Coopers Original Stout Review

[sdt7618]

This is my third go at this, and another new twist .
1kg of dark dme, 1 bottle of cherry lowicz syrup.

Didn't take a gravity reading, but will be brewed out and squirrelled away till Christmas,

 

[Chris Schofield]

Hi all,

I've been given some zeus hops and was unsure what to do with them. I've heard some people use them in stout! Has anyone here tried finishing a stout kit with zeus hops? If so how did it turn out?
Thanks
Chris

 

[sdt7618]

Well the first bottle of the cherry stout was ok, carbed well, but the cherry is a bit bubble like, hopefully it's gonna condition out by christmas

 

[Kenboy]

Put this kit on last sunday mixed a can of treacle in aswell its been going like mad all week hope it turns out ok :

Can you tell me what the treacle does to the mix, is it just about the flavour or is it an alternative to sugar?

Cheers

 

[sdt7618]

Can you tell me what the treacle does to the mix, is it just about the flavour or is it an alternative to sugar?

Cheers

its both, gives a flavour( and i wouldn't use to much) and acts like sugar

 

[Kenboy]

This is my third go at this, and another new twist .
1kg of dark dme, 1 bottle of cherry lowicz syrup.

Didn't take a gravity reading, but will be brewed out and squirrelled away till Christmas,

I'm looking to do a cherry and chocolate porter. Going to enhance a kit I got as a present. Currently I have 1kg of freshly picked cherries from a friend's tree. I'm thinking I need at least 2kg to add to a 23l kit. Also will add 100g of cocoa nibs.

Do you think this quantity is good?

Was thinking I'd bash the chereies and heat for 20mins. Cool then add after a week straight to the FB with the cocaine nibs.

Thanks in advance

 

[arcain]

43 pages of reviews: obviously a popular kit and now I know why. I usually leave my brews in the fermenter for 2 weeks but reading other reviews I decided to bottle it after 10 days. OG 1038 FG 1007 abv 3.9% It's not as strong as a stout really should be but those figures are accurate for this kit done as per instructions (with just 1kg of brewing sugar added).

I've cracked open a bottle early just to see how it was going and it is a beaut! Very full bodied and tasty considering it's only a 1.7kg kit. Not as strong a taste as the Milestone Stout, with less liquorish and bitter dark chocolate flavours, but others, like SWMBO, think that one is too strong and prefer this relatively mild stout. No doubt it will get better with age and just as well I'm shortly to go on holiday for a couple of weeks as I may be tempted to crack open a few more bottles before they reach their peak.

 

[Llamaman]

Cool then add after a week straight to the FB with the cocaine nibs.

Sounds potent.

 

[Clint]

Cocaine nibs...be having a scarface Christmas!

 

[Kenboy]

Cocaine nibs...be having a scarface Christmas!

How did I miss this! Lol

 

[Moonsafari]

I brewed this as my first kit.

Added 1kg dark dme
200g muscovado sugar
200g of golden syrup
150g of treacle.

Incorrectly measured temperature and pitched yeast at what I can only guess was 25/26c.

Intial og reading was 1060.
I corrected temp after 12 hours. I let it ferment for 2 weeks at 20/21c. Of reading before bottling was extremely high to say the least. 1030. I have bottled already and learned a harsh lesson. Can I put this down to solely the pitching temp?

Am I looking at a flat beer if the yeast was defective (although I've read Cooper's yeast is solid) or there a possibility of bottle bombs? Will the final product be very sweet?

 

[Arcs]

Eww Coopers Stout at 3.94% abv no thanks. Certainly won't be sweet bud but the taste of honey will be present. That does sound weird that the FG was so high after so long. Normally after a few days it's down to 1.010 - from the sugars you put in this is likely due to the lack of dextrose. The honey I would have pitched in later say around day 7/8, same goes for the golden syrup. Brewing sugar (dextrose) is king for Coopers and all extract kits. The muscavado sugar I would have used as bottling material but to each their own.

It's good to experiment but I would have gone with what the kit said to do in the first place. If in doubt then take nowt out. So 500g DME (gives body and head retention), x amount of brewing sugar for abv ie more in more abv. Sugar, honey and syrup day 7/8 (boiled or hot water until cleared) and leave until day 14.

Bottle bombs will only occur if you overcarbonated ie put more than 1 tsp/7g of sugar per bottle.

 

[Llamaman]

I brewed this as my first
Incorrectly measured temperature and pitched yeast at what I can only guess was 25/26c.

Of reading before bottling was extremely high to say the least. 1030. I have bottled already and learned a harsh lesson. Can I put this down to solely the pitching temp?

Coopers say their yeast is good up to 27C so you might have got away with pitching temp, assuming the wort will have cooled slightly before the yeast activity warmed it up again.
The FG is a concern. Was it stable for a few days at that FG or was it a single reading? Did you add any priming sugar? My worry would be that the yeast had stalled but might start again in the bottle.

 

[terrym]

I brewed this as my first kit.

Added 1kg dark dme
200g muscovado sugar
200g of golden syrup
150g of treacle.

