A little stout advice
- Thread starter bquiggerz
- Start date
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my advice would be brew the coopers stout as instructions. replace the sugar with dark sprey malt or beer kit enhancer. it really is a better stout than Guinness.
Are you after Guinness draught or original/extra?
I can't agree with that, I don't think the Coopers comes close.
well Dm not everyone has the same tastes for sure but ill have to disagree with you too
Couldn't agree more, just wanted to add a little balance so the OP doesn't set his expectations too high in case he doesn't find it as good as Guinness. :-D
Honestly I'm not really a Guinness drinker my dad who used to homebrew when I was very young says he could never get his to taste right so I just wanna do better than him and surprise him. I was talking to him and he used to use bleach sanitiser and admits he didn't rinse things well and he did other no-nos like always using table sugar and he never even owned a thermometer so I'm thinking those are the reasons his brews were never really any good, anyway that's the plan. I enjoy the brewing more than the drinking side of things. As I've said before this is more of a hobby than a means to save money.
beerhunter
Well-Known Member
I used brewing sugar and black treacle, it was lovely!
Cwrw666
Landlord.
Just remember that it won't taste like Guinness - Guinness is a stout, but stout isn't guinness. There's loads of different ones out there, even in Ireland. We went years ago and Guinness wasn't the best (to us). Murphy's was better, but Beamish even more so. Over here lots of breweries make stouts. I particularly like Witchwoods Black Witch.
Also remember that you're producing a carbonated stout which is a different beast to things like Guinness that use nitrogen instead of CO2 - which gives a smoother drink with a creamier head.
Also remember that you're producing a carbonated stout which is a different beast to things like Guinness that use nitrogen instead of CO2 - which gives a smoother drink with a creamier head.
LarryF
Brew Numpty
bquiggerz, I've just brewed my second Coopers Stout and on it's own it is a fine tasting stout. Saying that though I have drank Guinness for the last 35 odd years. On my second brew I added 1kg of BE, 1 tin of Lyons Treacle 454g and a cup of very strong black coffee. I did also add 22g of Aramis hops on a twenty minute boil in for a penny in for a pound on the tweaking front. I only bottled it on Saturday but what I've tasted from the sample tube does indeed taste a little like Sir Aurthr's brew, Guinness have always claimed to have a secret ingredient and I think it may actually be coffee which was around in 1759 or something at introduces a real bitter undertone that I've always found present in Guinness.
My advice would be to cut down on the amount of sugar/molasses that you add, and use more malt extract. This homebrewing method of using a can of extract and then adding loads of sugar is a bit bonkers. Beer is made from grain primarily - most beers are made entirely from grain, some beers have a little added sugar. The best way to brew a one can kit without using actual grain is to add malt extract to it - Wilko sell it in 500g bags. There's no harm in adding some sugar, but 500g would be the absolute max, IMO. Malt extract is a more expensive way to make beer than with loads of sugar, of course. A lot of people add a bag of brew enhancer, which is half extract and half sugar, as a compromise between cost and quality.
You can actually improve the quality massively, AND cut the cost, by using grain instead of sugar, like this...
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=52938
You can actually improve the quality massively, AND cut the cost, by using grain instead of sugar, like this...
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=52938
Cwrw666
Landlord.
Too much sugar with a 1 can kit can end up giving you `homebrew twang' - not exactly vinegary or sour taste, but a bit like that. Some kits seem to be worse that others for this though.
You can avoid it by adding malt extract instead of sugar but of course this then makes your 1 can kit more expensive, to the point that you might as well have bought a 2 can kit in the first place.
Another thing you can do is to `brew short' - ie. make it up to 4 gallons instead of 5. At the same time add less sugar - 500g instead of 1kg. Result is a brew that has more flavour, but about the same alcohol, and no homebrew twang. Only downside is that you end up short of 8 bottles. :lol:
You can avoid it by adding malt extract instead of sugar but of course this then makes your 1 can kit more expensive, to the point that you might as well have bought a 2 can kit in the first place.
Another thing you can do is to `brew short' - ie. make it up to 4 gallons instead of 5. At the same time add less sugar - 500g instead of 1kg. Result is a brew that has more flavour, but about the same alcohol, and no homebrew twang. Only downside is that you end up short of 8 bottles. :lol:
Brewed_Force
Member
I think even if you just added table sugar it would turn out very drinkable, but adding spray malt will push it up a notch in quality.
Well thank you everyone for all the advice, I'm hoping when I get a job(hopefully soon) I can move into more expensive recipes and the like, until then I have to balance more too the side of affordability. With that being said I will have to look into other things to add, my lager has brew enhancer but I though with this being a dark beer I could get away with just sugar, next time I will have to try enhancer or spray malt and see the difference for myself
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