Help needed with coopers stout brew please !

paulmerson22

Has anyone any experience with the coopers irish stout ?

I used 1kg of light malt extract instead of sugar and took an OG reading of 1.036.

Brewed it on the Wednesday, by Thurs morning it was bubbling nicely , the temp was around 17-19 degrees.

Stopped bubbling by Saturday and no action since then, left it until to day and took a gravity reading og 1.016. This gives an ABV of about 2.6% , pretty disappointing !

Does this sound right , Ill take another reading tomorrow and if its the same should I just bottle it ?

Is it possible that the temp got too low and the yeast is dorment and just needs to be reactivated ?

This is my first brew so any help appreciated !

BeerNut

paulmerson22 wrote: »

I used 1kg of light malt extract instead of sugar and took an OG reading of 1.036.

That seems low. I assume that's dry malt extract? Did you dissolve it? And did you stir everything together thoroughly?

paulmerson22 wrote: »

Does this sound right

Yes.

paulmerson22 wrote: »

Ill take another reading tomorrow and if its the same should I just bottle it ?

No! Give it at least two weeks to ferment. In fact you needn't take another reading until this weekend.

paulmerson22 wrote: »

Is it possible that the temp got too low and the yeast is dorment and just needs to be reactivated ?

Possibly, though if so what you need to give it is time. Remember also that the bubbler stopping doesn't mean fermentation has stopped. The bubbler doesn't tell you anything useful.

In short, leave it alone for the rest of this week then take another reading.

paulmerson22

It was the malt extract light, the syrup type stuff in a can .

It was recommended on the website to go with the kit.

Ill just leave it for another few days so.

Thanks for your help beernut, Ive noticed you pretty much answer all questions on this forum, so hats off to you !

BeerNut

paulmerson22 wrote: »

It was the malt extract light, the syrup type stuff in a can .

Liquid malt extract. You can also get dry malt extract aka spraymalt which comes as a powder.

I've found from getting low OG readings on kits in the past that I just hadn't mixed in the extract thoroughly enough. If I got a reading of 1.036 I'd spend another five minutes stirring from the bottom up and then take another reading.

Anyway, it has no effect on the finished beer: the fermentables all get fermented in the end anyway.

paulmerson22

Thanks again lads, Ill just leave it alone so.

paulmerson22

hey guys,
I took another reading today and it was the very same as the one I took last week, 1.016.

Its been fermenting for 10 days now.

It would seem that its not fermenting any further, should I try to get it going again with more yeast or should I just think about putting it in a secondary fermenter for a few days before bottling ?

BeerNut

If you like, you can sanitise a paddle or long spoon and gently rouse the yeast from the bottom, but in all honesty I think your gravity isn't going to go down any further. Give it the full fortnight and bottle.

paulmerson22

Is that in or around a normal reading for a kit ?
Ive no idea what it should be.

If it wont do it any harm to give it a stir up , ive nothing to lose by giving it a shot ?

Can I transfer it to a secondary bucket for the remainder or is there any need to ?

Wookie

This does not answer your question specifically but it is worth a read.

howtobrew.com

Two things that I would take from it are.
1. Your gravity is just outside the top range for the FG on a beer. So you are not miles off.
2. Aside of the good advice above about making sure you have given the wort a good auld stir if it was quite hot when you took the gravity reading you could have had a few points to adjust your OG by.

BeerNut

paulmerson22 wrote: »

Is that in or around a normal reading for a kit ?
Ive no idea what it should be.

It seems a bit high, but I've never done an all LME kit. When I did the Cooper's Dark Ale with spraymalt it finished at 1.012.

paulmerson22 wrote: »

If it wont do it any harm to give it a stir up , ive nothing to lose by giving it a shot ?

You risk infection and oxidation every time you put something in the wort or move it.

paulmerson22 wrote: »

Can I transfer it to a secondary bucket for the remainder or is there any need to ?

I doubt that will do anything, other than risk oxidation.

