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Coopers session ale


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Yesterday my wife and baby left the house in a state of devastation. Then my wife went out for the evening. Faced with the mammoth task of restoring order, and the task of bottling up my Aramis pils, I resorted to a 6 pack of Coopers Session Ale cans to provide the needed get up and go. 

It worked a charm, my wife returned to a neat and tidy house and a case of sparkling clean bottles of fresh pils (which is thankfully shaping up to be brilliant). 

The Session Ale is a great beer, looking forward to enjoying the rest of the case at a more moderate rate. It has a really nice malt flavour, and the yeast gives extra bite and character that puts it ahead of other examples of the style in my book. 

I still do prefer the Enigma / Galaxy session ale I brewed recently, fermented with the same yeast. It was just that bit more satisfying due to being hopper, even at a slightly lower ABV. 

So great job Coopers, but more hops definitely wouldn't go astray! 

Cheers, 

John

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  • 4 weeks later...

I want to make the clone recipe as my brother interstate has taken a liking to the session ale and we've got a big gathering planned in a couple months. Can't seem to find Melba hops anywhere though. Cooper's must have cleaned up the whole harvest....

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20 hours ago, porschemad911 said:

Since it's a blend of Melba and Galaxy, you could just do all Galaxy. Or you could try what I did, blend Enigma and Galaxy in a 3:2 ratio. That turned out great!

Cheers,

John

Was that in a session ale clone?

Also, if I were to make this recipe, would it be best to obtain the Cooper's commercial yeast strain from a 6 pack of session ale or a 6 pack of pale ale?

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as mentioned earlier...one of the main (if not the main) supplier of Melba hops had a big fire and took out there production of it as well as some stocks..

you could just use the coopers pale kit yeast and get a similar flavour i believe

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It was in a Coopers Session Ale inspired beer, similar but a little hoppier.

I only boiled my bittering hops for 15 mins, then added 1.5g/l combined at 5 mins, the same again at flameout and dry hopped with 3g/l combined. 

I recultured from a 6-pack of the pale ale. The kit yeast will not give you the same result, and in my opinion the commercial yeast strain gives it the x-factor that takes it from good to great. 

It won't make much of a difference what you culture from out of those 2 since the abv is similar. Use whatever you can find with the fresher best after date. 

Cheers, 

John

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On ‎6‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 10:11 AM, karlos_1984 said:

I want to make the clone recipe as my brother interstate has taken a liking to the session ale and we've got a big gathering planned in a couple months. Can't seem to find Melba hops anywhere though. Cooper's must have cleaned up the whole harvest....

I used citra, several different recipients said they couldn.t taste the difference side by side

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17 minutes ago, John304 said:

I used citra, several different recipients said they couldn.t taste the difference side by side

Nice. I've got an APA can in the cupboard and 50g of citra left in the fridge. Might grab some galaxy and give it a crack.

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2 hours ago, John304 said:

Yeh, just used black rock pale, followed the coopers recipe using citra instead of Melba,came out a treat?

Did you stick to the same amount of hops listed on the recipe (25g each of galaxy and Citra)?

Kinda seems like not enough to get the required flavour and aroma in a 22 ltr batch...

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Hmmm the commercial beer has noticeable but subtle hop flavour and aroma. It's good but can be improved. If you steep 60g total in a 22l batch and then dry hop with the same it will give a good result. Scaling the hopping I did would be roughly equivalent to this. 

But... I like hops a lot and while I preferred my beer I still enjoyed the subtlety of the commercial version

Cheers, 

John

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  • 2 months later...

I bought a carton of session ale yesterday as I'm between batches of home brew. I plan to brew the session ale recipe next batch and keep a 6 pack for the yeast reculture.

Just a thought though, the recipe on the Cooper's site uses an APA can as a base. My last batch I made was an APA with just LDM and a dry hop. I did a side by side comparison between this brew and a session ale in the glass and there's a massive difference in colour. The session ale being a lot lighter.

Given this, could the APA base be substituted for maybe the Mexican cervesa to get it closer to the real thing? Could the IBU be bumped up by a short hope boil if the Mexican cervesa case was used instead?

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21 hours ago, karlos_1984 said:

Given this, could the APA base be substituted for maybe the Mexican cervesa to get it closer to the real thing? Could the IBU be bumped up by a short hope boil if the Mexican cervesa case was used instead?

Yes, I writhe do a direct substitution, the difference in colour is decent and the difference in bitterness is only like 5 ibu when made up to a full size batch. The APA kit has wheat and crystal in it, so they will taste subtly different. 

To get the right hop presence and boost the bitterness slightly I would boil up some LDM and water then kill the heat and do a flameout hop addition. Steep that for 15 mins and the strain into the fermenter. Dry hop a few days later. 

Cheers, 

John

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  • 1 month later...
On 9/7/2018 at 6:41 AM, porschemad911 said:

Yes, I writhe do a direct substitution, the difference in colour is decent and the difference in bitterness is only like 5 ibu when made up to a full size batch. The APA kit has wheat and crystal in it, so they will taste subtly different. 

To get the right hop presence and boost the bitterness slightly I would boil up some LDM and water then kill the heat and do a flameout hop addition. Steep that for 15 mins and the strain into the fermenter. Dry hop a few days later. 

Cheers, 

John

Just revisiting this idea.

Would a boil of say 500g LDM in 3 ltrs of water with a 60g FO addition do the job, or should I have less water?

I'd be adding that to the FV along with

Can Mexican cervesa

1kg LDM

Up to 22 ltrs

Cooper's commercial yeast

60g dry hop (30g each of galaxy/Citra)

 

Would the total of 1.5kg LDM (1kg in FV plus 500g for boil) be too much for this beer?

Thanks

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Further to that, when I see American breweries reviewing their beers, they usually refer to beers between 5-6% ABV as sessionable anyway. So I guess the IPA and stouts etc are what they consider heavier beers that you'd only have in moderation (unless you're up for a big one).

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7 hours ago, karlos_1984 said:

Just revisiting this idea.

Would a boil of say 500g LDM in 3 ltrs of water with a 60g FO addition do the job, or should I have less water?

I'd be adding that to the FV along with

Can Mexican cervesa

1kg LDM

Up to 22 ltrs

Cooper's commercial yeast

60g dry hop (30g each of galaxy/Citra)

 

Would the total of 1.5kg LDM (1kg in FV plus 500g for boil) be too much for this beer?

Thanks

I'd dissolve 500g LDM and make up to 5l then boil, kill the heat, add flameout hops then strain into fermenter after 15 mins steep.

You could do 300g LDM made up to 3l if that's easier with your equipment.

Sounds like a really tasty beer! With the Citra it's going to taste different to the commercial beer, but I'm betting it will be great. The hop presence will be higher which is a good thing in my book. 

Cheers, 

John

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