Coopers Original Stout Review

[mickthetrick]

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

bet its really nice pulled through a beer engine stu.
if you do go for it let us know what its like

 

[Stu]

I'm toying with barely priming mine and using a tight "dog's dick" 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:

:lol: it's not as bad as that.

It's a sparkler. But the ones they have up North rather than the crappy things we have down south that make the beer flat.

mick: I'll let you know. It's a bit risky. I don't know whether to bottle half and keg the other half. Once I start pulling it through, it would be difficult to bottle because it'll be exposed to the air.

 

[bottler]

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

I have 2 dogs but both female, can i use them in any way

 

[djdavedanger]

This was my 3rd beer kit effort. So experimentation begins. I boiled up half a large tin of cocoa powder & mixed it in the FV I used wilkos brewing sugar, nothing else fancy. Fermentation was quite quick, but I left it in for the recommended time. Bottled up on 13 March with some more sugar for priming.

In ten of the bottles I used Vanilla syrup in addition to the sugar (the stuff they use in coffee) These ones have conditioned more quickly than the others (ie. more gassy) and the chocolate & coffee flavours seem to be better balanced.

I'm sure the other bottles will turn out fine, but in this cold weather are taking time to condition.

 

[mereside]

still havnt touched mine yet as its stuck in the corny my fittings arrived today so all i need now is my coupler and my gas arrives tommorrow then i can hit it hard ooh happy days are here again, atb wayne

 

[olivercollings]

Hi Guys,

I brewed this over the easter weekend. I used Ashbeck spring water, 500 grams of extra dark spray malt, 454 grams of black treacle and 50 grams of demerara sugar. I pitched the yeast at 20c. I have to say it was slow to start so I moved it to my airing cupboard and the temp was up to 22c very quickly. It still didn't go off as fast as most people have said on here. I am not sure why. I am yet to get a kraussen of more then 3 inches on any brw that I have done. I am on my 5th brew now. Anyway. I am going to leave it in the FV for two weeks before transferring to my King Keg Top Tap with Sparkler Tap, which I am going to pressurize with Nitrous Oxide to give a nice creamy head.

I will post photos once I have pulled the first pint. Here's hoping it turns out well :)

 

[Markus]

Please do, I'd be interested to see what the Nitrous Oxide does for it. My stout went into the King Keg and the head was awful.

 

[Kinleycat]

Please do, I'd be interested to see what the Nitrous Oxide does for it. My stout went into the King Keg and the head was awful.

Everything I've put in the KK has had a poor head.
I'd be interested to here from anyone who has put their stout in a Cornie keg though.
I had planned to bottle it but I may be convinced to put (most of) it in a Cornie if others have had success.

 

[mereside]

well finally i managed to hook up my tap to the cornie unfortunately the gas bottle has a different fitting to the regulator so need to sort that on mon but i had primed this keg because i wasnt sure when the gas was coming any way enough of that i poured my first from the keg this afternood, half pint for the misses and a pint for me here is the result,

oh my god its absolutely out of this world i cannot believe how good this has turned out and i am glad i got three tins whilst it was on offer, atb wayne :

 

[warnie]

Had this in the FV for 11 days now and last night took a FG reading of 1007 so as usual I necked the simple and my god this is fantastic with a lovely mouth feel . Anyway as I've got the Cooper's FV with the tap, I thought another trial jar full wouldn't hurt, which then became another!

Whilst I was enjoying these I was looking on another forum about bottling this stuff, when I came across the Ditch's Stout thread again, which I'm sure a few of you would have heard of?. Anyway 'ditch' likes his stout flat and more often than not drinks it all straight from the primary FV after the initial10 days fermentation!.

So I poured myself a pint a drank a fantastic pint of stout after just 10 days. Obviously there wasn't much head to speak of and it was slightly on the warm side but I would have no problem drinking the lot like this. But as it happens I need my FV so will be bottling tomorrow. Can anyone tell me from experience what is the least amount of sugar I can get away with for the beer to have a half decent head without being too fizzy?

:

This keeps getting better and better :) I'm down to my last 9 bottles so have now put another on with 1kg of dark spray malt and 300g of brewing sugar and brewed short to 22ltrs. Got an OG of 1044 so hopefully after priming with 1/4 teaspoon of sugar, I should have at it above the 4.5% mark.

Missed out the treacle this time to give me chance to try it neat so to speak, then I can better judge how much if any to add next time. I'm also hoping that the 500g extra DME this time will give me better head retention.

I use my LHBS and this and other coopers kits are always sold for £11.25 so a bargain as well.

:

 

[Rilers]

Has anyone on here ever tried grain additions to the Coopers kit, such as oats?

