coopers stout tips please

[THE EMBALMER]

my stout is hopefully still working its magic,no bubbles but smell good . i will check the hydro reading on sunday that will be 7 days,will get budget keg from wilkos this week,prime and drink
operator how long did you ferment yours? some recommend 10 days some say its ready after 5to 7.

[Operator]

Started it on 7th jan, 1042 og. loads of froth and activity. 9th no bubbles 1016, 10th stirred, 14th 1014 for about 3 days and kegged. Now I just have to force myself to wait a bit to try it! Hope yours goes well, let me know.

[THE EMBALMER]

tested gravity tonight after 5 days in fv 1020 sounds abour right? will check again sunday and if its the same monday will keg it,not sure how much to prime got dark spray malt to priming.
got budget keg no gas though hoping not to add gas would this be ok and how would i keep the beer tip top in the keg for a few weeks until its all gone?

[RatboyOllie]

i asked the same question when i went to the homebrew store

the fella said if didnt want to use gas in the basic keg then to get the best out of my brew and make it last i could add a primer to the keg when i had finsihed supping for the evening, then in theory itll produce its own layer of co2 protecting it and making it last longer.

However, im new to this too and if your adding a priming solution all the time surely its going to affect the taste as you get down the keg?

someone on here will know?

[Ditch]

How many more time, lads? Just brew to the instructions, till ye know how they intend it to be. The Coopers Stout I talk about is brewed just as it says on the bit of paper ~ unless I ever announce differently. Eg. I may drop the water level, to make a more potent pint, some time.

But, all I ever do is add Medium Spray Malt in place of sugar. Nothing else. This isn't Muntons. It doesn't Need adulterating and messing with to make it great

By all means experiment. But learn ye basics first. Taste it as is.

[Chris The Fish]

Taste it as is.

as the man said.

stick a can in a bucket with yeast and two packets of either medium or dark spray malt, wait a week and drink. sorry, i meant then put it in a keg/bottle then drink.


seriously, you cant go wrong with this kit, and it tastes great after about a week, after pitching..

[RatboyOllie]

ditch i reckon one of us misunderstood embalmers question. what i thought he meant was..... when he kegs it and its ready to drink, if like me he drinks it over the course of a few weeks or even months and isnt using any kind of co2 gas system then how does he ensure the coopers left in the keg doesnt oxidise and keeps in tip top condition?

The fella at the lhbs said the only way would be to add a primer each time youve finsihed supping for the evening, but in my opinion, and i havent tried it , this would affect the taste after a while, surely? Am I being thick? I am very thick so it would come as no surprise

I'm guessin Ditch at your house the coopers doesnt last long enough to contemplate it goin off but what would you do to ensure it lasts if you wanted it to?

[Ditch]

Sorry, Ollie. Probably Not one of my most clearly intended posts. I've been 'over working. myself all week, battling a grindingly slow connection while trying to bang out a mammoth load of on line work which requires fresh pages every minute ~ and they take nearer thirty to open Just trying to finish, even as I've drifted back in here while yet another page drags on inexorably to a time out.

No; I was more responding to ye own point, about the use of " Primers ". What ever one uses as a 'primer' is going to alter the tastes along the way. So, ye see? Ye not being in the least bit thick. Ye understood my point exactly. Adding malt or sugars will make the beer incrementally more malty or sugary than the recipe intends.

The guy in the LHBS was doing his best in an almost impossible situation. If I were him? I'd have simply told ye buying an S30 and bottle of CO2 was ye best bet. Just like virtually everybody else does. Why on earth don't ye?


As an aside; Coopers do say their stout can be got at, or left alone for months and still be great. " Left alone for months "! That one always kills me! Like; Who the hell has got the will power to taste Coopers Stout, then leave it alone! They're having a f*cking laugh! Surely!

[Trough Lolly]

1/2 tsp of yeast vit,

Sounds like that's ye problem. Right there. See?

The yeast supplied with ye Coopers kit is famously good stuff. It works great with that kit, as is. In fact, it works So well, results can be 'Fun'. Now ye've souped up a super charged yeast ......

This is why I firmly believe we should Always follow the manufacturers instructions, at least for the first go or three. See what it's supposed to be like. Then we can play around, if we wish.

DSM instead of sugars is the only thing that 'needs' changing from the off.

G'day Ditch and others - glad you like our stout kit - it's not a bad drop at all. Just a question if I may - you don't do a small boil the spray malt with some hops, just add it to the fermenter and off you go? And how large is the tin you get - we have it in 1.7kg tins which according to xe.com cost us the equivalent of 4.50 euro each from the local supermarket.

Enjoy...

[RatboyOllie]

wow a tin of coopers for 4.5 euros, bargain ! Its double that here in the UK, no doubt all taxation !!

Cheers Ditch, im with ye, im slowly gettin to grips with this brewing lark........ I have actually kegged my Coopers a couple of days ago into a TT with an s30 valve and ive bought a hambleton bard cylinder. Somewhat stupidly though i bought another basic keg at the same time and didnt opt for the s30 cap, i just got a basic cap, not thinking i would require C02 for a keg with a tap at the bottom, but its becoming apparent that i probably will do!

