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I have just bought a Coopers Devils Half Acre Ruby Porter. Hoping it will be as good as their Original Stout kit. I have another brew to go on first but will report back once it's done.

I'd recommend any of the Festival range of kits. The Summer Glory and Razorback IPA are both very good. Otherwise, a Coopers Australian Pale Ale is a good base for dry hopping. I added Amarillo hops to it last year and it was a lovely pint.

I made a Coopers English Bitter kit last year. Brewed it to 23ltrs with 1kg of dried malt and a tin of golden syrup. It was a very smooth pint - almost buttery in taste but wasn't my favourite Coopers kit. If a did it again I think I would try dry hopping it to help lift the flavour.

Doesn't sound like anything to worry about. A lot of my beers have been slightly carbonated by the time they're ready to bottle. Just means you've got a good seal on your FV. Makes it harder to get an accurate hydrometer reading though!

It's got to be the Cooper stout kit. It's never failed to produce an excellent beer. I've always brewed it with a little steeped chocolate malt for extra roastiness.

I've bottled beers that stuck at 1020 (both times it was Woodford Wherry - a kit which is infamous for stalling). Never suffered from bottle bombs but I was careful to store them somewhere cold after the initial week in the warm for carbonating.

I like the idea of the traps, but is there a risk of encouraging them to come into the house? We don't really have fruit fly problems although Mrs HM's kitchen composter has been known to tempt them in from the garden (I've started moving this outside on brew days).

+1 for sample tasting. I drink every trial jar - even the unfermented wort from the OG reading. Even at that stage you can tell a lot about the potential of a brew.

About 600 500ml bottles and 2 pressure kegs that I picked up second hand and have never had the guts to use. So many 'leaky pressure keg' threads I've not wanted to lose an entire brew trying them out.

Yes - thank you very much! Arrived yesterday very well packaged and currently sat in a dark corner of our conservatory settling. Look out for a bottle of prune porter as promised!

Woo hoo! This is the best thing I've ever won (seriously!). Thank you very much - looking forward to enjoying my prize. Cheers Mat

Yes please! I have an inkbird with the standard probe and it's great, but this would be even better and mean two brews at once!

When should you add the campden tablet? With the mash water or as part of the boil?

How about 1062 - 1012 Smokolate Stout!

Perhaps the change of yeast has changed the taste. I've just bottled my second batch of Razorback after being so impressed with the first one. However, it's been quite a while since I last drank a bottle (they disappeared very quickly :whistle:). In terms of taste, they were definitely a hop...

Wish I'd brewed this up - sounds lovely. Not sure if there would be time to get it on now before spring arrives and it gets too warm for stout drinking. Although with the normal British summer weather...

Brewed up my second Dark Ale kit last night. The first time I brewed this kit I used it as a base for a spiced winter dark ale adding orange zest, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, muscovado sugar and prunes! It was pretty good (perhaps a little too much ginger), but I was keen to try the kit again this...

Agree with the hopping suggestions. I made this kit over the summer and added an Amarillo hop tea. It turned out really well, so much so, I've bought another kit to do the same again. Although this time will dry hop as well.

You could add finings but I find putting the fv somewhere cold for 24 hours before bottling will help drop the yeast (and hops from any dry hopping with other kits) out of suspension. 1010 sounds like a good final gravity - mine ended at 1014 but I think I brewed it a little short. Good luck...

The easiest way to control heat is with an aquarium heater. This is what I use in a water bath - which can be a garden trug or large plastic storage box. My FV sits in on a couple of bricks in the water with the heater positioned beneath it. The heaters are thermostatically controlled so you...