# Have You Made A Coopers Stout



## Smeagol (31/1/05)

Hey all,
Anyone made a Coopers Stout?

On the Coopers website the recipe says 1 X can of stout mixture, 1kg Brew Enhancer 2 and 18 litres of water.

Just wondering if anyone has tried using the recommended 23 litres of water and what the differences are between the two recipes?


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## Wreck (31/1/05)

Go for the 18 litres. At 23, I found it a bit watery.

Also, go for a kilo of any dark/light dry malt.

Wreck.


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## phantom (31/1/05)

Definitely do 18 litres plus a kilo of dme.Use a liquid yeast or it may be a bit cloying though.A coopers sediment roused up as a starter works fine,about a litre is best.Age it for at least 12 weeks,its a ripper.
Done it many times.


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## Tallgum (31/1/05)

Have a look at this site . www.hbkitreviews.com.


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## Bionic (31/1/05)

The last 2 stouts I have made I have added 250g to 500g of Brown Sugar. As this has a high Molasses content it gives a nice flavour..


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## ColdBeerLuke (31/1/05)

I made a good simple stout with this kit, 1.5kg can of Coopers Dark malt, and recultured Coopers Stout yeast.
Very good, and big enough for 23l.


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## barfridge (31/1/05)

I did a sweet desert style stout with the coopers kits
Ingredients:
2x coopers stout tins
100g crystal malt
100g chocolate malt
50g instant coffee
WLP002 English Ale yeast (I couldnt get WLP007 - dry irish ale, which would have been even better)

It came out lovely, plenty of chocolate and coffee overtones, followed by a good bitter finish (due to using 2 pre-hopped kits) which balances the sweetness nicely. If it was a bit drier it would be even better.

edit: this brew was made up to 20 litres


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## rodderz (31/1/05)

phantom said:


> Definitely do 18 litres plus a kilo of dme.Use a liquid yeast or it may be a bit cloying though.A coopers sediment roused up as a starter works fine,about a litre is best.Age it for at least 12 weeks,its a ripper.
> Done it many times.


 so the kilo of dry malt extract substituted for the brew enhancer 2 was that the coopers version?


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## phantom (31/1/05)

Rodderz,yeah the coopers,brewiser or the bulk dme available from hb stores  
Good work on mentioning the brown sugar bionic it adds a subtle and softening undertone,pleasant indeed.
Cold beer lukes sound nice indeedy,Its that coopers yeast,never lets ya down.
Ive now switched to using esb 3kg packs plus extras and love em.But i may just do a coopers again for winter(its all in the aging with stout) :chug:


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## Smeagol (1/2/05)

OK, made it up last night.
I decided to play it safe for my first go of Stout.
I mixed up the coopers stout can with 1kg of the brew enhancer 2 and enough water to take the level to about 19.5 litres. I was going to stay at 18 litres but the wurt seemed a tad to high in temp so I added 1.5 litres of cold water to bring the temp down before pitching the yeast.

Checked the carboy this morning and everything seemed to be bubbling away nicely. 
OG 1.054, if this finishes around 1.008 I should have something around the 6.3% alcohol content mark which would be nice.


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## Jovial_Monk (1/2/05)

I would try adding say 250g cold steeped roast barley next time. In fact, next time you make a stout try cold steeping 250g choc malt and 500g roat barley or black patent and adding that to a tin of Coopers Lager. Lots of roasted grain flavor!

Jovial Monk


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## ColdBeerLuke (1/2/05)

Smeagol said:


> OK, made it up last night.
> I decided to play it safe for my first go of Stout.
> I mixed up the coopers stout can with 1kg of the brew enhancer 2 and enough water to take the level to about 19.5 litres. I was going to stay at 18 litres but the wurt seemed a tad to high in temp so I added 1.5 litres of cold water to bring the temp down before pitching the yeast.
> 
> ...


I would expect final gravity at around 1014 with 19.5 litres, so don't be concerned if it doesn't get down to the 1008 you're expecting.
As far as I can work out, the Coopers BE2 is 375g dry malt, 375g dextrose and 250g corn syrup. The corn syrup is not fermentable and will add to the body a bit. That's not such a bad thing. 1008 would be a too low for a stout.
Enjoy. :chug:


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## phantom (1/2/05)

Yeah good advice J.M, dextrose will only thin it out and maltodextrin does nothing for flava.I ts much better to get body in a stout from steeped grains,and improves flava as well.Don,t be afraid to experiment with stouts smeagol  they are very forgiving and hard to stuff up.Good luck with this one and any future experiments you may do in the black realm,Also a liquid yeast will probably attenuate more than that crappy kit stuff,and improve flava.


