Stout Advice

[JimBrew]

Hi all,

I want to brew a nice stout in the next week or so in honour of my late father in law who was a Guinness drinker. Can anybody recommend a good Guinness like stout?

I like the look of the Coopers Brewmaster Irish Stout and have used 2 previous Coopers kits which turned out well.

Any tips on straying from the original instructions to make a better pint are also welcome so long as it is novice friendly.

Thanks all and have a happy Christmas

Jim

 

[Rwilts]

Chuck a whole tin of treacle in addition to the other fermentables. There are also plenty of other suggestions on this kit, quick search should provide you with about fifteen different opinions :thumb:

 

[JimBrew]

Thanks for the advice.

Jim

 

[LeedsBrewer]

tin of treacle and a 500g bag of medium or dark DME :thumb:

 

[SloeBrewer]

Whatever you do, don't buy the Burton Bridge Porter kit, it's crap! viewtopic.php?p=317689#p317689

 

[JimBrew]

Whatever you do, don't buy the Burton Bridge Porter kit, it's crap! viewtopic.php?p=317689#p317689

Thanks SloeBrewer. I think I'm going for either of the two Coopers kits.

Anyone know if there is much difference between the Coopers Stout and the Coopers Brewmaster Irish Stout?

Jim

 

[SloeBrewer]

There's been lots of praise for the Cooper's Original stout (viewtopic.php?f=58&t=22335), so much so in fact, I bought the kit and will be brewing it later this week, using 1kg extra dark DME and a 400g tin of black treacle.

Some feedback on the Cooper's Irish stout can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=58&t=22336

Wife bought me a John Bull London Porter kit for Christmas, so will stick that on at some point and will review it once done.

 

[PD]

well I've just had a couple of bottles of Coopers Stout I made from a kit on 24th July. used half kilo enhancer and half kilo dark spray Malt.

Bloody lovely.....

Not as dry tasting or as bitter as a shop bought Guinness but a good stout in its own right.

Coopers Dark Ale is also a fine stout type brew worth making

 

[the-erl]

Hi Jim,

I've just finished drinking a stout I bottled at the begging of the year.

I've not used the Cooopers Irishs stout kit but I'm sure it'll be fine. I added 1kg of number 74 brew enhancer (I live in New Zealand so I'm not sure if you can get this or not?), 1 kg of dark DME and 10 grams of liquorice. I also short brewed to 18 litres and it was exceptional! It came out at about 7% but the taste was absolutely fantastic :party: :party: I had the last bottle on Christmas day and have just bought the same ingrediants again to get a brew on at the weekend :grin:

Let us know what you end up brewing and how it comes out :thumb:

Happy new year,

Erl :drink:

 

[tazuk]

i was thinking of having a go at this one but the head not good on this brew ??????? but its ment to :drink: :drink: :thumb:

1 can of Cooper's Original Series Stout
1KG Dark DME
250g Crystal Malt
250g Roasted Barley
150g Chocolate malt
1oz US Goldings hops (15min boil) for flavour
Safale US05 Yeast.

23L length of brew

Did this after finding the recipe on youtube and it tastes fantastic, only done one successful bitter before but this absolutely blows it out of the water.
If there are any new guys out there who would like to produce a brew that will amaze their friends, I can strongly recommend this. Never thought I could produce something like this at home.
Thanks to everyone who helped along the way.

PeiHomeBrewer 1 year ago
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by your question. But when making a partial extract, you simply steep your crushed grains in about a gallon of water for 20-30 minutes, boil that for 15-20 minutes, take off heat and add your extract as usual. Or if you are using unhopped extract, you will have to boil some of the extract for 60 minutes with the appropriate hops for your recipe and add the rest of the extract at flame out. You will still get a full batch, either way.
Reply •

 

[xdaver]

Ive just made my first stout with a wilko's dark velvet stout, 500g med dme 500g dex and 500g demerara. and its fair to say im impressed

 

[JimBrew]

Hi Jim,

I've just finished drinking a stout I bottled at the begging of the year.

