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Coopers Irish Stout, fermentation time and bottle conditioning?


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So I just mixed a Coopers Irish Stout kit yesterday, it's in my fermenter and happily bubbling away, but like an idiot I seem to have thrown out the peel-off instruction page along with the empty tin and LME packet. So I'm now flying blind as far as the rest of the process goes unless any of ye fine people can help me out!

I've only done ales before, which have involved three full weeks of primary fermentation, transfer to a bottling bucket, and then four weeks of bottle conditioning (two weeks at fermentation temperature and then two weeks cold conditioning to get rid of haze and particles).

Can I follow the same process for the Irish Stout kit, or are there different fermentation durations and bottle conditioning rules? 

Also, I seem to remember that the sticker suggested using half the usual number of carb drops per bottle for this kit, so in other words only one drop per 750ml bottle - as I'm using 500 ml bottles, I wonder if I should cut the carb drops in half? My plan is to achieve the Irish Stout Head using the classic "injection" method, where you use a measuring syringe to suck a bubble of air and a small amount of beer from a poured glass, then inject it at high speed under the surface to create the surge. In that scenario, how many carb drops should I use in 500ml bottles?

Thanks for any help ye can offer, loving the coopers kits in the two ales I've done so far so hopefully with your guidance this one can be just as good ?

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Stout is an ale, however they don't need three weeks in the fermenter. Ales should be finished fermenting in 7 days or less, then give it another few days to clean up and bottle it. 

Conditioning time in the bottles is fine, although stouts generally improve further with longer ageing periods. Save a few bottles and open them in 6 months or so, and see how they compare.

I wouldn't bother faffing around cutting up carb drops, just put in one to each bottle. 

The syringe method works really well. Stick the needle into the beer, draw a little bit out then pump it back in. The needle stays submerged the whole time. I've used it on stouts before with great effect.

Cheers

Kelsey

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3 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

.....The syringe method works really well. Stick the needle into the beer, draw a little bit out then pump it back in. The needle stays submerged the whole time. I've used it on stouts before with great effect.

Cheers

Kelsey

Do you  require the needle or can you just use the plastic part of the syringe?

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1 hour ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Never done it without the needle. I'd say it's an important part, the plastic tip is too large.

Actually... I've watched a few vids of people using this technique and none of them had needles on their syringes.  Seemed to work well enough though possibly it might be a little better with a needle?  Dunno, but results without a needle certainly seemed good enough from what I remember.

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I have never done it with a needle and it worked fine.

The only advantage I see with the needle is that, if the beer tastes bad, you can inject the beer directly into your blood stream and bypass your taste buds.

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+1 for the longer aging time on the stouts. Especially higher ABV ones. Last couple of years I have made a coopers best extra stout clone and try to schedule it for Feb for winter drinking. 4 months improves it greatly.

With the carbonation to get it more accurate you might want to use a sugar measure scoop. Allows it to be more precise.

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I bottle in 500ml bottles and use 1 drop for the Stouts and it was spot on.

As for the aging part I agree with the higher ABV ones to go longer like 3-4 months minimum. I've also done just the OS stout and from about 4 weeks on didn't really notice any difference in taste, but at about the 4 week mark i was getting a very nice creamy head, that has very small bubbles, similar to a commercial stout.

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Thanks for all the help folks! I found the sticker which actually recommends taking gravity readings at 6 days and waiting for two identical ones in a row, so that's definitely less time than I usually do! As far as "7 days + a few extra for it to clean up", how long should I wait to bottle once it's finished fermenting? I didn't do secondary with either of my previous two batches, and this seems to be ruling out a secondary being necessary for this one as well, so what would be the optimal total time in the fermenter before bottling?

Apologies if this is all very basic stuff, I'm getting there slowly ?

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On 6/30/2018 at 3:19 AM, Otto Von Blotto said:

...The syringe method works really well. Stick the needle into the beer, draw a little bit out then pump it back in. The needle stays submerged the whole time. I've used it on stouts before with great effect.

Cheers

Kelsey

So I go down to the local Pharmacy and asked for a needle and syringe. The Chemist gives me the phone number and address of what he says is a needle exchange program and says; "You can get as many replacements as you want, down there".

I said "Really? Are there that many people making Stout around here?"  ?

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1 hour ago, Worthog said:

So I go down to the local Pharmacy and asked for a needle and syringe. The Chemist gives me the phone number and address of what he says is a needle exchange program and says; "You can get as many replacements as you want, down there".

I said "Really? Are there that many people making Stout around here?"  ?

That's funny. But seriously, you don't need the needle.

You can buy the plastic syringes off the shelf.

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58 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

I get some of mine from dad, but otherwise I order them online from vape shops if I need some. I don't make much stout though so they get little use for that. 

Be careful Kelsey, vaping is the leading cause of cervical cancer in men!!!

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20 minutes ago, Hairy said:

That's funny. But seriously, you don't need the needle.

You can buy the plastic syringes off the shelf.

I just trialed the syringe and needle process, per Kelsey's advice, with a schooner of lager with 1cm of freeboard. It left half my glass of beer on the bar. Yep, works good! ? I will modify the process but also the syringe only idea too, Hairy. Thanks.

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I've done that before. If the beer is more carbonated then you don't need to draw as much out. I last used it on a stout that was basically flat (not sure why given it was bottled in glass and was carbonated initially), I drew almost a full 3mL syringe from it and pumped it back in, foamed up like a Guinness and the head stayed til the last sip.

I find it works better on lower carbonated beers, and I suppose they're the ones usually on nitro anyway.

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Just tried it then, with the plastic kids panadol syringe thingy with my slightly under carbonated lager I'm drinking atm. 

Drew up 3 mls and injected, small volcano but then beautiful creamy head the whole glass long,  although the beer was rather flat after that with no real mouthfeel ?

Next time I'll try 2mls... ?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Tasted this today! Taste-wise it was absolutely perfect. If what people've been saying about ageing is accurate, I can't wait to try the ones I'm going to stash away for a few months ?

Regarding the syringe thing - it gave me a nice head, but it wasn't particularly creamy and dissipated very quickly (once I was about half way through the pint) - thoughts on this? One possibility is that you do in fact need a syringe with a needle, which I'll have to go looking for this week if so - another possibility is that sucking 1 ml's worth of air into the syringe before the beer, so that you're injecting it with 1ml of beer and 1ml of air, causes bubbles which are too big. I'mma try it again tomorrow without any air in the syringe, hopefully that'll work ? We have quite a serious heroin issue in my city so I'm not really sure how easily one can buy a proper needle syringe over the counter without being asked awkward questions, but if needs must I'll give it a shot ? 

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1 hour ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Yeah you don't draw air into it first, just straight into the beer, draw all beer and then pump it back in. Glad to hear it tastes good though!

Even my dad liked it, and he's a ridiculously hard man to please - his reaction to my first Coopers IPA (which I'll be quoting on labels if I ever make any for my homebrew) was "Mmm! Well that wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting!" ???

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