Craft Series Cans

[Chuznut]

Has anyone tried brewing with any of the Craft Series kits yet? Just wondering if they're any good or not.

[Gibbo]

I brewed the Amber Ale ("Bewitched" I think?) that came with my Craft kit -- I think it's a pretty nice drop given how simple it was to make, but the price of Mr Brew cans means I probably won't brew any of the others any time soon...

[Chuznut]

Yeah, they're pretty expensive (although at least you don't have to pay for sugars, malts, etc on top of that), but I recently inherited one of the new craft kits, so figured I should give a few of the craft cans a go to see what they're like.

I'm just trying to work out which one is the best one, and see what kind of changes people are making to the basic recipe.

[porschemad911]

I've done the Bewitched Amber Ale. It's been nearly a month in the bottle but was still a little green when I tried it a week ago. I will be cracking another sampler 330ml stubby tonight. I figure that if it's anything like wine the half bottles will mature slightly faster.

 

I find you don't really get a case of beer out of an 8.5 litre brew after taking into account trub. I can comfortably get 9 x 740ml + 6 * 360ml (roughly a case of beer) out of a 10 litre batch though without worrying about trub in the last bottle.

 

I'm tempted to throw the 70IBU Mr Diablo IPA kit into my order with the $80+ free shipping deal for when I don't have time for a full brew. A 50g dry hop would give plenty of beautiful hop aroma in an 8.5 litre brew!

[Gibbo]

I'm tempted to throw the 70IBU Mr Diablo IPA kit into my order with the $80+ free shipping deal for when I don't have time for a full brew. A 50g dry hop would give plenty of beautiful hop aroma in an 8.5 litre brew!

That sounds pretty delicious' date=' and I think it shows the benefit of the Mr Beer brew cans in that you can knock up a very respectable beer in the Craft FV without a lot of mucking around.

 

I don't know if it's 100% viable yet (my own delicious experiment is currently on-going), but have you thought about a small-scale no chill wort cubing setup? Assuming the best outcome (or even a reasonable one), I think it should give me all the convenience of the Mr Beer HMEs as well as being cheaper and/or allowing me to generate more points of data for tasty brew combinations (as well as allowing me to use pretty much any brand HME as long as I keep the proportions in check).

 

To compare using the Mr Beer IPA:

 

[u']8.5L single batch[/u]

Mr Beer IPA = $15.26

Falconer's Flight (50g) = $5-ish? (This is a complete stab in the dark based on ~$10 for a 90g bag)

Total = $20.26-ish

(or $1.84 per tallie if you manage to stretch it to fill 11 of them)

 

23L "normal" batch - fermented in two half-batches

TC IPA = $14.85

Falconer's Flight (90g) = $10-ish? (see above)

5L sealable water container @ Big W = $10 (not the typical "cube", but still does the same job)

Total = $34.85-ish

(or $1.16 per tallie @ 2 x 15 bottle yields)

 

If you instead calculate the cost of the water container over the next 5 or 10 batches, it only gets cheaper, down to less than 90c per 740mL bottle, although you could technically class it as "brew gear" and omit it entirely...

 

This also gives you the opportunity to brew/dry-hop the first half and hone the recipe when it comes time to brew the second half. Not only that -- you could make up a few cubes this way when you have a lazy sunday, then pull them out of storage, transfer to your FV, top up and pitch yeast as the empty bottles/fermenter becomes available or as the mood strikes you.

 

And much like the Craft FV, the little 5L jugs don't take up a lot of room either.

 

I'm currently doing a similar thing with basic Real Ale + fermentables and was initially only going to store the mini wort cube for a few weeks while the FV is occupied, but I'm tempted to leave it a little longer in the name of experimentation, skipping straight to the next brew instead...

[Johno1525228972]

I just got hold of a Craft Brew Kit too. trying to decide when my fermenting fridge is clear whether to brew the stock standard bewitched amber ale that's provided or use that can and make the "That Voodoo That You Do" recipe from the craft brew section which uses the amber al can.

 

Any thoughts/recommendations?

 

Would be good to hear from people that have tried the recipes and also who have just used the brew can by itself.

[porschemad911]

... have you thought about a small-scale no chill wort cubing setup?

After doing 6 full size kit + added hop & specialty grain batches I was thinking of buying a smaller fermenter and moving to small batch extract brews for greater control over the recipes. It just so happened that Coopers announced the Craft beer DIY fermenter at that precise moment. Being an Adelaide-ian (well I grew up there) and a lover of Coopers ales since my teens and being a big fan of the design of their full size fermenter' date=' I jumped at the opportunity to support Coopers and ordered one.

 

The first batch I did was the Amber Ale that came with it mostly because it was free, easy and I thought 'why not?'. It didn't turn out too bad ... the stubby I sampled earlier this evening was pretty tasty!

