This is a much nicer brew than just using a kit plus sugar, without requiring much more time and effort (which means you can knock off a brew on a weeknight after the kids are in bed). Good for day to day drinking. Amber coloured, malty, not too bitter, but with a touch of earthy/herbal flavour from the hops. Styrian Goldings, Goldings, and Fuggles will all work well and give subtly different but broadly similar results. For best results, leave 3 weeks after bottling. It’s drinkable before then, but the flavours really come together and integrate after 3 weeks. Try one every week and see how it develops in the bottle.

Ingredients

1 x Coopers Real Ale kit

1.5kg light liquid malt extract

15g hops (Styrian Goldings, Goldings, or Fuggles) (20 mins)

US05 or SO4 yeast

Method

1. Put unopened can of malt extract in sink of hot water for 10 minutes to soften extract and make pouring easier.
2. Meanwhile bring 3 or 4 litres of water to the boil in a large pot. Make sure the pot is about double that capacity, because adding the malt extract will raise the level and the wort will foam and froth when it comes to the boil and also when the hops are added.
3. While the water is coming to the boil, sanitise fermenter, airlock, grommet, a stirrer, and a clean sieve.
4. When water is boiling, take pot off heat and slowly pour in the malt extract, stirring constantly to minimise caramelisation on the bottom of the pot.
5. Bring back to boil, add hops (will froth up alarmingly at first then settle down, so watch carefully in case it boils over).
6. Boil wort for 20 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, soften unopened kit in hot water bath as per step 1. Pour into fermenter just before the 20 minutes are up.
8. When the 20 minutes is up, switch off heat, strain wort through the sieve to remove the hops (optional) and into the fermenter, stir with sanitised stirrer to dissolve the kit.
9. Top up with cold water to 23 litres, pitch yeast if below 24C, fit lid and airlock, and leave in a warm place for about 10 days to ferment.