The Coopers O.S. Lager Kit Challenge!

[Guest]

Hi guys.

 

Great to see more recipes posted & the thread beginning to showcase the many different directions you can take an entry level kit tin in. At the rate at which recipes are being posted, it will be a very interesting come voting time at the end of January on what everyone favours. [cool]

 

It also seems as though a new recruitment drive has begun to qualify to become a member of the "Receding Hair Bear Bunch"! Hehe! [lol]

Unfortunately (or fortunately) for me, there is no MPB (Male Pattern Baldness) in my family, so I'll just have to resign myself to going grey eventually. [tongue]

 

Best OS Lager Recipe ever!!!

That linky was you lot about 25yrs ago! [lol] I was actually looking for some online wavs earlier this afternoon to link to from that cartoon series, but could only find the old theme song. [pouty]

 

BTW Lusty' date=' I think you are dreaming if you think this one will stay on topic. I personally think the OS Lager can is Shite and you know what they say... "You can't polish up a turd!" HA HA![/quote']

I reckon it must be getting pretty cold over there about now Canuck? I reckon a bit of friction would do you the world of good right about now. How about workin' a bit of friction on an OS Lager recipe for us? [happy]

 

AdamH, with all the weird & wonderful ingredients that you are willing to throw into your brews, I'm hoping a polished turd like the one you've displayed, is not one of them! [lol]

I don't even think your latest mexican coffee chilli beer could hide that aroma! [tongue]

 

I'm really enjoying this thread on many levels. [biggrin]

 

Anthony.

[Scottie]

1 can OS Lager

1 can Coopers Amber Malt

250gm Crystal and 50gm Chocolate steeped for 45 minutes in 2Ltrs water @ 65deg

boil wort and 250gm LDM for 30 min with 30gm EKG then steep with 15gm Fuggles for a further 15 mins

pitch with English Ale Yeast and ferment at 18 deg

Choc Malt Yum and subtle, this one looks good Nick.

I tasted my OS lager with Amber Malt today, not sweet at all balanced out nicely by the two hops added to the boil.

 

 

[Nick]

Thanks Scottie, sometimes less is more. this would be an easy recipe for anyone on the forum regardless of experience. it would also be fairly inexpensive. PS i made my old man your IPA recipe for xmas. my daughter has just wrapped a carton of it to go under the tree for crissy day. i had a sneaky go at it earlier tonight and all i can say is "fark yeah"

Cheers Mate[biggrin]

[Guest]

Hi guys,

 

I was going to hold out until some point in January before posting, but since so many members have been so positive & forward with their posting of recipes, I may as well post what will be my final submission.

 

Coopers OS Lager tin 1.7kg

Briess Munich Malt Liquid Extract 500gms

Vienna Malt grain 1.25kgs Mashed @ 66\xb0C for 60mins

Medium Crystal Malt grain 200gms mashed/steeped @ 66\xb0C for 60mins

Carapils grain 200gms mashed/steeped @ 66\xb0C for 60mins

 

6 litre Mash with 1.5 litre 66\xb0C sparge.

 

Hop schedule:

 

Mt. Hood hops 25gms added to strained wort & allowed to cool naturally for 30mins. (Similar to FWH)

Wort then brought to running boil (efficiency should hopefully create around 5-5\xbd litres)

Mt. Hood hops 15gms @ 15mins

Liberty hops 25gms @ 5mins

Mt. Hood hops 25gms @ 1min

Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast pitched @ 20-21\xb0C for 12hrs, then

reduced to 18\xb0C for remainder of primary ferment (2 weeks).

 

Method:

The night before you are planning to brew this recipe, load up your freezer with plenty of ice (for wort cooling).

 

After the above Mash/Steep & subsequent boil process is completed, remove cook pot from heat & cool in sink with ice blocks & tap water. Once ice blocks melt, feel external water temperature surrounding the cook pot with your finger. Normally the water outside the cook pot has not quite equalised. Drain the water surrounding the cook pot from the sink & surround the cook pot with fresh cold tap water & a bit more ice from your freezer stocks. Wort temp equalisation should happen within about 5-10 mins from that point. You'll know this because when you dip your finger into the water surrounding your cook pot it will be barely luke warm to slightly coolish.

 

Pour 2 litres of tap water into your fermenter & then pour the cooled wort through a strainer into your fermenter. At this point add your Briess Liquid Munich Malt & your Coopers OS Lager kit tin & give a good stir. Top up to 20 litres & check your temperature. Then add cold tap water or hot water, or even ice cubes as necessary to obtain a final fermenter liquid temperature of 20-21\xb0C at 23 litres. Stir the crap out of this volume to help aerate it & then pitch your Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast & give a gentle stir for 10-15 seconds.

