# How To Make Coopers Stout Really Strong / High In Alcohol Content?



## shaunms (8/6/09)

Hi Guys

I am new to HomeBrewing and I recently bought the Coopers MicroBrewing Kit.

I have recently moved to Australia from Ireland and I am a real lover of strong stout. 

I would like to know if anyone has experience in pimping up the Coopers Stout kit to give in an alcohol content of between 7 to 9%?

I thought about mixing Coopers Stout with 2kg Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 but I am not sure of the effect it will have on the beer?

It would also be a bonus if I could make it taste as close to Guinness as possible.

I also thought of adding a couple of spoons of instant coffee to give the Stout a fuller coffee aroma and flavour.

Am I nuts? Am I expecting to much? or do you think its worth giving it a try?

Looking forward to getting some good advice.


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## Bribie G (8/6/09)

2 cans of Coopers Stout
1kg light dried malt extract
1kg dextrose

Nottingham ale yeast


Light blue touch paper and retire to a safe distance. :icon_cheers:

Edit: this is known as a Toucan on the forum, quite a well tried and tested field of brewing. Hic.


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## manticle (8/6/09)

shaunms said:


> Hi Guys
> 
> I am new to HomeBrewing and I recently bought the Coopers MicroBrewing Kit.
> 
> ...



Do 1 can stout and 1 can coopers dark ale + 1 kg brew enhancer. The 2 kg brew enhancer will give you higher abv but may also affect the body or head retention.
Alternatively you could do 1 can stout + 1 kg dark malt extract (either liquid or dried) + 1 kg brew enhancer or dextrose. If you go the extract you may want to add a bit more hops. For coffee flavour try adding 500g-1kg roast barley (available at some home brew shops and italian supermarkets as a coffee substitute). I can't imagine instant coffee will be too good. If you really want to add coffe go ground espresso or something similar but roast barley imparts a lovely coffee hint and is usually the coffee you'll pick up in a commercial variety.

NB: If you add roast barley or extra hops you will need to do a boil.

Beaten in part by Bribie.


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## Muggus (8/6/09)

manticle said:


> NB: If you add roast barley or extra hops you will need to do a boil.


With roasted barley, and pretty much all specialty malts, you can get away with steeping the malt for around 30 minutes in a couple of litres hot water (70-80 degrees), then boiling the liquid, NOT the grain, for 15 minutes before adding to the rest of your brew.


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## manticle (8/6/09)

Yes. Should have mentioned that.


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## shaunms (9/6/09)

Hi Guys

Thanks for your fast response, I just want to make sure I totally understand to avoid any mistakes I may make in the process of creating the ultimate STOUT 

1) 2 cans Coopers Stout or 1 can Stout and 1 can Coopers Dark Ale.
2) Mix 1kg light dried malt extract, 1kg dextrose to 23 letters of water in fermenter and then add yeast. <<QUESTIONS = how much Nottingham yeast?????>>
3) ferment at 21degrees for 6 days?
4) Bottle

What would you expect the alcohol percentage to get to?
How bitter do you think the above beer would get? would my friends and wife drink it? 

Thanks again


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## iScarlet (9/6/09)

With that, you'll probably get to around 8-9% alcohol. I'm not too sure about Nottingham yeast, but if you use the kit yeasts in a toucan brew, you'd want to throw both sachets in, so I'd assume something like 12g of Nottingham would do the trick (I _could_ be wrong).

Ferment until the hydrometer has the same reading for two days. Depending how warm you keep your brew this may take 6 days or maybe a little longer.

This maybe pretty bitter, however the amount of unfermentables in it should round it out nicely.


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## benno1973 (9/6/09)

shaunms said:


> 2) Mix 1kg light dried malt extract, 1kg dextrose to 23 letters of water in fermenter and then add yeast. <<QUESTIONS = how much Nottingham yeast?????>>
> 3) ferment at 21degrees for 6 days?



2) A packet of Nottingham should do fine. They're 11g from memory.
3) Ferment between 19-21C, but just leave it fermenting for a bit more than 6 days I'd say. You definitely want it to fully ferment out if you're going to bottle. If you have a hydrometer, take readings after 6 days and make sure it isn't dropping for 3 days running before bottling.


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## MVZOOM (9/6/09)

Might want to fit a blow off tube to your airlock, put a towel under your fermentor.

