coopers english bitter

gary

just bought coopers english bitter and was wondering do i need to put a full kilo of brewing sugar plus 500g of light spaymalt ,or just 500g of brewing sugar and 500g of light spraymalt ?

HBO_Staff

The Coopers English Bitter is slightly different to many Coopers beers, they recommend just using 500 grammes of Spraymalt Light instead of sugar, but 500 grammes of brewing sugar will work but with not as good results

gary

Ive been watching several vids on youtube some have used 500g of spaymalt and a kilo of sugar ,some just the spraymalt and some have used the spraymalt and 700g of sugar .If i used 500g of spaymalt and 500g of sugar do you think it will turn out ok ?

marko

Hi Gary, 500g of each will be fine. Might just come out a little stronger. I would of probably done the same.

gary

just put the 500g of spraymalt in with about 200g of brewing sugar ,didnt think the spraymalt alone would be enough on its own .

marko

Let us know how it turns out.

HBO_Staff

As a general rule, the more sugars you add, in whatever form (sugar/brewing sugar/spraymalt/enhancer/etc) the stronger the brew will be in alcohol content, as these sugars will ferment, so the more sugars in the brew, the more alcohol you will have in the finished drink

Gerry

Hi Garry,

             I have brewed Coopers beer ( a number of types) but for the last 10 years have stuck with Coopers draught or Coopers original stout. One can of Coopers One kilogram of dextrose and 500 grams of dry or powered corn syrup. It is a good drink and retains its head. Yeast of course.  Best of luck. Gerry.

gary

Had a few of these over the xmas turned out spot on ,great head retention added 50g of fuggles for four days great taste will be knockin another one of these out over the next few weeks

HBO_Staff

Great news, the spraymalt will have helped with the body and head, and it's good you tweaked it with some hops to get it how you wanted it. All reviews welcome!

davemorton

I brewed the English Bitter from Coopers a few weeks ago, I added brew enhancer 2 only and it has come out great. Tastes a lot like a pint of Hobgoblin (but better as I had made it!!).

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

MikeH

Like Hobgoblin you say?  I now know what I'll be ordering next!

glenn

I'm just about ready to bottle my first brew (ever) being English Bitter. I just used Brew Enhancer 1 since that's what came with the kit and it's now been fermenting for nearly 8 days at 21 to 22 degrees C and S/G has been at 1.013 for a couple of days now. One of the reasons that I am learning to home brew is that after spending time in the UK and developing a love for real ales I no longer like gassy beer and Aussie beer seems to be very highly carbonated to my taste. I'm using the 700ml bottles that came with the kit and thinking that no more than one Coopers "carbonation drop" per bottle would be about right, but I'm also thinking of leaving some bottles without. Any thoughts on this?

HBO_Staff

Coopers themselves recommend 2 per 750ml bottle, for beer we usually recommend one per 500ml bottle, so at just one per 700ml bottle you may find it a bit too flat. You do need some sugar in the bottles, as it secondary ferments and creates some carbonation and pressurises the bottles. It is best to put at least one in each bottle to help it secondary ferment and pressurise the bottles, this also slightly increases the alcohol content too as the sugars dissolve and ferment. You are right to think about adjusting the amounts, try some with one, perhaps some with two etc, as it is a great way to tell which you prefer, and you then know for next time based on the bottle size you are using