Brewing a Stout for University Friends

Hey guys,

My room mates have tasked me with the creation of a stout to fill up a vacant space in our keg fridge! Alas, I'm limiting myself to pre-hopped canned kits like Muntons and Coopers so please no extract suggestions... I'm not opposed to using specialty grains or extra hops and I'll most certainly be using malt extract in place of dextrose.

I'm not a stout fan personally, but they both like Guinness a lot! I'd like to know which stout kits you've tried and liked the best? Or at least which one is most comparable to Guinness. I'm thinking Cooper's Stout?

why are you limiting yourself to only canned kits?

Those canned kits are crap IMO.

I made that kit on June 28th this year. But I used Windsor dry yeast and I added DME ( I don't recall how much DME, my brew notes are kind of vague).

It was a really nice Stout, the keg ran out last week. Since June 28th I've made a Chocolate Espresso A/G Stout, and another A/G Stout without chocolate or espresso.

I'd have no problems making the Coopers kit again, with the upgraded yeast and DME.

Good Luck.

WenValley said:

I made that kit on June 28th this year. But I used Windsor dry yeast and I added DME ( I don't recall how much DME, my brew notes are kind of vague).

It was a really nice Stout, the keg ran out last week. Since June 28th I've made a Chocolate Espresso A/G Stout, and another A/G Stout without chocolate or espresso.

I'd have no problems making the Coopers kit again, with the upgraded yeast and DME.

Good Luck.

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Thanks for the reassurance! My friends aren't especially picky and they're willing to let it age in secondary for quite some time before consuming it so I believe they'll be pleased with the final product.

The reason I'm not willing to do an extract brew is because the largest pot I have at my disposal between anyone I'm in regular contact with is 7 liters. Also, the stove I have in my flat is incredibly under-powered, it takes nearly 15 minutes to bring hot tap water to a boil in my 3 liter pot just to cook some pasta. Brewing extract on it is probably beyond my capabilities at the moment I've done an extract batch before, but circumstances have changed since then, much to my dismay.

I just recently got a muntons export stout with brewcraft #74 stout enhancer instead of standard dextose, I added a little honey and caramelised brown sugar but probably not enough to make too much difference, its coming on fantastic and i cant wait to see how it turns out, it seems to have a great body so its not watery like the standard kits tend to be.

Don't boil it then.

Pommy said:

I just recently got a muntons export stout with brewcraft #74 stout enhancer instead of standard dextose, I added a little honey and caramelised brown sugar but probably not enough to make too much difference, its coming on fantastic and i cant wait to see how it turns out, it seems to have a great body so its not watery like the standard kits tend to be.

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I believe I've seen a stout enhancer at my LHBS, which I might pick up to use in place of DME/LME for this brew. I've used honey before in an american wheat beer and even though I added 700 grams to a 19L beer I couldn't detect any honey... Perhaps once I keg it I'll add some honey? The caramelized brown sugar also sounds like a fantastic idea! I'm looking up how to properly caramelize sugar on youtube right now. Thanks!

SMOKEU said:

Don't boil it then.

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Extract brewing using un-hopped malt extract requires that you boil your wort with hops to achieve the bitterness, flavour and aroma of the hops that are already incorporated into the canned malt extract in kits like Coopers or Muntons. That's why they're called "no-boil" kits.

I added some chocolate to mine when i did it....turned out great..

SeamusMac said:

Hey guys,

My room mates have tasked me with the creation of a stout to fill up a vacant space in our keg fridge! Alas, I'm limiting myself to pre-hopped canned kits like Muntons and Coopers so please no extract suggestions... I'm not opposed to using specialty grains or extra hops and I'll most certainly be using malt extract in place of dextrose.

I'm not a stout fan personally, but they both like Guinness a lot! I'd like to know which stout kits you've tried and liked the best? Or at least which one is most comparable to Guinness. I'm thinking Cooper's Stout?

Click to expand...

Try the Coopers Irish Stout. http://makebeer.ca/index.php/products/beer-kits/24-irish-stout.html
It uses an English yeast strain. Calls for 500 grams of DME and 300 grams of dextrose.

Thanks for the suggestion tomheff, I'm torn between Coopers Irish Stout and Brewcraft Irish Stout (by Muntons). In the description of the Brewcraft Stout they mention that it is hoppy and I'm assuming they're referring to IBU's, which isn't all together a good thing because neither of my room mates enjoy bitters... I have made 2 Bavarian Wheat kits from Brewcraft and they've been a hit! On the other hand the Coopers kit description mentions licorice aromatics, which depending on how strong they are might throw off the guys as they are both disgusted by the stuff... I'd like to add that the mention of chocolate and coffee in the description by Coopers is really appealing!

It's a toss-up! I may just have to try the both of them... Thanks for all the help guys, I 'ought to have this stout on the go by Monday night. I may even make it my youtube brewing video debut ha ha.