Gearing up for a Coopers Irish stout with 500g of Light malt extract and 300g of Dextrose.
Would using 500g of dextrose bump up my ABV to around 5% and still give me a nice head and body with the 500g DME?
Any tips and recipes are appreciated please
First batch? Welcome to the hobby!!! Warning: It’s addictive!!!
Using a pre-hopped kit, like 1.7 kilos? If you want 5% ABV, I think you’ll want to use a full kilo of light extract and a half kilo of dextrose. Or just use cane sugar instead of dextrose, same results. It would also be wise to steep a few grams of crushed roasted barley, maybe 100-150 grams, something like that, while the water is heating up, but remove it before it reaches 75 C. This will add extra stouty flavor.
See my generic guidance for beginning brewers here, lots of good stuff for you to think about. Click to enlarge, then copy and paste into Word and print 'er out if you feel so inclined:
Coopers Irish stout is a bit of an institution with UK kit brewers.
Here is a bit of reading for you from one of the UK based forums:
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=31569