Coopers Stout – 23L

[Bung Jooce]

These are my notes from my very first attempt at brewing beer. Any feedback or suggestions are welcome!

Ingredients:

• Coopers Fermenter
• x1 Coopers DIY Stout Can
• 1kg Coopers Brew Enhancer 3
• 500g Coopers Light Dry Malt
• x1 sachet Safeale s-04 yeast
• Boxed water

Process:

• Sanitised everything thoroughly
• Warmed tin in hot water in the sink and poured into fermenter
• Boiled water and put into tin to dissolve the rest of the crap
• Poured hot tin crap into the fermenter
• Added BE3 to fermenter
• Added LDM to fermenter (it clumped really badly)
• Poured more boiled water into the fermenter to try and dissolve all of the clumps. It didn’t work.
• Stirred heaps, the clumps didn’t dissolve.
• Cut a bag of water at the corner and poured it into the fermenter
• Squirted most of the other bag into the fermenter to reach 20L
• The wort was hot ~27C
• Squirted more water in to reach the 23L mark
• Scooped some of the foam out
• Sprinkled the yeast onto the surface of the liquid
• Didn’t take SG because of so many clumps. I suspect 5%-6% abv. but I have no idea what I'm doing...

***ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT***

• Have some clean fridged cold water ready. Maybe 4L.
• Find a way to add the LDM without it clumping. Use cold water. Use the blender?
• Control temperature with the heat belt and ITC-308 ~18.5C ?

The fermentation temperature fluctuated during the cold nights and cool days, It has not been very consistent or controlled.
I'll be testing the gravity tomorrow and see what is what!
I've setup the ITC-308 just to see how it works.

-Bung Jooce

 

[Vini2ton]

Looks like you've nailed it mate.

 

[Bung Jooce]

Looks like you've nailed it mate.

Thanks for the feedback! Much appreciated.

It has been in the fermenter for 10 days now. Day 9 I took a sample and plonked in the hydrometer, this is the reading I got:

Could you please tell me if this is read as 1.018? Any thoughts on if this might be finished knowing my ingredients list? I'll take another one or two readings just to see if there are any changes. It smells like beer and tasted like warm, flat beer so I'm pretty excited!

Thanks you.

 

[Sidney Harbour-Bridge]

In the instructions with the hydrometer there will be a little diagram of how to read it, generally they are meant to be read at 20 C the value being where the top of the miniscus touches the scale, in the photo I would call that 1.015 or 1.016, it's a bit difficult to determine the actual pointfrom the photo.

If you took your initial reading at the liquid height you will need to adjust it by -.002 to get the correct value.

 

[Grmblz]

Don't stress about the LDME clumps, they will dissolve quite quickly all by themselves.

 

[Bung Jooce]

Thanks for all all your advise guys. I'll be checking the gravity tomorrow and if all is good bottle the next day! I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[Tangentile]

I normally use extra hops for a Coopers can so do a 10 min boil on those, and normally dissolve the dry malts in the water either before I add the hops or towards the end of the boil time. I also sometimes dissolve the can contents in there too after the boils done.

 

[Coalminer]

Somewhere on the temperature scale of the hydrometer there will be the test temperature that the sample needs to be
Not all hydrometers are the same, depends where they are made
Some are 20C some are 15.5C

 

[peterlonz]

May I make a few observations: based on about 40 years experience with Coopers Stout.
1) It yields consistent predictable results & is not particularly sensitive to brewing temperature, let common sense rule..
2) If you do a two can brew (strongly recommended) results are even better, at least the equivalent of Guinness, if a little sharper/more bitter.
3) Just use the standard Coopers yeast, use 2 sachets for a two can brew.
4) Don't waste time & energy stuffing around with a hydrometer, just no need, & if the brew is good who cares about SG & FG?
5) I am a keg man (19 litre Corny) so I always end up with excess brew which I typically bottle into 750 ml plastic bottles.
6) The kit bitterness is about right (doing the two can), do not attempt to enhance with extra hops.
Hope this helps.

 

[MHB]

I do take hydrometer readings lots of them, but that's for different reasons.
Have a bunch of different hydrometers to, only one of then is calibrated at 15.6oC and it gets used to take readings from the fermenter which is usually pretty close to 16oC so little need to worry about temperature corrections.

When reading an hydrometer consistency is really the most important, if you do it the same way every time your results will be more accurate. In most cases it the changes in gravity that we need.
For most hydrometers this is the correct way to read the results.

But (as always in brewing) there are some that say to read top of meniscus, some are even designed to be read from underneath (for foamy liquids).
As Coalminer noted it should say what temperature and if other than read the bottom of the meniscus that to should be stated on the hydrometer.
Mark

 

[Bung Jooce]

In the instructions with the hydrometer there will be a little diagram of how to read it, generally they are meant to be read at 20 C the value being where the top of the miniscus touches the scale, in the photo I would call that 1.015 or 1.016, it's a bit difficult to determine the actual pointfrom the photo.

If you took your initial reading at the liquid height you will need to adjust it by -.002 to get the correct value.

Thank you, Yep the hydrometer instructions are to use at 20C.

 

[Bung Jooce]

Don't stress about the LDME clumps, they will dissolve quite quickly all by themselves.

Yeah I didn't see any clumps in it during bottling. My main issue would be the gravity reading, I read that because the clumps are.. clumped and not dissolved it wont give an accurate reading.

