 

[lagerlout]

I'm about to order the APA :thumb:

My first brew, the coopers lager, has been carbonating in bottles for a week and is now being moved to a cool dark place under the stairs, i must say its already looking quite tempting! Nice and clear anyway and the bottles feel gassed up.

 

[shocker]

Thats cleared well with little sediment - did you rest it in a secondary ? Or add extra priming yeast ? Interested to know as I have to do a couple of coopers kits for a friend....and that looks most encouraging . Good work ! :thumb:

 

[lagerlout]

It was bottled straight from the primary FV after 5 days. I used an aquarium heater (in the FV fixed to the bottom) to keep it at 24C, after 4 days it had reached a gravity of 1.006, so after reading the same on day 5 i bottled it. I used coopers carbonation drops, 1½ per bottle. There is literally 1mm of sediment gathered in the 'feet' of the bottle so very little, much less than i was expecting.

Gonna try one next weekend which will be 16 days conditioning, then try and be patient and give them more time :

 

[shocker]

Did you use the yeast pack that came with the kit ? I am quite impressed , I must say :

 

[lagerlout]

Yep, used the supplied yeast sachet.

Hopefully will be bottling the cerveza tomorrow :party: