Beerlust Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 I just wanted to make a comment about the Thomas Coopers Bootmaker's Pale Ale kit. When the new range was released I eagerly looked at this kit as the first I wished to brew, & have subsequently brewed a number of the Thomas Coopers range. This was the only one I was disappointed in of the kits I've tried so far. I'm only disappointed because of the extra price tag above the other ranges. For the style it appears to be aimed at I feel it falls short as a base kit. I would much prefer to see something like a Centennial/Simcoe mix other than the current Cascade/Styrian Golding combo that makes up the current hop mix. This particular range of kits should be fully loaded at their current price point where no extra hops/grains should be required & still produce a high quality beer in the styles they are aimed at. This kit is not quite up to the mark IMHO. I wish it was. I don't mean any offence. Just my 2 cents. Cheers, Lusty. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PB2 Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 Did you find this to be the case when making it to 20 litres? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highlands Posted June 11, 2018 Share Posted June 11, 2018 Only a week in the bottle but I like the bootmaker so far. I felt I should have brewed the IPA to 20 L instead of 23 L but I only used 500g dme plus brew enhancer 2 instead of the recommended 1.5 kg dme Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoppy81 Posted June 11, 2018 Share Posted June 11, 2018 I've brewed 4 Bootmakers and have enjoyed all of them but that is also by adding grains and hops which obviously starts to become quite costly with the prices of the TC cans, but that is my preference to do so. Is there any plans of bringing new cans out anytime soon PB2 ? Cheers, Hoppy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerlust Posted June 13, 2018 Author Share Posted June 13, 2018 Hi Paul. On 6/10/2018 at 10:02 PM, PB2 said: Did you find this to be the case when making it to 20 litres? You might have something there. I checked my brew notes & just as you suspected, I had brewed the kit to 23 litres each time. I did this as the IBU for the kit is high enough (41.2) @ 23 litres fermented for my liking, & I didn't want it too bitter. I'm well aware that when dropping the volume it has the benefit of intensifying the flavours of the kit, so will give it another go at a lower volume & see how it turns out at some point. I'd been thinking of using the Amber Malt extract with it as I am quite a fan of American style Pale Ales like Karl Strauss's Pintale Pale Ale. What do you think? Cheers, Lusty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 I think the amber malt would make it darker than those pale ale styles but it might balance the bitterness a bit more. I always thought that IBU calculation was pre-fermentation anyway, not post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PB2 Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 Lusty, Amber Malt Extract might be quite nice. The link you supplied has Pintale Pale with a colour of 15SRM, which (according to the people what made this stuff) is the same as Columbia Street Amber - very strange?? Yep, fermentation can reduce bitterness by around 10% to 30%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerlust Posted June 14, 2018 Author Share Posted June 14, 2018 15 hours ago, PB2 said: Lusty, Amber Malt Extract might be quite nice. The link you supplied has Pintale Pale with a colour of 15SRM, which (according to the people what made this stuff) is the same as Columbia Street Amber - very strange?? I agree about the SRM values being a little strange in comparison. The pics they post of the two beers certainly suggest a difference if indeed the visuals are true representations of the beer colour. That said, the Pintail does carry a good whack of sweeter malt character & colour above many other Pale Ales I've sampled & with the hopping used, I do find it quite moreish. The Amber is fermented using a lager strain, has Munich malt in the grist & only bittered to 18 IBU so even if the SRM was the same, they would be very different beers to drink from the glass. I'll likely give the Bootmaker a go with the amber malt @ 21 litres at some point soon. Thanks, Lusty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerlust Posted June 15, 2018 Author Share Posted June 15, 2018 Quote Had a few tonight; Bootmaker Pale Ale, 2Kg Gladfields American Ale malt, 300g Rye malt 25g Cascade @ FO, 25g Cascade when the wort hit 70 C for 20mins, 25g Centennial @ dry US-05 @ 18C, 23 L 4%ABV, 35ish IBU Citrus, Piney aromas and flavour. Nice lingering bitterness. In fear of sounding like someone, My best brew yet! I'll post a pic once it carbs up a bit more. I think the extra stuffing around with doing partials is paying dividends. Cheers, Dave This is where