How to brew Coopers International Series Irish Stout at home

What you are actually buying

The Coopers International Series Irish Stout comes as a 1.7kg tin of hopped liquid malt extract, so the grain has already been mashed and the hops have already been boiled into it before it reaches you, and that is the whole reason a kit stout is a sensible first dark beer rather than a project. You aren't chasing a mash temperature or running a boil in the kitchen. You're dissolving what's in the tin, adding a fermentable, pitching the yeast and then leaving it alone for a week or two.

The roast is the point of this one. An Irish stout gets its colour and its dry, coffee-ish bitterness from roasted grain rather than from hops, which is why it tastes strong and still finishes dry instead of sweet, and it's also why people who reckon they don't like dark beer often turn out to like this one.

What you add to it, and what each choice does

Every kit tin wants a fermentable to go with it, and the one you pick changes the finished beer more than anything else you'll do on brew day.

• Plain dextrose ferments out almost completely, so it lifts the alcohol and leaves the body thin. On a stout that's usually not what you're after.
• A brew enhancer is dextrose with maltodextrin blended through it, and the maltodextrin doesn't ferment, so it stays behind as body and as head retention. That's the easy answer for a stout.
• Dark malt extract goes further again and puts its own malt character on top of what's in the tin, which is worth doing once you know what the plain version tastes like.

Temperature, and the numbers on your own tin

Fermentation temperature does more damage to a homebrew than almost anything else, because yeast that gets too warm throws off flavours that taste like solvent or like overripe fruit, and no amount of conditioning takes those back out again. The range for this kit is printed on the tin itself along with the yeast instructions, and I'd honestly rather you read your own tin than take a number off a blog, because Coopers put it there and it's the one that applies to what you've got in your hand.

What I will say is that a spot with a steady temperature beats a spot with a good average, so a cupboard inside the house will treat you better than a shed that swings a long way between the afternoon and the early hours. If your brewing spot runs cold, a heater belt wrapped around the fermenter or a heater plate sat underneath it will hold things steady, and both of those are on the shelf in the shop.

Bottling, and the bit everyone rushes

When the hydrometer reads the same for two days running, the beer has finished, and that reading is the only honest way to tell, because the airlock stops bubbling long before fermentation is actually done. Prime each bottle and cap it, then leave it somewhere warm enough to carbonate properly. A stout is worth giving longer than you think in the bottle, and it'll be better again a month after you first crack one.

Where it's the right answer, and where it isn't

This is the right tin if you want a dark beer that's dry and roasty and tastes like a pint you'd order out, and if you're happy to wait, because a stout rewards conditioning far more than a pale beer does. It's the wrong tin if you're brewing for a hot afternoon with people who want something light and cold, in which case a lager or a cerveza kit will make you a lot more popular.

Shop related products

• Coopers Original Stout 1.7kg. The Australian-style stout tin, a bit rounder and less dry than the Irish.
• Coopers Dark Malt Extract 1.5kg. Swap this in for the sugar when you want more body and more roast.
• Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 1kg. Dextrose with maltodextrin through it, which is the simple upgrade on plain sugar.
• Coopers Dextrose 1kg. The plain fermentable, and what you use for priming the bottles.
• S-04 Safale Ale Yeast 11.5g. An English ale yeast that leaves a bit of malt character behind in a dark beer.

Did you know we also stock the Coopers International Series Irish Stout tin itself in the shop, along with the Brewblend #74 Irish Stout booster, the Mangrove Jack's Irish Stout kit, no rinse sanitiser, crown seals, bottle brushes and the cappers to go with them. None of that is on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.

The rest of the range is in the homebrew collection and the Coopers collection, and if you'd rather talk it through than read it, Brewhilder is our homebrew adviser and it'll walk you through picking a kit.

Read next

• How to Brew Your Own Stout at Home
• How to brew Coopers Original Dark Ale
• Top 5 common homebrewing mistakes and how to fix them

Still learning, same as everyone, and patience is the part I'm worst at.

Candeece