How to brew Coopers Canadian Blonde at home

What the Canadian Blonde tin actually is

Coopers Canadian Blonde sits in their International Series, and it comes as a 1.7kg tin of hopped liquid malt extract pointed at a pale, light-bodied beer rather than anything with much malt weight behind it. If you've brewed one of the darker Coopers tins and found the finished beer a bit heavy to drink in the heat, this one is the swing in the other direction, and it's the tin people reach for when they want something they can hand around at a barbecue without anybody pulling a face.

Why a pale kit is more forgiving than it sounds

You'll hear that pale beers are the hard ones to brew, and that's true if you're chasing a competition pilsner, because there's no roast and no big hop character to hide a fault behind. For a kit brewer it works the other way round, because the beer that gives most people trouble is a true lager, which wants a cold ferment and then weeks sitting cold afterwards, and a blonde doesn't ask for any of that. You get most of the crispness at ordinary room temperature, which is the difference between a beer you can brew in a cupboard and a beer that needs a fridge you can set.

The yeast that comes in the box and the temperature range it wants are both printed on the tin, so read that before you pitch rather than taking a number off a blog, mine included.

What to add, and what it does to a pale beer

• Plain dextrose ferments out almost completely and leaves the beer dry and pale, which is exactly what a blonde is meant to be. It's the safe answer.
• Brew Enhancer 1 is the lighter of the blends and suits a pale beer, where Brew Enhancer 2 carries more maltodextrin and pushes body, which you might not want here.
• Light dry malt adds body and a bit of malt sweetness, and it will also nudge the colour, so use it if you want the beer rounder rather than drier.

Temperature matters more here than anywhere

A warm ferment throws off flavours that read as banana or solvent, and in a stout the roast covers a lot of that up, while in a beer this pale there's nothing at all to hide behind, so the same mistake that you'd barely notice in a dark ale will be the first thing anybody tastes in this one. Pick the steadiest spot you've got rather than the coolest, because yeast minds a swing more than it minds a couple of degrees either side, and if your spot runs cold there's a heater belt and a heater plate on the shelf in the shop that will hold it.

Bottling and when to drink it

Take a hydrometer reading two days apart and only bottle when it hasn't moved, because the airlock goes quiet well before the yeast has finished. Prime and cap them, then leave the bottles somewhere warm enough to carbonate and give them a couple of weeks. A blonde doesn't need the long conditioning a dark beer rewards, so this is one of the quicker kits from brew day to something worth pouring.

Where it's the right answer, and where it isn't

It's the right tin for hot weather and for handing round to a crowd, including the people who say they don't really like beer, because there's nothing in it to argue with. It's the wrong tin if you want something with character you can sit and think about, in which case an amber or a stout will give you far more to chew on.

Shop related products

• Coopers International Series Canadian Blonde 1.7kg. The tin this post is about.
• Coopers Dextrose 1kg. The plain fermentable that keeps a blonde dry, and what you prime the bottles with.
• Coopers Brew Enhancer 1 1kg. The lighter blend, for a bit more body without losing the pale colour.
• Coopers Light Dry Malt 500g. Adds body and a little malt sweetness if you want it rounder.
• S23 Saflager Lager Yeast 11.5g. For when you do want to try a proper cold-fermented lager next.

Did you know we also stock the Australian Brewers Series Blonde Dry, the Coopers 86 Pilsner tin, the Brewblend #60 German Lager booster, no rinse sanitiser, PET bottles, the caps for them and the carbonation drops in the shop. None of those are on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.

The rest of it is in the homebrew collection and the Coopers collection, and Brewhilder, our homebrew adviser, will help you pick between the pale kits if you're stuck.

Read next

• Coopers Original Lager, is it a good first brew kit
• How to brew a lager at home
• How to brew Coopers European Lager at home

Pale beers show up everything you did wrong, which is either a reason to brew one or a reason not to, depending on the sort of day you're having.

Candeece