Cracked my first Cooper's Stout/Dark Ale Toucan

Beginning of December 2012 I made up the Cooper's Stout/Dark Ale Toucan.

Cooper's OS Stout
Cooper's OS Dark Ale
1kg Dextrose
Both kit yeasts
Topped up to 23 litres
Primary only, 3 weeks at 18degreesC

I bottled it up just before Christmas so it's just about six weeks at this point.

I'm not a beer connoisseur so I'm not going to even attempt to give any real tasting notes. I will say however that it was roasty and bitter and I liked it. At six weeks it might actually still be considered young so I am looking forward to see how it ages.

As prepared this brew should be in the 7-8% ABV range. I had the equivalent of 2 bottles (750ml PET bottle) and I got to admit I felt it. Also I noticed a warmth in the stomach as I drank it. Nice to have on hand now that the cold months have arrived.

If you decide to make this use a big fermenter. I used my Cooper's DIY fermenter with the krausen collar and while I was in no danger of blowing the lid off one krausen "cone" almost touched the lid before collapsing back into the sea of foam this brew produced.

I'd be interested to get other people's thoughts and experience of this beer (for example how long does it take to fully mature?).

This is a great recipe. I let mine bottle condition for 4 months and it is GREAT

Thanks for the replies guys. Like I said it's pretty good now but I'll make sure to stretch the batch out to at least 6 months to see what difference it makes.

My plan was to leave it alone completely until March. St. Patrick's Day would be getting pretty close to 3 months so that was my goal. But...

I was brewing a stout this weekend and the thought occurred to me that it would be a super idea to drink a stout while brewing one. That thought and the knowlegde there was ~5 (imp) gallons of black gold just sitting around in the basement broke my resolve.