Cheers - Mike


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## Interloper (9/6/09)

shaunms said:


> How bitter do you think the above beer would get? would my friends and wife drink it?



A toucan is nearly always more bitter because of the isohop extracts.

I put down a toucan - Coopers Stout + Coopers Dark Ale + 250gm of LDME and some fuggles for aroma rather than bitterness and it smells and tastes awesome out of the fermenter.

I bottled it last weekend, waiting at least 14 days before trying it but it will be a cracker and the malt has nicely softened that bitterness.

I went with a much lower carbobation than ususal too.

I would be less focused on trying to make it super alc high strenght and aim more for flavour - but that's just me.


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## petesbrew (9/6/09)

Just warning you with the toucan, if you throw in both yeasts, it takes off like a nuke, and you'll probably have foam out of the airlock. 
This isn't a bad thing, but just make sure you don't have it on carpet!

My toucan recipe is the Stout/dark ale mix with 500g brown sugar (both yeasts)
I've found it's pretty bitter, but once you go adding extra hops in it can get a bit too much.
You'd probably only want to add a teabag of goldings, if you're game enough.


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## AussieJosh (10/6/09)

If you want somthing like Guinness id be getting the Coopers Brewmaster Irsh stout from your local home brew store.
I made a tocan Stout brew.....
Coopers Original Stout
A one month out of date Coopers Bavarian Lager
300g white sugar
The stout yeast pluss a packet of english ale yeast i got from my home brew store.
Its Intresting......


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## manticle (10/6/09)

shaunms said:


> Hi Guys
> 
> Thanks for your fast response, I just want to make sure I totally understand to avoid any mistakes I may make in the process of creating the ultimate STOUT
> 
> ...



The extra malt should sweeten it up a bit to balance out the bitterness. Coopers stout x 2 will come out more bitter than stout + dark ale (I THINK from what I've read as I haven't done it myself. It's a reasonably popular toucan though). If you're worried about the bitterness you could try adding a small amount of lactose which is completely unfermentable - either that or liquorice. Both will sweeten it up. I'd recommend around 100- 200g lactose. Not sure about liquorice as I've never used it myself. I think guiness tends more towards the dry rather than sweet side of things but my strong Imperial/milk stout is one of the few beers my partner has actually requested more of (as in ringing me at work and asking me if there's any more bottles about).

Primary ferment at 21 will probably take 5 -7 days but I second the above advice - leave it at least an extra week (it will only taste better) and make super sure it's finished fermenting by using a hydrometer before you bottle. I never accurately calculate my abv but I reckon it will hit around 8-9% if it attenuates properly. OG will probably be at least 1080 or higher.

Don't expect your first to be 'THE ULTIMATE'. Improving is half the fun and there are many places you can go after this.


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## Scruffy (10/6/09)

shaunms said:


> I would like to know if anyone has experience in pimping up the Coopers Stout kit



You could distil it...



...what you're doing sounds ok, write down what you did, and what it tasted like. Then you'll have a recipe to make, or avoid.
Think about adding...
Brown sugar, 
Chocolate malt,
Flaked Barley (maybe not)
I made an oatmeal stout in Blighty with Chinook hops- you could taste them!!
Kent Goldings - 
Find some Irish Ale Yeast
Go mad - 14g Oak Chips in Secondary Fermenter (steamed before use)
Four teaspoons of Lactic Acid in the fermenter just before bottling...

Good luck...


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## KGB (10/6/09)

Last night I bottled (uuuurgh, bottling! I normally keg) my Toucan stout. I used the recipe petesbrew suggested but ditched (not pitched) the kit yeast. Kit yeast gets a date written on it and put in the freezer for dire emergencies.
- Coopers Stout kit
- Coopers Dark Ale kit
- 500g brown sugar
- one satchet Nottingham yeast.
Fermented at 18 degrees for 10 days.

OG was 1092, FG was 1018. By my rough google approximations it should come out close to 10%, which is pretty damn strong. I usually don't bother with the SG since 1) I keg so no bottle bombs and 2) I always give it plenty of time to ferment right out. Having said that I know how to use the hydrometer but its possible the wort wasn't mixed properly and there was some goop in the tap, giving a falsely high reading for the OG. The FG was definitely below 1020.
Do those numbers seem right or am I incorrect? In any case it was just to get an idea of the ABV so not super important.

