Coopers DIY Beer Kit, is it a good way to start brewing

March 25, 2025

If you've been thinking about brewing your own beer for a while and you keep getting put off by the gear lists, the Coopers DIY Beer Kit is the one I'd point you at first, because it puts the fermenter and a first beer in the one box and you can be brewing the same afternoon you get it home.

What the kit is

It's the Coopers starter kit for brewing from a kit concentrate, so you aren't boiling grain or working out hop schedules. You mix a can of concentrate with water and sugar in the fermenter, and once the yeast goes in it does the work for you. What's packed in the box has changed a bit over the years, so go by the list on the box you've got rather than one you read somewhere, but the whole idea is that you shouldn't need a second trip for something it left out.

How a first batch runs

Clean and sanitise. Everything that touches the beer after the yeast goes in has to be clean, and that's where most first batches go wrong.
Mix the brew. The concentrate and the sugar go into the fermenter with water, made up to the volume on the can. The yeast goes in last.
Ferment it. Somewhere with a steady temperature, in the range printed on the can. It's often about a week, but the hydrometer tells you when it's actually finished and the calendar doesn't.
Bottle it. Into the bottles with a carbonation drop in each, then leave them somewhere warm for a couple of weeks so the beer can carbonate before it goes in the fridge.

Is it worth it over buying the pieces

For a first brew I think it is, because the bits you'd otherwise buy one at a time come in together and they're made to fit each other. Where it stops making sense is once you already own a fermenter, because then a fresh can and a bag of brewing sugar is all the next batch needs. And swapping to a different Coopers can after the first one is how most people work out what they actually like brewing.

The one thing I'd watch

Temperature. A kit beer fermented too warm comes out tasting fruity and a bit rough, and in a Strathalbyn summer a shed gets warm enough to do that without you noticing. Find the coolest steady spot you've got for the fermenter, and in winter a heater belt stops it stalling when the nights get cold.

Shop related products

Coopers Original Lager 1.7kg. A clean, easy can for a first batch.
Coopers Original Draught 1.7kg. A straightforward second can once the first one's bottled.
Coopers Dextrose 1kg. The brewing sugar that goes in with the can.
Coopers Light Malt Extract 1.5kg. For more body when you're ready to try it.

Did you know we also keep the Coopers starter kit itself in the shop, along with the AMPI 30 litre fermenter complete system, PET bottles by the carton of 15 with caps to suit, carbonation drops and a hydrometer with its test jar. They're not on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.