Acknowledgment

Recipe and method adapted from a post by Tony on the Aussie Home Brewer forum here:

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=26419

Description

This is a great summer thirst quencher that should appeal to lager drinkers. Light, refreshing, not too hoppy, and dead easy to make. It takes about 45 minutes more than using a kit but it’s worth it. The recipe uses a simple malt base and two hop varieties: Motueka (a New Zealand variety) and Cascade (a US variety). Both hops are added in three batches. The first batch is boiled for 45 mins to provide bitterness, the second is added for the last 15 mins for flavour, and the third is added at the end of the boil (called flame out) for aroma.

Little Creatures Bright Ale Clone

Batch Size (L): 23.00

Ingredients

3.00 kg light LME (Black Rock or Coopers)

300 g dextrose

Hops:

12 g Motueka (6.80%AA) 45 min

12 g Cascade (5.90%AA) 45 min

10 g Motueka (6.80%AA) 15 min.

10 g Cascade (5.90%AA) 15 min.

18 g Motueka (6.80%AA) 0 min.

18 g Cascade (5.90%AA) 0 min.

US-05 yeast

Method

1. Dissolve one of the cans of extract in 14 litres of water. Bring to the boil, add the first (45 min) batch of hops, and boil 30 mins. Boil it so it’s rolling but not frothing. You want more that a simmer but less than a big frothing roll that boils over.
2. Add the second (15 min) batch of hops and boil another 15 minutes,
3. Switch off heat and add the flame out hops (0 min)
4. Remove from heat and dissolve the second can of extract and the dextrose and crash chill in the laundry tub/bath tub by submersing the pot in cold water. Replace the water when it heats up.
5. Pour it into the fermenter, straining out the hops.
6. Top up with cold water in the fermenter, pitch yeast and keep below 20 deg.

Note: dextrose is an easily fermented brewing sugar available from home brew shops and some supermarkets. If you can’t find any, just use white sugar. It’ll be fine, honest.

Brewers World (Kapiti Lights)

Stocks:

• kits by Muntons, Brewcraft and Mangrove Jacks
• US-05 and SO4 yeast
• Black Rock malt extract
• sanitiser
• fermenters and other equipment.

Prices are steep compared with other outlets, but it’s local and easy to get to if you need something in a hurry. Poor selection of hops. No grains. Does not stock Coopers kits (probably because supermarkets stock them so cheaply).

The Brew House (Newtown)

Excellent selection of all types of brewing supplies. You can visit their shop in Newtown or order online and have your order delivered.

http://thebrewhouse.co.nz/

Baylands Brewing (Newlands)

Very good selection of hops and grains. Also stocks malt extract and US-05 and SO4 yeast. Order online and have your order delivered, or pick it up from Newlands on your way home from Wellington. (Pickup needs to be arranged in advance as it’s from a private home, not a shop.)

http://www.baylandsbrewery.com/store/drupal/

The Brew Shop (online only)

Excellent selection of all types of brewing supplies. The only place to currently stock affordable bulk dried malt extract.

http://www.brewshop.co.nz/

Great Expectations (Lower Hutt)

Good selection of most brewing supplies.

http://www.greatexpectations.co.nz/

Golden Bear Brewing

This brewery / restaurant in Mapua now produces fresh wort packs for home brewers. These are all grain brews that (unlike canned kits) have not been dehydrated. They come in 15 litre wine bag style packs for $40. Just open the pack, pour into your fermenter, add extra water if desired, add yeast (not supplied). A true high quality craft beer, and dead easy to make. The recipe and style changes from batch to batch. Once a batch is sold out, a new one is brewed.

Check the latest batch here:

http://www.goldenbearbrewing.com/content/brewery-fresh-wort-packs

Buy from here:

http://goldenbearbrewing.com/store/

Supermarkets

Countdown and Pak n Save in Coastlands both stock cheap Coopers kits, as well as sanitiser, crown caps, and carbonation drops. Many other supermarkets also stock Coopers kits.

Basic method

Most brewers start off with a kit brew. It’s an easy way to make beer and learn some basics of brewing. Most kits contain 1.5 kg to 1.7 kg pre-hopped malt extract. Usually the instructions on the can go something like this:

• boil 2 to 3 litres of water
• empty can into a sanitised fermenter
• add 1 kg of white sugar into fermenter
• pour on boiling water and stir to dissolve
• top up to 23 litres with cold tap water
• add yeast supplied with kit
• ferment 7 days then bottle

If done correctly, this will usually give a passable but thin bodied and bland beer. However, a Coopers kit from the supermarket will cost $14 to $17, plus a couple of dollars for the sugar, which works out at less than $1.15 a litre ($2.30 a six-pack) for something that’s probably no worse than some of the cheapest mainstream commercial beers, and sometimes better.

For a little more time and money, you can use kits to brew something a lot better that’s still much cheaper than buying commercial beer.

Adding malt extract

You can improve the body of a kit beer by replacing the sugar with a 1.5 kg can of liquid malt extract (or 1.2kg of dried malt extract). This will yield roughly the same alcohol content as adding a kilo of sugar, because  sugar is fully fermentable but malt extract is not fully fermentable. The non-fermentable part gives the beer flavour and body.

The process is:

• bring 2-3 litres of water to the boil
• take the kettle off the heat
• dissolve the malt extract in the water, stirring constantly so it doesn’t caramelise on the hot bottom of the kettle
• bring the dissolved malt extract to the boil (still stirring)
• boil 15 minutes to sterilise
• use this boiled liquid to dissolve the kit as per the standard instructions above.

One of the best readily available kits is Coopers Original Series Stout. This kit can give you a respectable stout with just a can of extract added instead of sugar. Try pale malt extract to start with. Amber extract would also work fine. For a really inky black as midnight stout, some people add dark malt extract.

For lighter kits like a pale ale, I would stick to pale malt extract. A fairly bitter kit like Coopers Real Ale can handle a full can of added malt extract, but for a lightly hopped kit like the Australian Pale Ale or Lager a whole can of extract might throw the malt off balance with the hops and make the beer too sweet. In that case try half a can (or 500g dried extract) and 300-500g sugar. (Use dextrose rather than table sugar if possible.) Even better, use a full can and add more hops.

Adding hops

For hop flavour and aroma (but not much extra bitterness), add 20g or more of hops to liquid in which you dissolve the kit. Boil for 15 mins with the malt extract for a decent whack of flavour, or add at the end of the boil for flavour and aroma. (See the Toucan Pale Ale recipe below.)

Better yeast

The yeast supplied with Coopers kits is not the same yeast that’s used in the Coopers ales you buy at the bottle shop. It is chosen because it will work at a much higher temperature than most ale yeasts and therefore it is less likely to fail in hot Australian conditions when brewing without temperature control. It works, it ferments quickly, but it seems to leave a funky taste in the brew. For a few extra dollars there are better alternatives that result in a cleaner tasting beer.

Here are some good quality dried ale yeasts that I’ve tried:

Danstar Nottingham: excellent all round yeast, neutral flavour, ferments quite dry, settles well. Available online from http://www.brewshop.co.nz/

Danstar Windsor: not as dry as Nottingham, so results in a maltier, fuller bodied beer. Settles very well. Excellent for stouts and English bitters. Available online from http://www.brewshop.co.nz/

Fermentis US-05: excellent all round yeast, neutral flavour, ferments very dry. Can be a bit slow to settle. Good for hoppy pale ales and US styles. Available from most home brewing shops and online sellers (including Brewers World in Kapiti Lights)

Fermentis SO4: not quite as dry as US05. Settles well. Use for English styles. Available from most home brewing shops and online sellers (including Brewers World in Kapiti Lights)

Gervin Ale yeast: reputed to be the same strain as Nottingham (and it’s cheaper). I can’t tell the difference. This is my favourite dried yeast. Only available from the Brew House in Newtown (or online via their website http://thebrewhouse.co.nz/).

“Toucan”

A quick and easy way to get a full malt flavour is to do a “Toucan” (ie, two can) brew using two cans of kit instead of one can plus sugar or malt extract. This doubles the amount of malt, but bear in mind it also doubles the bitterness. Therefore it’s most successful with kits that are very low in bitterness. The Coopers Australian Pale Ale kit is only 18 IBU (a measure of bitterness) and so is ideal for this. Two kits combined add up to 36 IBUs, which is still fairly moderate, and the malt and hops remain in balance. Add some flavour and aroma hops and you have a nice all malt beer, not too bitter, with plenty of hop character.

The recipe below is just as quick and easy as doing a standard kit plus sugar brew, but it’s a lot tastier.

Toucan Pale Ale

2 x Coopers Australian Pale Ale kits

40 g Rakau hops (0 minutes)

20 g Nelson Sauvin hops (0 minutes)

20 g Rakau hops (dry)

10 g Nelson Sauvin hops (dry)

US-05 yeast

Instructions

1. Bring 2-3 litres water to boil.
2. Throw in the first lot of hops and turn off the heat.
3. Leave hops about 5 minutes to steep.
4. Meanwhile pour the kits into a sanitised fermenter.
5. Pour the hot water onto the kits, straining the hops with a sanitised sieve.
6. Stir with sanitised metal or plastic stirrer until kits are dissolved.
7. Top up to 23 litres with cold water.
8. Pitch yeast (once temperature is below 24◦C).
9. After 2-3 days of fermentation, throw the dry hops into the fermenter.
10. Wait another week before bottling.
11. Leave bottles 3 weeks before drinking.

This recipe is ideal for trying different hop varieties, each of which tastes different and will change the taste of the beer. Rakau and Nelson Sauvin are two fruity flavoured New Zealand varieties that go together very well. Once you’ve brewed a batch according to the recipe (or if you can’t find the right hops), try replacing the hops in the recipe with one of these options:

• a 2:1 blend of Cascade and Nelson Sauvin (40g Cascade and 20g Nelson Sauvin in the boil; 20g Cascade and 10g Nelson Sauvin as dry hops)
• a 50:50 blend of Cascade and Motueka (30g of each in the boil; 15g of each as dry hops)
• any fruity tasting hop on its own, such as Cascade, Motueka, Riwaka, Amarillo, Galaxy, Mosaic, or Zythos (60g in the boil; 30g as dry hops)

The hop flavour will be very forward in the first couple of weeks and will gradually recede and integrate with the malt flavours as the beer ages.

Adding grains

Adding steeped or mashed grains can improve the malt flavour and complexity of a brew, add body, improve the head, and transform the style of beer, especially if hops are also added. The process for steeping and mashing grains will be covered soon, both on air and here. Watch this space!