Adapting kits.

[ploppythesausage]

I'm new to this whole homebrewing malarkey and am working from kits at the moment (although I've only actually followed the instructions to one - we'll see how the others go).
Next up I was going to use the Coopers Stout kit as a base to make a coffee, chocolate and naga chilli stout - and imperial if possible - inspired by some Mikkellers I've tried.
Does anyone have experience in adapting kits or how I should approach doing it? I was simply going to toss in some coffee beans and cocoa and a couple chillies when I boil the kit, ferment for a week or two, add more coffee, chocolate and chilli to the bucket, leave another couple weeks and bottle condition.
What do you reckon?

 

[HopSong]

Bump: There must be some folks who have upped the ante on kits.

 

[ploppythesausage]

Yeah, I thought I'd have at least one opinion in adapting kits in general. Oh well, I'm going ahead with this at the weekend. I ran it through Beer Calculus to check it out - using one can Coopers Stout, 1kg Dark DME, 1kg Dextrose - one Naga chili and cocoa in the boil and some cold brewed coffee and one more Naga added to taste after fermentation subsides.
Made to 18 litres comes to 8-9%ABV

 

[dfc]

Bump: There must be some folks who have upped the ante on kits.

I haven't moved into all grain just yet and if you take a look at my signature you'll see that I've definitely added my own ingredients to some kits.

Specifically the Blueberry Chocolate Stout, Peppermint Chocolate Stout, Hop Bomb IPA, Strawberry Cream Ale, Blueberry Wheat, Chile Pale Ale and Eagles IPA (green beer) are all modified kits.

Experiment a little and write down what you do as well as when you do it. The next time you decide to make that beer you can look back on your notes and make adjustments as needed. For instance the chile pale ale I have is the second batch. I put habaneros in the fermenter, but the first time I did it I froze them first. This time I didn't freeze them and wish I had. The batch that used the frozen habaneros came out a bit spicier I assume because I didn't break down the cell walls on the second batch by not freezing them.

 

[ploppythesausage]

Thanks for the encouragement! I hope to move onto speciality grain extract brewing next - no more pre-hopped cans for me

 

[dfc]

Thanks for the encouragement! I hope to move onto speciality grain extract brewing next - no more pre-hopped cans for me

I started out steeping grains. I can't imagine how boring doing a kit from a can would be.

 

[RobWalker]

Your recipe would work fine. Primary fermentation will cause the flavour to change but the noticable flavour of the ingredients won't come through - it'll just be "different." Steeping into secondary is pretty popular, I personally wouldn't add chocolate because of the oil and sugar, cocoa will suffice for the chocolate flavour. Careful on the Nagas though eh?

 

[ploppythesausage]

This has been in the bottle I think around 6 weeks now. It's still quite roasty bitter from the stout kit and the coffee (i cold steeped the coffee but then threw it in the boil anyway )but is mellowing out slowly but surely. There is a nice little chilli glow and a slight tingle but not a huge amount, hardly any cocoa coming through but a nice amount of coffee towards the end. Looks like all the flavours should mellow out over time.

 

[ploppythesausage]

Wow! Just had one a couple days back, shared a few among friends and the general consensus is that it is a damn good beer. The aroma is chocolate and a touch of chilli, the taste is strong espresso with just enough chilli that you know it's there but any more would be way too much, any less would be lost. A nice glowing feeling from the chillis too. And it looks amazing. I'll have to make another batch of this.

 

[unionrdr]

I just spotted your thread,sounds interesting. I do about the same kind of things with cooper's cans,DME,hops,oak,that sort of thing. My avatar pic shows the ingredients for a #3 Burton ale I decided to experiment with after a prominent member sent me a link talking about them.
I already have a couple tweaks in mind for version 2.
I basically change the cans into whatever style I want them to be in regard to how close a can is & what I need to add to it. I used the OS dark ale can in a recipe to make my Whiskely ale once. I had to condition that one for just shy of 10 weeks. Then 2 weeks fridge time for decent head & carbonation.
So you're on the right track with what you're doing with them. It comes with imagination & experimentation. I just learned what can be combined with which can to make what I want. So keep going!

 

[sha0056]

came across this thread while researching for a cherry chili pepper imperial stout. how did you add the pepper - whole, pureed, diced, seeds or not, etc. did you end up doing both the boil and later additions? I was thinking of using a chocolate habanero pepper and 6 pounds of cherry puree in secondary fermentation (5 gallon batch) along with possibly using 4 oz cacao nibs