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## Bionic (1/2/05)

Hey Phantom have you tried the ESB 3kg Special Stout before?? I have one of these at home and haven't heard of anyone making it?


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## KillerRx4 (9/2/05)

I bottled a coopers stout tonight. FG was 1018 after 7 days & hadnt dropped for 3 days.

Mix was 1 can coopers stout.
1Kg Coopers brew enhancer 1
250G light malt extract
19Lt water.

The brew went pretty crazy by the 2nd/3rd day almost frothng int the airlock & im thinking maybe alot of the yeast stuck to the fermenter wall when it receded.

What do you guys reckon is a FG of 1018 ok?


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## Guest Lurker (9/2/05)

For those ingredients I would expect to finish at maybe 1.015, so 1.018 isnt too far off, and if it had been stable for a few days and I had also given the yeast a gentle rouse I would have bottled. Mind you I would have cut back on the priming sugar a bit just in case. Should be fine but I'd check one every now and then to see how gassy they are.


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## Dunkel_Boy (9/2/05)

I'm going to try something in the next week.

1 x can Coopers Stout
1 x can Morgans brew enhancer
500g LDME
Mix of 500g choc, 100g roast and 250g flaked barley steeped for a while, and probably use Muntons Gold yeast, although I could use an excuse to pick up some more Coopers...

Now, the fun part.
I'm going to compare that sucker to this:
45L
8kg pilsener
1kg pale chocolate
1kg carafa2
1kg brown malt
250g flaked barley
100g roast barley

60g Northern brewer at 60
60g NB at 20

WLP002 English Ale Yeast

I expect the all grain version to dessimate the extract, but I want to see how close the extract one comes... it should be interesting.
I think you can never have enough stout around the house.


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## Guest Lurker (10/2/05)

No base malt in the kit version to convert the flaked barley?


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## Dunkel_Boy (10/2/05)

Pfft, no... I guess that's what you get when you make up a recipe in 5 seconds.
I'll add some MO then.


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## pint of lager (10/2/05)

Make sure you double check how much of the roasted grains you are adding to your recipe. Usually, roasted grains make up 5-10% of the grain bill. If you go overboard, you get very acrid flavours.

Try out your ratios on a small batch before committing to a big batch. Have a browse through stout recipes and see what quantities they use. 

Remember, this is 5-10% of the total grains, so if you are using 10kg grain bill, all your chocolate, carafa, roast, black patent grain components should not be more than a kilo.

A good guide to how much of a grain to use, have a browse on the Weyermann site, this shows suitable percentages to add of different grains in different beers.


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## Dunkel_Boy (10/2/05)

Yeah that's fine, I understand the 5-10% and agree with it.
However the pale chocolate is only just past dark crystal, apparently has very limited roast characteristics.
The Carafa might not even be 2, it's the lightest one (perhaps 1?), again mostly for colour and coffee rather than roast. I think it was just too un-roasty without the roast barley in there.
If I were using the carafa 3 and standard Joe White chocolate, I wouldn't be putting 1kg of each in.
However, if there are people who have specific experience in the malts I am using (www.esbeer.com.au) and still are suggesting I cut back on the carafa, then I'm all ears, but I still think the recipe is fine.

EDIT: Yep, it's Carafa-1. I'll sleep on it, I may end up putting hte pale choc and carafa down to 750g each.


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## Smeagol (11/2/05)

KillerRx4 said:


> I bottled a coopers stout tonight. FG was 1018 after 7 days & hadnt dropped for 3 days.
> 
> Mix was 1 can coopers stout.
> 1Kg Coopers brew enhancer 1
> ...


 I ended up bottling mine after the SG reached and stayed at 1.014. One of the guys on here picked it perfectly. I had the yeast scum marks all over the top of the carboy but it still got down to the 1.014

I also had some trouble with the stout bubbling up out of the airlock. The temp of the carboy reached 30 degn day 2, which didn't help.
Apparently someone else told me that the yeast creates it's own heat as well which could have led to the problem.


