noob questions on coopers irish stout

hello peoples. im scrawbag. i have been reading posts here for a few weeks and doing a lot of study in the homebrew department. Noob alert!!! Im doing coopers kits. finished an australian lager and ill be honest it was terrible. then did an irish stout with LME number 1 and it was lovely. doing another irish stout and have a few questions.
it's a lager yeast no?? what is the correct BREWING temp. had terrible 22 c to 27 celcius last time but now i have an aquarium heater. read that thread twice. so whats the exact brew temp and if i want to use a different yeast to whats in the can will any lager yeast do? the hbstore has no stout yeast so what should be used. noob when it comes to yeast temps. is there anywhere where these are convinently located.also i accuired a load of sterile water from work. its pure h20 for medical devices. is it any good for brewing or should i only use for rinsing. keep in mind i do have yeast nutriant for it.
thanks for help guys

scrawbag said:

it's a lager yeast no??

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No, it's an ale yeast.

scrawbag said:

what is the correct BREWING temp. had terrible 22 c to 27 celcius last time but now i have an aquarium heater. read that thread twice. so whats the exact brew temp and if i want to use a different yeast to whats in the can will any lager yeast do?

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18-20C is generally a good temp for ales. Coopers kits instructions specify higher fermentation temp and higher temp will give you faster fermentation but more off flavours, so lower gives better result but takes longer. I would give it at least 2 weeks.

scrawbag said:

the hbstore has no stout yeast so what should be used. noob when it comes to yeast temps. is there anywhere where these are convinently located.also i accuired a load of sterile water from work. its pure h20 for medical devices. is it any good for brewing or should i only use for rinsing. keep in mind i do have yeast nutriant for it.
thanks for help guys

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Stouts are brewed with ale yeasts. Here's a basic guide to yeast strains: How to Brew - By John Palmer - Dry Yeast Strains
In that guide, Irish Ale is recommended for stouts, but many ale yeasts would be suitable. Not sure about the water so I'll let someone else comment on that.

thats brill. thanks for answering. i didnt want to waste another batch with random temperatures. i might do an experiment with the sterile water and nitrients and post my results here. i hope to be the one in future to be answering the questions. that john palmer book is great. read most of it already. thanks again

scrawbag said:

thats brill. thanks for answering. i didnt want to waste another batch with random temperatures. i might do an experiment with the sterile water and nitrients and post my results here. i hope to be the one in future to be answering the questions. that john palmer book is great. read most of it already. thanks again

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Yer welcome mate! I just started a year ago and learned a lot from that John Palmer book and this forum. The instructions on the Coopers kits are pretty rubbish - I think they just design them to be as basic and easy as possible to appeal more to someone who picks up a tin in the supermarket so they think - that's easy I could do that, and to make it as fool proof as possible.

Where in Ireland are you? I'm from Co.Cavan originally. What's your tap water like? If it tastes ok to drink I'd just go with that. I believe distilled water is a no-no for mashing grains since the minerals are important, but for mixing up a Coopers kit, it could be ok, but I'm not sure. You'll probably find out if you do a search here for distilled water.

scrawbag said:

thats brill. thanks for answering. i didnt want to waste another batch with random temperatures. i might do an experiment with the sterile water and nitrients and post my results here. i hope to be the one in future to be answering the questions. that john palmer book is great. read most of it already. thanks again

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Since you're doing an extract kit, you should be fine using any water without adjusting it. Water chemistry only comes into play when you're mashing grains. That said, if your water is even a little chlorine-y, use bottled water, RO from a machine, or distilled.

im in galway city and the water is ok (when its not full of crypto spyridium) but it does smell of clorine. a mate out the country can supply good clean rain water and this would be my normal supply for brewing but ya know the way its good to do a brew with nothing added and then you can taste the difference when you add something. thats sort of what im doing with the sterile water. its more of an experiment. not using any grains or hops yet so ill give it a go. other people have asked the question but i plan to answer it.
Now i have the correct brew temp i know what ill be at friday evening.
thanks for the assist