Anyone Done A Fourcan?

[gundaroo]

i have a 50 litre fermenter that will be empty this weekend and my mate will be borrowing it next week.he is right into experimenting and would like to know if there is any suggestions on a four can mix that he can try.he is rather fond of dark beers and stouts. :beer:

 

[peas_and_corn]

I'd say to get a tucan recipe and double the ingredients

 

[brettprevans]

a threecan got a discussion on one of the stout threads recently -

- stout, choc porter and a dark ale.

you could chuck in 1 more and you've got a fourcan. maybe an unhopped can of larger or Imperial Voyage if you wanted a lighter beer. or just double up on which ever one is your favourite style.

Call it 'the dark porter is a stout imperialist'. bloody long name for a beer though

 

[Enerjex]

the malt shovel (james squire) kit cans are made for adding nothing extra. ie 1 can gives you 11.5 litres, 2 for 23 litres. get 4 of those will be your best bet, say 4x malt shovel oatmeal stout cans.

 

[FazerPete]

a threecan got a discussion on one of the stout threads recently -

- stout, choc porter and a dark ale.

you could chuck in 1 more and you've got a fourcan. maybe an unhopped can of larger or Imperial Voyage if you wanted a lighter beer. or just double up on which ever one is your favourite style.

Call it 'the dark porter is a stout imperialist'. bloody long name for a beer though

Thinking about it, I don't think putting the porter and the dark ale with the stout is worth the money as they will lose their characters so I'd either go one or the other.



As a suggestion:

1 Coopers stout

1 Dark Ale (or Porter)

2 Cans Home Brand Draught or Lager (This is just cheap malt so it's just for extra fermentables and not for taste)

50g Fuggles

24g S-04 (or other good English yeast like windsor or nottingham)



You could adjust this for taste by swapping one of the home brand cans for either another stout or dark ale.



I'm going to do 3 can version of this in 25ltrs soon so I'd be interested if someone else is the guinea pig.

 

[pickledkiwi2]

Thinking about it, I don't think putting the porter and the dark ale with the stout is worth the money as they will lose their characters so I'd either go one or the other.



As a suggestion:

1 Coopers stout

1 Dark Ale (or Porter)

2 Cans Home Brand Draught or Lager (This is just cheap malt so it's just for extra fermentables and not for taste)

50g Fuggles

24g S-04 (or other good English yeast like windsor or nottingham)


You could adjust this for taste by swapping one of the home brand cans for either another stout or dark ale.



I'm going to do 3 can version of this in 25ltrs soon so I'd be interested if someone else is the guinea pig.

Thanks for the idea FP, I was thinking of doing:

1 Coopers stout
2 Cooper dark ales
1 Drought/lager (cheapest can off the shelf)
1 kg brown sugar
and some Fuggles

But your recipe above looks worth giving a shot, I might still go the brown sugar though.

I was going to throw in all the yeasts that come with the cans, is this a good idea or should I go with a better yeast from the LHBS, ie: the S-04. (I had a great reaction on the toucan mentioned below, the start of the ferment was so violent that I had to put a couple of pavingstones on the top of the fementer to stop the lid blowing off, as it was there was a accidental escape of gasses and excess krason, refer-
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...15895&st=15

Another question, I have a toucan ready for kegging tomorrow (stout, dark ale) that tastes pretty good (out of the SG samples) if not a little bitter. Should I boil the kits to remove some of the hops them add my own at the end, or will it not be that noticable?

Cheers and "BREW ON" PK.

PS thanks for your fermenter mr mayor of gunderoo,:super: I will try not to blow it apart. :lol:

 

[FazerPete]

Thanks for the idea FP, I was thinking of doing:

1 Coopers stout
2 Cooper dark ales
1 Drought/lager (cheapest can off the shelf)
1 kg brown sugar
and some Fuggles

But your recipe above looks worth giving a shot, I might still go the brown sugar though.

I was going to throw in all the yeasts that come with the cans, is this a good idea or should I go with a better yeast from the LHBS, ie: the S-04. (I had a great reaction on the toucan mentioned below, the start of the ferment was so violent that I had to put a couple of pavingstones on the top of the fementer to stop the lid blowing off, as it was there was a accidental escape of gasses and excess krason, refer-
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...15895&st=15

Another question, I have a toucan ready for kegging tomorrow (stout, dark ale) that tastes pretty good (out of the SG samples) if not a little bitter. Should I boil the kits to remove some of the hops them add my own at the end, or will it not be that noticable?

Cheers and "BREW ON" PK.

With that amount of fermenable stuff in the brew, the kit yeasts are going to die because the alcohol content will be too high. I mentioned S-04 before but on second thought I'd probably use S-33 as this can go up to 11%. If you can't find it, Craftbrewer have it on special for $0.90 per 6g packet.

I recommend you put the fermenter in a big tub of water with some sanitiser in it and either use a blow off tube (a hose from the lid hole to under the water) or gladwrap. This should stop it exploding but the water will catch any excess blow off if you still have leaks.

I wouldn't boil the kits because you'll find that the toucan you have will mellow considerably after 2-3 weeks in the keg. If you really want to reduce the bitterness, ditch the stout for another dark ale or perhaps a porter.

I'll be really interested to see how it turns out as it's going to be a few weeks before I'll be able to get around to putting mine on. :beer:

 

[BOG]

Does a 2 can brewed to 10 litres count as a 4 can ?