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## rodderz (18/3/05)

Put down a Coopers Kit stout last night. I've tossed out the included coopers yeast and went down to the local HBS

Got some home made brew mixer (1kg)
US56 yeast
250gms LME
18lt water

Mixed up as black as the ace of spades, looking forwars to sampling this in a month or 2

The pale ale kit i did a few months back has had great reviews from my mates (and me after work!) and the Irish Ale recipe is due for sampling next week

You b*stards....got me addicted to homebrewing....lol


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## johnno (18/3/05)

rodderz said:


> You b*stards....got me addicted to homebrewing....lol
> [post="49683"][/post]​


Dont blame us roddrez. we all know the taste of homebrew is superior to most beers we can buy in a bottle shop or pub.

cheers
johnno


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## rodderz (18/3/05)

True Johnno

Went for a counter at the pub today with workmates, the carlton draught on tap is ok when cold but when your thirsty anything cold is good. Once it gained a bit of temperature it was crap!


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## Jovial_Monk (19/3/05)

Don't toss out the kit yeast.

Keep it for when you are doing hour boils: boiling the kit yeast for at least 30 miunutes turns it into ideal yeast nutrient for your real yeast!

Jovial Monk


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## rodderz (20/3/05)

Jovial_Monk said:


> Don't toss out the kit yeast.
> 
> Keep it for when you are doing hour boils: boiling the kit yeast for at least 30 miunutes turns it into ideal yeast nutrient for your real yeast!
> 
> ...



yup...saving it for such an occasion

The stout is going along fine at the moment....hasnt been as voilent in it's bubbling compared with what I've read about it but I expect it may be because I have kept the temp lower, at around 16C for the first 2 days. Today I've let it creep up to 20-22C and it's bubbling more and the krauzen is starting to form


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## rodderz (27/3/05)

Kit is just about ready for bottling...had to leave the fermenter outside as the temp the last few days has made it drop to 14-16C and the brew looked as though it just about stopped. Tested the gravity, 1014 so will test it to see if thats where it will finish at

One questions guys, how much priming sugar goes into a 750ml bottle of stout? Guy at HBS gave me some better carbonation drops, maybe I should add 1 drop instead of 2? Next brew I will have a 2nd fermenter for bulk priming but till then have those coopers PET bottles


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## PostModern (2/4/05)

*rodderz*, try a teaspoon of white sugar or dextrose in each bottle for priming. Toss the carbonation drops.

I make an oatmeal stout based on the Coopers Stout kits. Roughly:

1 Kg JW Pale Ale Malt 
400g quick oats
100g Crystal
100g Choc Malt
60g Roasted Barley

Mash for an hour. Boil for an hour with a 30 min addition of a GMK-style "small handful" of Fuggles, Willamette or Styrian Goldings.

Make up fermenter to 18L. OG ~ 1.047

First time I made this with WLP023 Burton Ale yeast. Was very nice. The one in primary right now is with the kit yeast :\


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## Dunkel_Boy (2/4/05)

Perhaps you should consider batch priming.
My favourite calculator...
hbd.org/recipator Carbonation Calculator

If you do batch prime, just remember not to breathe on your beer, sanitation, and mix it well... then let it settle for 30 minutes.
Then it's just a matter of filling each bottle up, no matter what size, each will be consistent with the last.


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## rodderz (12/4/05)

Dunkel_Boy said:


> Perhaps you should consider batch priming.
> My favourite calculator...
> hbd.org/recipator Carbonation Calculator
> 
> ...



Yes my next brew I will be using a 2nd fermenter to bulk prime. Each brew so far (on my 4th) i've moved up a step, starting at the standard Coopers Kits then going to better yeasts, ingredients and methods. The stout came out a pearler. Next I'll be doing a Hoegaarden clone I'll see how that turns out

All thanks to the guys here!


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## paul_h (2/5/08)

I'm doing one now as it's my favourite cheap winter beer.
I used 
1 x cooper stout extract
1 x brew enhancer #2
250g dark malt
250g dextrose
23g nottingham yeast
25g nothern brewer pellets

If it works (big failures here, never had a decent home brew), I'll definitely try adding choc malt and some coffee, my favorite stouts have those type of flavours.


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