Wilko's Dark Velvet Stout

[Joeyriles]

Just bottled up mine. I added treacle and cocoa powder and it smells de lic ious!

Haven't tried a sample yet but I think I may allow myself one by next weekend. Will post 'findings' on here.

 

[Slid]

They've been on sale now for a while at £7.50, so I decided to brew to 6 galls (27L) with 2 cans and a kilo of sugar.

Put both yeast sachets in and it has krausened up in less than 24 hrs. 21 C in the airing cupboard is about the coolest stable temp in the house.

I am fond of the Coopers kit, and have always liked stout with cider, so here goes...

Racked it over on Friday and bottled today into (49 of) the Coopers PET bottles, which took ages. Tasted OK. Very dark indeed with the 2 can brew.

 

[belcher]

Racked it over on Friday and bottled today into (49 of) the Coopers PET bottles, which took ages. Tasted OK. Very dark indeed with the 2 can brew.

What were your gravity readings? I did one can to 15 liters and added 250 grams of demerara, 350 grams of bke and 1 jar of holland and barret malt extract. It came down from 1.062 to 1.016 after 3 weeks. It needs a bit more conditioning as it's a toothy pint but I have high hopes.

 

[Joeyriles]

Opened a trial bottle last night and it was gorgeous. Still got a slight twang but the chocolate notes really come through this brew.


Will try another in 2 week (if I can last that long!)

 

[Baldilocks]

Opened a trial bottle last night and it was gorgeous. Still got a slight twang but the chocolate notes really come through this brew.


Will try another in 2 week (if I can last that long!)

I have one of these kits waiting in the wings and really love a chocolatey stout. What quantity of cocoa did you add to this ? was it just your standard cocoa powder ? and would you add more or less if you repeated it ?

 

[Joeyriles]

I used 200g of baking cocoa powder and just mixed it in really well at the start with a whisk. I think I got just the right amount and the added DME has created almost an Ovaltine flavour to it.
I also brewed short to 20L so that I might get more ABV for my buck.

*NB: Don't use drinking chocolate. Apparently it is detrimental to letting the yeast doing its thing.*

 

[Baldilocks]

Thanks very much for that Joey. I'll be giving that a go when it makes it to the FV
:thumb:

 

[Joeyriles]

No worries. I would also add a small can of black treacle to it along with the extra sugar, DME and cocoa ( I mixed the sugar and cocoa in a pyrex jug with boiling water first and sort of folded it in.)

I also brewed to about 19L as I wanted it to retain as much ABV as possible. :drink:

 

[Beer@22]

No worries. I would also add a small can of black treacle to it along with the extra sugar, DME and cocoa ( I mixed the sugar and cocoa in a pyrex jug with boiling water first and sort of folded it in.)

I also brewed to about 19L as I wanted it to retain as much ABV as possible. :drink:

Hi Joey

Could you please confirm how much cocoa, treacle, DME and sugar you used? I'm hoping to get a Wilko Stout going soon, and adding cocoa and treacle sounds great!

 

[Joeyriles]

Sure thing, bud.

I used:

500g Munton's medium spray malt/DME

200g baking cocoa powder (the red tin)

A regular sized tin of treacle (sorry, forgot the measurements. Though I think it was 300g.)

I mixed this all in with the boiling water at the start and used a whisk to really get it together. I also brewed short to about 19L as this kit is a little weak for my tastes.

Hope that helps! This is one of my favourites and it is continuing to get better in the bottle. :drink:

 

[Beer@22]

Sure thing, bud.

I used:

500g Munton's medium spray malt/DME

200g baking cocoa powder (the red tin)

A regular sized tin of treacle (sorry, forgot the measurements. Though I think it was 300g.)

I mixed this all in with the boiling water at the start and used a whisk to really get it together. I also brewed short to about 19L as this kit is a little weak for my tastes.

Hope that helps! This is one of my favourites and it is continuing to get better in the bottle. :drink:

Great, thanks for that Joey. I found another of your posts with details on yesterday, and I ended up doing the following last night (almost exactly the same as yours) ....

1 can Wilko Stout
227g (half a tin) black treacle
200g cocoa powder
500g (1 bag) medium DME
500g (half a bag) dextrose

I rehydrated the yeast at 23C with a little dextrose while I was mixing the above and pitched it into the wort also at 23C. It's been in the fermenting fridge at 19C overnight (approx 12 hours) and I dropped it down to 18C this morning.

OG was 1048 when mixed to 20L, and if it drops to 1008 as per the instructions then it should come out at about 5.2%.