1 x can of Cascade Choc Mog porter
1 x can coopers Wheat malt
200g of Crystal Malt (boiled for a few minutes)
20g of Saaz
200ml of Saflarger W-34/70 (Recovered from previous brew)

Took 10 days to ferment out. Ended up as 8.2%

It's my favourate brew at present. Very sweet and thick. Head like a Guiness.


BOG

 

[blackbock]

With that amount of fermenable stuff in the brew, the kit yeasts are going to die because the alcohol content will be too high. I mentioned S-04 before but on second thought I'd probably use S-33 as this can go up to 11%. If you can't find it, Craftbrewer have it on special for $0.90 per 6g packet.

Can't speak for the Coopers Yeasts (noone has any data on them) but some of the cheaper kits come complete with Mauri 514, which, according to its makers can handle alcohol up to 9.5% (in fact that is what they claim is "most notable" about it). See their webpage for details.

So, something like a beermakers kit, or cheap morgans range could possibly work with this.

 

[johnno]

I'm waiting for someone to brew the 23can brew.

One can for every litre.

Looking forward to the tasting notes for that one.

johnno

 

[boingk]

So you're thinking its basically going to be a double-batch toucan...very interesting, you should be able to put some nice variations on things with that. No suggestions though on my part however

I have at the moment though, a 5L demijohn that I whacked a Hombrand Lager into with some Cascade flavouring hops. Been fermenting for over a week, but seems to be gradually slowing down. Will rack to secondary [ie put in a bucket while I clean the demijohn, then put straight back in] and tell you how it goes when its all done if you want.

EDIT: Somone mentioned placing fermenter in a bath to stop krausen from dirtying the surrounds? Personally I'd use some tubing in the airlock hole and lead that into a bucket 1/2 full of water with sanitiser in it. Stand it next to the fermenter with the tubing under the water level and you're set.

EDIT2: Johnno, seeing as a can of goop is 1.25L, a 23 can brew would be closing in on 30 litres, haha!

 

[pickledkiwi2]

Does a 2 can brewed to 10 litres count as a 4 can ?

1 x can of Cascade Choc Mog porter
1 x can coopers Wheat malt
200g of Crystal Malt (boiled for a few minutes)
20g of Saaz
200ml of Saflarger W-34/70 (Recovered from previous brew)

Took 10 days to ferment out. Ended up as 8.2%

It's my favourate brew at present. Very sweet and thick. Head like a Guiness.
BOG

hell BOG, that brew should come with a Goverment health warning

 

[wildschwein]

I've done a fair few toucans in my time homebrewing and I usually topped up mine to 25L to cut down a bit on the bitterness. If you've only got a 50L fermenter this isn't going to work for a four can as you need some head space left for the ferment. So you're better off choosing a couple of mildly hopped tins in your batch. Even if you wanna do stouts or porters choose a couple tins of draught (maybe homebrand) or canadian blonde (Coopers). The darkness of the other tow cans may be enough. Or you could chuck in a chocolate malt steep or some molasses to help you get the right look if it is too light. The result will probably be more drinkable. Toucans are for serious hop heads.

 

[blackbock]

Toucans are for serious hop heads.

2 x 20IBU = 40 IBU. Not serious hopheadhood

 

[wildschwein]

2 x 20IBU = 40 IBU. Not serious hopheadhood

Yeah I don't ever look at IBUs rather I go by taste. The last toucan I did was a Cooper's Real Ale and a Cooper's Dark Ale made up to 25L and even after 2 years of aging this still ripped the lining off the sides of your mouth. One before that was a Wander Munich and a Wander Pilsener and that wasn't quite as strong but it would have been up there with a Pilsener Urquall type level of bitterness. I think it's more about malt and hop balance than just dry mathematical IBUs. Although, I'm sure they're useful as a guide.

 

[T.D.]

Yeah I don't ever look at IBUs rather I go by taste. The last toucan I did was a Cooper's Real Ale and a Cooper's Dark Ale made up to 25L and even after 2 years of aging this still ripped the lining off the sides of your mouth.

As far as I recall, both the Real Ale and Dark Ale kits are MUCH higher than 20IBUs each, so you probably had a beer that was more like 60-70IBUs. Its no wonder it was a bit hard to drink! :lol:

I used to do the two-can thing quite a bit back when I was doing kits. The best ones were always the lighter kits. I also did 1.5 can batches with 500g of dextrose. 1.5 cans of Coopers Lager with 500g of dextrose was quite similar to Coopers Pale Ale.

 

[pickledkiwi2]

The last toucan I did was a wander draught and wander munich lager. At first taste I thought I had made a blue as it was very ordinary (malty and quite hoppy) but after 2 weeks in keg at 4deg it was actually bloody good, and the keg didnt last to the 4 week mark.

I have also just kegged today another toucan'er
Coopers stout and coopers dark ale mixed with 500 grms brown sugar. The og was 1070 and fg 1015, and I have to say even before gassing the taste was bloody good also, a real nice heavy stout taste with just the right amount of bitterness (for my taste anyway).

So in view of this I think I will go with the first mix up as below:

1 Coopers stout
2 Cooper dark ales
1 Drought/lager (cheapest can off the shelf)
1 kg brown sugar
and some Fuggles

But will take Frazerpetes advice and get some better yeasts from LHBS before mixing it up.

BREW ON :beer: