' Ditch's Stout ' With A Differance .....

[Ditch]

it tastes very much like sweet coffee with a hint of a chocolate flavour. if these flavours are still prevalent after the ferment...rock and roll!

Then Rock 'n Roll it shall be! I dragged my mate, Steve, in here for a sample tonight. He's native Irish and Knows his stouts! On the way here we were deeply discussing the finer points of a half decent Guinness.

He's driving, so I could only let him have a short pint. Watching him put the glass to his lips and then get the flavours was an art form! Within two sips we were discussing it like Wine Connoisseurs! He's a non smoker and hasn't had a drink in two days. So, as he said; His palette was clean and his taste buds wide open.

Verdict was that he could tell it had alcohol as it went down. It was nothing anything like any Guinness he'd ever tasted. This was something out on its own; And bloody lovely!

When I told him it had been 'matured' for barely two days, his jaw nearly hit the floor!

Young? Ye could drink this stuff straight from the FV and it Still Rocks!

[kay-jay]

thats good to know ditch!

do you prime with sugar or force carbonate with co2?? i'll be bottling my batch and therefore priming! can anyone tell me how much sugar to use as the coopers instructions reccomended amount seems the same for all their kits and i don't want me stout as fizzy as a lager!

if anyone can tell me what is a good amount of sugar to create a decent pint i would appreciate it!

cheers

KJ

[cbucket]

I put 1/2 teaspoon per pint (basically that is a beer bottle).

Basically, I use on of those plastic spoons that come with a bottle of Calpon (for the kids).

The spoon has two ends. On one end is a 5ml spoon and the other end is a smaller 2.5ml (basically 1/2 a teaspoon)

I put a level 2.5ml of Tate&Lyle sugar into each bottle (i.e the small side).

The following table should work for the following bottle sizes.

3ltr PET bottle (3 teaspoons)
2ltr PET bottle (2 teaspoons)
1ltr PET bottle (1 teaspoon)
500ml PET bottle OR beer bottle (1/2 teaspoon)

A useful rule for me is 1 teaspoon per litre.

[kay-jay]

thanks cbucket,

are these priming sugar levels definately suitable for a stout. would i use more for a lager??

they should do a brewery tour version of that film!!

charlie and the chocolate (stout) factory! i want me a golden ticket!

KJ

[ger]

Hello
Just started a version of this on Friday. Ditch's recipe with 500g muscovado sugar for that extra kick of alcohol content, this will be the first kit i tried to boost with sugar..

Coopers Stout , 1kg medium spray malt, 500g Dark Muscovado

Made up to 17L in 25L fermenter snapped on a lid and airlock, 24 hrs in the fermenter was filled with lid bulging put no blow, this morning lid and fermenter still intact!! lol

this had an OG of 1.060 so should be strong but cant wait to see how it tastes...

[kay-jay]

hi,

think my stout is done. at 1.010 down from 1.044 will check for any further drop tomorrow, but i expect it will be ready for bottling. i'm happy enough with the strength.

i drank heartily from the trial jar...and it was great even at this very early stage. coffee and chocolate still prevalent. a good bitterness to it as well which i wasn't quite expecting but verty nice all the same.

looking forward to trying it after conditioning.

KJ

[kay-jay]

hi

stout still at 1.010 today so i bottled it. give it a week to condition and start drinking it. holds a lot of promise this because again its already tasty from the trial jar. be interesting to see how it improves with age.

KJ

[kay-jay]

just fetched a load of ditch's stout home from my dads. gonna try it tonight. yippee
i'll let you all know what i think.


anyway i been thinking about a slightly different version of coopers stout based on the following......currently i spend
1 coopers stout kit £12
1kg med dme £7.78
handfull of sugar £0.22 ish

total £20

20 litres made = £1 per litre.

my idea is not to add fermentables, but to get the most out of the kit by reducing the water used with the kit to the point where the cost matches.

kit is £12 so 1 kit topped upto 12 litres. thats it!

anybody tried this??????? i'm gonna, then if i like it i can double up and get 24 litres in my 32l f.v.

the advantage of this is i'll be spending more money with those good folks at coopers and less with muntons (who manufacture so called premium kits prone to stuck fermentation)

KJ

[scottmoss]

just fetched a load of ditch's stout home from my dads. gonna try it tonight. yippee
i'll let you all know what i think.


anyway i been thinking about a slightly different version of coopers stout based on the following......currently i spend
1 coopers stout kit £12
1kg med dme £7.78
handfull of sugar £0.22 ish

total £20

20 litres made = £1 per litre.

my idea is not to add fermentables, but to get the most out of the kit by reducing the water used with the kit to the point where the cost matches.

kit is £12 so 1 kit topped upto 12 litres. thats it!

anybody tried this??????? i'm gonna, then if i like it i can double up and get 24 litres in my 32l f.v.

the advantage of this is i'll be spending more money with those good folks at coopers and less with muntons (who manufacture so called premium kits prone to stuck fermentation)

KJ

You may find it very bitter/hoppy, when they create the 1 can kit they add enough hops for 20+ litres when reducing this to nearly half you may find it very bitter.

[bevvy_merchant]

your still spending £1 per ltr.

think for the extra £8 i would rather add the DSM and get more beer.

[kay-jay]

You may find it very bitter/hoppy, when they create the 1 can kit they add enough hops for 20+ litres when reducing this to nearly half you may find it very bitter

aah...point taken.
i'll be sticking to the original ditch's recipe anyway...cos i just tried it! mmmmmm!

KJ

[kay-jay]

hi

so ..last night i cracked open the first couple of bottles of ditch's stout( had to get a bit of practice in for tonight!). truly a marvellous drink, coffee and treacle at first followed by the bitterness at the back end accompanied by an after taste of licorice.i will definately be doing this again!!!
one thing i did notice tho....the 500ml bottles i opened were perfect. but the 1 litre bottle i tried was very good but i could still detect a very faint yeastiness not present in the 500ml bottles. i'm sure this will mellow a bit as it gets older....the brew was only bottled a week ago yesterday.

happy st paddys day!
KJ

[Ditch]

happy st paddys day!

Oh dear f**king god! Ye really needed to have been Here, to have appreciated it!

Oh My F**king God! What a day ~ and night! ~ this has been!!!

Totally F**king Mental, start to finish! Christ, how I Love this country!