Coopers Pale Ale - what hops?

breadnbutter · Post by **breadnbutter** » Friday Oct 20, 2006 12:57 pm

G'day readers,

I know there've been a few posts on this but clearly opinions differ; some say Pride of Ringwood, some Cascade, some Cluster or Fuggles. Further, are the hops boiled for bitterness, flavour or aroma (ie 30+, 15 or 2 min) or combination? Dry hopping?

In the absence of your timely wisdom I intend to lay this down this weekend:

1x Coopers Pale kit
800 g LDME
400 g Dextrose
20 g Pride of Ringwood last 15 min
Bottle-cultured CPA yeast starter

Primary at ~20C til complete
Rack with 20 g Pride of Ringwood dry hop, 2 weeks at ~20C
Bulk prime 7 g/L dextrose
Bottle (PET)

Cheers, Mick

Emo · Post by **Emo** » Friday Oct 20, 2006 1:42 pm

I've just made a Cascade Pale Ale with Cascade hops and it turned out pretty good.

Colexis2 · Post by **Colexis2** » Friday Oct 20, 2006 2:10 pm

I made a coopers pale ale, with POR for bittering and Cacade for aroma.
I was worried because my yeast starter didn't work so I used the kit yeast.
I think the combination of ale and lagar yeast in the kit gave it something.
It is one of the best beers I've made.
If I did it again I would add some golding aswell.

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Friday Oct 20, 2006 2:10 pm

Er, POR isn't usually used as a finishing hop, though it's possible. I'd definitely switch it for cascade if you can.

breadnbutter · Post by **breadnbutter** » Friday Oct 20, 2006 2:34 pm

Great, it seems so far that POR is not the go, or only for bittering. So far I'm keeping the POR for bittering/ flavour and use Cascade for dry hop. Yeah?

Cheers, Mick

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Friday Oct 20, 2006 2:45 pm

Yeah.

Aussie Claret · Post by **Aussie Claret** » Friday Oct 20, 2006 3:27 pm

Actually the CPA can is bittered sufficiently (to style) so I wouldn't be added any for further bittering. If you are after a genuine CPA then you should use only POR which when fresh is a very nice flavour and aroma hop, in small quantities. In this case add approx 20g toward end of boil 5mins max. This will contirbute flavour, the CPA is not a very aromatic beer so no need to dry hop.

Now if you want an American Pale Ale these are generally slightly more bitter and full of flavour / aroma so use American hops (amarillo, Cascade, Simcoe, Cluster, Williamette) and use them to add a little more bitterness (20min addition 20g), flavour (5min addition 20g), end of boil or dry hop 20g. The first three hops in combination will give you a very nice aroma and flavour.

AC

breadnbutter · Post by **breadnbutter** » Sunday Oct 22, 2006 1:58 pm

Cheers all,

I can understand the bitterness comment Aussie. My past CPA's have been less flavoursome and slightly less aromatic than the real thing, rather than less bitter per se. Yet, I don't want overly aromatic - my personal taste is that the LCPA is too aromatic.

Hmmm, I like the idea of the dry hop - never learn if you don't make mistakes.

Right, 20g POR at 5 min then split racked primary and dry hop half with 10g cascade, leave the other half as is.

Cheers again all, Micko