Coopers craft 8l

[Tenchy]

Hi

I'd be keen to know people's thoughts re the Coopers 8l vessel. I can't find a heat belt for it. I have a Morgan's 23l and it has never bubbled through the airlock and the tap won't finish flush with the ground when tightened. I've previously had a 23l Coopers vessel years ago and never had any issues. 

Cheers

[Shamus O'Sean]

52 minutes ago, Tenchy said:

I'd be keen to know people's thoughts re the Coopers 8l vessel. I can't find a heat belt for it.

I have never wrapped the heat belt around the craft sized fermenter.  Always just hung it in the temperature controlled fridge with the fermenter.

Don't know anything about the Morgans 23L fermenters.  Maybe some plumber's tape around the thread might end up in it tightening in closer to the right position.  Or get a Coopers one.

[Tenchy]

Cheers mate. The guy in the HB shop told me to keep an amber ale between 23-28.

[Shamus O'Sean]

10 minutes ago, Tenchy said:

Cheers mate. The guy in the HB shop told me to keep an amber ale between 23-28.

Sounds a bit warm to me.  I would go for 18-20°C.  You might get some banana esters (aromas and tastes) at the higher temperatures.  He also probably wanted to make sure you got a beer out of it.  Too cold, like less than 15°C and it would struggle.

If you have already done it at the higher temperature range do not worry, as I implied, it will still give you beer.  Banana in an amber style beer is fair from a disaster.

[DuffBeer]

I have an old wine fridge the craft 8 L fermenter would fit in but its max temperature is 18. The Mr Beer Long Play IPA says to brew between 20 & 22 degrees for 10 days. Do you think it'd still work in the fridge?

Edited May 23, 2020 by DuffBeer
Grammer

[Titan]

59 minutes ago, DuffBeer said:

I have an old wine fridge the craft 8 L fermenter would fit in but its max temperature is 18. The Mr Beer Long Play IPA says to brew between 20 & 22 degrees for 10 days. Do you think it'd still work in the fridge?

Without a doubt it will work. 18c in my mind is optimum temperature for ale ferment.

[Journeyman]

2 hours ago, Titan said:

18c in my mind is optimum temperature for ale ferment

How about outside your mind?

3 hours ago, DuffBeer said:

I have an old wine fridge the craft 8 L fermenter would fit in but its max temperature is 18. The Mr Beer Long Play IPA says to brew between 20 & 22 degrees for 10 days. Do you think it'd still work in the fridge?

Should work fine. Will be even better if you got a controller like the Inkbird (I think Mangrove have one as well) to keep the temp stable - then you could add a heat source and take the temp above 18° if you wanted.

I'm not sure why Coopers and other companies want brewers to run their brews so high in temp - the potential issues as @Titan mentioned would surely cost them some repeat business as customers decided it wasn't for them. Take those same brew and brew them at 18°, 19° or 20° and you get an excellent beer with no odd flavours.

[Titan]

45 minutes ago, Journeyman said:

How about outside your mind?

Normal for me.

[DuffBeer]

So another question for you expert brewers out there, some of my favourite beers:

• Old Man Yells At Cloud NEIPA (Old Wives Ales)
• Colonial Brewing Australian IPA
• Cheeky Monkey West Coast IPA

I quite like the Coopers XPA too but find the citrus flavours just a little too strong.

I have been browsing the 8L recipe's here: https://www.diybeer.com/au/recipes/

Does anyone have any suggestions what recipe's I should try given my tastes above? I'm not after a clone, although that would be super I would rather keep things as simple as I can at the same time.

[Shamus O'Sean]

2 hours ago, DuffBeer said:

Does anyone have any suggestions what recipe's I should try given my tastes above? I'm not after a clone, although that would be super I would rather keep things as simple as I can at the same time.

Hi Duffbeer

I direct you to the Coopers Recipe Spreadsheet that I keep updated.  You can sort it on batch size to narrow down to the Craft sized recipes.  Look for ones with a short hop boil and a good dry hop.  They are the ones to get you into IPA territory.

 

[DuffBeer]

Thank you very much!!! This is a great community

[Tenchy]

Thanks that's a great s/sheet. Shame they don't seem to have a non floral lager  in the 8.5.

[Malter White]

On 5/13/2020 at 8:05 PM, Tenchy said:

Hi

I'd be keen to know people's thoughts re the Coopers 8l vessel. I can't find a heat belt for it. I have a Morgan's 23l and it has never bubbled through the airlock and the tap won't finish flush with the ground when tightened. I've previously had a 23l Coopers vessel years ago and never had any issues. 

Cheers

A popular school of thought suggests airlocks are unnecessary anyway and you don't need a new FV to not have an airlock. You can put tape over the hole where the airlock would normally go. I throw some cling wrap over the whole opening of my 60l FV and then screw the lid over it. Not over tightly so the CO2 can still escape. Your hydrometer will give you a better indication of activity than an airlock will.
I have the same issue with my tap. I just put up with it being out of line while fermentation is happening and then I twist it back to it's right position on bottling day.

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by MUZZY