Stout Ingredient Question

So, I'm about to brew my 5th batch of beer (2nd AG) so I'm very much a noob. I went into my LBS and told the gentleman there that I wanted to do a Guiness clone. Usually, they're very knowledgeable but I think he might've been new because he pulled a clone book out and it took a while for him to get it built for me. My concern is that I'm not sure that he got me everything put together to make a stout. When I plugged it into Beersmith, the color seems "off" - very light. I was wondering if someone could take a look and maybe double check my ingredients to make sure I have everything? I plan on brewing tomorrow but can swing by the store to get anything additional if needed.

Here's what I have:

6.66lbs of Maris Otter Pale Malt
.75lbs Roasted Barley - Muntons
.75lbs Flaked Barley - Unmalted
.25 55L British Crystal
.19lbs Acidulated Malt
Irish Ale Wyeast Liquid Yeast
1oz Kent Golding Hop
1oz Target Hop

Does this look right? I forgot to sour 24oz of Guinness but I can live with that mistake. It'll be a 5 gallon batch and I'm batch sparging if that makes any difference.

Thank in advance!

Looks pretty good at first glance. Seems on-target for a sessionable dry stout.

Edit: I assume the mash temp is 150 or maybe a little less?

I put that into Hopville's brew calculus and it came out at 23L, a brown to dark brown. Then I added 4 ounces of dark chocolate malt to the recipe and the color moved to 28L, dark brown to black. I like a little chocolate flavor in my stouts.

When I added the hops at the beginning of the boil the IBU's were 68 which seems a bit too high to me so I think one of the hops is added later for aroma. It calulates an OG of 1.045, an FG of 1.012, and alcohol by volume of 4.4%

Sounds like your doing a dry stout so use Black Patent Malt. It will give you color (dark) without the sweetness.

I ran it in BrewSmith2 and it came to a SRM of 20.5--not even into the recommended area for a dry stout. Adding 0.75 lb of Black Patent, changing the Crystal from 55L to 120L brought it up to 38.3L.

As for the soured Guinness, you are already adding Acidulated Malt. Is this being added for flavor or to correct the PH of your mash? If it's added for flavor I don't know if you'd need the soured Guinness.

Stpug - Beersmith shows me at 150 for 75 min. About right?

RM-MN - Should I get a dark chocolate malt? Is there a specific type(?) I should get? The directions show a 90 minute boil with Target for the full 90 and the Kent Goldings for 60. Sound right?

I will tweak as you guys see fit - definitely deferring to y'all. I tried an extract stout (kit) last brew and it came out awful (I might've oopsed the amount of priming sugar I put in...) but the fiancee wants a good stout so I'm trying to prove my beer brewing investment will pay off!

Again, thanks to both of you for your help!

Cluckk - unfortunately I already have the 55L crystal blended into my grain mix. Can I fix that? I'm assuming Blank Patent is pretty common? If so, I can go get it tomorrow before I start my brewing. As for the Acidulated Malt, I guess I'm adding it for flavor. I'm honestly not even sure how to know if my Ph in my mash is correct. And I don't really know how to even check it. But definitely willing to take advice and I can learn!

Thanks also to you for the help - I really do appreciate it.

rednblack_500 said:

Cluckk - unfortunately I already have the 55L crystal blended into my grain mix. Can I fix that? I'm assuming Blank Patent is pretty common? If so, I can go get it tomorrow before I start my brewing. As for the Acidulated Malt, I guess I'm adding it for flavor. I'm honestly not even sure how to know if my Ph in my mash is correct. And I don't really know how to even check it. But definitely willing to take advice and I can learn!

Thanks also to you for the help - I really do appreciate it.

Click to expand...

Just moving from extract to all grain I wouldn't over complicate things like water additions--yet.

You could add some Crystal 120L (same amount as the 55L).

If you are using your local municipal water you could get a copy of the water report and it will have the mineral content and PH of your water (on average). This can be entered into a spreadsheet like Bru'n Water along with the specifics of your recipe. From there you can see what your mash PH should be like with the grain added and raised to Mash temperature. You can use the same spread sheet to calculate adjustments to hit the best PH. I don't know if I would try it on my second batch of all grain. You might be better off simply using bottled spring water (without chlorine) until you get used to hitting a Mash temperature.

I just compared your recipe with BM's guiness clone (see link below) and they are very close. I would go with your original recipe for this batch and adjust future batches if needed. The small amount of crystal should not make much difference when mashing low.

I WOULD make sure your IBUs are in range based on your hopping schedule. I imagine that the Target hops are for a late addition - maybe at 30 or 20 minutes.?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/ode-arthur-irish-stout-guinness-clone-28239/

cluckk said:

You might be better off simply using bottled spring water (without chlorine) until you get used to hitting a Mash temperature.

Click to expand...

I didn't mean that to sound patronizing. I just remember how hard it was to fine tune everything when I first started on AG.

clukk - not patronizing sounding at all! That's just more advice on how to make my beer better, so definitely appreciated.

stpug - Thanks for that clone recipe find - sounds like mine is pretty much identical. I'll play in beersmith to get my hop timing so my IBU's are more in line.

Thanks again for everyone's help!