Beer kit extra's questions.

What are you hoping to accomplish? It's generally a good idea to brew first kits as is.

 

If you want to maintain the same Original Gravity, you'd replace each pound of table sugar with about 1.3 pounds of LME. Or if replacing a pound of corn sugar, replace with about 1.2 pounds of LME.

But seriously, I wouldn't mess with substituting ingredients for your first batch.

And I recommend reading this...
www.howtobrew.com

 

I looked at the translated website and saw a 'Coopers DIY' kit that included brewing equipment as well as the ingredients for a Lager. That kit has all of the right ingredients (including some malt extract) to brew the beer. Can I assume that your kit also has some malt extract and not just simple sugars? Like VikeMan says, I also suggest the you brew that kit with the ingredients that came with it. Even if your kit has dry malt extract instead of the liquid version, there will be plenty of flavor in it for the style of beer for which the kit was created. If you start adding or substituting you can end up with a beer that is out of balance for hops versus malt flavors, and you could be very unhappy with the result.

 

I did a little web surfing on the Coopers Real Ale kit; it appears that is kit comes with one 1.7 kg can of pre-hopped malt extract and a packet of yeast: http://www.amazon.com/Coopers-Real-Home-Brewing-Concentrate/dp/B001D6KP28

In order to make a 5 gallon (20 liter) batch additional fermentables are needed.

It appears that Coopers makes a product they call Coopers Brew Enhancer 1: http://store.coopers.com.au/coopers-brew-enhancer-1-1kg.html

Rather than using this product (which is dextrose and maltodextrin) I would recommend that malt extract be used instead; either dried malt extract or liquid malt extract. I personally would suggest 1 kg of light dried malt extract (or 1.2 kg of light colored liquid malt extract.

I am not sure how much dry yeast is provided but I would guess there is enough for a 5 gallon (20 liter) batch.

Cheers!

 

I would suggest THOMAS COOPERS Light Malt humaloimaton for the Real Ale kit and THOMAS COOPERS Wheat Malt humaloimaton for the Wheat beer kit.

Cheers!

 

These kit beers are pre-hopped with bittering hops. If you want to kick up the Real Ale beer a bit, it would benefit from some flavor and aroma hops.

You could purchase Humalapelletti East Kent Goldings 100g. You don’t need that amount but you could save the unused hops for subsequent batches.

Assuming a 60 minute boil I would suggest:

· Flavor hop: 0.5 ounces (14 grams) of East Kent Golding hops for the last 15 minutes of boil

· Aroma hops: 0.5 ounces (14 grams) of East Kent Goldings hops at the end of boil

Cheers!

 

Changing the recipe at this point will delay development of your skill as a brewer. With recipe changes you are introducing another variable. If you're unhappy with the results, it will not be as easy to determine if the results are due to recipe formulation, process, or both. I strongly recommend keeping your first few brews as simple as possible. Refine your process than get creative with the recipe. It will make you a better brewer in the long run. Of course the decision is all yours.