Coopers Selection Wheat Beer - kit hack

[Daydo]

Alrite Ladz,

I started my latest brew as per title , got this coopers kit as part xmas present from my missus 😄...

I did another Kit Hack nd as per my other topic/blog Wheat beer - caramel /banana....
Thanks to Lordeoin for ur help with the finer details....

So just fin everything nd yeast had been pitched at 25c ....

Here's everything I used for this brew

Coopers wheat beer kit

LME - liquid wheat malt 1,5 kg

Carawheat malt - Crushed (used 300gr nd stewed for 30min in 3ltr - drained nd boiled remaining liquid for 10 min)

Whitelabs - Hefeweizen ale yeast -- ( with prominent banana nd clove notes)

Process : as usual cleaned nd sterilized all equipment

Drained both Coopers kit nd LME into FV - poured hot 3ltr grain extract inn
Started filling with cold water nd stirred ( would advised pour maybe 2ltr more boiled water 1st as liquid is very gooey nd hard to stir)

Filled FV to 23 Ltr --- OG 1050

[googoomuck]

After reading your original post and this one, I'm definitely going to get one of these kits ordered and on the go. I like a good wheat beer. I think someone on here (lordeoin possibly?) said that this kit is good to drink early. Did you do a starter for the liquid yeast or just pitch straight from the vial?

[LordEoin]

Yes, it's good to drink young. i can't keep my hands off it after about 2 weeks ad i think it's at its best at about the month mark.
I hacked the shite out of the coopers kit to make an orange/coriander wheet beer in one of the previous comps and it scored 41.

Everything you said looks good Daydo, from what i see about this yeast it seems be clovey if fermented around 20C and banana at around 22C (the wlp300 ferments a bit lower than fermentis wb06) more on the yeast can be found here

[Daydo]

Hey Googoomuck,

Sorry late reply been poxy busy but to answer ur question no I didn't make a yeast starter, pitched straight into FV

Will say tho the WLP300 had som crazy initial fermentation, there woz foam pouring into my airlock/bubbler within 8 hours (overnight) nd had change airlock 5 times following 4hours cause kept getting blocked with foam nd pressure wasn't releasing properly. (Wat I mean is small bubbles started coming out side of lid due to pressure build up...)

Next I took my eye of the ball due to some home renovations nd hadn't paid attention to the temperature since Friday nd last night I checked it woz 18c , DOH , so I put my heated fan on the FV last night at 10.30 to raise temperatures nd this Mornin the Temp had reached 32c , DOH again , fan sopose turn off every so often but put on wrong setting....

I really dropped the ball on this 1 nd hope I didnt fuck it up too much ..... Keep Ye guyz updated

[LordEoin]

hefe yeasts are very forgiving. Don't worry.

[Daydo]

Hey Ladz,

Quick update...

1st - I added 2x packets Bruphoria Finishing Hops (Polaris ) followed the instructions, wen I opened my FV there woz still gd bit  Krausen/foam - poured liquid nd teabags into FV nd they hav atleast another 5 Dayz to complete their job....

2nd - I hav been keeping the temperature between 22c - 26 c last 36 hours to get as much banana aroma but not as many esters...

Last but not least my bubbler/airlock is still bubbling boug 8 times every minute, so def nice healthy Ferm going on there...

Keep Ye guyz updated -- Slainte 😄

[Daydo]

Alrite Ladz,

Time for update 😄, bottled my brew 2day nd all seems gd....

To start, 
FG 1013 nd estimated abv 4,9%.... ferm stopped roughly 2days after my last update nd I let yeast clear off any esters nd drop out as much as possible....

Got 27 1/2  x 750ml bottles, the caramel grain def has added slight bit colour but not too much ....
(Shame we can't upload any pics)

So the beer is cloudy like normal wheat beer , lots banana nd caramel aroma, after taste lot of banana... No off Aromas or Tastes.....My missus said it titled her tongue hahaha

Added 3.8 CO2 with help of brew heads calculations nd used normal beer sugar =  264gr

Just let letting beer condition in bottles for 2wks nd looking forward to tasting it properly

Keep ye Guyz updated

Slainte 😋....

[LordEoin]

glad it worked out well, but wowee that's a lot of priming sugar!

[Daydo]

Hey LordEoin,

Yep seems a gd bit priming sugar but I followed guidance from John Palmer webpage for priming nd rough guide to world beer nd their carb ratios .... German Wheat beer is between 3.3 - 4.2.....

I like my beer with bit of gas in it makes little more refreshing I think...

Maybe I should used corn sugar ?? .......

[LordEoin]

there's not much difference between corn sugar and cane sugar.

[Daydo]

hey Guys,

Sorry I haven't updated this thread with my final thought on my kit and results.

Better late than never tho rite

So to start with my missus like the beer lot more than my self , I found it too fruity of banana.
I did kep fermentatio at 23 for couple days and could even smell the gasses out of the bubbler like banana and filled the room.

the beer was nice ice cold for me but missus would drink it cool also and she drank most of it.

After 2 wks their was plenty carbonation and found my carb ratio suited the beer just fine
head retention was good after 2 wks and lasted nearly to end of the glass especially if drink was ice cold.
I think my 2 bags of finishing hops did help also I left for at least 1 wk I'm the Fv

Did not notice a lot of caramel flavour from the grain I added 300g but color was definitely influence by the grain.

All In all me and missus agree 8 out of 10 for a home kit brew.