How good can I make a Munton's connoisseurs stout?

I got a brewing setup for Christmas, and I also got a can of prehopped Munton's connoisseurs stout. I've been reading up on it and it seems to be pretty weak and bland. I'd like to try to use it as an ingredient with some other stuff, but being prehopped, does it have much potential? I only have one batch under my belt as of this morning, so I haven't learned much about setting up a recipe yet. I was thinking maybe add some more DME, specialty grains, maybe a little vanilla/coffee/chocolate? If I can't make something good with it I think I can get the receipt to exchange it.

You can make good beer with Coopers pre-hopped kits. Do not boil the LME though. Boiling pre-hopped LME will give you extreme bitterness and a terrible flavor.
Most people will replace the included sugar with DME. This will add flavor and body. Sugar will increase the ABV, but thin the body.

Being your first brewing experience I would try this one as it is, but with the addition of DME. I believe 1.3 pounds of DME is equal to 1 pound of sugar.

Go to the Coopers and Muntons sites. Look at their FAQs' for more information.

Here is another site for good information.
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=12

+1 on don't boil the hopped LME (unless you want it really bitter); since it's your first batch, you might want to follow the directions; However, I rarely follow any recipe regardless if I am brewing or cooking; I like to personalize it and "make it my own"

If you wanted your stout kit bolder, I would recommend doing the following:

Mash 2oz roasted barley (coffee tones), 2oz chocolate malt, 2oz Crystal 60L, and 1oz debitterized black malt @ 154 for an hour in approximately 1.5 pints of water (3 cups); then boil for a few minutes with 1lb of dry malt extract, turn off heat and add your premade/prehopped wort; this will make it a little stronger in both flavor

If you wanted an easier and simpler route, then brew 4 cups coffee (use a mocha or chocolate blend with a teaspoon of vanilla extract) and add into your already made wort/extract; you need to be careful and not to let your coffee get to a temp above 200+ for an excessive amount of time; I read somewhere that if you boil coffee you'll get some bitterness out of it that you don't want; I like to add coffee into my primary or secondary after fermentation is complete (all sanitized of course)

Hope this helps! You have lots of options and can learn what to do if you keep reading/researching on here

Something I didn't mention in my previous post. It would be a good idea to replace the yeast that came with the kit with an 11 gram package. The kits yeast packs are small and were most likely not handled properly.

Good tips, thanks. And this won't be my first batch, my first batch was an IPA with specialty grains I did the day before I posted. So I'm ok with the process, and I'd rather screw up big than make a weak stout I won't want to drink. Go big or go home haha. I'll add some DME and upgrade the yeast. Since I'm adding more malt I'm thinking it would be a good idea to add extra hops to balance it out?

Adding more hops to balance it out would be a great idea; you won't need much though. You could also boil your premade hopped wort for 5-10 minutes, but flars said it would taste bad. I never have done this so I could not tell you either way. You would get more bitterness.

Real simple adjustment would be to replace the dextrose with DME (as already suggested) and reduce the batch size to 19 or 20 litres instead of 23.

I've never done a Munton's kit before but Cooper's original series stout gets pretty decent reviews by just doing what I've suggested above. From there you can move on to adding steeping grains or hops.

Before I moved to all grain I was using Coopers cans in mini mash recipes. I'd mash about 5 pounds of 2 row along with whatever specialty grains. I'd do a full hour boil with no bittering addition only flavour and aroma. At flame out I'd add the Coopers kit to replace the usual malt extract addition and to serve as the bittering addition. Chill, top off, pitch the yeast (never had aproblem with the included yeast) and let her rip. Results were pretty good.

Cool, thanks for the tips.

I am looking to buy the Munton's connoisseurs stout, right now, for my next batch.
My recommendation is to try a milk stout.
Do not add sugar (dextrose) as the recipe says. I did that on my last Muntons and it adds alcohol, but I'm not happy with the flavor.
For a milk stout, use two pounds of a dark dry spraymalt and about 5% to 6% lactose which, I think, works out to 2 pounds of lactose for a 40 pint batch.
The milk stout is one of my top two favorites. I have a buddy who wants to buy my milk stout - which of course would be illegal

danindenver said:

I am looking to buy the Munton's connoisseurs stout, right now, for my next batch.
My recommendation is to try a milk stout.
Do not add sugar (dextrose) as the recipe says. I did that on my last Muntons and it adds alcohol, but I'm not happy with the flavor.
For a milk stout, use two pounds of a dark dry spraymalt and about 5% to 6% lactose which, I think, works out to 2 pounds of lactose for a 40 pint batch.
The milk stout is one of my top two favorites. I have a buddy who wants to buy my milk stout - which of course would be illegal

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According to info on the Muntons' site, when the sugar is replaced with DME also replace the yeast. Use an 11 gram package of Muntons' Premium Gold. This yeast will be able to ferment the more complex sugars of the DME.
http://www.muntonshomebrew.com/?s=spraymalt&submit=Search&post_type=question

Thanks flars, I did not see that.

The one I tried, before, was Muntons Connoisseur Bock.
I did half of the batch with a pound of dextrose and half with a "plain light" spraymalt extract. I liked the spraymalt batch, better, but I've found that both batches are improving with age.

Unfortunately, I don't know where to get the Premium Gold yeast, so I might be inclined to go with the Safale 05, particularly because of the wider temp range.
I'm having a bear of a time keeping my temperature up, in this Colorado winter.

I will look for it, though, at the LHBS where I get the Muntons.

Gee, this is getting more complicated all the time.