How to brew Thomas Coopers Golden Crown Lager
The Golden Crown is one of the Thomas Coopers kits, and it's the one to pick when what you're after is a proper golden lager rather than something with a lot of personality in it. Coopers' own history on it is that in 1968 they put out their first lager, the Gold Crown, a less sweet beer in the Dortmunder style, and this kit is built on Maxwell Cooper's original recipe. Whether that sells it to you or not, the beer it makes is deep golden with a firm malty body. The bitterness is refreshing rather than heavy, there's a fruity aroma that hangs around, and the head is tight and compact.
What's in the tin, and what isn't
You get 1.7kg of hopped malt extract and a 7g sachet of Coopers yeast selected for this one, taped under the lid. That's it, and that's normal for a kit.
What you have to supply is the fermentable sugar that goes in with it, which is either plain dextrose or one of the Coopers brew enhancers, and the tin tells you how much. You also need water, a fermenter, something to measure with and something to put the finished beer in. If you've never done this before, the beginner's version of all of that is one purchase and we'll walk you through what's in it.
Dextrose or a brew enhancer
This is the one decision the kit leaves you. Plain dextrose is the cheaper option and it ferments right out, so it lifts the alcohol and leaves the body where it was. The brew enhancers are blends, and they leave a bit more behind, which shows up as a fuller mouthfeel and a better head. For a Golden Crown, where a firm malty body is the point of the beer, the enhancer is the one I'd reach for. Neither one is wrong and you'll work out your own preference after a couple of batches.
Getting it right
A kit beer goes wrong in a small number of ways and none of them are about skill.
Cleanliness is the big one. The fermenter has to be properly clean and then sanitised, in that order, because an infected batch tastes sour no matter how good the kit was.
Temperature comes next. Kit yeast is forgiving and it'll still work in a warm spot, but the warmer it sits the more fruity ester it throws, and a lager is meant to be clean, so the coolest steady corner you've got beats the laundry next to the hot water service. If you want to ferment it properly cold, swap the sachet under the lid for an S23 Saflager and hold it between 9 and 15 degrees, which is what that yeast is built for.
After that it's a matter of leaving it alone. The reading on a hydrometer sitting the same for 2 days running is what tells you fermentation has finished, and opening the lid to look does nothing except let something in.
Bottling
You prime each bottle so the last of the yeast makes the carbonation, and carbonation drops are the easy way to do that because it's one drop per stubby and there's no measuring. Then it sits somewhere warm for a couple of weeks to carbonate, and somewhere cold after that. The beer usually improves between week 2 and week 6, so if your first bottle tastes a bit green, put the rest away and forget about them for a month.
If it's your first kit
Bring the tin to the counter and ask what else you need rather than guessing, because the two things people come back for are the sugar and something to put it in, and it's an annoying second trip. There's no such thing as a silly question about a brew kit, and plenty of people who've been brewing for years still ask us which enhancer to use.
Shop related products
- Thomas Coopers Golden Crown Lager 1.7kg. The kit itself, yeast included.
- Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 1kg. The blend most people put with a lager kit.
- Coopers Dextrose 1kg. The cheaper option, if you want a drier finish.
- S23 Saflager Lager Yeast 11.5g. Swap this in if you can hold the fermenter cold.
Did you know we stock most of the gear for this in the shop even though it never made it onto the website. The 30 litre and 60 litre fermenter complete systems, carbonation drops in packs of 60, PET bottles by the carton with caps, crown seals, a hammer capper and a bench capper, the hydrometer with its test jar and bottle brushes. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.
The kits all sit in our Coopers collection and the wider range is in homebrew, and Brewhilder will help you choose between them if you're stuck.
- How to brew your first beer at home
- How to brew a lager at home
- How to carbonate your homebrew in bottles
I'm told the correct thing to do with your first successful batch is share it, and I'm still working on that part.
Cheers,
Candeece