I loved the results of the kit when i brewed with 500g Dark DME, 250g Brewing sugar and 250g Demeara Sugar, but was disappointed with the head retention. This time I'm going to dump the sugar and go with all DME.

I've read somewhere that the addition of oats helps with head retention and body. Basically the oats are toasted and then steeped in boiled water water which is then used to make up the brew. Alternatively the oats can be used in a partial mash with 2 row malt.

Anyone any experience of this?

 

[mereside]

I have just asked a similar question in another section with a recipe to add to a stout which included oats, i havnt had a responce yet but i think i am just going to go ahead and do it for a trail run ,atb wayne ps will add the question here as well
hi guys i have been enjoying my kit beers and my last coopers stout was really nice and is sitting in my cornie i have started looking at doing something different I want to go to ag and soon but i have two more coopers kits to start before this so on to my question. I came across this as an add on to a stout if anybody could give me an insight into how and what it will do to a kit i would be most greatfull.
1kg of dark DME
300g of brown raw cane sugar
200g cystral malt
100g of chocolate malt
100g oats
30g of challenger hops

This was my last coopers add ons and was really impressed so if you could explain the difference and how things might be altered as i am trying hard to understand all this for moving to AG thanks for any imput, wayne

coopers original stout with 500dme, 850g muscovado,1 tin black treacle with chocolate extract I brewed it short to 20l

 

[Rilers]

I have just asked a similar question in another section with a recipe to add to a stout which included oats, i havnt had a responce yet but i think i am just going to go ahead and do it for a trail run ,atb wayne ps will add the question here as well
hi guys i have been enjoying my kit beers and my last coopers stout was really nice and is sitting in my cornie i have started looking at doing something different I want to go to ag and soon but i have two more coopers kits to start before this so on to my question. I came across this as an add on to a stout if anybody could give me an insight into how and what it will do to a kit i would be most greatfull.
1kg of dark DME
300g of brown raw cane sugar
200g cystral malt
100g of chocolate malt
100g oats
30g of challenger hops

This was my last coopers add ons and was really impressed so if you could explain the difference and how things might be altered as i am trying hard to understand all this for moving to AG thanks for any imput, wayne

coopers original stout with 500dme, 850g muscovado,1 tin black treacle with chocolate extract I brewed it short to 20l

Keep us informed of any responses you get elsewhere and how the brew works out. I was happy with the last brew and don't want to ruin a batch by turning it into some kind of undrinkable porridge concoction!

Also are rye malts and chocolate malts fermentable - can you just add them straight into the FV or do you need to boil / steep them first?

 

[mereside]

I am only a beginner so others will tell you more but from what i read you mash for 15-30 mins in 5ltr of water @ 65-70 deg with the oats and the oats are supposed to give a nice feel in the mouth but this is why i wanted to try , like you i was really happy with my first attempt i just like to experiment and be able to see a difference between the two and also to understand thibgs a little more as i really want to go all grain , atb wayne

 

[Retiarius]

Hello All,

This kit was my first brew. I brewed it as instructed, i.e. with 1kg of dextrose and primed with half a teaspoon of dextrose per bottle. I was quite pleased with it, for my first attempt.

However, I then joined the forum and read the earlier posts on this thread. I brewed a second lot with 1kg dark DME, a tin of black treacle (1lb) and primed with half a teaspoon of demarara per bottle and the results were far superior. In the pic the head looks a bit over zealous, but this was an unchilled one. after a couple of hours in the fridge it's much calmer and the head is retained all the way down.

I'll definitely be brewing this recipe again. It's a very simple brew for such great results. Next time I'll try to save some to taste after a few months ageing - this lot disappeared very quickly indeed.

Regards,

R

 

[bottler]

Yeah mate, mine dissapeared very quickly, but ive kept 2 bottles that i will open in june, it was brewed early march i think. :

 

[mereside]

all my ingredients came from malt miller the other day and on mon night going to do my mods and get another on the go as im not sure whats left in the cornie but it cant be much, very nice, atb wayne

 

[PremierCru]

I brewed mine with 500g dark spraymalt, 500g brewing sugar and 80g black treacle. After 11 days in primary FV there was a clear (but not unpleasant) taste of treacle; after another week in secondary FV (as I was bottling it) the treacle had mellowed and it tasted fantastic. I now wish I'd been less sparing with the treacle! As it already tastes this good, with no conditioning, I certainly won't be leaving it long in the bottle before sampling :

 

[chrig]

should be ready around my birthday in may if I can keep my hands off it

And here lies the problem, less than a third left with my bbq coming up this weekend :lol:

 

[jinxy72]

after having best part of a year off from brewing (2012 was a crap year ;( ) … and not having any grains etc in to make an AG batch I'm gonna do this kit this weekend to get the taste buds going again : can't wait