flavour missing

[TrickyM]

Hi,

as a new brewer I would like some advice.

I have put down 4 brews in the past 6 weeks.

I've been using Coopers Pale Ale, 500 gm Enhancer No 2 & bottling with carbonation drops. I've followed the instructions diligently.

I store the finished brew bottles inside my cloak room with a constant temp of 15-18 degrees.

My 1st 2 brews have been severly lacking in flavour (I regularly drink both Pale & Mild Ale) & I'm hoping it is due to the brews being very young. I'm aware the longer a brew sits the better it tastes.

Am I too eager here or are you thinking something's odd?

 

cheers

 

Tricky

[Matty D]

Hi Tricky,

 

I am only fairly new to this myself.

 

Is there any reason you are only using 500g of the BE2??? I would suggest that you should be using the full 1kg as the receipe states on the website:

 

http://www.coopers.com.au/the-brewers-guild/how-to-brew/ale/coopers-pale-ale

 

Ingredients

 

\u2022Australian Pale Ale

\u2022Brew Enhancer 2 (or 500g Light Dry Malt + 250g Dextrose)

 

Just my 2c - I am sure others will add.

 

Cheers,

Matt

[Damien E1]

Replace the Brew Enhancer with Light Dry Malt and see if that makes any difference.

 

Also, if you're only using 500 grams you're not going to get much out of it in alcohol or added malt flavour, I'd up it to 1 kg. This will give a nice malt flavour at around 4.5-5% alcohol.

[TrickyM]

Guys, I've read somewhere the Brew Enhancer could be replaced with white sugar if need be & as 1 kg would give an ABV of 4.5-5 %.

I thought by halving the amount used would drop the ABV to approx 3.5 %.

I'd love to make a mid strength beer with flavour but would prefer to keep the alcohol down.

Maybe I need to try other products to achieve this?

[Hairy]

You could try this recipe. It is a mid-strength using the Pale Ale as a base.

 

Coopers Mild Ale

 

You could just skip the hop addition if you don't want to use them. But it might be a nice touch to add them.

 

[David B5]

G'day Tricky,

Welcome to the fine art of brewing.

There doesn't seem to be many people in this forum that brew "middies". I'm certainly not one of them.

Whilst my partener and I brew full strength and occasionally silly strength beers mid strength is a staple.

We would claim to produce a midstrength that surpass's any commercial middy by a country mile.

We alway use Light dry malt with our kits and forget about brew enhancer or sugar altogether. The other key to our success is hop additions.

Here is a simple but effective recipe that we use:

 

Coopers os Lager or Draught.

500 gms. light dry malt.

15 gms of centenial hops at 20 min(at 67c)

15 gms cascade at 10 mins (at 67c)

15 gms cascade dry hopped at day 3-4.

1 sachet of Coopers ale yeast as supplied

Brew at 18-19c.

mix to 21 ltr.

bottle day 9-10

 

Personally I prefer the os Draught to the Lager as it's a bit more malty and bitter.

Many beers benefit from a bit of time in the bottle but not this recipe. We find it to be at its best at the 4-8 week mark. After that the hop additions start to dissipate.

We've also made middies using Goldings hops and they work beautifully too. In fact use any hops you enjoy the flavour of.

Give it a go it's a cracker.

[TrickyM]

Thanks David & Hairy,

the mild ale recipe looks nice & easy.

David, as a learner, can you explain from your reply lines 3-5 please?

 

cheers

[David B5]

Tricky,

I presume you mean regarding the hopping.

There are others on this forum that know a great deal more about the process's than I but good results can still be achieved with little knowledge.

I heat 2 litres of water on the stove to 67c.

I place 15 gms of Centennial into a stocking sock and soak for 10 minutes at 67c.

I then add a further 15 gms of Cascade to the sock for another 10 minutes.

While this process is taking place I put 500 gms of light malt into the fermenter.

I then add the hop "tea" to the fermenter and swish the vessel to dissolve the Light dry malt. Using the spoon at this stage can cause the malt to clot( no big deal)

I then top up to about the 6 ltr mark with tap water and add the pre-heated Cooper's can and stir in until dissolved.

Then top the fermenter up to 21 litres and add the dry yeast.

After the krausen has dropped back (usually day 3) I boil the stocking sock to sanitize it and add a further 15 gms of Cascade to it, tie a half bow in it and place it into the fermenter.

Theoretically the first hop addition adds flavour.

The second and third hop additions add aroma.

Aroma is a significant factor in our perception of Flavour.

If you are finding all of this a bit intimidating maybe try dry hopping only for your first attempt. You will still achieve good results.

Place 15 to 20gms of Cascade hops into a sanitized stocking sock,

tie it off and put it in the fermenter at day 3-4.

Even this small addition will be a big improvement to your brews and it is a simple way to make a start into hopping.

You dont have to stick to Cascade hops, you can use whatever you want.

