What a Coopers Brew Enhancer actually does to your beer

May 28, 2025

What is actually in the bag

If you've opened a Coopers kit and read the instruction to add a kilo of sugar, it's completely natural to look at the bag of white sugar sitting in the pantry and think that'll do the job, and plenty of people do exactly that and end up with a beer that ferments out perfectly well but tastes a bit hollow when they finally get to drink it. A brew enhancer is the answer to that particular problem, and it's worth understanding what it's doing before you start worrying about which number to buy.

An enhancer is a blend rather than a single sugar. Part of the bag is dextrose, which your yeast eats right through and turns into alcohol. Some of it's maltodextrin, which the yeast basically can't ferment at all, so it stays in the finished beer and gives you something to hold onto. Some of the blends also carry light dry malt, and that's the part that brings actual malt flavour with it rather than just texture.

Why that blend changes the beer in the glass

Plain white sugar is all fermentable, so every gram of it becomes alcohol and nothing at all stays behind, so a sugar-only brew comes out drier and thinner than you were hoping for. The unfermentable part of an enhancer is the bit doing the real work, because it survives fermentation and ends up in the glass as mouthfeel.

The same thing carries through to the head on your beer. Foam needs something with a bit of weight to cling to, so a brew with maltodextrin in it holds a head for longer than one built on table sugar, and that's the difference you notice before you've even tasted it.

So which one do you reach for

The short version is that the three Coopers blends move along a scale, with Enhancer 1 sitting at the light and clean end, Enhancer 2 in the middle where most pale ales live, and Enhancer 3 carrying the most malt for the darker stuff. I've written that out properly, kit by kit, in Coopers Brew Enhancer 1, 2 and 3, which one to use, so head over there when you're standing in front of the shelf trying to decide.

What I'd say here is just that the choice matters less than the swap. Moving off plain sugar onto any of the three will change your beer more than moving between the three ever will, so if you're new to this and feeling a bit stuck, grab the one that matches your kit and worry about the fine tuning on the next batch.

A couple of things worth knowing

An enhancer replaces the sugar, it doesn't get added on top of it, and that trips people up more often than anything else. The 1kg bag goes in where the kilo of sugar would have gone, so your alcohol lands in roughly the same place and only the texture changes.

And because maltodextrin doesn't ferment, it won't push your gravity readings around the way sugar does, so don't panic if your final gravity sits a bit higher than you expected when you're using one. That's the enhancer doing precisely what you bought it for.

Shop related products

Coopers Brew Enhancer 1 1kg. The lightest blend, for clean crisp styles.
Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 1kg. Carries light dry malt, so it suits pale ales.
Coopers Brew Enhancer 3 1kg. The maltiest of the three, for dark beers.
Coopers Dextrose 1kg. Straight fermentable sugar, when you want alcohol and nothing else.

The whole Coopers range sits in our Coopers collection if you'd rather browse it.

Did you know we carry a fair bit of brewing gear in the shop that never makes it onto the website, including fermenters, heat belts, hydrometers and no rinse sanitiser. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf.

If you want a hand picking a kit, Brewhilder will talk you through it online, or just come in and chat with us.