word of caution here, there are two things about real guinness that make it hard to reproduce exactly:
- the guinness people mix in sour guinness with each batch to give it a distinctive taste. you can try and reproduce this but i'm thinking it's pretty tricky
- the serving method - in pubs (and in those draught cans) nitrogen is used, which has tiny bubbles, thus giving the beer its distinctive look. now if you want to go crazy, you can keg with nitrogen (i think it's actually an N2/CO2 mix)
other than that - i think it's pretty easy to make a nice stout - roasted barley, flaked barley for steeping get the colour and also the creamy mouthfeel and some pale extract, nice dry fermenting yeast you'll get a very nice result. as budweiser are telling us in their ads - those dark beers can cover up all the errors