My gut instinct is that fermentation is finished. My other gut instinct is that you didn't mix the LME enough at the start which gave you a false, low, OG reading.

paulmerson22

Ok thanks again for the advice,

Ill just leave it for another few days and bottle then, fingers crossed it turns out alright

lang

I brewed this on the 23/04/12 and it has been sitting nicely bubbling away for the last while. At one stage the temp dropped down as far as 14 degrees C. After a few days at that temp I put a duvet and a couple of hot water bottles around it. For the last 7 days or so it's been sitting at about 18 degrees C. The bubbling appears to have slowed to a complete stop at this stage. The OG was 1.042 and the Gravity I took today was 1.020. That would give me an ABV% of about 3.3% (if you add in the .5% for priming).

I used the Coopers Irish Stout can and a can of LME Dark. I made sure to give it a good mix and pitched the yeast at 22 degrees C. Was gonna rack to secondary this week, but was hoping for a bit more in terms of ABV%.

Does anyone thing that the FG will decrease much more in the coming days? I need to have this bottled by the end of the month at the earliest.

BeerNut

1.020 is high. Are you calibrating your hydrometer for temperature?

lang

BeerNut wrote: »

1.020 is high. Are you calibrating your hydrometer for temperature?

Say what... I haven't heard anything about 'calibrating hydrometer for temperature'? I shall take a look on the search engines for some guidance.

BeerNut

Your hydrometer is only accurate at 20C (it'll say that on it somewhere). If your sample isn't 20C you need to run a calculation on your reading to compensate. There's a calculator here.

lang

BeerNut wrote: »

Your hydrometer is only accurate at 20C (it'll say that on it somewhere). If your sample isn't 20C you need to run a calculation on your reading to compensate. There's a calculator here.

I was just trying to edit my previous post and you read my mind. Thanks for the info!! It is calibrated to 20C. Looking back over the Brew Book I have re-calculated the OG and the reading I took today. The OG of the brew is 1.043 and the current reading is still at 1.020. I have Given the fermenter a gentle nudge and put another hotwater bottle around it to bring the temp up again in the hope that it'll kick-start the fermentation again.

oblivious

Lang you may need to gently, very gently rouse the yeast with a long sanitized plastic/metal spoon. Avoid splashing or foaming as you don't want oxygen at this stage

Hope this works for you

lang

oblivious wrote: »

Lang you may need to gently, very gently rouse the yeast with a long sanitized plastic/metal spoon. Avoid splashing or foaming as you don't want oxygen at this stage

Hope this works for you

Thanks for the advice. I for the temp up to 20C and gave the, still closed, fermented a gentle swirl. Checked on it this morning and the lid had bowed upwards so think the issue is resolved. Will try and keep temp at 20C over next few days and re-do a Gravity Test at the end of the week.

Hoping it doesn't mess up the brew. Sampled it other day and the flavour is very, very nice. Fingers crossed.

Sky King

I did the coopers Irish stout with a kilo of spraymalt. OG 1042 to FG 1012 if I recall.

Taste was absolutely superb, especially with my smoked cheese.. They didn't last long

Baneblade

did mine with a can of lme and it stopped around 1012 -1014 too

lang

Hey,

Well after taking some advice from this thread and another forum I rechecked the Gravity this morning and it hasn't changed from the 1.020 it was on Monday. With priming in the bottle it'll bring the ABV% to 3.51%. No where near what I was hoping for really , but I think it's still worth continuing with racking to Seconday and Dry Hopping. What do others think?

I really don't want to have to dump the batch cos it's been a few weeks on the go and doesn't seem infected nor nothing. Think it'll still make a nice drinker.

Two things I have learned with this brew:

1. Mix the wort very, VERY, well before pitching yeast.
2. Temperature control: I thought that it was ok to let a stout get down to the lower end in the temps, but think I got it mixed up with lager/pilsner.

Would you agree with No.2 in that the temperature dropped too low for the yeast to re-awaken?

Martyn1989

lang wrote: »

Hey,

Well after taking some advice from this thread and another forum I rechecked the Gravity this morning and it hasn't changed from the 1.020 it was on Monday. With priming in the bottle it'll bring the ABV% to 3.51%. No where near what I was hoping for really , but I think it's still worth continuing with racking to Seconday and Dry Hopping. What do others think?

I really don't want to have to dump the batch cos it's been a few weeks on the go and doesn't seem infected nor nothing. Think it'll still make a nice drinker.

Two things I have learned with this brew:

1. Mix the wort very, VERY, well before pitching yeast.
2. Temperature control: I thought that it was ok to let a stout get down to the lower end in the temps, but think I got it mixed up with lager/pilsner.

Would you agree with No.2 in that the temperature dropped too low for the yeast to re-awaken?

If it tastes ok don't dump it, and don't be discouraged, theres nothing wrong with a 3.5% beer and you may be glad of it when we get a bit of nice weather.

I'd go on with secondary and the dry-hopping, give it every chance to turn out, the transition to secondary will give the yeast another little rouse aswell.

If the lowest your brew got to 14C I wouldn't think your yeast was rendered inactive.

Good luck!

lang

Martyn1989 wrote: »

If it tastes ok don't dump it, and don't be discouraged, theres nothing wrong with a 3.5% beer and you may be glad of it when we get a bit of nice weather.

I'd go on with secondary and the dry-hopping, give it every chance to turn out, the transition to secondary will give the yeast another little rouse aswell.

If the lowest your brew got to 14C I wouldn't think your yeast was rendered inactive.

Good luck!

I've ordered some Yeast Nutrient (hoping for it to arrive tomorrow). Just a couple of questions:

1. I'm racking to Secondary, should have about 22/23L (I hope) left: How much Yeast Nutrient should I use in the Brew in order to liven it up?
2. I am going to Dry Hop: Should I add in the Hops along with the Nutrient, or should I allow the Nutrient to work it's magic first.

I need to have this brew bottled by 30th May, as am moving house. So am thinking only a week and bit in Secondary.

Martyn1989

lang wrote: »

I've ordered some Yeast Nutrient (hoping for it to arrive tomorrow). Just a couple of questions:

1. I'm racking to Secondary, should have about 22/23L (I hope) left: How much Yeast Nutrient should I use in the Brew in order to liven it up?
2. I am going to Dry Hop: Should I add in the Hops along with the Nutrient, or should I allow the Nutrient to work it's magic first.

I need to have this brew bottled by 30th May, as am moving house. So am thinking only a week and bit in Secondary.

I've only added yeast nutrient at the end of a boil before fermentation, I'm not sure it can be used at this stage, Beernut will surely know. If your using it boil it for 10mins, allow it to cool and add it to the wort, I'm not sure how effective it will be? I can't see an issue with adding the hops and nutrient together.

Have you tasted the sample? If theres still alot of sweetness it could be an indication that fermentation has been cut short which could have been caused by a lack of oxegen at pitching or a bad pack of yeast (a possibility if you used the yeast included in the beer kit). If this is the case pitching a fresh pack of yeast could be your only option as the beer won't carbonate.

I'd imagine the beer is finished though.

Baneblade

from what i saw Yeast Nutrient is added before the yeast i would not bother adding it now.

i would go with Martyn1989's suggestions

hardwood

Hi, I was thinking of making a batch of the Coopers Irish stout too but was wondering would it be okay to add some more malt extract or spraymalt during the ferment to up the alcohol?
Any suggestions on what would be the best (nicest tasting) to add?

edit: Found a recipe! http://www.coopers.com.au/the-brewers-guild/how-to-brew/stout/best-extra-stout

Martyn1989

hardwood wrote: »

Hi, I was thinking of making a batch of the Coopers Irish stout too but was wondering would it be okay to add some more malt extract or spraymalt during the ferment to up the alcohol?
Any suggestions on what would be the best (nicest tasting) to add?

edit: Found a recipe! http://www.coopers.com.au/the-brewers-guild/how-to-brew/stout/best-extra-stout

Yes you can add extra fermentables, with regards to that recipe don't bother adding the dextrose and add maybe just 1.5kg of light dry malt extract instead of the can of liquid malt extract.

A good while ago I found a table on kit beers which gave the OGs and TGs for different kits with different fermentables and quantitys, can't find it again now. 500g of DME will yield approx .7% alcohol in the finished beer. I reckon the 1.5kgs of DME will get your stout to a comfortable 6% (and you'll get an extra .5% from bottle conditioning).

Definitely avoid the kit yeast for this, I used Danstar Nottingham in a Porter recently that was good and I've always been happy with Safale US-05 no matter what I've used it for.