Noob brewing Coopers Irish Stout

[BrianG]

Hi All,

Myself and a friend have just ordered our second kit - Coopers Irish Stout,.

The pack comes with 1kg Dark Spraymalt. According to the instructions (http://www.coopers.com.au/the-brewers-guild/how-to-brew/stout/irish-stout) I should use 500g Light DME & 300g Dextrose.

So, should I just use all 1KG of the Spraymalt? In people's experience should I add in anything else? I've seen online people talking about adding in coffee and chocolate but I wouldn't have a clue about what types or quantities.

Any advice would be well received.

[Garry]

Yes, use the 1kg of spraymalt that you have. There's no need for dextrose but you can add 300g if you want to boost the ABV.

With 1kg of spaymalt:
Brew to 20L = 4.5%ABV
Brew to 23L = 4.0%ABV

With 1kg of spaymalt + 300g of dextrose:
Brew to 20L = 5.2%ABV
Brew to 23L = 4.6%ABV

I've never added chocolate or coffee to a stout kit myself so I can't give you quantities but maybe someone else might give you suggestions. To be honest, if you are fairly new to all this I'd leave them out for the moment. There's plenty of time for experimenting!

[Eoin]

Start basic get your basic stuff sorted, such as sanitation and creating clean, good beer. Adding stuff at this point will leave you not knowing what went wrong should that happen. Expand your horizons once you have the plain version working well. That said it's fine to use spraymalt it'll add more body.

Sent using a complex system of semaphore and ninjas.

[LordEoin]

Hi there Brian, and welcome!

I'd go ahead with the full 1kg dark DME, ond also 250g dextrose.
Can't go wrong.

Hold off on the additional bits and pieces though. Get a taste for this kit as-is and then decide if you want to tailor it for your next go

[BrianG]

Yes, use the 1kg of spraymalt that you have. There's no need for dextrose but you can add 300g if you want to boost the ABV.

With 1kg of spaymalt:
Brew to 20L = 4.5%ABV
Brew to 23L = 4.0%ABV

With 1kg of spaymalt + 300g of dextrose:
Brew to 20L = 5.2%ABV
Brew to 23L = 4.6%ABV

I've never added chocolate or coffee to a stout kit myself so I can't give you quantities but maybe someone else might give you suggestions. To be honest, if you are fairly new to all this I'd leave them out for the moment. There's plenty of time for experimenting!

Thanks Gary - unfortunately we didn't order any dextrose, is it just the same as Glucose? I'll see if they have it in the supermarket.

How did you get your calculations?

[LordEoin]

table sugar will be fine in such small quantities 

[Garry]

Thanks Gary - unfortunately we didn't order any dextrose, is it just the same as Glucose? I'll see if they have it in the supermarket.

How did you get your calculations?

Glucose is the same as dextrose as far as I know. As LordEoin said, table sugar will do the job fine. If you are going to the shops especially you could also use brown sugar instead, some purists say it's better?  I don't think I'd notice the difference myself.

I calculated the ABV's using an excel spreadsheet that LordEoin found on aussiehomebrewer.com (see link below). You have to register with aussiehomebrewer to download it but it's the berries!

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/29655-kit-and-extract-beer-spreadsheet/page-20

[BrianG]

Thanks guys, heading to Dunnes now. Brown sugar over glucose? Any particular type of brown sugar?

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[LordEoin]

and don't forget BREWMATE. It's free and awesome.
Although it is a tiny bit off as the FG will probably be a bit higher than it predicts.
If you have glucose, save yourself the bother and use that. Otherwise not bothers with the brown sugar or plain white table sugar.

[BrianG]

success

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[Garry]

Security to the baking aisle. Some weirdo's taking photos of a bag of glucose   

[LordEoin]

Go to the checkout with the bag of glucose, a jumbo box of condoms and 4 bottles of cough syrup!

[oconn]

the coopers stout is pretty tasty straight up... ive made it loads of times with the 1kg dme and cup of sugar... aka "ditches stout" from another forum...