Flat stout

[B1gBill]

Hi new to homebrewing so need a bit of advice cheers in advance
I brewed a coopers Irish stout with the addition of a can of coopers dark malt extract 200g of chocolate malt cold steeped then boiled for 15 min and then 300g of lactose
Fermented for 10 days the bottled in 500ml bottles and after trawling the forum and Internet settled on 1 coopers carbonation drop per bottle
Conditioned for 2 weeks then chiled a bottle to test
Flavour seems good although needs to mellow which am sure it will over time
Problem is although I get a fizz on opening bottle on pour it's flat with no head
I chucked it between 2 glasses and I got a small head which stayed on the pint
Question is have I underprimed
Will shaking the bottles and keeping them warm for longer create more fizz
Do I leave as and hope it creates more itself
Am not looking for a Guinness head although that would be nice 😀
Just something on top of the pint would be nice
Or do I pour from height

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[Chippy_Tea]

Use a syringe! :wink: - more here - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=50906


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[Sandimas]

Have heard mixed things about those carbonation drops, personally I'd just use sugar to prime in the future, that's what I've always done.

Bring the bottles into the warm for another week or two. A shake won't hurt. They should eventually carb up a bit more.

 

[Gerryjo]

+1 as above though I wouldn't bother with the carbonation drops.Batch prime or a spoonful of sugar to a bottle.
Welcome to the forum 👍

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[Graz]

The only Coopers Stout I've brewed so far I also used carb drops, one per 0.5l bottle, I got a similar small psst when opening the bottle but not much head. Best way I've found is to pour it from a bit of a height into the centre of an upright glass tilting it a little if the head grows too much.

I batch primed the Mocha Porter I did for bottling, much better head.

As I understand it with carb drops the instructions say to use 1 for 375ml bottle, 2 for 750ml, except that most of us use 500ml which means you really need about 1.5 of them which somewhat defeats the object. Not sure how using 2 drops in a 500ml bottle would be, a gusher is probably a worse thing to have than being a bit under primed.

 

[B1gBill]

Cheers for the quick replys
Hopefully time will help and if not a syringe 👌

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[B1gBill]

The only Coopers Stout I've brewed so far I also used carb drops, one per 0.5l bottle, I got a similar small psst when opening the bottle but not much head. Best way I've found is to pour it from a bit of a height into the centre of an upright glass tilting it a little if the head grows too much.

I batch primed the Mocha Porter I did for bottling, much better head.

As I understand it with carb drops the instructions say to use 1 for 375ml bottle, 2 for 750ml, except that most of us use 500ml which means you really need about 1.5 of them which somewhat defeats the object. Not sure how using 2 drops in a 500ml bottle would be, a gusher is probably a worse thing to have than being a bit under primed.

How was the mocha as it was one I considered doing

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[Leon103]

I made the copppers Irish stout kit many years ago and from I remember although the beer was fizzy there was no head so it could be the kit.

If it tastes fine does it really matter?

 

[Graz]

How was the mocha as it was one I considered doing

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Superb, possibly one of the best beer kits I've ever made. On the subject of priming though the supplied bag of sugar with that kit looked a little light to me and weighing this confirmed it so I added a bit more sugar of my own, perfect carbonation levels.

 

[B1gBill]

Cheers next one for me then 👍

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[TheQuokka]

Unfortunately, your recipe seems to be very heavy with a shortage of readily fermentable sugars. You haven't mentioned what yeast you used, but I suspect the yeast gave up and went to sleep.

You really shouldn't try something that complicated and dense without a lot of experience, but put the bottles away in your cellar as you may be able to resurrect the beer when you are a bit more experienced.

Yeast can be finicky little buggers, but the supplied Coopers yeast is pretty hardy - while I can't judge how much gas you have from your comment, it is still possible that a week or two at the bottom of your fridge will resurrect your beer. Otherwise you should pitch at least double, or preferably create a starter or use the slurry from this beer if you kept it next time you try a beer this dense.

 

[B1gBill]

It was a recipe from an Aussie brewer minus his vanilla on YouTube
I used 11g of gervin Gv12
Maybe it was a Keger rather than a bottler
Didn't want it to fizzy with it being a stout or as you say maybe the yeast wasn't strong enough

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[TheQuokka]

Stout is usually low carbonation, but it also has trouble absorbing the CO2. Try leaving it in the bottom of your fridge for a week or two.