How to brew a Coopers English Bitter at home

An English bitter is the beer a lot of people think they do not like until they have one that was made properly, and it happens to be one of the easier styles to get right at home. The Coopers kit gives you toffee and a gentle caramel sweetness with an earthy bitterness underneath it, and it is forgiving enough that a first attempt comes out drinkable rather than educational.

What you need

• A can of Coopers English Bitter 1.7kg liquid malt extract
• A fermenter with a lid, an airlock and a hydrometer
• Brewing sugar, either light dry malt or a brew enhancer
• Water, tap or filtered, at about room temperature
• A no rinse sanitiser
• Bottles, caps and a capper

Light dry malt gives you more body than plain sugar does, and on a bitter that is the difference between a beer with a middle to it and a thin one.

The method

1. Sanitise everything

Everything that touches the wort. A no rinse sanitiser is the easy way, and clean gear is the single biggest factor in whether the batch is any good.

2. Mix the malt

Stand the can in warm water for a few minutes so the malt pours instead of crawling. Mix the extract and the brewing sugar with about 2 litres of hot water in the fermenter and stir until it has completely dissolved, then top up with cold water to the 23 litre mark.

You want the wort somewhere between 21 and 27 degrees before the yeast goes anywhere near it. Too hot kills it and too cold stalls it.

3. Pitch the yeast

Sprinkle the yeast across the surface, stir gently, then seal the fermenter with the lid and the airlock and put it somewhere that holds its temperature. Fermentation runs about 6 to 7 days. There is nothing to do in that week except leave it alone.

4. Check the gravity

Once the airlock has gone quiet, take a hydrometer reading, then take another one a day or two later. What you are looking for is two readings the same, because that is what tells you fermentation has finished rather than paused. On this kit you are generally landing around 1.010 to 1.015.

If you have never used a hydrometer, bring it in and we will show you how to read one. It takes about two minutes and it is much easier shown than written down.

5. Bottle it

Add priming sugar to each bottle, then siphon carefully so you leave the yeast sediment behind in the fermenter. Fill to about 25mm from the top, cap firmly, and keep the bottles out of the light.

6. Wait, which is the hard part

Two weeks at room temperature for bottle conditioning, and it genuinely does keep improving after that. A bitter at 6 weeks is a better beer than the same bitter at 2, so if you can leave a few at the back it is worth doing.

Serving it

An English bitter is not meant to be drunk at lager temperature. Somewhere around 10 to 12 degrees lets the malt come through, which is most of the point of the style. Fridge for a bit, then out on the bench for 20 minutes before you pour.

It goes well with a roast, and it is very good with a sharp cheddar.

Making it yours

Once you have brewed it straight once, orange peel or a small amount of vanilla added during fermentation will give it a different character. Go lighter than you think, because a bitter has a delicate balance and it is easy to bury.

Shop related products

• Coopers English Bitter 1.7kg. The kit this whole post is about.
• S-04 Safale Ale Yeast 11.5g. An English ale yeast, if you want to step up from the sachet in the tin.
• Beer Essentials No Rinse Sanitiser 25g. Step one, and the one people skip.
• Coopers Original Dark Ale 1.7kg. Where to go next if the bitter was your sort of thing.

Did you know we also stock the equipment in store that is not on the website, including fermenters, hydrometers, airlocks, bottle cappers and the Coopers light dry malt and brew enhancers. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf.

The kits are in Coopers and the rest is in homebrew.

Stuck on a reading

Brewhilder will help you work out what a gravity reading is telling you, which is the step that trips up most people on their first kit.

More on brewing

• Why every homebrewer needs a decent fermenter
• Top 5 common homebrewing mistakes and how to fix them
• Brewing on a budget, essential equipment that will not break the bank

I left four of these at the back of the cupboard and forgot about them for three months, and they were the best ones.

Cheers,
Candeece