Brewing My First Batch of Cooper's Stout

I just purchased my first beer kit for the Cooper DIY kit. I have the standard Cooper Stout along with 2 pounds of Muntons dark dry malt extract. I am looking to make a thick, high alcohol stout for St. Patrick's Day festivities. Any tips or additions to this recipe to help aid in my celebration of the holiday and my first batch of beer? Some suggestions I have seen include adding some extra dextrose and brewing 18 L instead of 23L. Thanks for any and all input!

18L is a good start, but really some more dme wouldn't hurt you, at least a couple more pounds for a 5 gallon batch. Stay away from sugar as it will "thin" the mouthfeel of the brew. I usually brew my Coopers stout with the 3.7lb tin of stout kit, a 3.3lb tin of dark malt extract plus a couple pounds of dme for 23L....drinking some right now after letting age for about 5 weeks in the bottle after a 2 week primary.

Cheers

You could add some maltodextrin for some more body about 4oz or so for 18L. Add to the last 10 or 15min of the boil. Also I'm not sure what yeast you got with your kit but if its coopers I would ditch that for something like S-04, much better yeast IMO. As above poster said stay away form the dextrose as this will thin it out. Use extra malt extract for the higher gravity. Gool luck! :rockin:

Ok so here is the the potential lineup:


18 l brew
1 can of Coopers Stout
1 can Coopers lme dark
2 lbs Muntons dme dark
1 pkg s-04 "beast yeast"

2 weeks primary
5 weeks secondary

Chilled and ready for St Pattys Day!

Any potential issues here? Too much malt? Maybe 23L?

I'd suggest that if you want a really good stout for St. Patrick's day that you start about 2 months ago.

Stouts are a dark beer that take time to properly mature and I think you will have drinkable stout but not great stout by St. Patrick's day. How about doing 4 weeks in the primary and then bottling or kegging?

^^^ You should be fine with those numbers. You have about 4.75 gallons of beer with an OG around 1.073 and an estimated FG of 1.021 for an estimated ABV of about 7%. Numbers from this website:

Batch Statistics for Extract Base Recipes | Brewer's Friend

Remember, the bigger the beer alcohol and flavor wise, the more time it will take to condition to be at its peak. My 23L brew with the same ingredient list (except I added an ounce of aroma hops, Cascade, for 5 minutes boiled with my DME in 1 gallon of water. Balances out the malt) -but lower ABV, was in the bottle 4 weeks before I tried one.

But what you have will definitely produce a good beer. Just be patient.

Cheers.

Ok, another question, does the dme have to be boiled, or is that just if more hops are added? ( which I will probably end up adding)

In the Coopers vids they don't show boiling of anything except hop additions, and it works. But a lot of us who brew with kits do just as Unionrdr has said, a small boil to add hops w/ the dme and then the lme at flameout to get it incorporated and pastuerized (though technically it should be good straight from the can).

I followed the directions on the kit.
Unfortunately, the beer tastes disgusting, It stayed on the yeast cake for two weeks, and has been in the bottle for 11 days, I tried some last nite, sufficient carbonation bad taste. Thirty bucks wasted.

Dr_Jeff said:

I followed the directions on the kit.
Unfortunately, the beer tastes disgusting, It stayed on the yeast cake for two weeks, and has been in the bottle for 11 days, I tried some last nite, sufficient carbonation bad taste. Thirty bucks wasted.

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11 days in bottle is not nearly long enough for this, wait another month or 2 and you should taste a radical improvement. I've done this kit and it makes a mild easy drinking stout, no bad/wierd tastes. If you've done it according to the directions it will be thin from the added sugar (using extra malt instead of sugar is a better way to go) but should still taste decent.