 

[Bung Jooce]

I normally use extra hops for a Coopers can so do a 10 min boil on those, and normally dissolve the dry malts in the water either before I add the hops or towards the end of the boil time. I also sometimes dissolve the can contents in there too after the boils done.

I've done some reading up on adding hops. I might give the boil a shot next brew, it'll be a Coopers Lager.

 

[Bung Jooce]

Somewhere on the temperature scale of the hydrometer there will be the test temperature that the sample needs to be
Not all hydrometers are the same, depends where they are made
Some are 20C some are 15.5C

Thanks, I found it noted down the bottom as 20C.

 

[Bung Jooce]

May I make a few observations: based on about 40 years experience with Coopers Stout.
1) It yields consistent predictable results & is not particularly sensitive to brewing temperature, let common sense rule..
2) If you do a two can brew (strongly recommended) results are even better, at least the equivalent of Guinness, if a little sharper/more bitter.
3) Just use the standard Coopers yeast, use 2 sachets for a two can brew.
4) Don't waste time & energy stuffing around with a hydrometer, just no need, & if the brew is good who cares about SG & FG?
5) I am a keg man (19 litre Corny) so I always end up with excess brew which I typically bottle into 750 ml plastic bottles.
6) The kit bitterness is about right (doing the two can), do not attempt to enhance with extra hops.
Hope this helps.

Howdy mate,

2) & 6) I saw a few videos about two can brews and a few notes on it being bitter? I'm not a huge fan of bitter stout. I'll give it a go anyway!
3) Yeah for my next Coopers kits I'll be using the kit yeast to see how it turns out.
4) I was definitely curious to know what ABV would be. As I didn't take an initial reading it was just a guess, but the final few were to make sure it was finished before I put it into bottles. I love the science/experiment vibe from this hobby and the hydrometer helps that along! Taking measurements & logging data!
5) When I get a fridge, a keg is the next step.

Thanks for your input.

 

[Bung Jooce]

I do take hydrometer readings lots of them, but that's for different reasons.
Have a bunch of different hydrometers to, only one of then is calibrated at 15.6oC and it gets used to take readings from the fermenter which is usually pretty close to 16oC so little need to worry about temperature corrections.

When reading an hydrometer consistency is really the most important, if you do it the same way every time your results will be more accurate. In most cases it the changes in gravity that we need.
For most hydrometers this is the correct way to read the results.
View attachment 118533
But (as always in brewing) there are some that say to read top of meniscus, some are even designed to be read from underneath (for foamy liquids).
As Coalminer noted it should say what temperature and if other than read the bottom of the meniscus that to should be stated on the hydrometer.
Mark

Awesome, thanks for the diagram! Mine does say to read from the bottom of the meniscus and to use at 20C, whilst it was cooler than that when I took the reading, both were taken very close to the same temperature.

 

[Bung Jooce]

Howdy,

Today I took another sample and the hydrometer reading hasn't changed (although read inaccurately, it was read inaccurately with consistency!)

It was bottling day today!

I cleaned and sanitised all of my 740ml PET bottles and filled 28 of them!

I used 2 carbonation lollies in each bottle as stated in the instructions, I hope it wont over-carbonate the stout.

I filled each one close to full and it looks like the bottling wand displacement in the beer gave it enough room at the top.

I saw a small bunch of gunk get sucked into the bottling wand a few times, it seems that there is a lip above the tap in the Coopers fermenter that collects some of the slurry. I don't think that will be an issue.

I enjoyed the bottling process, I had a good system going on.

They are all resting in the bottom of a cupboard now... while I wait!

Thank you all for your help and advice. I will let you guys know how it turns out when I crack open the first one!

-Bung Jooce.

 

[MaggieO]

Congratulations! Now the hard part, waiting.

Dark beers I find don't really get good for six weeks. They continue to improve for months. Put one away and try it six months after you try the first one. You'll be surprised.

So, what's next?

 

[Bung Jooce]

Congratulations! Now the hard part, waiting.

Dark beers I find don't really get good for six weeks. They continue to improve for months. Put one away and try it six months after you try the first one. You'll be surprised.

So, what's next?

So hard to wait... I'll try to keep it that long! (doubt!)

So for my next batch, I've got a Coopers Larger tin lined up.

Coopers Larger tin
Brew Enhancer 3
LDM

Was thinking of getting a sack of hops from my local HBS and see if I can BAM! kick it up a notch!

My favorite is stout, but I'll give them all a try. I've got no method to cool the fermenter so it's brew as much as I can in winter.

 

[GregTheBrewer]

Thanks for the feedback! Much appreciated.

It has been in the fermenter for 10 days now. Day 9 I took a sample and plonked in the hydrometer, this is the reading I got:

View attachment 118516

Could you please tell me if this is read as 1.018? Any thoughts on if this might be finished knowing my ingredients list? I'll take another one or two readings just to see if there are any changes. It smells like beer and tasted like warm, flat beer so I'm pretty excited!

Thanks you.

Mate, you are right. Been doing this a long time, so I am very familiar with the readings. Each of the divisions represents .002 gravity points. The top of the meniscus looks to be curling up to touch 1.016, which means the bottom of the meniscus is sitting at 1.018. The main use here is determining when your fermentation is finished: being out by .001 gravity points when you are calculating ABV is insignificant: only around 0.1% or so difference.