 

I now have my second partial mash batch in there fermenting. Come to think of it, I never did do an extract batch as per my original plan, instead I skipped straight ahead to partial mash recipes. It is a lot of fun researching the style and coming up with a carefully thought out recipe.

 

Sorry for the long-winded intro, but thought I'd better give a little background. Basically I bought it to experiment with concocting recipes for small batches of classic styles and given the vast variety of beer styles out there I can't see myself wanting to brew the same thing repeatedly (or even similar enough to split batch). This means that the double-small-batching and cubing concept is not really on the table for me.

 

I can see your point about value for money but I'm betting there will be a significant taste difference between the Diablo IPA and the TC IPA so not quite comparing apples with apples. If you designed an extract or partial mash recipe the cost would be roughly the same. Where you would come out ahead is with reusing the yeast from the first batch for the second - especially if you are using liquid yeast which is $10+ a vial. But you can do that without splitting a batch into a cube, and I would prefer to do 2 different beers with the same yeast than a second similar batch from my original wort. Especially if I only have the chance to brew once every 2 or 3 weeks.

 

I guess it depends on what you want to do. For me it is to try something new each batch. But that's the beauty of homebrewing, there are so many approaches to it that everyone can find their happy niche [img']smile[/img]. I don't think it's just me - sounds like you are already tempted to do the same thing and move onto a new recipe .

 

Any thoughts/recommendations?

I'd just brew the Amber Ale tin by itself, to me it's plenty strong enough already. If you have a homebrew shop near you maybe grab some American hops (I reckon Amarillo would go nicely) and do a hop tea or dry hop depending on your preference. That would give an extra flavour hit and give you an easy and tasty batch. From what i can see the 'Voodoo' recipe will hit about 7% ABV, which would limit you a bit in how many you can enjoy in a sitting. Based on sampling the standard recipe, extra malt sweetness and ABV wouldn't improve it as much as a good hit of hops.

[Johno1525228972]

I had a look at the Mr Beer Website and they have a stack of recipes and reviews of the recipes after people have brewed them for all the craft beer cans that coopers are selling over here. mr beer has more brew cans than just the ones coopers are selling.

 

Porschemad911 do you care to share any of the recipes you have done with the craft brew fermenter or is there a website that has recipes for 9l or so batches?

[porschemad911]

Porschemad911 do you care to share any of the recipes you have done with the craft brew fermenter ...

No worries at all - I've done these 2 so far. I'm using the krausen collar so they are all 10 litre batches.

 

Hefeweizen

Grain (mash): 1kg light wheat malt' date=' 500g pilsener malt

Extract: 500g Coopers wheat LME

Hops: 15g Hallertau Mittelfruh @60mins of a 90min boil

Yeast: White Labs WLP300, fermented at 18 - 21C

 

[b']Dunkelweizen[/b]

Grain (mash): 500g light wheat malt, 500g munich I malt, 50g dark crystal malt, 50g chocolate malt

Extract: 1kg Coopers wheat LME

Hopes: 15g Hallertau Mittelfruh @60mins (just a 60min boil this time)

Yeast: Harvested and repitched White Labs WLP300 from above, fermented at 17 - 18C (so far)

 

Next in line should be a real beauty ... the ingredients are on the way! This is a scaled down and tweaked version of a commercial recipe for one of my favourite beers generously provided by the brewer. I'm really excited to see how it turns out!

 

Pale Ale

Grain (mash): 1.2kg Maris Otter malt, 700g Munich 1 malt, 85g pale crystal malt, 8g Carafa special I

Extract: 250g light dry malt

Hops: 7g Pacific Hallertau + 7g Nelson Sauvin @ 60mins, 5g Pacific Hallertau + 5g Nelson Sauvin @ 15mins, 5g Pacific Hallertau + 5g Nelson Sauvin @ 0mins

Yeast: Wyeast 1056

 

... or is there a website that has recipes for 9l or so batches?

Sorry I can't help you there. I have been reading a lot of different recipes for each of the styles and formulating my own using various bits of software (most useful and simplest to use is the Kit and Extract Spreadsheet available from Aussie Home Brewers). It just takes some research into the style and then looking up the malt and hop specs and tweaking the recipe sticking to the basic proportions.

[Gashead]

OK, newbie here so I apologise for the very simple/stupid question in advance.

 

Just got given a brew kit with the Amber Ale (“Bewitched”). Watching the video is suggests using hot water until the 6 litre mark and then hot or cold to the 8.5litre mark and getting the temp at 22oC.

 

When I did a test run, the cold water from the tap was already 24oC, so I just used tap water to fill it up to the 8.5 litre mark (rather than add any hot water) to ensure starting temp was as close to 22oC as possible.