I've not used the Cooopers Irishs stout kit but I'm sure it'll be fine. I added 1kg of number 74 brew enhancer (I live in New Zealand so I'm not sure if you can get this or not?), 1 kg of dark DME and 10 grams of liquorice. I also short brewed to 18 litres and it was exceptional! It came out at about 7% but the taste was absolutely fantastic :party: :party: I had the last bottle on Christmas day and have just bought the same ingrediants again to get a brew on at the weekend :grin:

Let us know what you end up brewing and how it comes out :thumb:

Happy new year,

Erl :drink:

Hi Erl,

I'm not sure if BE74 is available in the UK, it may be but as I'm just getting into home brewing I have stuck to Coopers kits and Coopers brew enhancer.

I've read loads of advice on THBF for stout ideas and they all sound good. I'm quite interested in using a can of treacle as many people have suggested as well as 500g of dextrose and 500g of dark dme.

Hopefully will brew this weekend so will post some updates f how it's going.

Happy new year,

Jim

 

[JimBrew]

i was thinking of having a go at this one but the head not good on this brew ??????? but its ment to :drink: :drink: :thumb:

1 can of Cooper's Original Series Stout
1KG Dark DME
250g Crystal Malt
250g Roasted Barley
150g Chocolate malt
1oz US Goldings hops (15min boil) for flavour
Safale US05 Yeast.

23L length of brew

Did this after finding the recipe on youtube and it tastes fantastic, only done one successful bitter before but this absolutely blows it out of the water.
If there are any new guys out there who would like to produce a brew that will amaze their friends, I can strongly recommend this. Never thought I could produce something like this at home.
Thanks to everyone who helped along the way.

PeiHomeBrewer 1 year ago
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by your question. But when making a partial extract, you simply steep your crushed grains in about a gallon of water for 20-30 minutes, boil that for 15-20 minutes, take off heat and add your extract as usual. Or if you are using unhopped extract, you will have to boil some of the extract for 60 minutes with the appropriate hops for your recipe and add the rest of the extract at flame out. You will still get a full batch, either way.
Reply •

Hi Tazuk,

That sounds like a cracking recipe but possibly a little complicated for a novice of only three brews (2 Coopers kits and a Woodfordes Wherry) but is definitely something I would like to try when I make the step up to partial extract or AG brews.

Jim

 

[JimBrew]

Ive just made my first stout with a wilko's dark velvet stout, 500g med dme 500g dex and 500g demerara. and its fair to say im impressed

Hi xdaver,

I picked up the Coopers stout from Tesco on Boxing Day and have just had a wilko delivery of 500g med dme and a kilo of dex. I'm thinking of throwing in a tin of treacle as well as I've read some good reviews of using treacle when brewing a stout.

Think I should get this brew on shortly.

Of course I'll post it in the brew day forum and keep everyone up to date.

Oh well, off to start sterilising the FV !

Jim

 

[Asalpaws]

I fancied getting one last brew on in 2012, I read what Tazuk posted. Usually I do AG brews but really couldn't be bothered.

I seemed to remember I had a Munton's Imperial Stout kit that I bought ages ago. The kit's best before date was Sept 2012, oh well use it anyway.

I got some old grains that needed using;

Roast Barley 250g
Biscuit Malt 150g
Crystal 150g
Chocolate 150g

All chucked in a muslin bag and then in a big pan and steeped at 68 degrees for 40 mins. Aprox 6 L water.

I pulled the bag out then gave it a 15 min boil on the stove top.

Used the boiling "wort" to dissolve the content of the two cans and then topped up to 15L (The pack states 4.5% at 23L brew length, not very Imperial in my opinion). I had lost the original yeast so I just threw in some SO-4.

Checked the OG at 1.061, should be a reasonable brew, will update with the results. Cheers T

 

[tazuk]

mmm keep us up dated :thumb: