Coopers Stout

[Grantbeeston]

Going to give Stout a go for my next brew, here's my plan of action!

1 tin of Coopers Stout
500g of Muntons Dark DME
400g of Dark Muscavado Sugar > http://m.tesco.com/h5/groceries/r/www.t ... =255210983

And top it off with 100g of treacle!

Then when it's finished fermenting I'll batch prime it with about 80-100g of more treacle.

I was hoping to add some liquorice at some point but can't seem to find a effective/easy way of doing it. I have thought about just adding raw liquorice sticks but have read they could cause infection? So if anybody has any ideas how to add a liquorice flavour it would be much appreciated!

[neilmcca]

U could try boiling some Liquorice Root sticks in a pan of water for 5-10 mins, then throwing the water in with the wort.
or maybe u could try Star Anise.

[Grantbeeston]

Putting the water in with or without the root left it?

Stat anise looks interesting, would that be used the same way?

Thanks.

[neilmcca]

I'd take the root out personally, but i guess after its been boiled it would be safe to leave in.

star anise is supposed to be pretty damn strong, i read somewhere that 1 star is enough,
again i would just boil it for 5-10mins take star out, and put the water in with the wort.

[Grantbeeston]

Thanks Neil!

Maybe I could try one star and a couple of pieces of root, boil for ten minutes then put the water in the wart. Mmmm decisions

[neilmcca]

Try googling "coopers stout star anise" or "coopers stout liquorice star anise" or variations of that, u will get a lot of info of people who have done it,
i read about one guy who put 5 star anise in his brew.....it didn't taste too pleasant, lol

[Grantbeeston]

Thanks Neil, reading through different threads has helped a lot!

My plan is half a star with quite a bit of root boiled for ten minutes. Just ordered them so will hopefully be here for Tuesday ready for brewing Wednesday!

[Grantbeeston]

Ok so now I have all of the ingredients ready! The stars are much smaller than I expected but they do smell gorgeous! And so do the roots.

My plan is to boil a full star and a full root chopped up for about ten minutes, then pour it in the wort through a sieve. Or should I leave it to cool first? Maybe overnight? Then pour it in?

[neilmcca]

probably best chucking it in straight away,
u don't need to use a great deal of water to boil it in, remember to watch the temp of your FV before u add the yeast, anything over 27c is a bit of a gamble.

[Grantbeeston]

Ok Neil thanks for that, I'm going to keep a couple of litres of water in the fridge ready to cool my wort, I always seem to add to much boiling water.

[Grantbeeston]

All done! Currently sitting in the FV!

I ended up boiling 2 stars broken up and 2 liquorice roots broken up for about 10-15 minutes then added it to the wort just after the kit.

I ended up adding 160g of treacle and 400g of Demerara sugar! Aswell as the 500g dark DME

OG was 1042

[Grantbeeston]

Got downstairs this morning to find the top of my airlock blown off something is definitely happening in there! Hopefully my bubble one will be here today so I can swap it over.

[Grantbeeston]

Put the new airlock in yesterday but there hasn't been much bubbling, the top of the fv is covered in rubbish and it looks like it's about to explode!

[Grantbeeston]

Well it's ready to bottle! Not sure wether to ferment again with more sugar/treacle/liquorice or not, did myself some earlier straight from the FV and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours, tastes OK just feels like it's missing something, just not sure what, apart from a bit of fizz of course!

[bigtoe]

I have one on the go, 1 coopers stout kit, 1 KG dark spray malt and 1 whole tin of dark treacle, heater set to hold the brew at 21c, issue is it never really got going mad...just steady, the FV is not air tight so I have no real way of knowing how its doing apart from lifting the lid and having a peek. Its had a week, im leaving it at least another week before I test the gravity, i forgot to take the OG so I will just take it again in a week, then 2 days later and compare.

Not decided whether to add sugar to bottle or just bottle it as is and see if it lightly carbonates....my pressure barrels already have brews in them so it has to go in bottles, no other choice.

Smells good though, looking forward to December (when i try one )