Coopers Unreal Ale Recipe

[twentyfootwilf]

Has anyone made a Coopers Real Ale kit to the Unreal Ale Recipe on their website, I was thinking of doing something similar, ie Tin of Real Ale, 1.5kg tin of medium malt extract and 250g dark brown sugar (becoming a standard addition go me owing to the success of it's addition to Ditch's stout) May also include a hop addition depending on how anyone can describe the Real Ale hop character as I've never brewed it before. I will likely use a Nottingham or Gervin English ale yeast. Thoughts of anyone that's done this kit would be appreciated.

[tazzymutt]

I've n ot tried it to that recipe, however, I have made the Coopers real ale with 1kg of BKE and 250g of Moscavado. It was OK, but by far the least impressive Coopers ale I've done. (We'll discount the European "lager" as I only did that for my teenage son and would not choose such a tasteless brew for myself).

The biggest issue with the real ale was that, even after a year in bottles, it still had the metallic edge of newly bottled homebrew from 1980. Quite unlike the Coopers dark, Stout or IPA, all of which are firm favourites in the Tazzymutt household.

Happy brewing,


Ian.

[twentyfootwilf]

My wife and I are Coopers Dark Ale and Origional series Stout fanatics. I'm not allowed to run out of stout so I'm required to do that next as I've only 12 bottles left. I've only done the IPA once and that was a while ago and I don't really remember it so I may give that a go instead of the real ale. I know the IPA is popular and Coopers have a recipe on their site called Hop Slammer with a warning it is not for the faint hearted so again I wouldn't be sure about hop additions!

[Monkeybrew]

I've only ever brewed with the Real Ale kit when making the Extra Strong Vintage Ale, so it's hard to comment really.

It has got a decent IBU though, so maybe it just needs a decent amount of DME/LME to balance the bitterness of the kit as well as some hop additions.

I would choose whatever hop takes your fancy, because nearly all Coopers kit are pretty lacklustre in that department IMO.

Cheers

MB