[TonyW]

Hi Tricky

 

a first up effort i would add 20grams of hops using the dry hop method. 10grams each of Citra and Amarillo for starters is what i am going to use on a future pale ale, add these after final gravity and leave for a week then bottle up. [love]

 

Nothing like experimenting with hops but remember less can be more so experiment a bit with volumes. A gram to a litr is a pretty safe bet when dry hopping.

[David B5]

Tony,

I Think you're right.

The KISS principal works best in most things.

[TrickyM]

Thx guys, I'm getting the idea.

I've been on the blower to PB2 from Coopers & have more calls to make & shops to visit.

It looks like hops are the boost I may need for my lack of flavour & aroma.

Salivating already as to what my next batch will taste like.

 

cheers guys

 

Tricky

[David B5]

You're asking the right people the right questions.

Make sure you put up a blog to let us know what you did and how you went.

I'm particularly interested because there aren't many people talking about mid strength beers.

[Guest]

OT sorry.... David - if you are soaking your hops at 67C you are not getting their full potential and therefore not as efficient and probably costing you more money in hops for what you want to do.

 

To get the most from your hops, unless you are dry hopping, back hopping or adding at flameout, your hops should be boiling in 1040 SG wort.

[David B5]

Hi Bill,

I have learned through this forum about hopping in a 1040 wort.

I must admit that We did not take S.G. readings for the last batch

We took a guess at 300 gms. Ldm in two litres of water.

Temperature was maintained at 67c.

Should the wort be at boiling for this process?

We still haven't tasted the resulting beer yet so I can't compare our previous brews.

No two ways about it our brews have been fantastic. Optimising them is what We strive for.

If you could let us know about wort temperature and how much to reduce the hop additions it would be appreciated.

 

 

[Damien E1]

Hi Bill,

I have learned through this forum about hopping in a 1040 wort.

I must admit that We did not take S.G. readings for the last batch

We took a guess at 300 gms. Ldm in two litres of water.

Temperature was maintained at 67c.

Should the wort be at boiling for this process?

We still haven't tasted the resulting beer yet so I can't compare our previous brews.

No two ways about it our brews have been fantastic. Optimising them is what We strive for.

If you could let us know about wort temperature and how much to reduce the hop additions it would be appreciated.

 

 

67 degrees is the right temperature for mashing or steeping grains. For hops, though, unless you're only using them for aroma, in which case you can either put them straight in the fermenter or in hot water beforehand, you need to boil them. Boiling for 5 minutes or less will give aroma, a little flavour and almost no bitterness, boiling for 10-15 minutes will give some aroma, lots of flavour and a little bitterness, and boiling for half an hour or longer gives little to no aroma or flavour, but plenty of bitterness.

 

Certain hops are better for aroma or bitterness than others, generally speaking anything with more than about 6% alpha acids is better for bittering than aroma, though there are plenty of exceptions and plenty of hops under that mark (eg. the English varieties Fuggles and Goldings) are also good for bittering, as well as aroma.

[Muddy Waters]

Hey Tricky - The most important thing for making a true tasting Coopers Pale Ale or mild is to reculture some commercial yeast froma six pack or a few longies.

 

Sidenote: There really are a lot of Trickys on this forum [biggrin]

[Guest]

Hi Bill,

I have learned through this forum about hopping in a 1040 wort.

I must admit that We did not take S.G. readings for the last batch

We took a guess at 300 gms. Ldm in two litres of water.

Temperature was maintained at 67c.

Should the wort be at boiling for this process?

We still haven't tasted the resulting beer yet so I can't compare our previous brews.

No two ways about it our brews have been fantastic. Optimising them is what We strive for.

If you could let us know about wort temperature and how much to reduce the hop additions it would be appreciated.

 

You need a constant boil for the duration of the hop additions.

The chart HERE will give you a good idea of what to expect at different boil times.

Also ianh from AHB has a really good spreadsheet which will give you a good idea of your IBUs for your hops. HERE at post #391 is the link for it. Take a look at both these links and have a play with the spreadsheet so you can get a feel of what to expect with your hops. I think you will be surprised with your results. Money in your pocket rather than down the drain [cool]

[David B5]

Thanks Bill,

I think you'd already referred me to the boiling schedule link in a previous post. I'm having trouble with the second link but we'll get there.

Next brew I'll definitely be boiling the hops.

[TrickyM]

@ BillK,

thanks for the links...like B5, The 2nd link is a fizzer.

@ Muddy, Tricky must be popular as I saw him in a HSV the other day but I can't remember buying that car?

 

to all who've replied, I'm loaded with enthusiasm for my next brew.

This reconstituting of yeast from Coopers Pale Ale sounds the go.

The down side is this will double the cost of making the brew, although it's still cheaper than any bottlo + there's satisfaction in knowing I made a top product

[Hairy]

This reconstituting of yeast from Coopers Pale Ale sounds the go.

The down side is this will double the cost of making the brew

Don't forget, you get to drink the Coopers Pale Ale too [wink]

[Guest]

The link should be fixed now. [pinched]