Coopers Original Stout Review

[chrig]

Ive been picking up bits for my first kit brew whilst brewimg a few wines and tc, this has caught my eye in tesco as a good start.

Finally set this off with 1kg brew enhancer 2. Smelled lovely in the pan, should be ready around my birthday in may if I can keep my hands off it

 

[hong]

May? Dont be daft, this stuff is ready in 3 weeks man!!

 

[Kyle_T]

Not always, mine won't be ready until mid April.

 

[winelight]

Mine spent two weeks in the warm, then two in the cold, and I sampled one last night - very nice. Mind you, it was very nice after just 3 days in the warm, it had already cleared. By the time it's my birthday (also in May) should be pretty good indeed.

 

[bottler]

I must say, i enjoyed the coopers stout with only brew enhancer added on my first attempt of this brew. This time i did it with 400 gms treacle, 500gms extra dark dme and 1 kg mucavado sugar, and wrong way to go i think. Too much treacle... be warned :thumb:

 

[Kyle_T]

Mine is now ready to go in the cold but as its in bottles I can't sample it until I deem so haha. I did mine with 2 tins of black treacle after tasting a mates and it was fine, I think it comes down to people's taste in treacle ness. I think the full list is something like 1.7kg malt, 500g DME, 908g Black Treacle and 1.2kg Dextrose, bringing it in at a ball busting 8.2%, certainly a half pint drink!

 

[Stu]

OK so it appears this is better than the Irish stout.

I'll give it a go (I've been threatening for weeks).

I'm toying with 1kg of Wilkos Brew Enhancer for the first go.... or should I go half and half with muntons Dark DME?

I'm not going to treacle this time.

 

[ScottM]

OK so it appears this is better than the Irish stout.

I'll give it a go (I've been threatening for weeks).

I'm toying with 1kg of Wilkos Brew Enhancer for the first go.... or should I go half and half with muntons Dark DME?

I'm not going to treacle this time.

I would go with 1kg of dark DME and then add brewing sugar as required for the ABV you are after.

 

[Stu]

OK so it appears this is better than the Irish stout.

I'll give it a go (I've been threatening for weeks).

I'm toying with 1kg of Wilkos Brew Enhancer for the first go.... or should I go half and half with muntons Dark DME?

I'm not going to treacle this time.

I would go with 1kg of dark DME and then add brewing sugar as required for the ABV you are after.

I'll give that a go then. In all honesty, I'm looking to make a session beer. I seem to have become somewhat of a lightweight.

 

[ScottM]

OK so it appears this is better than the Irish stout.

I'll give it a go (I've been threatening for weeks).

I'm toying with 1kg of Wilkos Brew Enhancer for the first go.... or should I go half and half with muntons Dark DME?

I'm not going to treacle this time.

I would go with 1kg of dark DME and then add brewing sugar as required for the ABV you are after.

I'll give that a go then. In all honesty, I'm looking to make a session beer. I seem to have become somewhat of a lightweight.

Still need more though, IMO, brewing with just 1kg of DME will only see about 3.5%.

 

[Stu]

If it tastes good, actually I'm not that averse to 3.5%. I'd prefer 4% though.

So if I went for around 300-350g of some form of brown sugar, I might hit my target?

I really need to register on your site :lol:

 

[ScottM]

If it tastes good, actually I'm not that averse to 3.5%. I'd prefer 4% though.

So if I went for around 300-350g of some form of brown sugar, I might hit my target?

I really need to register on your site :lol:

I see you've just about sussed it

 

[Stu]

If it tastes good, actually I'm not that averse to 3.5%. I'd prefer 4% though.

So if I went for around 300-350g of some form of brown sugar, I might hit my target?

I really need to register on your site :lol:

I see you've just about sussed it

I did, but I can't add ingredients, neither can I seem to change the name of the brew.
Plus I can't add ingredients to a recipe in firefox, but I can in IE :wha:

 

[ScottM]

If it tastes good, actually I'm not that averse to 3.5%. I'd prefer 4% though.

So if I went for around 300-350g of some form of brown sugar, I might hit my target?

I really need to register on your site :lol:

I see you've just about sussed it

I did, but I can't add ingredients, neither can I seem to change the name of the brew.
Plus I can't add ingredients to a recipe in firefox, but I can in IE :wha:

Is it still the same? Firefox was a pain for a while but I thought I got there. If IE is anything but the latest version there may be some features lacking.

I just authorised your account which should make a difference. You can't change the name of a recipe, once you've named it.... that's it. Not sure how you managed the "null" one lol. I can change that for you though.

 

[Stu]

I did, but I can't add ingredients, neither can I seem to change the name of the brew.
Plus I can't add ingredients to a recipe in firefox, but I can in IE :wha:

Is it still the same? Firefox was a pain for a while but I thought I got there. If IE is anything but the latest version there may be some features lacking.

I just authorised your account which should make a difference. You can't change the name of a recipe, once you've named it.... that's it. Not sure how you managed the "null" one lol. I can change that for you though.

It is still doing it. Basically, if you pick an ingredient from the list, put in the amount, and press enter, it does nothing in Firefox. But works perfectly in IE 8 (Never bothered upgrading).

It's doing something else odd now. If you look at the pear Cider, it says it's £18.16 and the ABV etc. looks right, but in the ingredients, it simply says "Pear Kit - £14". The fermentables and apple juice are missing :wha:

 

[ScottM]

I did, but I can't add ingredients, neither can I seem to change the name of the brew.
Plus I can't add ingredients to a recipe in firefox, but I can in IE :wha:

Is it still the same? Firefox was a pain for a while but I thought I got there. If IE is anything but the latest version there may be some features lacking.

I just authorised your account which should make a difference. You can't change the name of a recipe, once you've named it.... that's it. Not sure how you managed the "null" one lol. I can change that for you though.

It is still doing it. Basically, if you pick an ingredient from the list, put in the amount, and press enter, it does nothing in Firefox. But works perfectly in IE 8 (Never bothered upgrading).

It's doing something else odd now. If you look at the pear Cider, it says it's £18.16 and the ABV etc. looks right, but in the ingredients, it simply says "Pear Kit - £14". The fermentables and apple juice are missing :wha:

Hahaha, that's OK. It's only because I renamed your cider but only renamed one of the ingredients listed with it. I'll sort that out for you.

I'll look into the firefox issue too. Cheers :)

 

[Rilers]

I'm curious what level of carbonation most people have used for this one. I batch primed 19.5 litres with 75g Brewing sugar cos I didn't want it too 'fizzy'. It tastes fantastic and pours with a decent head but the head is reduced to a very thin one by the end of the pint. I had added a bit of maltodextrine to the brew to try and offset for the low carbonation level but it doesn't seem to have worked. I've also ruled out glassware as an issue. It's been about 8 weeks since bottled. I brewed with 250g brown sugar, 500g Dark DME and 250g brewing sugar to 20 litres. ABV is about 5.5%

I have used a syringe to inject some air by pulling up 2.5ml of stout and 2.5ml air and firing this back into the glass. It brings up a great tight creamy head, but still does't hold too long.

I'll definitely do this kit again - but would like to improve the head issue for next time, any advice appreciated!!

 

[ScottM]

Ditching the sugar in favour of DME is probably your best bet :)

 

[Stu]

I'm toying with barely priming mine and using a tight "dog's ****" sparkler with a beer engine.
Should make it much creamier.

 

[Rilers]

I'm toying with barely priming mine and using a tight "dog's ****" sparkler with a beer engine.
Should make it much creamier.

I have no idea what that is and I'm afraid to Google it in work - could get some strange hits!! :shock: