Coopers double choc stout

bennyineire

Hey guys, I'm on my 5th brew from kits and I'm starting to get a bit adventurous now, I was thinking of trying this recipe from this tube vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50nuFLAo3do

Added 1 litre boiling water in pan, then added Coopers Stout Kit, then dissolved 500gm Dark malt extract. Finally added 100gms unsweetened cocoa powder and 150mls good quality chocolate syrup until all disolved. Added to fermenter and added water to 18 Litres and added rehydrated yeast from kit. Fermented for 2 weeks at 22C. 10mls of Chocolate extract added at bottling time. I ended up added 0.5mls to each bottle using an eye dropper and then filling the bottles from the fermenter. 5.3% ABV and 4 weeks old at time of video. Note, no dextrose was added to the recipe.

Has anybody tried this, I love Youngs Double choc stout, also I was wondering would it be better to use Coopers Irish Stout kit as opposed to Coopers Stout Kit, is there much difference?

Lovely Bloke

Weird, on Saturday I used that Coopers Stout, mixed as normal to 18 litres, and added the following to half of it.

500g dark spraymalt
100g Cocoa
200g Treacle
Drops of Vanilla Essence

I'm now curious as to where to get Chocolate Essence to use while bottling.

Even with 100g of cocoa in about 9 litres of wort, there is still quite a chocolatey smell from it.

In the other half I put 2 quartered chillis.

eurofoxy

see now you got me interested, have just finished a milk stout, first time trying an AG receipe and want to try a kit receipe to see side by side what they are like, i might give this one a try see how it turns out..

Ravelleman

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

I'm now curious as to where to get Chocolate Essence to use while bottling.

Fallon and Byrne on Exchequer St. is where I got mine. Going to be making something similar soon but using the Coopers Brewers Guild recipe.

Chocolate Liqueur Stout

I´m skeptical about adding cocoa powder to the brew - is it fully soluble? The benefit of choclate essence is that it will dissolve evenly across the beer.

Lovely Bloke

Ravelleman wrote: »

Fallon and Byrne on Exchequer St. is where I got mine.

Thanks for that. I'm going to be over there on Thursday.

Ravelleman wrote: »

I´m skeptical about adding cocoa powder to the brew - is it fully soluble? The benefit of choclate essence is that it will dissolve evenly across the beer.

Don't know, it was recommended to me on this forum though.

tteknulp

Heres one i have done a few times similar

Chocolate Stout

Recipe:

Added 2 litre boiling water in pot , then added Coopers Stout Kit, then put in 500g Dark malt extract and 300g lactose, Finally i added 100g unsweetened cocoa powder and 200mls good quality chocolate syrup(Herseys ice cream stuff), until all disolved. Added to fermenter and added water to 19 Litres and added yeast from kit.then paint stirrer with drill give it good stir,Then i Fermented it for 2 weeks at 20C. . I got 5.3% ABV . Note, no dextrose was added to the recipe if you want to beef up abv maybe add some but i think its strong enough already for a stout.

add more water to f.v. make weaker up to 23ltr

Ravelleman

How sweet did it turn out with the added lactose? I have some at home and might add a bit if it lends itself well to the brew.

tteknulp

Ravelleman wrote: »

How sweet did it turn out with the added lactose? I have some at home and might add a bit if it lends itself well to the brew.

It does sweeten it a bit ,but adds a bit of body i think also , id put choc syrup in secondary next time as alot of flavour fermented with co2 ,its a nice stout though

bennyineire

mmm I'm liking the look of this brew already, does anybody know how these compare to Youngs Double Chocolate Stout,
Also is there much difference between Coopers Stout and Coopers Irish Stout

tteknulp

bennyineire wrote: »

mmm I'm liking the look of this brew already, does anybody know how these compare to Youngs Double Chocolate Stout,
Also is there much difference between Coopers Stout and Coopers Irish Stout

i had a few bottles of youngs at xmas ,id say similar not same as hard to achieve from tweaking a kit id say choc malt is used in youngs d.c.s, ,if done with syrup in secondary who knows ,it might leave a more choc taste,which was lacking in my recipe , thats how ill do next one , i have all the items ready ,just need some time to put it on

Doesnt matter which stout kit is used ,i think the irish is slightly more bitter

bennyineire

Just a little update, I've made this to the recipe on the youtube clip, she's in the bucket, I'll let you know in 2 weeks when I bottle it how its getting on

bennyineire

Just bottled it this evening, not sure about the cocoa, a lot of it sank to the bottom I think, Its tasting pretty good before I put the chocolate essence in it, not much of a chocolate taste though.
But when I put the essence in it had a nice chocolaty taste, that essence is powerful stuff, I'll report back in 2 weeks when secondary is finished.

tteknulp

bennyineire wrote: »

Just bottled it this evening, not sure about the cocoa, a lot of it sank to the bottom I think,

Did you boil cocoa with hot water 1st ?

bennyineire

@ttecknulp, no didn't, I just mixed it with water sugar and boiling water and simmered for about 10 mins,

Update.
I opened a bottle tonight for the criac, hand on hearth it taste very nice just one week after bottling,
Nice hint of chocolate going on and indeed it tastes very similar to Youngs Double Choc Stout.

Still in shock how nice it tastes this quick

tteknulp

bennyineire wrote: »

Nice hint of chocolate going on and indeed it tastes very similar to Youngs Double Choc Stout.

Still in shock how nice it tastes this quick

Yea its a nice stout ,i think it can be improved with some choc extract / essence type ,similar to bottles in bake section in tesco ,i think decobake in d.1 have it .

howamidifferent

Any update on how this recipe is faring?

FlipperThePriest

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

Weird, on Saturday I used that Coopers Stout, mixed as normal to 18 litres, and added the following to half of it.

500g dark spraymalt
100g Cocoa
200g Treacle
Drops of Vanilla Essence

I'm now curious as to where to get Chocolate Essence to use while bottling.

Even with 100g of cocoa in about 9 litres of wort, there is still quite a chocolatey smell from it.

In the other half I put 2 quartered chillis.

bennyineire wrote: »

hand on hearth it taste very nice just one week after bottling,
Nice hint of chocolate going on and indeed it tastes very similar to Youngs Double Choc Stout.

Still in shock how nice it tastes this quick

How did these finish up in the end? Come out nice after proper conditioning? Or has anyone else done something similar? I've a batch of something similar on at the mo, wort tastes delicious, although obviously sweet starting off.

This is what I've got fermenting (sg 1.054):

Coopers Original Stout
1kg Dark DME
500g Muscovado
250g Cocoa Powder
300g Chocolate Syrup

For bottling- 20-40ml Chocolate Essence?

Sorry to drag up an old thread, though it might be interesting to see how people got on before.

Keedowah

I brewed this in March of last year and it came out pretty poor for me. I dumped a load of it, but have kept a few bottles and tried them about 8 months later - they were really cold and not too bad. But I couldn't drink them any warmer! This is what I used:

Coopers irish Ctout
100g cocoa powder.
150g chocolate sauce.
500g dark spraymalt.

Chocolate extract added at bottling time.

brewed to approx 18litres

FlipperThePriest

Keedowah wrote: »

I brewed this in March of last year and it came out pretty poor for me.

Cheers for the reply! Did you ever taste this stout kit without the modifications? Any idea what was the source of the poor taste... Too sweet? Too bitter? Just bad balance of flavours? Off flavours from the ferment? Or just not to your taste, i.e. do you like other chocolate stouts?

How much choc extract did you use? I'm thinking of adding some choc and vanilla extract. I tested it this morning after a week and it's up at 6% already, bit stronger than I'd planned.

Liamo08

zippy84 wrote: »

Cheers for the reply! Did you ever taste this stout kit without the modifications? Any idea what was the source of the poor taste... Too sweet? Too bitter? Just bad balance of flavours? Off flavours from the ferment? Or just not to your taste, i.e. do you like other chocolate stouts?

How much choc extract did you use? I'm thinking of adding some choc and vanilla extract. I tested it this morning after a week and it's up at 6% already, bit stronger than I'd planned.

It might be worth checking out this recipe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyzQ5L_TyPMhttp:// I bottled this about 3 weeks ago and it's coming along nicely. I think you should be looking to use chocolate extract as opposed to essence for the bottling based on that vid.

Keedowah

zippy84 wrote: »

Cheers for the reply! Did you ever taste this stout kit without the modifications? Any idea what was the source of the poor taste... Too sweet? Too bitter? Just bad balance of flavours? Off flavours from the ferment? Or just not to your taste, i.e. do you like other chocolate stouts?

How much choc extract did you use? I'm thinking of adding some choc and vanilla extract. I tested it this morning after a week and it's up at 6% already, bit stronger than I'd planned.

I never tasted it without modification.
I think it was a bad balance of flavours, my gut feeling is it was the cocoa powder.

I do like chocolate stouts, thats why I attempted this. I might throw one into the fridge for another tasting now...

Cant remember how much choc extract I used... its the only thing I didn't write down - but I'm pretty sure I followed TubeDinoz's recipe.

