Coopers Irish stout

[Dark Arts]

I used the coopers kit and got SG of 1038
I used
Coopers Irish Stout Kit 1.7kg
500g Light DME
250g Extra Dark DME
250g Crisp Chocolate Malt - steeped for 30 min a @ 66c, 1.5ltr water, rinsed with 2ltr water @ 75c, boiled for 30min
CML BEòIR yeast pitched @ 18c
Fermenting at 16c
Made slightly short at 20.5 LTRs
Water I used tap water treated with sodium metabisulfite left for 24hrs. I have pretty soft water being in West of Scotland so maybe not best for stout tbh

Bubbling away nicely just now, CML yeast works at lower temp and I have had good success with their yeast so tried it.

I was starting to think I need to add maltodextrin or and bi carb(my waters low at 55ppm?)

I made a calcium chloride adjustment on this brew as I thought the sulphate/chloride ratio was off, to improve mouth feel etc.

Anyhow this coopers irish stout Ive just recently done, is now into its 3rd week of conditioning kegged(party keg 5ltrs) 3xkeg the rest bottled, been unimpressed with the results over the last week, decided to stick 1 of the kegs in fridge...12hrs later sampled..better than bottled but still bit muh...fast forward 24hrs WTF this is a different brew, if id sampled this last week or even yesterday Id have been happy, Im now thinking that the 36hrs in the fridge has aloud more co2 absorption or something???

 

[old dog new tricks]

Great to hear I was going to bottle this and put away in in garage for at least 4 weeks

 

[old dog new tricks]

Well that it bottled and carbing up before going to storage for a bit.

ABV was low at 3.9% roughly I know will rise slightly with priming sugar.

I brewed thei short at 40 ltrs so as others have said it will fall short if made to full 23ltr as kit says

 

[Dark Arts]

Well that it bottled and carbing up before going to storage for a bit.

ABV was low at 3.9% roughly I know will rise slightly with priming sugar.

I brewed thei short at 40 ltrs so as others have said it will fall short if made to full 23ltr as kit says

Yep I think my SG was still low after 1kg of dex/DME so ended up another 200-300g in to get it to the expected SG.

 

[old dog new tricks]

Yep I think my SG was still low after 1kg of dex/DME so ended up another 200-300g in to get it to the expected SG.

My SG was spot on what the kit asked for at 1038, I think the SG is too low tbh.

yes will be a slight rise when cabonated

 

[Dark Arts]

I'm finding the coopers kits finishing around the 1.008, think I've had 1 go down to 1.004 using thier yeast and still had it go down to 1.008 with us05, I'm busy playing around water chem and maltodextrin to sort out the bitterness and mouth feel, almost cracked it I think

 

[old dog new tricks]

I'm finding the coopers kits finishing around the 1.008, think I've had 1 go down to 1.004 using thier yeast and still had it go down to 1.008 with us05, I'm busy playing around water chem and maltodextrin to sort out the bitterness and mouth feel, almost cracked it I think

Great keep us in the loop on best way to fix it i have zero clue about water treatment I just add sodium metabisulfite and leave for 24hrs

 

[Dark Arts]

Great keep us in the loop on best way to fix it i have zero clue about water treatment I just add sodium metabisulfite and leave for 24hrs

Have a look at your water suppliers water profile for where you live, Mine has a brewing section, plug those numbers into something like brewfriend and it'll give you an idea of any adjustments you might want to make, found out my water has a high sulphate to chloride ratio makes it taste bitter(was finding all my kits had a bitter note and lacked body) the all grain ive done have all been really good on body FG 1.018(which has led me into looking at maltodextrin) my last brew was coopers dark ale that I abuse the hell out of and turned it into a choc porter(mashed/cooked 500g of choc Os) added 500g of dark malt extract and brewed short at 11-12ltrs ended up with a 7.6% choc porter with a lot of body