Anyone tried the new coopers range? If so any recommendations?
My experience with Cooper’s kits is that if you follow their initial directions; sub DME for sugar, the process combined with sanitation and proper fermentation and temps a tasty beer will result.
Coopers beer kits are excellent when made with proper brewing technique.
Since Coopers now owns Mr. Beer, they are also excellent kits when made with proper technique.
The krausen collar fermenter is an excellent fermenter to use in lieu of stainless.
At any rate, I have tried many of both brands hopped malt extracts and any that you choose will be high quality. Not as good as a fresh all-grain brew -done right- but I guess you can’t have it all 
I recently enjoyed the Canadian Blonde and the Sparkling Ale.
There are different kits available in Australia than in the US. Hope those kits will make it to the US. Perhaps they are waiting for US inventory to run out. Not sure if the Australia Coopers will ship to the U.S. but might be worth an ask? 
I’ve never had a Mr. Beer kit but I have to give them credit. They released a beer kit from a John Chandler, owner of Paladin Brewing with the proceeds going to him. Long story short, the guy got an aggressive form of sinus cancer while trying to open his brewery. Link is from the Akron Beacon Journal Beer Blog.
http://www.ohio.com/blogs/the-beer-blog/the-beer-blog-1.273124/mr-beer-releases-video-on-paladin-brewing-1.675336?localLinksEnabled=false&cache=18961415304345%252525252fnews%252525252fohio%252525252fcss%25&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ohio%2Fbeer+(The+Beer+Blog)
I bought a Mr Beer kit on clearance after the holidays because I wanted the fermenter for my smaller batches. I brewed the “American Lite” kit that came with it, making a few tweaks, and was happily surprised with the end result.
If the other Cooper’s kits are of the same quality, I’d say you should be fine with whatever you choose. The only thing I’d suggest is using a pack of Fermentis yeast instead of the included one if the kit is stored at room temp for any significant length of time.
That’s a great link to a great story
Hello all,
I was going to start a new thread but this is just the place.
I brewed my first beer 3 weeks ago and I am enjoying the fruits of my labor as I type. I brewed one of those kits from Great Fermentations called PDG (Pretty Darned Good) Pale Ale. This kit was both DME and grain bag plus 4 different hop pellets. It has turned out rather well. It’s a little flawed with some thickish mouthfeel and no real head retention but otherwise not bad at all and quite drinkable. Believe both of the flaws are because ferm temps got too high. I have bought a big plastic tub to fill with cool water and sink my fermenter in.
Anyway, brew day for my second batch should be tomorrow. I bought one of those cans of Cooper’s LME, pre-hopped (3.5 lbs.) along with 1 lb. of Pilsner DME and 1/2 lb. of corn sugar. So those are the ingredients for the wort. I’ll have left-over corn sugar for priming.
The directions seem completely bogus to me. We can get into that later but when you more experienced brewers hear what the instructions say about ferment temps you are going to be in shock.
Anyway, how would you guys go about the wort boil. The directions pretty much just say add boiling water to the LME and DME and then pour into fermenter with cold water until you get temp down to pitching temp.
Really, should this not boil for awhile? I realize I will not be adding hops but should it not go through the hot break? Can I just do what I did with the other kit I had even though there is no grain bag and addition of hops?
I am certain your advice will be better than the directions.
Now about those ferm temps the directions recommend. Get this. Calls for 70 to 80 degrees F and the hotter the better, even recommending getting towards 90. Now I am going to quote. Here goes the quote “hot box (box with a low wattage light globe attached inside), heat pad, heat belt, immersion heater, place fermenter near a storage hot water system, etc.”
I swear that is what it says. I have heard from you all over and over again to keep ferm temps around 64 degrees or so for an ale and I believe it so this seems like criminal info.
Appreciate any advice on this kit. I know it is real basic and even much more basic than my first brew.
UPDATE: I am nearly finished with drinking my second bottle of my first batch and it’s actually quite good. Not going to win awards but I am happy thus far!
My LHBS had a big sale on these so I brewed one for grins about a month ago. It’s not bad, but I did learn a few things.
First, go with the advice above and get rid of the yeast that came with the can. Its history and treatment are suspect at best. Choose an appropriate yeast for the style (maybe the San Diego Super Yeast?) and use fermentation temp guidelines you see here (or towards the cooler end of the White Labs/Wyeast instructions). Their instructions are the result of the fact that they think their customers will be pitching yeast that is in bad shape, so high temps are required to get it to ferment. That yeast may be better suited to higher temps, but I think it’s safer to start with a known quantity.
I also lean towards more DME and less sugar than their recipe calls for. That said, they’ve formulated the LME to be super concentrated so the recipe expects some thinning from pure sugar. I went all LME and it came out a little chewy.
As for the boil, I’d say just 15 minutes or so to pasteurize and get some small break on your DME. Boiling for extended periods with pre hopped LME would likely have some undesired consequences on the hop profile.
Hope this helps. Have fun and let us know how it goes!
My LHBS had a big sale on these so I brewed one for grins about a month ago. It’s not bad, but I did learn a few things.
First, go with the advice above and get rid of the yeast that came with the can. Its history and treatment are suspect at best. Choose an appropriate yeast for the style (maybe the San Diego Super Yeast?) and use fermentation temp guidelines you see here (or towards the cooler end of the White Labs/Wyeast instructions). Their instructions are the result of the fact that they think their customers will be pitching yeast that is in bad shape, so high temps are required to get it to ferment. That yeast may be better suited to higher temps, but I think it’s safer to start with a known quantity.
I also lean towards more DME and less sugar than their recipe calls for. That said, they’ve formulated the LME to be super concentrated so the recipe expects some thinning from pure sugar. I went all LME and it came out a little chewy.
As for the boil, I’d say just 15 minutes or so to pasteurize and get some small break on your DME. Boiling for extended periods with pre hopped LME would likely have some undesired consequences on the hop profile.
Hope this helps. Have fun and let us know how it goes!
Hello,
Appreciate the advice. I did just as you said and worked good. Got a break right at the 15 minute mark and removed from boil and cooled in big ice tub.
Did get fresh yeast. Safale US-05. When I did a reconstitute on this yeast it got kind of clumpy before I added to wort. Hope that’s not a problem. I guess it won’t be - I guess it will propogate out.
Thanks for the help!