 

Tighten your lid or fasten your glad wrap & then get it in your brew fridge or temp controlled environment for 12hrs @ 20-21\xb0C then reduce the temperature to 18\xb0C & shut the door for a few weeks. If you don't have TRUE temperature control at your disposal, attempt to get your fermenter temperature to 17-18\xb0C before pitching your yeast. (this will involve you using more ice in the fermenter to attain this lower temperature).

 

Go grab a coldie & put your feet up for a well earned beer! [biggrin]

 

I know my recipe won't win, but there it is all the same. [happy]

 

Good luck to you all. [cool]

 

Anthony.

 

 

 

[Nick]

hey Lusty, i have no idea what your recipe would taste like or how it can be judged come voting day. if, as you said in the OP, the recipe may be considered in the how to brew section, then the KISS principle should apply. its just a thought as i will have a crack at the eventual winning recipe.

[Hairy]

I agree with Nick on that one. If the thread was OS Lager recipe contributions than it is fine. But if you somehow have the influence to have it added to the How to Brew section then a partial mash recipe is a bit complicated.

 

Lusty, have you made this one? It looks quite nice.

 

Also, I reckon you should make a starter for your liquid yeast. I know the activator packs are supposed to be enough for a standard gravity brew but I think that is based on full viability of the yeast. You don't want to go through the trouble of a partal mash only to under pitch.

 

And why we're you going to wait until mid January before posting it? Did you think it was like the Hottest 100 voting where all songs released early in the year are forgotten and the votes go to the recent releases? [biggrin]

 

Very cunning [bandit]

 

I am still voting for Pedro [biggrin]

[Nick]

"You can't polish up a turd"

[biggrin]

if my Amber recipe wins, i will call it "Polished Amber Ale"

 

lets have some names for recipes posted

[Muddy Waters]

Can a moderator please delete all on topic posts? This is getting out of hand?

 

[pinched]

[Guest]

But if you somehow have the influence to have it added to the How to Brew section then a partial mash recipe is a bit complicated.

 

+1 this - Will never happen, Partials are an advances step to new brewers and can be confronting and scary (shouldnt be but often is)

 

This whole topic is somewhat of just a hypothetical pissing contest.

 

How about that local football team eh?

 

[Scottie]

Best effort 4.2 meters [devil] [bandit] [alien]

[Scottie]

Sorry for going off topic again with my last post [innocent] but I was feeling a bit gutted and left out after I posted a serious recipe and failed to receive Lord Eoin's vote or approval.

[Guest]

if' date=' as you said in the OP, the recipe may be considered in the how to brew section, then the KISS principle should apply.[/quote']

+1

 

I agree with Nick on that one...a partial mash recipe is a bit complicated.

+1

 

Will never happen' date=' Partials are an advances step to new brewers and can be confronting and scary (shouldnt be but often is)[/quote']

+1

 

How can I possibly agree with each of those statements & still post the recipe I did? Quite easily actually, because for me personally this concept challenge is not just about "winning".

 

There are some indirect positives that are also coming out of this thread. The main one I see being the variety of directions the one type of kit tin can be taken in as displayed by the diversity of recipes being posted. [cool]

 

What the OS Lager kit tin does offer someone new to home brewing, is a platform of versatility & a wide scope for experimentation. That is something that is often under-stated when commenting on the DIY kit tin.

 

Lusty' date=' have you made this one? It looks quite nice.[/quote']

 

I haven't actually. I've used all of the ingredients before bar the 2 hops listed. I also haven't tried the First Wort Hopping technique before & it sounded quite interesting to try. It's just where my interests are & my brewing level is at right now.[cool]

 

I'm with you guys on what will probably be the winning recipe. Something not overly complicated to brew, with maybe a small steep, an interesting malt addition & some nice hop flavours.

 

Thanks for the tip on the starter too Hairy. [happy]

 

Scottie, maybe Lord Eoin has gone off the VB? [biggrin]

 

Anthony.

[Canadian Eh!L]

Lusty,

 

That recipe looks a lot like you are trying to polish up that turd, my friend![roll]

 

I just don't see throwing all those fancy ingredients into a wort and then topping it all off with the Lager can as a good idea. Why not use 1.7Kgs of something that tastes better? It just seems doomed to fail![crying]

[Guest]

Hiya Canuck! [happy]

 

I'm guessing you've watched to many re-runs of Star Trek the original series?

 

One of the main characters has certainly made a firm impression on you. (Link requires sound) [lol]

 

That's strange, I don't remember seeing the Enterprise chasing after a polished turd? [tongue]

 

Anthony.

[Hairy]

Lusty,

 

That recipe looks a lot like you are trying to polish up that turd, my friend![roll]

 

I just don't see throwing all those fancy ingredients into a wort and then topping it all off with the Lager can as a good idea. Why not use 1.7Kgs of something that tastes better? It just seems doomed to fail![crying]

That's a good call Chad, I probably have to agree with you on that one.

 

For me, I have considered this thread to be more about "what have you done with an OS lager kit". I wouldn't actually use it if I had a choice.

[Muddy Waters]

[Scottie]

For me' date=' I have considered this thread to be more about "what have you done with an OS lager kit". I wouldn't actually use it if I had a choice.[/quote']

Mmmmm Hairy

I've used this kit 3 times, twice from the kit and once when everything else (Coopers wise) was sold out. Hence the name of my tried and proven recipe here "Make Do" [w00t]

 

If I was looking at a full shelf of Coopers products I know which ones I would choose (APA, Draught, English Bitter & IPA) and which ones I wouldn't (OS Lager, Canadian Blonde, Real Ale & Sparkling Ale).

 

Having said that if Coopers are having one of their freight specials then I'm choosing to stock up on LME and WME.

 

Finally, [sleeping] [wink], The Best Cold beer recipe was a theoretical one that someone who just got their kit could try. But even that one includes a grain steeping and hop boil and therefore could be classified as too difficult [unsure].

 

[Guest]

For me' date=' I have considered this thread to be more about "what have you done with an OS lager kit". I wouldn't actually use it if I had a choice.[/quote']

The thread is different things to different people. What one person sees, is different to what another sees. The quoted statement you mentioned rings true for many of us (including me).

 

As far as the criticism of my recipe submission goes, would I normally throw those type of ingredients at the OS Lager tin? Of course not. I'd all extract brew it, & probably up the grain & hop additions.

 

All I did was go in step with the theme of the thread. I was actually going to brew a proper lager initially, & then stumbled upon a recipe on >> This Site << that I decided to modify & use with the OS Lager kit.

 

Anthony.

[Scottie]

Mate

That dude has got a nice selction of AG brews.

 

Check out the White skin on that British Blonde [alien] .

Obviuosly she hasn't seen the same amount of sun as my exposed forehead (& the top of my head).

 

[LordEoin]

Sorry for going off topic again with my last post [innocent] but I was feeling a bit gutted and left out after I posted a serious recipe and failed to receive Lord Eoin's vote or approval.

 

Not sure what you mean by that, but.. meh.. whatever.

Your recipe looks nice but i'd probably add 30G magnum, 45 mins.

 

Sorry, was going to post a recipe but saw it was very similar to nick's so i just left it.

 

I'm on night shift at the moment so the changing topics, fonts and colors just wrecked my head so I stayed away.

I'm not normally in the recipe resource section anyway, I just pop in to look for..well.. recipes.

 

Here's mine, it worked awesome with the pilsener kit and would probably be great with the lager kit too:

 

1 can lager

500g dark DME

300g carapils

300g chocolate grain

35g EKG - 60 min

15g Fuggles - 20 min

15g Fuggles - 5 min

Saflager S23 yeast

 

but it's pretty moot as a recipe has already been chosen.

 

peace

[Canadian Eh!L]

For me' date=' I have considered this thread to be more about "what have you done with an OS lager kit". I wouldn't actually use it if I had a choice.[/quote']

The thread is different things to different people. What one person sees, is different to what another sees. The quoted statement you mentioned rings true for many of us (including me).

 

As far as the criticism of my recipe submission goes, would I normally throw those type of ingredients at the OS Lager tin? Of course not. I'd all extract brew it, & probably up the grain & hop additions.

 

All I did was go in step with the theme of the thread. I was actually going to brew a proper lager initially, & then stumbled upon a recipe on >> This Site << that I decided to modify & use with the OS Lager kit.

 

Anthony.

 

 

Boo![annoyed] A turd is a turd, Dude.

[NewtownClown]

Skimmed thru all 4 pages.

 

Most of the recipes appear to be ales.

 

Wouldn't it be a greater challenge to try to brew an actual Lager with this kit?

[Canadian Eh!L]

Skimmed thru all 4 pages.

 

Most of the recipes appear to be ales.

 

Wouldn't it be a greater challenge to try to brew an actual Lager with this kit?

[lol] You're probably right, Clown.

[GregT5]

Wouldn't it be a greater challenge to try to brew an actual Lager with this kit?

I agree too, but if you are going to do a true lager, Lusty would have to put the announcement of a winner back to April, because lagers always take longer, as he has recently found out. [biggrin] [cool]

[Nick]

i started a thread 2 days ago asking for a suitable Saison recipe for my UNtemp controlled FV. As a lager or pilsner based recipe was suggested, maybe a recipe could be posted here?