What next?

Draco

So I've managed to brew a rather successful batch of Coopers Pale Ale and I'm gearing up for the next batch. So far all I've used is the can of concentrate and spraymalt. It was suggested to me to try some hops (I think?) in the new brew to give it a bit more flavour.

What other baby steps can I try? Is there a straightforward way of splitting a batch before bottling to try a pair of different things?

halite

You could certainly split the batch into two fermenters and then leave for a week or ten days to complete primary fermentation, then add dry hops to each of the fermenters. If you were splitting a batch I would suggest 10-15g of hops per fermenter, obviously pick two different hops so you get two beers.

You could try an IPA kit and then dry hop one with cascade, to give you an American style IPA, and then dry hop the other with Fuggles to give you more of an english style IPA.

Another option would be to take the plunge and do an extract brew, not that complicated and you will see a huge increase in the flavour and quality. Good intro to extract brewing can be found here and here. The second link also contains a nice recipe to get you started.

Good luck.

oblivious

You cam try some full extract brewing with spray malt and hop and dry hopping you finished beer