Sugars: 1.5 Kg Liquid Light Malt Extract, 500g Light Dry Malt Extract, 300g Brewing Sugar (Dextrose)
Yeast: Kit Yeast
Additions:Water de-chlorinated with 1/2 Campden tablet.
Time in Primary: 2 weeks
Secondary method: Bottle
Time in Secondary: 6 weeks plus
O.G. 1064
F.G. 1014
There is a deli in my local town, Louth, that sells a fairly good range of both imported and domestic beers. Having brewed a number of Coopers kits, I was interested to see they had Coopers Sparkling Ale in 330ml bottles, all be it at an eye watering price. Fair enough, this stuff has come all the way around the world.
Coopers Sparkling Ale is a bottle conditioned ale, so there is a layer of yeast in the bottom of the bottle. just as with home brewed, bottled beer. Apparently, aussie drinkers are split between those who pour the beer carefully to avoid disturbing the sediment, and those who gently 'roll' the bottle to incorporate it into the brew. I settled on the former, and found it to be a nice, crisp, malty brew that I really enjoyed.
A couple of weeks later, and I walk into my home brew shop, and what have they just got in? Some of the 'Thomas Coopers Selection' kits for the first time. Marketed by Coopers as being for those who want to put a bit more effort, in terms of ingredients, into their brewing, I had to have a bash. I couldn't believe my eyes when I looked at their recommended list of fermentables ~ 1.5Kg of liquid malt, 500g of dry malt and 300g of dextose, but in for a penny...
It was a while before I got this kit on the go, as it really needs to be left down to condition for at least a month, so it had to go into bottles, which I needed to acquire. One of my friendly local boozers obliged, and I set about making it up. Apart from the fancy ingredients list, the brewing process is identical to other Coopers kits. The supplied yeast looks like yeast based hundreds and thousands as it is made up of both an ale and a lager yeast, which have slightly different colours. Brewed at a steady 21 degrees C, it was left under the air lock for the normal 2 weeks, then bottled. By then, it had reached a steady 1014, slightly higher than you would get if you just used brew enhancer, for instance, as there are more non-fermentable sugar components in malt extract.
The result? Amazingly close to the original, and a really nice brew. More expensive per pint, obviously, but a worthwhile enterprise all the same. Yet another blinder from Coopers.