I plan to leave it alone at 18C for two weeks, then rack off to another vessel and cold crash at 5C for a week or two before transferring to a Corny keg. I've already got some old Guinness taps ready so I'm hoping for a nice smooth pint some time next month :grin:

 

[Slid]

What were your gravity readings? I did one can to 15 liters and added 250 grams of demerara, 350 grams of bke and 1 jar of holland and barret malt extract. It came down from 1.062 to 1.016 after 3 weeks. It needs a bit more conditioning as it's a toothy pint but I have high hopes.

Sorry, but I never bother with SG readings and I did not record the FG. My best guess is they were around 1052 and 1012 respectively if that helps. Estimated ABV is 5.4%, allowing a bit for the priming sugar.

 

[Slid]

They've been on sale now for a while at £7.50, so I decided to brew to 6 galls (27L) with 2 cans and a kilo of sugar.

Put both yeast sachets in and it has krausened up in less than 24 hrs. 21 C in the airing cupboard is about the coolest stable temp in the house.

I am fond of the Coopers kit, and have always liked stout with cider, so here goes...

Just started drinking this now and I would say that it's every bit as good as the Coopers kit. Since I did it 2xVelvet Stout vs 1xCoopers Stout plus 1kg DME, that might not tell anyone much, but it's really quite good.

I now discover that adding a stout in a ratio of 1:4 to a pale ale (lager kit beer) makes a very good dark ale. Better than either without the other, in fact. Very nice balance indeed.

 

[syzygy]

Great, thanks for that Joey. I found another of your posts with details on yesterday, and I ended up doing the following last night (almost exactly the same as yours) ....

1 can Wilko Stout
227g (half a tin) black treacle
200g cocoa powder
500g (1 bag) medium DME
500g (half a bag) dextrose

I rehydrated the yeast at 23C with a little dextrose while I was mixing the above and pitched it into the wort also at 23C. It's been in the fermenting fridge at 19C overnight (approx 12 hours) and I dropped it down to 18C this morning.

OG was 1048 when mixed to 20L, and if it drops to 1008 as per the instructions then it should come out at about 5.2%.

I plan to leave it alone at 18C for two weeks, then rack off to another vessel and cold crash at 5C for a week or two before transferring to a Corny keg. I've already got some old Guinness taps ready so I'm hoping for a nice smooth pint some time next month :grin:

I really fancy doing something like that with the cocoa powder.
I'm also tempted to chuck in a few cartons of apple juice & knock up some 'black velvet'

 

[Slid]

I really fancy doing something like that with the cocoa powder.
I'm also tempted to chuck in a few cartons of apple juice & knock up some 'black velvet'

I don't recommend this approach for a black velvet. Here is the thread where I tell my tale of woe.

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=39568

I've still got a few bottles of this in the garage, along with a terrible effort at a cider kit / turbo cider that was even worse. I would chuck in some cheap supermarket own label cider after brewing the stout. That is a nice drink if you like a black velvet!

 

[JhnMcK]

Decided that my first attempt at brewing beer would be this kit. Went for:

1 can Wilko Dark Velvet Stout
500g Medium Spraymalt
500g Dark Muscovado Sugar
1 tin (454g) Black Treacle

Pretty straightforward instructions. OG was 1.044 so ABV will be around 4.8%. I am interested to see how it'll turn out flavour-wise. I didn't have a taste before I pitched the yeast, thought I'd leave it as a surprise when I crack open the first bottle. I plan to leave it for a week or two before checking whether to bottle or not. I want to let it mature out a little, see if it improves with age but I'm guessing with 40 bottles of the stuff, some will be left for a while.

 

[Smileyr8]

Decided that my first attempt at brewing beer would be this kit. Went for:

1 can Wilko Dark Velvet Stout
500g Medium Spraymalt
500g Dark Muscovado Sugar
1 tin (454g) Black Treacle

My only worry is you may be short on yeast, the pitched yeast would not be able to ferment all the sugars out, maybe others could advise better, just my thoughts, ask you should get answers.....

 

[Slid]

My only worry is you may be short on yeast, the pitched yeast would not be able to ferment all the sugars out, maybe others could advise better, just my thoughts, ask you should get answers.....

If you drop the cold water onto the kit and other stuff into the FV from a reasonable height (1m?) then there will be enough oxygen to produce enough viable yeast to sort this out no problem. If you get a good krausen within 2 days, don't pitch more yeast is my advice.

 

[JhnMcK]

I did this, there was a huge amount of foam on top when the yeast was pitched, this has now gone and there's now sediment at the bottom of the FV and it looks as if it's starting to form a krausen. There's little specks on top to suggest this is what's happening

 

[Smileyr8]

Keep us posted and lets us know how you get on, I did a can of Coopers English Bitter with a little more fermentables than you, that finished 1012 but has a taste that is a little too sweet for my palate, that said stouts handle the sweetness better in my opinion.

I did this with a Coopers Brewmaster Irish Stout and its very nice indeed.