Looking forward to hearing how it turned out for others, if you get positive results I may have to attempt this again!

FlipperThePriest

I'll defo report back with the results.. kind of part of the reason I resurrected the thread, it was left in up in the air a little.

Hmm, cocoa powder.. do you think it imparted a tart/bitter taste? I suppose cocoa powder is sweet with a tart dark chocolaty after note. Maybe when the sugar ferments out, it leaves the bitter chocolate note? Or does this seem like what happened?

Did you leave out the lactose in his recipe? Maybe this back sweetens to counter the bitterness from the chocolate. I thought about adding it, I suppose it would also improve mouth feel, but I haven't bothered. Maybe I should.

I'm guessing around 30ml choc extract and maybe 10ml vanilla, not so sure.

Liamo08 wrote: »

It might be worth checking out this recipe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyzQ5L_TyPMhttp:// I bottled this about 3 weeks ago and it's coming along nicely. I think you should be looking to use chocolate extract as opposed to essence for the bottling based on that vid.

Is there much of a difference? This is all I could find. I've tasted it in the hydrometer sample, wort obviously tastes pretty green, although I can still see how the chocolate flavouring might contribute. Tesco do a good extract, Nielsen Massey Extract, not in stock though. I've seen that video yes cheers for the link.

Liamo08

zippy84 wrote: »

I'll defo report back with the results.. kind of part of the reason I resurrected the thread, it was left in up in the air a little.

Hmm, cocoa powder.. do you think it imparted a tart/bitter taste? I suppose cocoa powder is sweet with a tart dark chocolaty after note. Maybe when the sugar ferments out, it leaves the bitter chocolate note? Or does this seem like what happened?

Did you leave out the lactose in his recipe? Maybe this back sweetens to counter the bitterness from the chocolate. I thought about adding it, I suppose it would also improve mouth feel, but I haven't bothered. Maybe I should.

I'm guessing around 30ml choc extract and maybe 10ml vanilla, not so sure.



Is there much of a difference? This is all I could find. I've tasted it in the hydrometer sample, wort obviously tastes pretty green, although I can still see how the chocolate flavouring might contribute. Tesco do a good extract, Nielsen Massey Extract, not in stock though. I've seen that video yes cheers for the link.

Not 100% sure of the differences but extract usually gives a more natural flavour as opposed to essence - certainly the case with vanilla anyway. The Nielsen Massey Exctract is the one I used, had to try a few Tesco's but found it. I used cacao powder which has no sugar added as any sugar should just ferment out, the vanilla should add a little sweetness to the stout overall.

FlipperThePriest

Liamo08 wrote: »

Not 100% sure of the differences but extract usually gives a more natural flavour as opposed to essence - certainly the case with vanilla anyway. The Nielsen Massey Exctract is the one I used, had to try a few Tesco's but found it. I used cacao powder which has no sugar added as any sugar should just ferment out, the vanilla should add a little sweetness to the stout overall.

Well the cocoa powder I used is about 75% sugar and I used 250g so I'm getting a bit of both. Yeah maybe I'll look out for that Nielsen Massey stuff. Although I've a can of Guinness in the fridge, might try the stuff I got on Amazon in it!? :O

Tried the drops of chocolate and vanilla extract in the can of Guinness (calculated to downscale from batch to pint). It's okay, a little too strong on the nose. Taste is very subtle and barely noticeable, which is exactly what's wanted... it definitely wasn't an improvement on Guinness though ha, throws it off balance.

keppler

Did a chocolate coopers stout recently. Used 200gm Bournville powder, 200gm choc sauce and 1/2 ml of choc essence in bottle. Oh and 1kg of dark dme. Came out excellent. Everyone that's tried it says it great. If I had to add anything in the future I'd have to say add a bit of lactose to smooth the texture

FlipperThePriest

Good stuff, so you used about 20ml choc extract total. It's interesting the varying results people have had.. what kind of extract did you use?

Your recipe is similar to what I did so far, I used a bit more cocoa and choc syrup and also used 500g muscovado. I'm guessing you got about 5.2% of a stout? I'm torn whether to buy the lactose or not.

keppler

I think it ended up at 5.5%. We used the stuff that other people are talking about from tesco. I definitely wouldn't use any less extract than I used. If anything I'd try use a small bit more. It matured quite early too, tasting good enough to drink after only two weeks in the bottle. But I'd leave it a bit longer if I were you. Try it without the lactose first and see what it's like for yourself then decide on the lactose.