I plan to leave it at least a month before trialling and probably at least 2 months before getting into it properly.


EDIT: Forgot to add, 18 degrees was chosen because the fermentation was expected to be pretty vigorous. At this temp it still produced a pretty big krausen and managed to reach the lid on one side but did not blow out through the airlock.


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## manticle (10/6/09)

1090 seems higher than I would expect for that. If it's accurate it should make the OP's OG above 1100. I'm usually fairly lax with my OG calculations - as long as I hit above a certain point I'm usually happy.


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## beerbrewer76543 (10/6/09)

KGB said:


> Last night I bottled (uuuurgh, bottling! I normally keg) my Toucan stout. I used the recipe petesbrew suggested but ditched (not pitched) the kit yeast. Kit yeast gets a date written on it and put in the freezer for dire emergencies.
> - Coopers Stout kit
> - Coopers Dark Ale kit
> - 500g brown sugar
> ...



Hmm the kit extract beer designer comes out with OG 1.054, FG 1.012, ALC 5.8%, IBU 70.6, EBC 109.4... Good for an American style Stout although a bit dark

edit: add 2kg LDME to make it a 9% ALC Russian Imperial Stout, although some bittering hops would probably be required to balance out the sweetness


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## KGB (10/6/09)

Hmmm, I would have expected higher than that from a toucan + 500g sugar but that was just a guess-timation. It sounds like my OG reading was dodgy like I suspected.
Oh well, not too important anyway. Cheers.


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## mwd (10/6/09)

Molloys Stout + Coopers Dark Ale
500g DME
500g CSR Treacle

made to 23Litres gave OG of 1.060

May have used US-05 cannot remember but it didn't go ballistic at 20C

SG of 1.054 should be pretty much correct for 23l


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## petesbrew (10/6/09)

KGB said:


> Last night I bottled (uuuurgh, bottling! I normally keg) my Toucan stout. I used the recipe petesbrew suggested but ditched (not pitched) the kit yeast. Kit yeast gets a date written on it and put in the freezer for dire emergencies.
> - Coopers Stout kit
> - Coopers Dark Ale kit
> - 500g brown sugar
> ...


From memory, my OG on that one was in the 1060's, and FG about 1016. 1092 sounds like it wasn't stirred properly before taking a reading, but nothing worth worrying about


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## Yob (11/7/15)

necro..

My first tucan.. in needing to get my barrel full and the 1.100 RIS taking time to ferment out, Im going to do a filler..

25L
2 x Coopers stout
2kg DME
350g Choc malt steeped half hour, 15 boil.

Ive got half a cake to throw on it.. clean, no dry hops were added... also Ive run out of DEX, hardly use it nowdays so had dropped off the inventory radar..

should be a short brewday


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## Jazzman (20/7/15)

I've found this interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFAUB6ZiGxM

he does bang on about the high ABV a bit.......


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## Mr B (20/7/15)

Jazzman said:


> I've found this interesting
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFAUB6ZiGxM
> 
> he does bang on about the high ABV a bit.......


Well, I watched the whole thing.

Quite an interesting take on the process. I was a little worried about sanitization until, after putting all manner of things into the vessel, he mentioned that the lid was sanitized.

It did appear to pour quite well about 30 secs after kegging though, hats off to that.


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## Jazzman (20/7/15)

I only put it up for the OP for the ingredients really.


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## Yob (21/7/15)

Yob said:


> necro..
> 
> My first tucan.. in needing to get my barrel full and the 1.100 RIS taking time to ferment out, Im going to do a filler..
> 
> ...


Well that got messy... After I cleaned up the initial ferment and got the 10mm of yeast off the bottom of the fridge, I somehow thought it to be a good idea to add 5lt of reduced, caramelised runnings to it... After cleaning the fridge a second time of 10mm yeast on the bottom, I've decided to let it finish.


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## Mr B (21/7/15)

Jazzman said:


> I only put it up for the OP for the ingredients really.


Hey Jazzman, no criticism at all, was actually quite fascinating, appreciate the link


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## Jazzman (23/7/15)

All cool man. I didn't take any offence. Just my abbreviated reply. I enjoyed that vid too!


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