coopers Stout

[ForeverJack]

Hi guys. Brewer loosing heart here :) binned a Wherry this morning as it absolutely stunk and had what looked like mould bits on top. Tasted foul too. Gutted. Did pitch the yeast at a high temp, would this have caused it? Anyway, sticking to cheaper kits until I succeed, so going to start a coopers stout tomorrow,just wondering on adding dark sugar, treacle and spray malt etc and if so in what quantity? Don't want to give up as despite not having anything drinkable im really enjoying it.

 

[Hyster]

Best advice I can give is to make sure everything, and I mean everything, is not just clean but sterilized.

I've done a Coopers stout kit with some brown sugar and a little treacle, it turned out very nice.

I did however take a while to mature and get to its best and it fermented pretty violently if I remember correctly, kept clogging the bubbler.

Good luck!

 

[RobWalker]

that sounds like a simple infection. you probably do need to sanitize better, what are you doing at the moment?

 

[ForeverJack]

Need to take more care perhaps. I'm using some baby steriliser as seen on what's brewing uk video. Little angles or Milton. Know Starsan would be better but got this already. Trying not to let it put me off as I really enjoy it.

 

[ForeverJack]

Hyster, what quantities did you use? What temp etc?

 

[Hyster]

That long ago I'm not sure, I think it was half a tin of treacle (don't go nuts with it, its strong) and the remainder was just brown sugar.

20 degrees, I would have imagined fermenting temp.

I was just about down to the last pint before it was starting to get really nice, if you can, let it age for a good few weeks.

Sorry I can't be more accurate, old age does not come itself. :nah:

 

[chrig]

Thin bleach is a very cheap and effective sanitizer . It takes a lot of rinsing but for a fv and other bits (all done inside the fv) its not a big deal. There is a 'how too' somewhere with dilution rates, which I can't find on my phone.

Keep this one simple, brew it slightly shorter and with malt or brew enhancer. Its good enough with just that!

try not to fiddle with it whilst fermenting, every time you open the lid or take a sample you increase the infection risk.

 

[ForeverJack]

You wouldn't add any treacle or dark sugar then? Do they complicate things? Another newbie question is brew enhancer the same as spray malt? Heard of Can and kilo but what parts would you use to make up the kilo? Opening it up can lead to infection? Good to know. Have to avoid temptation and just forget about it.

 

[chrig]

In my opinion it didn't need anything more than the enhancer I used, which was 500g malt extract (spray malt) and 500g sugar. 1kg of malt extract would probably be better but I was on a budget at the time and enhancer is cheaper.

you can always experiment with other sugars afterwards, but if you don't know what its like without them how can you know if its made an improvement?

 

[proost]

Hi guys. Brewer loosing heart here :) binned a Wherry this morning as it absolutely stunk and had what looked like mould bits on top. Tasted foul too. Gutted. Did pitch the yeast at a high temp, would this have caused it? Anyway, sticking to cheaper kits until I succeed, so going to start a coopers stout tomorrow,just wondering on adding dark sugar, treacle and spray malt etc and if so in what quantity? Don't want to give up as despite not having anything drinkable im really enjoying it.

Hi,
Can't help you out on the sterilising side of things as I'm new to this as well. Iv'e just been using bleach and Starsan.

The first kit I used was the Coopers Original Stout. I made a cockup by not making sure the caps were done up tight enough. The Coopers bottles have a tamper proof seal on them and I now realise that when you think they are tight, give them another turn and they will tighten some more.

Anyway, I brewed this kit using:
Brewed short to 20 litres
Brewed at 19c in my homemade brew box.
1kg Coopers Brew Enhancer 2
450g Black Treacle (from the Co-Op)
1 Coopers Carbonation drops per bottle.
Starting gravity, 1.050
Final gravity was 1.011 which I worked out to be about 5.0%
I like my Stouts and Porters to be quite strong.

From my notes it took 10 days to finish fermenting, I then left it in the original fermenter for 3 days to clear (in my garage with no heat, I just left it on the floor. This is to supposed to help clear the beer)


It came out a bit on the sweet side, but not too much (for my taste anyway) next time I'm going to add some hops to try and give it some bitterness.
And also because this was my first attempt at home brew, I think I may have started to drink them a little bit to soon. You have supposed to leave them for 2 weeks secondary fermentation, 2 weeks in the cold and 2 weeks to mature

Yea, right , I lasted about 3 weeks and have necked about 15 of the little blighters!

Ill try harder next time!

Good luck with your brewing.

:

 

[winelight]

How long had the Wherry been in the FV?

I had one brew go mouldy (Coopers Stout, actually) and ever since then have always transferred my brews to a second FV once the vigorous fermentation has finished to get the wort away from all the crud round the top of the FV and on the underside of the lid.

 

[ForeverJack]

It was only in there a week! OG of 1.040, after 3 Days it was down to 1.010 but stinking and tasted horrendous. I did notice a bad smell as I was mixing it all in. Like a rotten vegetable, cabbage smell...

 

[ForeverJack]

What is the difference between brew enhancer 1 and 2?

 

[proost]

What is the difference between brew enhancer 1 and 2?

As far as I can understand, 1 is for lighter beers and 2 is for darker, but as I say I'm pretty new to all of this as well. I think they both do the same job.

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