Coopers Stout Kit - Help Needed with sugars...

Scots_Pagan · Nov 23, 2014

OK guys, decided I'd take a quick break from making mead to make a festive beer...it's my first essay into beer...

I've left it a little late as I've had trouble getting the necessary stuff here in the dark wilds of western Scotland...

I managed to score a Cooper's Stout kit on the cheapo, but here's where my lack of knowledge of all things hopped has me stopped.

What can I use to sweeten the deal? The kit calls for a kilo of sugar, but I know from my reading that this makes **** beer.

Here's what I have on hand that I can use:

Granulated Sugar
Brown Sugar
Honey (I make mead. I always have honey.)
Molasses (for some reason the missus saw big jars going cheap so I have lots)

What would be best to use to get it a nice stout? I can't readily find DME; nearest I could find was Wilkos had one dodgy-looking bag of dextrose/LME mix for Â£8. Screw that.

I've also of course got good quality cocoa, vanilla pods and some very good coffee...would adding any of that make a nice taste alteration?

Finally, how long should I be leaving this in the tank? Can I drink this at Xmas/Hogmanay??
This is my first beer so I've not really much knowledge...
All help very gratefully appreciated.

Smileyr8 · Nov 23, 2014

If you are wanting it to be ready for Xmas, I would brew it with 1kg of dark sugar, the problem here is time the more sugars/fermentables you add the longer the it will take to mature.

Personally I always like to get more malt in, either in the form of another kit or dme. and good luck.

I hope this helps

Sandimas · Nov 23, 2014

Using sugar won't make **** beer, but you can make better beer with a bit of malt in there. Stouts are less affected by using sugar than things like light beers and lagers IMHO. So brew it with some dark sugar and it'll be fine, or order a pack of Beer Enhancer (50:50 sugar/DME) off eBay for a better beer.

BruinTuns · Nov 23, 2014

This is one of the fastest kits to ferment. The instructions say it should be ready for bottling after 4-6 days (depending on temperature) so provided you get it underway within the next few days it should easily be ready to drink by Christmas. Perhaps not quite at its optimum but certainly drinkable.
Apparently stout is one of the easiest and most fool-proof kits for a beginner to brew so if this is your first time then you made a good choice.
I agree with the others, adding malt as roughly 50% of your fermentable, either to your brown sugar or in the form of a pack of brew enhancer will, by all accounts, sive you a superiour beer than sugar alone. Is there a Tesco anywhere within reach of you? If so you could click and collect one of these http://www.tesco.com/direct/beer-kit-enhancer/213-6255.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=213-6255
Sugar ferments more fully than malt so using just sugar wiill give a drier tasting beer with a higher ABV than a sugar /malt mix.
I wouldn't use dark brown muscovado type sugar, at least not entirely. And if you use any molasses I suggest be very sparing with it. I've read a few threads in which people have reported that too much of either of these products impart an unpleasant bitterness to the finished beer.
Good luck.

Cwrw666 · Nov 23, 2014

Granulated sugar has 2 bonuses - it ferments quick and imparts no flavours to the beer. Stout kits are pretty strong on flavour anyway. Just brew it like it says on the tin. Another advantage of stout is that it tends to not need a long time in the bottle before it's drinkable - I've often started just a week after bottling and it's been fine.
Bitters on the other hand can take quite a few weeks in the bottle before they're at their best.
Actually I've never made the Coopers stout, but have done other stout kits - they all seem to be ready quick, so I assume the Coopers will be no different. I've tried adding other things instead of sugar and while they do affect the taste, it never seems to be an actual improvement on the basic kit.

Scots_Pagan · Nov 24, 2014

Thanks for the advice guys;

Especially from BruinsTuins...
I do have a local tescos but they don't stock home-brew, and I didn't know they'd do it on Click'N'Collect, so I shall be able to get a lot more stuff now, cheers!

For this attempt I think the consensus seems to be for using brown-sugar, so I'll load up the Demerara and brown mix...
Would a little cocoa be nice you think? Maybe vanilla too?

BruinTuns · Nov 24, 2014

Personally I've no experience of adding cocoa or vanilla but I do know that cocoa is recognized as a viable addition and some brewers report delicious results.
There is a very long and detailed thread about this very subject on another forum. It would be improper to post a direct link but if you google 'Ditch's Stout' and search within some of the hits you should find all you need.

Scots_Pagan · Nov 28, 2014

Ah, thanks :)

I've pitched today; I couldn't get the DME - SWMBO has put a moratorium on so-called unessential purchases after she saw our overdraft, what with Yuletide approaching..

I tried explaining how beer is a necessary purchase, but alas not...

So rather than risk domestic inharmony, I weaselled out and went with the kilo of granulated sugar I had in the cupboard (forgive me brothers). Since ai have quite a lot of it lying around I added 100g of molasses. I was going to add 200g but I've read some forum posts saying it was unpalatable so I'll go a little easy.

I also added 50g of fat-reduced cocoa powder...depending on taste I may add some more prior to bottling...
Thanks for the help everyone...I'll be back with more info on how she tastes...
Pitched the yeast at a little over 17 degrees, but it's a warm room it's sitting in so it should heat up nicely.
OG was around 1.045, so it should get down to around the 4-and-a-bit % mark...

Here's a gratuitous set of photos of me making and pitching..
Imgur Album

ddeighton_1 · Jul 4, 2015

i did a coopers stout
used
coopers can
1 kg tesco beer enhancer
and 1 tin of bark treacle
i got 5% vol
and its got a hint not a lot of dark treacle taste at bottling so got to wait 4 weeks or so now
but i may have a sneaky peak at 2 weeks as i did half dozen half pints for that reason
i also did a couple in clear bottles to keep an eye on the cloudiness but then you can't tell with stout can you hahaha

Hopping_Mad · Jul 4, 2015

I've drunk commercial vanilla stout and it imparted a very nice subtle vanilla flavour to balance the roasted malts.

No idea how many pods you add to a 40 pint batch? 3 or 4 maybe? For kit that takes around 7 days to get to the final gravity, I might add them around day 4.

That said, I would give these adjuncts (additional ingredients) a miss first time round - do it plain in case you add too much of the additional stuff. My festive brew had cinnamon and star anise lat year. That was nice round the fire at Christmas!

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