Modifying a Canadian Blonde

As I have posted before, I'm a big fan of Coopers Canadian Blonde, and I slightly prefer it to the Coopers APA, which is often the kit of choice for UK 'kit modders', which will become apparent if you browse through the Kit Brewing forum on Jim's Beer Kit. So for my first 'modified kit' experiment (these posts are out of chrolilogical order, I actually did this one before the 'Stout Old Gentleman outlined below), I thought I would keep it simple and 'Saaz up' a Canadian Blonde. What inspired me was a bottle of 'Saltaire Blonde' that I got on special offer, which is described as;

A straw coloured light ale with soft malt flavours, delicately hopped with Czech and German hop varieties.

So, I thought Saaz would be a good place to start.  Just for the record, the piccy in the right is my crap photography, not official Saltaire promo material! While on the subject of pictures, I'm afraid I didn't take any of this brew, but if you look at the 'Stout Old gentleman' post, you will get the general idea.

Type: Modified Kit Brew
Sugars: 1 Coopers Canadian Blonde, 1Kg Muntons Brew Enhancer, 500g Muntons Extra Light Dried Malt Extract
Yeast: Danstar Nottingham Yeast
Hops: About 75g Saaz, boiled in 5L water + 500g of malt extract, 50% @ 15mins, 50% @ 5 mins
Additions: Water de-chlorinated with 1/2 Campden tablet.
Time in Primary: 3 weeks
Secondary method: King Keg
Time in Secondary: 4 - 5 weeks
O.G. 1050
F.G. 1014

The method for using the hops was as follows. The 500g of Extra Light DME was mixed into about 5 litres of water in a stock pot, which was brought to the boil. Once boiling, half of the hops were added in a muslin bag. After 10 mins, the other half were added and it was left to continue to boil for 5 more mins. Then, it was taken off the heat and the hop bags removed. This was then added to the FV containing the brew enhancer, the kit malt extract, and also used to swill out the kit tin. Once it had cooled sufficiently, the packet of Danstar Nottingham Yeast was thrashed into the wort, and then the FV was placed in my usual builders bucker water bath set to 21 degrees C.

The idea of using the Nottingham yeast was that it was meant to give a clean taste to brews, with little esters, and that is what I thought would suit this style of ale best, what with it using extra lager hops. The first thing I noticed, after fermenting had begun, was the usual 'slight pong' given off by some brews was pretty intense, and had my spare room smelling a bit like a drain for a couple of days! I don't know if this was the hops or the yeast or what, but it was interesting to note.

I left it in the FV under an airlock for 3 weeks to allow the yeast plenty of time to clear up after itself, and it was then king kegged with the usual 80g of priming sugar. It took much longer to come good, after 2 weeks although fully carbonated, it was more cloudy than Gordon Brown's mood on election night, and wasn't fully clear and suitable drinkable until after 4, more like 5, weeks. Oh, and it was really, really hoppy!

After  7 or 8 weeks it was improving, or perhaps my pallet was getting used to the Saaz hops, when a friend came to stay to go fishing. After a long fishing session, ending at the local watering hole, we returned to my house with the customary Chinese takeaway. He asked to try this creation, and was suitably impressed. I showed him how to keep the keg gassed up as he took beer out, and left him to it, with a 'help yourself, there's over thirty pints left'.

The next day, while cooking Sunday lunch for us both, he turned to me and said, 'What am I doing wrong, it's stopped coming out'.

'Erm, that's because the barrels empty, mate'

I will take that as a success, although I didn't get anywhere near the Saltaire Blonde taste. A good first attempt then.

Stout Old Gentleman

As it was my Dad who got me back into brewing about a year or so ago, I thought I would brew him a batch for his birthday. He likes dark beers, stouts, porters, etc, so with the success of 'Ditches' Coppers, and with a little searching around the Coopers 'How to Brew' website, and reading of Jim's Beer Kit forum, I came up with the following;

Type: Modified Kit Brew
Sugars: 1 Coopers Original Series Stout, 1 Coopers Original Series Dark Ale, 500g Medium Dry Malt Extract, 206g Chocolate Malt, steeped from 0 deg to 70 deg in dry malt plus 5l water, 500g Unrefined Demorera Sugar.
Yeast: Kit Yeast x 2
Additions:Water de-chlorinated with 1/2 Campden tablet.
Time in Primary: 3 weeks
Secondary method: Bottle
Time in Secondary: 3 weeks
O.G. 1064
F.G. 1014


Right, so here is the procedure I used.

1. The ingredients.

The idea was based on the 'tucan' stout on the Coopers website ( one can of Original Stout, plus one can of Original Dark Ale), modified to allow the use of chocolate malt steeped in some dissolved DME, and with some simple sugars, 500g of natural unrefined brown sugar in this case, to add some alcohol 'oopmph' and to give the yeasts something to get their teeth into to ensure a thorough fermentation.

2. The Sanitization.

This is my usual method. All the 'stuff' I need is  placed in a plastic container filled with thin bleach solution. The FV is filled to the top with the same, as is the wide necked FV, which, once rinsed, is filled again with water treated with 1 teaspoon of Campden powder to dechlorinate it.

.
3. Dissolving the Medium Dry Malt Extract.

About 5 - 6 litres of water is put into this stock pot, and once blood warm, the DME is thrashed in.I fond it mixes in really well as the water heats up without excessive clumping.

4. Weighing out the Chocolate Malt.

I was aiming for 200g of malt, but the odd gram here and there in a 23l brew length won't hurt!

5. Starting the steep.

The choc malt is then placed in a muslin bag, which is lowered into the heating dissolved malt and the end tied to the stock pot handle.

Using a thermometer, I keep an eye on this, and leave it in until the dissolved malt mixture hits around 75 degrees C. It then looks like below, having taken on the chocolate malts colour, and (hopefully) its lovely taste.

6. Removing the bag

I then remove the bag (you can see how dark the liquor has become from the little drips in the container below. The malt was then given to a friends pigs (who gobbled it all up).

Meanwhile, the stock pot is left to come to the boil for half an hour or so to kill off any nasties that would taint the beer.

7. Heating the cans.

Meanwhile, the two kit cans have their labels removed and are placed in a sink of really hot water so that the malt extract pours out easily.

8. Adding the sugar.

At this point, after the boil, I stir in the sugar into the stock pot, which as it's a hot liquid, dissolves easily.

9. Pouring the kit cans into the FV,.

10. Washing out he cans.

Once they have been poured into the FV, the cans were then washed out with the boiled wort, and added to the FV from a decent height, and it all thrashed around.

Once cooled to about 25 degrees C, the two kit yeast sachets are pitched, the FV placed in a builders bucket, with water poured in to bring it up to the top level of the FV. A 25W immersion fish tank heater is added, and set to keep it at a steady 20 degrees C. I didn't put the usual airlock in the bung, as I knew the dark coopers kits like to go mental, so I used a sanitized old syphon tube as a blow off tube, running down to the liquid in the builders bucket as a sort of improvised air lock. Thank god for that, as it went well and truly mental;

11. Batch priming and bottling.

Not many photos here, I'm afraid, but the FV was left for 3 weeks, and the gravity had dropped from 1064 to 1014, steady over 3 days. It was bulked primed with 60g of sugar, and bottled. 3 weeks in the warm, then 2 and a half months in the cold, resulted in the following;

The result was amazing. Really chocolate, coffee notes, and real body. I can't really explain how fantastic this was. Anyway, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so after applying some labels designed by a family fried who is an artist, we had the following ready for Dad's birthday dinner party;

Did they go down well? Oh yes........