Coopers Dark Ale & Australian Lager.

[aarsims]

Buying a dark ale and lager kit by coopers. Now i was thinking about making the dark ale up to ditch's stout recipe as Ive made the stout recently and I prefer a dark ale. Anyone tried this with good results?

Also for the lager I was thinking of either adding a Kilo of light malt extract (might make it too dark and malty? non standard lager like? or Muntons beer kit enhancer? As its half brewing sugar I guess it will be more like a standard lager such as Fosters? Mad idea trying to make a "Fosters" type beer i know, but its the only way I'm gona introduce my mates to home brewing!

[brewskis]

hi I can't speak for the dark ale but reference your lager a brew enhancer might be your best bet the malt extract can darken your beer a little darker and make it non lager looking if your worried about your friends, it will taste fine still either way most lager kits come with an ale yeast mind so your beer will look like a lager but in truth might be closer to a pale ale or blonde beer in taste proper lager brewing uses lager yeast and is done at a lower temperature and for longer I think people talk about beer fridges etc so more kit is required I used a coopers lager kit with coopers beer enhancer 1 and had a nice drinkable beer only make it to 20 litres though if you want fosters 4 percent it should make 30 bottles fine though. hope that helped you.

[Ditch]

Aarsims; I once did a Dark Ale. I'd have done it pretty much as I do the Stout too. It's nice Go for it.

[crafty john]

In the past I have done the coopers dark ale kit with light, medium and dark spraymalt, the medium was by far the better brew. dark malt overpowers the hop balance, light malt seemed to reduce the flavour profile, but the medium malt version was absolutely spot on for a kit brew. But I suppose it depends on what you are looking for in the finished product

[aarsims]

Cheers for the replies guys. Ill keep you updated with what I end up doing!

[rootsbrew]

Make sure the lager has correct (lager) yeast! I actually have two similar on the brew, right now:


For the lager throw in
1.7 kg Lager kit
0.5 kg Extra Pale DME
0.9 kg Golden Syrup (1 large tin)
0.2 kg Wheat DME
0.5 kg Dextrose
+ two large fistfuls of Saaz.
- made up to 25 litres.

For the dark:
1.7 kg Bitter or Ale kit
1.0 kg extra dark DME
0.45 kg black treacle (1 tin)
0.2 kg Wheat DME
0.5 kg Dextrose
+ 2 large fistfuls of Fuggles (I've actually got slightly tired hops, so have added 4)
- made up to 25 litres

... hope that gives some inspiration.

[aarsims]

Started the Australian Lager today. 1kg of Beer Enhancer. 20 litres OG at 18c, 1.042. What's that corrected?

[Monkeybrew]

Started the Australian Lager today. 1kg of Beer Enhancer. 20 litres OG at 18c, 1.042. What's that corrected?

I would just call it 1.042, 2C doesn't make much difference to a hydrometer calibrated at 20C.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/hydrometer-temp/

MB

[duffymoon]

With regards to the Cooper's Dark, I can thoroughly recommend the Nut Brown Ale recipe on their web site :
http://www.coopers.com.au/the-brewers-g ... -brown-ale

I also dry hopped with 40g of amarillo & this adds a really nice extra layer of complexity. Took longer than most Coopers kits to come good though.

DM

[Wooderson]

Ditch's recipte is really just good brewing practice and quality ingredients, it will work well with any kit, just adjust the colour of the malt accordingly.

[aarsims]

The Oz lager finished at 1.008 and I've bottled today after 11 days. Taste from the sample was alright, tasted like a warm horrible flat lager but Im sure it'll be alright in a few weeks