FlipperThePriest

Tesco must have discontinued that choc extract, it's not on the online system. I found it here though. Ok so I'll probably use a bit more, maybe 30 ml and 10 ml vanilla?

Yeah still undecided about the lactose. Do you mean try it first without lactose.. as in before bottling? Not really a good guide is it? Be too early to gauge what it might taste like after conditioning and carbing. I'm putting an order in next week for my next batch, might just buy it and decide on bottling day.

keppler

Yes, try it without lactose first and if you like the mouth feel then just stick with it. If you want an idea of what lactose will do to your stouts then pick up a few Jack Cody cream stouts in the offy and you will see straight away.

I brewed mine to 21 litres instead of the stated 23L on the pack. It tasted quite chocolaty straight from the fermenter. However this will fade over time so all the more important you add plenty of extract. Mine actually tasted pretty good from the fermenter. dont get me wrong, a bit young but very little presence of that kit aftertaste.

FlipperThePriest

Starting to taste like stout! I did a second hydrometer test today after 2 weeks and it's pretty much where it was at a week ago, 1.011 giving me about 5.9%. I was going to give it 3 weeks but I think I'll just get it out of the bucket at this stage, it's had a full week to clean up already.

keppler wrote: »

... add plenty of extract...

I see where you're coming from with the extract, my chocolate additions to the wort have almost disappeared, slight note left. Even now adding a few drops of the choc extract to the sample it's subtle, which of course a lot more desirable than 'in your face'. But yeah I'll prob add somewhere between 30 - 40ml and 10ml vanilla.

Not going to bother with lactose, happy enough with how it's developing.

FlipperThePriest

Update: Cracked open a bottle after 3 weeks in bottles and left 2 or 3 in the fridge for 5 days.. medicinal tasting. This is a taste I've unfortunately come to expect and am almost certain it's coming from the tap water. I've boiled water and let it cool as a test and there really is a weird kind of metallic or medicinal taste afterward in the water. Not sure why the boiling brings this out, but it's the same taste I get in the beers, pity really... but it's the last time I use tap water in my brewing. In fact I've an APA finishing in the fermenter at the moment and I've tasted it, much much improved having used bottled water.

I know the stout is still young but I don't think this taste is going to go away with age, I'll have to struggle through them. I'll have to attempt this recipe in the future sometime with decent water and maybe as a partial instead of canned kit.

Hingo

zippy84 wrote: »

Update: Cracked open a bottle after 3 weeks in bottles and left 2 or 3 in the fridge for 5 days.. medicinal tasting. This is a taste I've unfortunately come to expect and am almost certain it's coming from the tap water. I've boiled water and let it cool as a test and there really is a weird kind of metallic or medicinal taste afterward in the water. Not sure why the boiling brings this out, but it's the same taste I get in the beers, pity really... but it's the last time I use tap water in my brewing. In fact I've an APA finishing in the fermenter at the moment and I've tasted it, much much improved having used bottled water.

I know the stout is still young but I don't think this taste is going to go away with age, I'll have to struggle through them. I'll have to attempt this recipe in the future sometime with decent water and maybe as a partial instead of canned kit.

Is it only when you boil?? What are you using to boil the water? Pot/kettle or?
Medicinal taste is usually chlorine / chloramine - this can be treated with campden tablet - 1 per 20liters will sort that. Also check how you're sanitizing- if using bleach maybe try rinsing with boiled water after (where possible let cool if with glass bottles)

Metallic taste (usually) would come from unprotected metals exposed to water/wort- which is why I asked about how you're boiling... Might be a long shot but if it's a metal pot you're using try something else.
If it's the kitchen kettle- does the tea taste metallic?

FlipperThePriest

Hingo wrote: »

Is it only when you boil?? What are you using to boil the water? Pot/kettle or?
Medicinal taste is usually chlorine / chloramine - this can be treated with campden tablet - 1 per 20liters will sort that. Also check how you're sanitizing- if using bleach maybe try rinsing with boiled water after (where possible let cool if with glass bottles)

Metallic taste (usually) would come from unprotected metals exposed to water/wort- which is why I asked about how you're boiling... Might be a long shot but if it's a metal pot you're using try something else.
If it's the kitchen kettle- does the tea taste metallic?

I now have a new stainless steel pot, not sure what the old one was but possibly aluminium. Although I've done water tests boiling in different pots and from an actual kettle and the result was the same.. so it could be the plumbing/local water supply pipes. I've since started using bottled water and have mashed in my old pot and having tested the unfinished beer a few times I'm not getting the same off flavour - must have been the water. I sanitize with bleach/vinegar which is suppose to be no-rinse but I rinse anyway.