Ive spent far too much money on equipment recently so i will keep my eye on ebay for another keg at some point, see if i can snag a bargain. I like bottling me beers but jesus its hard work washin all them bottles......

if only we could get Coopers for a fiver over here.................

[THE EMBALMER]

hi all stout lovers just tested gravity today after 7 days its down to 1014 ,not wanting to waste the stout i drank it and guess what???
yeh i loved it already so i have poured myself another glass at this rate i wont need to keg it ,there will be nothing to keg!!
i have not got the gas cap for my budget keg so i could wait until monday and get one with a pack of bulbs from wilkos after work or keg it without tonight and wait a few days after priming and get stuck into it.
my buddy who lives in ozzy land is coming over in a couple of weeks so i have asked him to bring me a tin of the irish stout brewmaster range over with him on the premise we will sup a gallon or two when its brewed. hopefully he will fingers crossed.i wonder what the postage costs for a load posted over as a gift to avoid duty mmm ponder ponder...
ditch i can understand what all the fuss is about now its a bit tangy but thats i guess too immature yet but i cant wait to keg and drink when its matured for a few days.
priming question i have dark spray malt is this the way to go or demorara sugar?
right cheers guys off for another glass of not quite ready but who cares loverly coopers stout ha cheers glyn

not had much luck this week some one pillaged 377 euros out of my paypal account and some thieving scumbag nicked my motorbike last night so going to drown my sorrows with my lucky stout

[mattwatts]

I just did the first of my two hydrometer readings (down to 1.010 according to mine) and had a cheeky taste.

WOW.

Did I really make that?

It's going to be VERY hard to not drink all of it in a very short time. If it holds the same reading tomorrow, I'm either bottling or kegging it straight away.

[Ditch]

Bloody hell, Trough Lolly; Ye nearly gave me a heart attack there! I caught the " Our Coopers " bit as the page was unfurling and thought Mr Burge himself had turned up! (Now There's a man I'd Love a word with! Burge is a name of my family and extremely important to me).

Anyway, nah. Not personally. I tend to work on the principle of not trying to fix what isn't broken. I love my Coopers Stout as is. (Or, maybe on a deeper level? I have an inerrant loathing of that phrase only a bloody woman could come out with, with such pride; " ..... But I'll change him! " ) If I didn't like it as it is, I'd find something I did like. Not that I'm averse to ringing the changes either. I'm just a bit 'conservative' in my ways


Ollie; S30 valve, over here, costs me 13 Euro. So ye looking at a dozen quid, at todays sort of exchange rates. ANY basic keg ye could have delivered at that price isn't likely to be worth the bother. I'd just buy an S30 at the LHBS and dig a hole through the cap ye have. Sorted!


Coopers for a fiver? Doesn't bear thinking about, does it? But, yes; Tax. Import duties. Carriage. Normal profit margins for the retailers ..... Look where we end up! Hey ho. That's life.


Embalmer; Bit about having nothing left too keg gave me a good laugh! Perfectly understand it though! Murder, isn't it? And, yeppers; It does tend to have a tang in the ridiculously early phase. Week or two and it's a vase of the left hand struggling against the right wrist as the face strains toward that glass!

As for priming? I don't bother. I don't have any sugar around and feel Spray Malt would upset the balance as much as it did any good. But that's just me for ye.

[THE EMBALMER]

cheers ditch got me thinking of not priming now!! any how just got new gas cap and bulbs from wilkos ,not done this before but i am wondering when you add a bulb of co2 ?
i am guessing after it has matured for a few hours....no i mean days ..or is that weeks?
then before you start to pour the nectar out pop some co2 in??
do leave the pressure in after a session or do you have to release some, thing is i wont know how much is in or not in as the case may be.
its been in fv 8 days now and got reading last night and tonight 1014 so i think its going in the keg tonight.
cheers glyn

[Ditch]

Glyn; Those sparklet bulbs are bloody horrible things, mate. I bought some, on a knee jerk, 'just to tide me over'. Never even used them. Got so pissed off thinking about them and looking at them, I bought a proper bottle instead. Still have the silly little bulbs somewhere.

Regards how, when and much to gas ye beer? Another case of 'Don't try this at home! / If Ditch threw himself off a cliff, would ye follow?'. But, I believe the drill is something to do with putting the keg in the cold for a few days - or is it the warm? Gas it in one place or another. Then drag it somewhere else later. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What ever I'm sure a search will throw up all the proper procedure on that score.

Me? It sits in my big, cold back room and I give it a shot of gas after I've had enough out of the keg that it's not rushing out to meet my glass in a mass of foam. Granted, this usually means I manage half a pint of froth and then wander off for five minutes before returning to pour more froth onto that now beer.

Probably not ideal. Probably costing me CO2. Probably someone itching to set me straight? Well; If They want to come and cart five gallons of liquid through four rooms and down two steps for me? Fine. Otherwise My beer bloody well stays where it is and is treated as I choose. I make it. I drink it. I love it. I have no problems with how I do things