 

2 days in I still notice that I have a 1.5 to 2cm black band at the bottom of the fermenter (i.e. remnants of the can). Is this OK or was I suppose to mix the contents of the can with hot water at the start? Just wanting to make sure I haven't stuffed it already. Temp is a nice 22oC and it seems to be fermenting happily.

 

As I said at the start, simple/stupid question but you have to start somewhere.

[porschemad911]

Welcome Gashead! Don't worry too much, the yeasties are hungry little munchers - they'll find it. Sounds like the fermentation has kicked off well, so I'd just let it go and try to keep the temp between 18C and 22C.

[Gibbo]

Watching the video is suggests using hot water until the 6 litre mark and then hot or cold to the 8.5litre mark and getting the temp at 22oC.

 

When I did a test run' date=' the cold water from the tap was already 24oC, so I just used tap water to fill it up to the 8.5 litre mark (rather than add any hot water) to ensure starting temp was as close to 22oC as possible.[/quote']

I had a similar issue, but was in too much of a rush to get my first brew on that I didn't bother with a test run. Had to force cool my FV in an ice bath in the laundry to get it to the right temperature!

 

At the time I thought I must have done something wrong, but after joining the forum, I found a thread where Paul mentioned that the voiceover was wrong:

 

Just reviewing the instructional video for the Coopers Craft Brew Kit and I wanted to clarify one thing. After pouring in your can it says fill to the 6 litre mark with hot water. Then fill to the 8.5 litre mark with hot or cold water to get the temp close to 21 degrees.

Oops!! The voice-over should say fill to the 6 litre mark with COLD water

So you're not alone, but at least you found out during your test run!

[Gashead]

Thanks for the responses guys. Most appeciated. Just to be clear, I never made an effort dissolve the can. Essentially tipped the can in, and then just put water at 24oC on top (hence I still have undissolved contents at the bottom of the fermenter.

 

At the end of the day, I will bottle it and see how it goes, but just interested whether you should dissolve/mix the cans with water, or can you just pour it in (like I did) and then just add water on top?

[ben 10]

When I made cans I always dissolved the contents in some hot water.

Shake your FV to see if you can get the undissolved malt into suspension.

[PB2]

When I made cans I always dissolved the contents in some hot water.

Not required with George

[Johno1525228972]

can someone who has made the bewitched amber ale tell me how many days fermentation took to complete?

[Chuznut]

can someone who has made the bewitched amber ale tell me how many days fermentation took to complete?

 

Hi Johno,

 

I did this one last month, and it only took about 5-6 days (I don't have my notes on me at the moment to confirm the exact day) to get down to it's FG at ambient temperatures (around 22deg).

 

I still left it in the FV for another week before bottling it though.

 

Cheers

 

Blake

[Gashead]

I've just bottle mine on Friday night.

* SG on Day 6 was 1017

* SG on Day 8 was 1011

* SG on Day 9 was 1010

* SG on Day 10 was 1010

* SG on Day 11 (FG) was 1010

 

ABV is 4.8%.

 

Temperature was about 22oc thoughout.

 

[AaronC]

When I made cans I always dissolved the contents in some hot water.

Not required with George

 

Thanks PB2,

Just to Clarify here if we can, you don't have to dissolve the contents? I was getting some pretty strange hydrometer readings by not dissolving? (Assuming that just the can itself should come out at 4.5%???)

 

[Payno]

I have done at least half a dozen of the craft recipes - some were ok, some were not that great. probably more of a reflection on the recipes than the kits.

The smaller FV's are also good to use with standard kits too - for example I wanted to make a quick IPA yesterday so I used my smaller FV and a can of Coopers Pale Ale with 500 gms of LME, 200 gms of crystal and a 10 min boil of 3 different hops - made up to 12 litres. Done this before and its worked a treat.

Also - I have split a can and put half in 2 different FV's with different recipes or left the other half of the can in the fridge (with glad wrap over it) to use again later. very easy if you're using Dry malt Extract.

[MikeC1525229119]

Hi Chuznut,

 

I have brewed about 6 of these craft beer series recipes. I think the best one so far was the Cascade Pale Ale with the North West Pale Ale can. The Diablo IPA was a bit too bitter for me and I was not a big fan of the Amber.

In all I think it is a great idea and I am now moving onto BIAG small batch brews using the same FV.

Putting down my first BIAB Pale Ale tonight. Excited to be moving to all grain and experimenting with my malt profile.

Cheers,

 

Mike

[Beervis]

Hey hey,

 

I got the craft fermenter recently after returning to brewing, so I'm using it as well as the 23L.

 

So far I've only tried two, and I've got the ROTM on the way.

 

Brewed the Amber that came with the kit, must say my attention to detail was shabby as and I cut a few corners. Finished product is drinkable but I didn't love it. Bit homebrewey but I don't know if that's me, an old can, etc etc.