Incorrectly measured temperature and pitched yeast at what I can only guess was 25/26c.

Intial og reading was 1060.
I corrected temp after 12 hours. I let it ferment for 2 weeks at 20/21c. Of reading before bottling was extremely high to say the least. 1030. I have bottled already and learned a harsh lesson. Can I put this down to solely the pitching temp?

Am I looking at a flat beer if the yeast was defective (although I've read Cooper's yeast is solid) or there a possibility of bottle bombs? Will the final product be very sweet?

Unless you brewed this batch very short i.e. a lot less than 23 litres I would say it is unlikely that the SG will have been as high as 1.060. I have use similar quantities and types of sugars in this kit and brewed short to 19 litres and my OGs have been about 1.048ish.
So the first qusetion is, what was initial brew volume?
Next if the OG is out due to either you reading your hydrometer incorrectly or hydrometer error the FG is likely to be out too. You can check your hydrometer for errors by dunking it in clean water. It should read 1.000. And more on reading hydrometers here
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...ic-gravity-using-a-homebrew-hydrometer.60895/
And I have found find that Coopers yeasts* are usually reliable and this includes the one supplied with the Original Stout so it is unlikely to have stuck or stalled as high as 1.030. (* Coopers use a range of different yeasts for their one can kits)
But at the end of the day if you have bottled your beer at 1.030 or even above 1.020, there is a strong possibility that it will get going again in the bottles and you will end up with gushers or worse bottle bombs. And if that is the case you need to think about your next step.

 

[terrym]

Bottle bombs will only occur if you overcarbonated ie put more than 1 tsp/7g of sugar per bottle.

Bottle bombs can occur if the primary sticks (ie stalls) and then restarts in the bottle. The higher the SG against what is expected the higher the amount of residual sugars available for continuing fermentation, although there is no guarantee that the primary will restart, except to say the higher the SG the more likely it is and the so greater the potential for bombs (rather than just gushers). And so in this case it is not just the amount of priming sugar which causes the problem. Plus the same applies if beer is bottled when the primary is still ongoing.

 

[Sandimas]

Bottle bombs will only occur if you overcarbonated ie put more than 1 tsp/7g of sugar per bottle.

Sorry but that is bad advice: bottle bombs can occur for a variety of reasons, one of which is over-carbonation. Infection and bottling too early are two others.

 

[Arcs]

You could have just given me a heads up for the over carbonation :P Sorry for assuming that peeps did things properly so that infection and bottling too early can cause the others sheesh.

Simple answer for it is if first brewing read the instructions. Sanitation is everything and somethings you will get away with, so being anal isn't necessarily the answer. You can just get away with washing your bottles in (tried and tested many times) fairy liquid etc and still not get an infection and still be able to produce your beer as ok. So your advice isn't necessarily the bees knees neither. Bottling too early? Well we have seen on this forum this can happen, but most assume that we do the 2+2+2 and if not have the knowledge of not being anal enough to know what we can and cannot get away with - formulas work well, that's why they are made but they also made to be tinkered with...

 

[Arcs]

And no, fairy liquid and other washing up liquid residue does not affect your beer or its taste if left to dry. Try it some time

 

[micklupulo]

Could I just join in on the carbonation point? I did a Coopers Irish Stout and batch primed with 184 gms. of sugar which was at the recommended rate of 8gms per litre. The result is a lively head but it dies down and kind of suits stout anyway. I then did a Coopers Real Ale but bottle primed with a teaspoon of sugar which should be about the same. After a month in the bottle it was a bit green but promising and again with a lively head but manageable. Now a month later whilst it does not gush the level of carbonation is ludicrous. Once the head is tamed the drink is so fizzy that it dominates the experience of drinking to the extent that whatever taste the beer now has is masked by Co2. I then did a Mangrove Jack NZ Pale Ale which I primed with a measured scoop half tsp. of sugar an though it's early days yet it looks as though that will work out fine. Any pearls of wisdom would be welcome. P.S. I am sure primary fermentation had finished on the Real Ale.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Could I just join in on the carbonation point? I did a Coopers Irish Stout and batch primed with 184 gms. of sugar which was at the recommended rate of 8gms per litre. The result is a lively head but it dies down and kind of suits stout anyway. I then did a Coopers Real Ale but bottle primed with a teaspoon of sugar which should be about the same. After a month in the bottle it was a bit green but promising and again with a lively head but manageable. Now a month later whilst it does not gush the level of carbonation is ludicrous. Once the head is tamed the drink is so fizzy that it dominates the experience of drinking to the extent that whatever taste the beer now has is masked by Co2. I then did a Mangrove Jack NZ Pale Ale which I primed with a measured scoop half tsp. of sugar an though it's early days yet it looks as though that will work out fine. Any pearls of wisdom would be welcome. P.S. I am sure primary fermentation had finished on the Real Ale.

Hi Mick, I don't like ale to carbonated, I use one 4 gram sugar lump per 500ml bottle and 60 to 70 grams in a 40 pint barrel, lager I don't mind cos that is the style