I'm coming from with my opinion about this kit in particular. A lot of extra effort had to go into creating flavours I believe the kit should (at some level) already encompass. I shouldn't need to flameout or hop tea this beer kit. If I wish to dry hop it fair enough. For it's price point it should be more forward in this area (IMHO). The use of Styrian Golding in it's makeup certainly doesn't help this. Lusty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rowbrew Posted June 16, 2018 Share Posted June 16, 2018 20 hours ago, Beerlust said: The use of Styrian Golding in it's makeup certainly doesn't help this. Totally agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beervis Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 Just tasting the first of my second attempt at this kit and I'm not a fan either. Partly it's because I'm generally not a fan of pale ales, I prefer them to be a bit lighter, lower in alcohol and fruity like some of the NZ pales, or heavier in hops and alcohol like the US ones that by Aussie standards are pretty much IPA's. I find a lot of Aussie pale ales sit uncomfortably in the middle, too much malt flavour and not enough alcohol. First attempt at this kit was like that. I used 1.5kg LDM and a 30gm Chinook hop tea. My partner liked it, but it didn't suit my tastes. This batch I've tried to make it lighter and easier to drink, so I went with BE3 and the 30gm Chinook again. It's quite nice and easy to drink but a bit thin and kittish. That should smooth off with ageing, but I swear this kit just tastes like a slightly nicer real ale or something. If it wasn't for the Chinook I added I don't think it would have much of any flavour at all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Instigator Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 Given this thread has a title that is useful for my request... @PB2, can you please update the list with information about the Mr Beer Longplay IPA kit? And to keep things in one handy sticky post, maybe throw in the Beer Enhancer 1/2/3 mix percentages? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerlust Posted June 5, 2019 Author Share Posted June 5, 2019 Hi Instigator. The Mr. Beer craft range has it's own website & has details of each of the craft kits we use here in AUS. https://www.mrbeer.com/refills/craft-refills-new The stats you're looking for are given for each of the kits. The Americans detail colour in SRM so just multiply by 1.97 to get your EBC value. https://beerandbrewing.com/tools/color-calculator/ Just click on each one for more details. I hope that helps, Lusty. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristinaS1 Posted September 23, 2020 Share Posted September 23, 2020 @Coopers DIY Beer Team A few of the kit yeasts I have bought recently have a new set of numbers on them, under the Julian date. For example R3426. Can you please explain the meaning of this new code? Thank you. Cheers, Christina. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coopers DIY Beer Team Posted September 23, 2020 Share Posted September 23, 2020 Everything we use in the brewery from a beer label to a crown seal to the sachets of yeast under the lids has an "R Number". R3426 denotes the blend we use in MC and Oz Pale Ale. We recently modified the relevant FAQ to reflect this change in designation: https://www.diybeer.com/au/faqs/#FAQ_4_06 and the change was made mainly for consistency and to minimise the risk of the wrong sachet being packed with a brew. Cheers! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smashed Crabs Posted September 23, 2020 Share Posted September 23, 2020 1 hour ago, Coopers DIY Beer Team said: Everything we use in the brewery from a beer label to a crown seal to the sachets of yeast under the lids has an "R Number". R3426 denotes the blend we use in MC and Oz Pale Ale. We recently modified the relevant FAQ to reflect this change in designation: https://www.diybeer.com/au/faqs/#FAQ_4_06 and the change was made mainly for consistency and to minimise the risk of the wrong sachet being packed with a brew. Cheers! Thanks for the update, are you going to create a new sticky post or update the current one from PB2 ? As you now have conflicting information in your FAQ and post. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smashed Crabs Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 @Coopers DIY Beer Team Any update on the above ? realised I never tagged you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coopers DIY Beer Team Posted October 13, 2020 Share Posted October 13, 2020 2 hours ago, Smashed Crabs said: @Coopers DIY Beer Team Any update on the above ? realised I never tagged you Thanks for the heads-up Smashed Crabs. The sticky post was updated to reflect the current product nomenclature when you alerted us to the discrepancy. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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