 

Second go was the Diablo IPA, and I added 500gms LDM to give it a bit more of a kick. I must say, it's delicious and one of my best brewing attempts! I nearly fell off the couch when I tasted it and that was only after a week. I don't think it even needs dry hopping although I'm sure it wouldn't hurt. Just amazing.

 

Overall I'm not sure what to say about George. I'm gonna keep running the ROTM's for something to do, and that IPA, and I love how easy it is with everything being small . I just don't know how economical it is, and seriously, I thought a carton was a fair bit but I get a sad face going when I see how quickly I'm getting through them :P If I had a big enough fridge to run George and a 23L at the same time I'd be less annoyed about this - maybe I need another bar fridge.

[meves]

The problem I have with the craft series cans and the recipes of the month is that they are quite limited.

 

ROTM is normally a can, usually north west pale with a 25g pack of some variety of hops and a 250g sachet of malt extract. Boil malt extract, add hop, boil ten minutes, throw extract in fermenter with can, dry hop with rest of hops after a week and a half. All come out to 8.5L and about 6.5% which I find a little too strong for my tastes.

 

Also not being able to get the 1.3L cans of extract can off the shelf is annoying, especially when you see the regular 1.7L cans everywhere, but there are no recipes using these for the little 10L fermentor.

 

I think I will move onto extract brews and small batch BIAB to be honest.

[Beervis]

The problem I have with the craft series cans and the recipes of the month is that they are quite limited.

 

ROTM is normally a can' date=' usually north west pale with a 25g pack of some variety of hops and a 250g sachet of malt extract. Boil malt extract, add hop, boil ten minutes, throw extract in fermenter with can, dry hop with rest of hops after a week and a half. All come out to 8.5L and about 6.5% which I find a little too strong for my tastes.

 

Also not being able to get the 1.3L cans of extract can off the shelf is annoying, especially when you see the regular 1.7L cans everywhere, but there are no recipes using these for the little 10L fermentor.

 

I think I will move onto extract brews and small batch BIAB to be honest. [/quote']

 

I think you're right, they are quite limited. Although in some sense that's the point I suppose, they're aimed at lovers of craft beer, which is mostly strong (alcohol wise) and hoppy. Session IPA's are popular now for a hoppy but lower strength beer, although I doubt you could get one to work in the craft kit with such a small volume. Personally I don't really like session beers anyway, if I'm gonna have something less alcoholic I'd prefer something like Becks or Stella, still full flavoured and sessionable but not hoppy water.

 

I've read a lot of posts both here and at AHB talking about using the full size kits in the little fermenter, as long as the initial IBU isn't too high and you don't use the full recommended amount of fermentables you should have no trouble. I think I might start a recipe thread for this purpose once I get time to try out a few tricks. I kinda feel like weaker beers like the coopers lager would taste nice at a 9 litre or so mark.

 

I'm hoping that in future Coopers' release a few more cans for George as well.

[Happy Chappies]

I've been using George for a few months now (and it's my first foray into home brewing), and have my 9th batch cold crashing in there at the moment.

 

I'll admit that my first brew (the ubiquitous Amber Ale) wasn't particularly remarkable (but fine for a first try), nor did a later amber ale (Oval Office Honey Amber) particularly blow me away. But I've had some huge successes with the craft cans and recipes..

 

- A modified 'Defibrillator' recipe, injecting some cold brew coffee into it, was brilliant. Wife loved it, down to only 2 bottles left!

- The Shiner Dark IPA was also surprisingly excellent.

- Brown Eyed Girl was the amber ale which redeemed amber ales for me. Just enjoying that now.

 

But I agree the craft cans are limited, and hard to get. So after those recipes what I've done is start purchasing the full size cans and then utilising craft recipes (off the Mr Beer site, where there are many more), or modified full-size recipes, use half a can at a time. That's actually been a lot of fun as it allows me to try two different styles based on the same can. You have to make sure you're subbing in the right fermentables, etc. but not hard.

 

So what I've now got under production now is:

 

- Two wheat beers - One hefeweizen, one raspberry wheat. (The hefeweizen is also very good. Just started drinking that this week.)

- A pale ale can morphing into a Red Rattler Ale and a Brew A mongrel of sorts.

- A stout can becoming a coffee stout (got to keep Mrs happy) and a Chocolate Orange Stout.

 

So you can make it work with the full size cans. I usually fill it up to 11 litres and haven't had a problem with overflow yet (I have the krausen collar which helps). Sometimes I round down the fermentables a tad too.

 

I'll be slowly moving into extract only and all grain soon enough, but the 'split can' method is certainly giving me a lot of room for experimentation which is what I'm enjoying about this the most.