Help on a Cooper's Stout Augmentation

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LTownLiquorPig

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Hey fellas, back at it now that work is slowing down and weather is cooling down. I'm going to throw a Cooper's Stout kit together on the weekend. I have 1.3KG's of Dark LME as my fermentable and some EKG and Willamette, with Notty for the yeast. Was thinking I'd do a boil with the LME to get some bitterness out of one of the hops to compliment the bitterness in the Cooper's pre-hopped.

I made this kit before using light LME as the extra fermentable, but thought it was too malty.That being said, the stout I am really used to drinking is Guinness, so the Cooper's Stout probably isn't trying to emulate that dry Irish stout style.

This was my first crack at it:
1.7KG Cooper's Original Stout
1.3KG light LME
2*7g packets of Cooper's ale yeast, pitched at 70*-72*.
topped up to 16L in a 5 gallon bucket

Any advice? Hoping to brew it Sunday.
 
I just did this kit on sunday, I used 1.1lb dark dme, 1.1 lb dextrose, steeped 8 oz of chocolate malt and flaked wheat. It smelt incredible and fermented like a bat out of hell, I did 23L and my og was 1.05. Seriously though that coopers yeast is a demon sometimes, caught it just before the lid blew. So maybe 1 pack will do. Just my 2¢, cheers.

Edit: I actually used 1.1lb dark brown sugar, not dextrose.
 
Looks like I'm going with this:

Cooper's OS Stout Kit 1.7KG
Dark LME 1.3KG
Dextrose .25KG
Bitter up the LME with .5 Oz Willamette
Top up to 20 Litres and off we go on some Notty.

Brewing this evening.
 
Got home from work at about the 20 hour mark of fermentation and the Notty was rocketing along, doing it's thing. Temp seems to be holding fast on 68*. Excited to get a sip of this one, my first batch with added hops.
 
The coopers kits are great and you know what, the brew enhancer 2 is a good cheap way to get your fermentables up. I wouldn't hold back on adding some DME at all to boost the ABV if your looking for a bit extra and steeping grains is going to give you that lovely fresh beer taste.

Your hops are looking good but where are you going to put it in the boil?

A recipe I recently did was the Dark Ale kit, BE2, Fuggles and EKG along with some chocolate malt for steeping. Seriously, the best home brew beer I have made yet using just the coopers yeast too.

Looking forward to hearing how your stout tasted.
 
I just pulled a sample of mine last night, after a week I seem to be stuck at 1.018 but time will tell. I think I could drink this beer flat now really tasty.
 
Gonna check the gravity tonight. Going to bottle if it's under 1.012. It's been going for 18, around 62-64 when it was looking it's most active.
 
165-170F boil temp likely won't give good hop utilization. Gotta boil that stuff for the hops to do their job properly.
 
Drinking the Stout I rigged up from the Cooper's kit right now, after 1 week in the bottle and only 5 hours in the fridge it has a full head, body, and carbonation. It tastes freakin amazing easily the best stout I have ever had. I made Festa Brew's Double Oatmeal Stout last year and this walks all over that. Mind you I haven't had many stouts, Guiness, St.Ambrois Oatmeal Stout, Youngs Double Chocolate Stout, My local brew pubs stout, Festa Brews, and this one are it. I can easily say though I would choose the one I made over all of those. Sorry for jacking your thread here, but I am absolutely stunned that a Cooper's Stout kit and some tweaking made something so amazing. I hope your's turns out this good Ltown. Cheers

Tim
Aylesford
 
That's what I always liked about Cooper's. Especially the OS (Original Series) cans. Doesn't take much to make something good out of them. I tend to think that Cooper's made the original series plain like that so they could be easily modded.:mug:
 
Thanks for the tip Union. I think when I was making the recipe plan I was swept up in the mash temp control idea, even though I knew it had nothing to do with what I was doing.

Tim, this is my second Cooper's stout, the first I made in the spring for St. Patricks day. I think it's my favourite kit so far. I'm in Lawrencetown, so I buy most of my kits and gear from the Pharmasave in Bridgetown. Cooper's kits are $15 for the rest of the month. Usually a pretty good selection, and decent dates. Not usually too old.
 
