First time brewing - Coopers Irish Stout question UPDATE

Liver Shot · Oct 22, 2010

Hey guys, got my Coopers home brew kit today with the Thomas Coopers Irish Stout. Since the stout recomends i use 500g of light dry malt i also ordered a 1kg bag of it. It also suggests i use 300g of the Coopers brewing sugar, although with the kit i received 1kg of the Coopers beer enhancer 2 instead.
So, here's my queory, instead of using 500g LDM and 300g brew enhancer i was thinking of just using the full 1kg LDM and leaving out the brew enhancer.
Would this be a good idea? Or should i maybe just go half and half?

*UPDATE*

So i finally got around to making this kit today. Everything went well, or atleast i hope i did! I ended up using 500g LDM and 500g beer enhancer. Its at about 22 degrees and i ended up with an OG of 1044. I know im being very impatient about this but how long should it take to see some fermentation happening? I'm very excited to see how it turns out!

:drink:

broadfordbrewer · Oct 22, 2010

Hi,
My answer to this would be that either way will give you a nice beer, so you can't really go wrong. As far as I know the difference you'll get from using all spraymalt (the dry stuff), is that you may not achieve the target gravity reading and therefor a slightly weaker abv. But what you will get is a better 'mouthfeel' from the beer. The Sugar will probably be in the instructions just to help it ferment down a bit further. I'd see what others say on this too before starting... but to be honest you won't muck it up if you change the ratio of spraymalt/sugar.

Basically, some might recommend you stick with the instructions.... others will say experiment as its how you learn.

Just to add to this... and say the same thing again

I have tried kits with 100% sugar, 100% spray malt and a 50/50 mix and they all turned out well.

tubby_shaw · Oct 22, 2010

I would use the the Coopers beer enhancer supplied with the kit :thumb:
It's been designed to use with the Coopers beer kits so I would try that first and save the dried malt extract for your next kit

Grumpy Jack · Oct 22, 2010

If you're playing safe and want to see how it SHOULD come out, stick to the instructions, if you're open to a bit of experimentation, then mix and match, but I don't think you'll get a bad brew either way.

I tend to find that Coopers kits are pretty much bang on the money though and I did the first few to the absolute letter before I started to play around and add flavours or vary the sugars...

Good luck, keep us posted! :)