Coopers Stout And Coopers Lager Toucan

[chillihilli]

I'm not a huge fan of stout, but I don't mind one every now and then.. So I want to keep a batch in the cellar for Justin Case.

I was thinking of doin a Toucan brew with a Coopers Stout tin to finally put the coopers lager tin that came with the kit out of its misery. Has anyone ever tried this, and/or have any opinions about whether this would produce a drinkable beverage ? Am I simply insane and about to blow a couple of weeks of fermentation time, water, effort, etc to produce feremented sewerage?

 

[riverside]

Stout and Larger...hmmm.. dont think the two of them would mix to well together. IMO i think it would be a very strange taste !

 

[manticle]

Stout and Larger...hmmm.. dont think the two of them would mix to well together. IMO i think it would be a very strange taste !

Why's that? It's just pale malt in a tin with some kind of isohop for bittering. Not so different from combining a stout tin with some pale malt extract and extra hops. The yeast in that tin is the same.

@Chillichilli - check the toucan recipe thread for combinations and reviews. Also BribieG is the man to talk to about toucan stouts (although I think his base recipe is 2 stout tins).

It will probably make more of a dark ale than a stout but if you do want black you could steep some choc malt and roast barley. Easy and tasty.

 

[ben_sa]

if your trying to make a black and tan.... this isnt the way to go about it....

Hmmmmm Could just make them both seperately? a bag of BE1/2 is only what $4? Then you could just combine them when you open them?

 

[Bribie G]

If doing a stout with the Coopers Stout and the Lager, for the purposes of using them up, I'd go something like:

Coopers Stout
Coopers Lager

750g dex
300g of either Roasted Barley or Carafa T3 steeped for 30 minutes (both of these can be steeped and don't need mashing), then boil the steepings with 20 g of any UK bitter hop like Challenger, for 15 mins and strain into fermenter

Then use a yeast that will chew through the fermentables to give a drier stout - Nottingham would be good.
That should overlay the whole brew with stouty goodness and mask anything contributed by the Lager tin.

 

[BjornJ]

I've never done a toucan, so please take this as a question only

But wouldnt't that end up being way to bitter and strong?

I put the two cans, the 750gr of Dextrose and 300 gr of Carafe3 into the kit calculator spreadsheet.
Added 15 minutes of 20 gr of Challenger (7.5%AA) and the resulting beer has

OG: 1.060, FG: 1.013
has bittering IBU: 68.3
has color : EBC : 128
and alcohol (if bottle conditioned) : 6.4 %

Wouldn't that bit a bit too potent?

(if brewing to 23 litres)

View attachment Kit___Extract_Beer_Designer_V2.2.xls


thanks
Bjorn

 

[Bribie G]

Yes probably not boil the hops but just add them as pellets a few days into fermentation. I've regularly done, in my kit days and beyond, toucans of lager and toucans of stout and they haven't been overly bitter. Where are you getting your IBU figures from for the kits? Coopers website has a silly glitch where they state the IBU as the IBU of the syrup in the tin, not the final diluted wort. I wouldn't be surprised if the final IBU was well down in the low 40s if even that.

 

[BjornJ]

I used the kit calculator spreadsheet I downloaded from the forums here.

I can not vouch for how correct this is, but it has the IBUs as Coopers Stout 38.6 and Coopers Lager 21.2.

 

[boingk]

Sounds about right BjornJ - the lager kits arew very mild in terms of bitterness IMO.

Go for the toucan, man. I reckon you're overthinking this, it should turn out well. The Toucan Stout in my sig is ageing for this coming winter and was made with a Coopers Stout can and a Tooheys Dark Ale can that I'd had sitting around. Tasted quite good at 6 weeks, rich dark flavours coming through with a hint of almost rum-like afterburn drifting up after you swallow. I made it to 21L and used stock Coopers yeasts x 2 (kicked off sepereately with 250ml water and a spoon of malt, natually )

I agree that it will make more of a dark ale than a stout, but its really splitting hairs. If you want to add some things to up it, do that. If you can't be aresed and want to do a rock-stock toucan, then do that.

*Saw voice*: Tick tock...make a choice...live or die

Cheers - boingk