Hmm looks like I might be taking a trip out to bridgetown soon lol. The pharmasave in kingston kicks up a good sale like that once in a while as well. The real win for the valley though is the Noble grape that opened in cold brook, have you checked out the new store yet?
 
Didn't know there was a Noble Grape in the valley. Hops and malt and good yeast in half the drive! That's great news!

Union, that's the trouble with the internet. It makes us all experts in our own minds even when we have no clue. I stood over the pot cursing because I couldn't get the temperature below 160*.....

FWIW, the sample I drank when I bottled was delicious, and a little more bitter than I remembered my last attempt being.
 
Been drinking this one for a couple days now, and it's pretty tasty. Seems pretty dry and bitter, sort of what I was hoping for. Actually, it's damn delicious.
 
Glad it came out good. If you have an electric stove,try turning it down to 2 or 3 on the knob to keep temps down within range.
 
For changing the coopers stout kit can anyone enlighten me on how to calculate how much sugar I need to add (if any). I plan to mash 1lb 2 row and 1 pound oats together then mix in the extract kit, wondering if that covers enough sugar or how much more I should be adding. I was thinking about some hops too, but I may just dry hop so it's not too bitter.

Thanks
 
For changing the coopers stout kit can anyone enlighten me on how to calculate how much sugar I need to add (if any). I plan to mash 1lb 2 row and 1 pound oats together then mix in the extract kit, wondering if that covers enough sugar or how much more I should be adding. I was thinking about some hops too, but I may just dry hop so it's not too bitter.

Thanks

If your going to do a partial mash why not use enough grain to exclude any sugar. I've done 2 partial mashes so far based on Cooper's kits. One I'm drinking (chocolate stout) another is bottle conditioning (english special bitter).

In both cases I included 2kg (~4.4lbs) of 2-row plus whatever other specialty grains I needed. Both these came out at around 4.5 - 5%. These were 23l batches.

I mash in a cheap aluminum 20litre pot BIAB style. Then I boil for an hour. I don't do a bittering hop addition since the Cooper's kits are prehopped. I do the flavour/aroma addition as scheduled. In one of the batches I added the beer kit in the last 10 minutes of the boil. In the other I didn't boil the kit at all, I just dumped it into the fermenter with the PM wort and topped up.

This isn't any harder than what you are planning to do anyway (assuming you have a 15-20l pot available).
 
PM with a Cooper's can sounds interesting. I did a lot of recombining with them as all extracts with various hops & hopping schedules. But pm might be worth a try in this way. Add maybe .25oz of bittering hops to the mashed wort,the grain bill containing watever makes a milk stout. Then some willamette hops for flavor & the OS Stout can. Hmmmm....:drunk::cross:
 
I'm glad you guys weighed in. I think I'm pimping these Cooper's kits when I use fresh hops and LME instead of a brew enhancer.

Judging by what strikes me as a lid rattling on a pot in a box under my tree I might be in for a little further tinkering possibilities after the 25th!
 
Go for it,I did! Good beer can be had from Cooper's Original Series (I call OS) cans,3lb bag of plain DME,& some hops. Replace the DME with a partial mash that's compatible,& it'll be even better I'd imagine.We'll have to try this theory out next brew.:mug::ban::ban::ban::mug:
 
Thanks for all the responses, lots of useful information the only thing I was worried about using all grain to replace the corn sugar was making it too malty. Because the extract is made to be added with tasteless sugar. So about 2KG of total grain would replace 1kg of corn sugar, will rolled oats have the same fermentable sugars as a 2 row? Also how much water and how big a pot is needed to mash 2kg of grain and is there any harm putting it all in a sock?
I can't wait to get this IPA out of my primary (which I'm afraid has some off tastes) and try putting this stout in.
 
I think the 2-row would have more. You could do biab in a 5 gallon kettle like I do. I mash 5lb in 1.5 gallons of water for an hour at about 155F,then sparge with 1.5 gallons more water at 165F. 3 gallons patial boil volume.
 
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