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Well, I tested my hydrometre in water which my adhesive thermometre read as being approximately 20degC and it read 980. I was doubly careful to check that I had the hydrometre floating properly just to make sure it wasn't the method of measurement.

Cheers,

DavidG

Sorry to hijack your thread but I thought this is somewhat relevant.
When making a stout how long should you let it age for in order to obtain the best results? I remember reading somewhere that 6 months is the way to go but I don't know how true this is.

cheers.

Depends on how much of a connoisseur you are. Some here will tell you that any beer can be drunk anytime after about three weeks, others will disagree. I've read it here that stouts are more able to be drunk earlier than other beers. If you're like me, you won't have many bottles left after a couple of months

Cheers,

DavidG

Ausdag

I be drinking mine 20 min after kegging

Dogger

Dogger,

Does drinking the contents of the hydrometre test tube count? If so, I'm drinking mine before it's finished fermenting

Cheers,

DavidG

undercover1 wrote:My stout for next winter is going on tonight:
-Coopers stout tin
-300g jar of black cherry jam- the good stuff
-100g Cadbury's cocoa powder
-Brewmaster stout bag- dried malt, maltodex, dex & liquorice powder, I forget the exact proportions
-Fistful of rolled oats
All to be boiled/simmered in 5l of water for 15 mins, then strained & cooled, topped up to 20l
Plan to rack after about 10 days, then bottle when SG is steady & leave as long as possible.

The junior brew assistant & I put this down on Friday night.
The smell from the brewpot was incredible. We pitched the yeast a little early, and decided to pack the fermenter in ice to get the temperature down- on Saturday morning we had krausen nearly 2 inches thick & constant bubbles from the airlock.
Brew assistant is my 5 year old daughter, enjoys helping out, & this time she asked to lick the paddle after the boil. Then she filled most of the cider bottles while I capped. Handy.

UC1

That can't help but be good, I may give one a go myself

Dogger

Well, aften an FG of 1012 constant over three days and a 'clear' brew I bottled it up last night using only 1 carb drop per long neck. It smelled gooood. I'm not into doing the racking thing at this stage of my brewing career; no matter. Can't wait to try it.

Cheers,
DavidG

Sampled this yesterday, from the hydrometer tube- thinks it is going to be excellent. I think I will bulk prime with dex boiled up with some more cherry jam or syrup.

I would use syrup, I think there may be enough fruit and besides, I personally think that adding fruit at the priming stage is a bit late

Dogger

I think it needs more cherry, chocolate is all there though.

Racked this on Saturday, tasting great out of the hydrometer tube, looks and smells the absolute business. Will be bottled this week, cannot wait for it to mature up in the bottle.
Interesting yeast cake- full of cocoa. Also tasted great.

someone on this forum a while back suggested a cooper's stout and a cooper's dark ale and nothing else - i gave this a go and it turned out very nice

apart from using safale instead of the regular yeast, can anyone suggest any further improvements for this recipe?

The Coopers Stout and Coopers Old Dark Ale makes a very fine stout. My suggestion is to use a lager yeast to reduce the amount of goop that foams out the top of the fermenter. Can also try 150gm of choclate grain steeped or 50 to 100 gm of black grain also steeped. A golding hop wouldn't hurt either - just tea cup the hop bag.

But just the two cans, yeast as supplied and water to 22ltrs will give you a stout to enjoy, and with an absolute minimum of effort too.

Cheers,
Greg.

tcc,
add some liquorice essence.
I make this one occasionally (just the two can and the essence: I believe it doesn't need additional grains or hops)

Peterd, agree that the Coopers two can job doesn't need any additions. All it really needs is a bottle opener and a nice clean pint glass.

Cheers,
Greg.

I made one of those Coopers 2 can stouts as well. It does need a bit of time in the bottle. Mine is about 6 months old now and just beginning to mellow.
Cheers
Steve

I bought a can of the coopers stout, but forgot to get sugars...had an out of date Morgans Bitter can in the garage, so used that instead (pitched the Stout yeast, chucked the other) and ended up with an awesome stout. Was very smoky at first, but is maturing along nicely. Might put a few extra hops next time but was an experiment that I'll be doing again.

thanks for the advice guys

might get one going this summer if i can get my brewfridge setup

Well, it's been two weeks exactly since I bottled my brew as per first post (Coopers Stout Kit + 1kg Light Dry Malt) FG 1012. Being the impatient one that I am, coupled with a guy at work wanting to know when he can try a bottle, I did what many of you would deem unthinkable and cracked a bottle last night, ie, two-week-bottling-anniversary-eve.

Aye aye aye....if that is what it tastes like as an immature stout, I can't wait to taste it further down the track!!! Nicely carbonated (one carb drop per long neck), reasonble head (died away a little too soon), flavour still a bit 'green' (to be expected) but a very nice lingering bitterness at the back of the palate. I'm wrapped.

Good thing I took Oliver's advice and started simple. Now to work my way up into bigger and better ones.

Cheers,

DavidG