Irish Stout Ó Flannagáin Standard

Mine didn't have great head retention either, despite the flaked barley. Again, it pours proud, but after 5 minutes it's got just a bead of foam around the edges.

We just finished making this for our third batch ever and first all grain. We got a propane burner and a 50 liter pot to do all grain batches with. We did BIAB, but since a 5 gallon paint strainer bag was the biggest we could get in time for the occasion we had to be creative when it came to stirring and such.

First time on this system we didn't know how much water we would lose, so I figured 7.5 gallons would be enough. Apparantely I was wrong, as we ended up with about 4 gallons into the fermenter. I checked the gravity and it was about 1.056, so I topped it up to 5 gallons and it is now at 1.042. What can I expect from this? Watery and too diluted? Or should it taste fine and have lower ABV?

Thanks

When I scale this up for a 25g batch, using my efficiency, I get an estimated OG of 1.053. It's easy enough to drop the grain bill a bit, but should I do that across the board, or drop mainly the 2-row? I want to try this as close to the original recipe as possible.
Thanks!

Decided I was desperate enough to brew this beer that I'd roast my own barley. An hour in and the house is getting a little, um, aromatic. And hazy...

anyone try this with US-05? i have a starter of it ready and just found this thread again... hmm.

Dhruv6911 said:

anyone try this with US-05? i have a starter of it ready and just found this thread again... hmm.

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I didn't use it for this, but I've made many a stout with that strain, and it works great

Just tasted this when I checked the FG, it's been at 1.012 for the last two days, giving me about 4% ABV. It's delicious already, and it's only been in the fermenter for 9 days. I thought it would be more roasty and need to mature like some of the other posts in this thread said, but if it was cold and carbonated I'd happily drink it right now. I'm putting it in secondary today and will bottle in a couple of weeks. I can't wait.

I brewed this at the start of December; and at first it was a bit green and tasted a little sweet. The head retention wasn't great. Fast forward to 4 weeks of bottle conditioning and its really good. Sweetness is gone, and theres a strong coffee flavour. Good head retention... mmmm

brewing this today with US05

I made a variant of this last night, the main differences being I added 2 oz. lactose and increased the cara-pils. Scaled it down to 1 gallon, and increased the grains by 10% because I was doing BIAB. At the suggestion of my LHBS, I extended the mash to 75 minutes. I don't have a hydrometer, so I can't tell what difference it made. Started with 2 gallons of water, added another pint or so during the boil, but still ended up with maybe a pint less than 1 gallon in the carboy. Next time I think I'll start at 2.5 gallons. I pitched at around 75 degrees. From some of the comments, I expected to have some blow-off, but I had hardly any signs of fermentation at 12 hours post-pitching. I suspect I under-aerated. I remained relaxed,* and after 24 hours, I have a good inch of krausen.

24 oz 2-row pale malt
6 oz cara-pils
3 oz roasted barley
2 oz chocolate malt
4 oz flaked barley
2 oz lactose
0.2 oz East Kent Goldings
WLP004 yeast

This is my first batch, sort of. About 18 years ago, I made five 5-gallon batches of homebrew. Every one had a terrible plastic taste (which is redundant, when you think about it). They looked great, they poured great, but I was hoping to drink them, and they weren't any good for that. I consulted various authorities--Papazian and others--and tried everything that was recommended, including waiting months, but nothing worked. I became discouraged and eventually sold all my equipment. About five years after I brewed the last batch, I found a case of bottles in the basement. I tried one, and the plastic taste was gone, but it was still pretty bleh.

Recently I saw a reference to 1-gallon brewing and thought I'd try again. Still had my boiling pot from way back when, so I didn't have to spend much to get started. I have no record of success, so I should have stuck to the recipe, but who knows, maybe this will work out. Enough OT, I'll report back if it's any good.

*I didn't have a homebrew, however, because this is my first batch, and as it turned out, I didn't have any beer in the house. Instead, I had a martini. Mea culpa, if the batch is drainpour, I'll know why.

Brewing up some Standard this weekend... Gave a shout-out on my website in return for hijacking and rebranding your recipe!

Cheers!

Drinking this right now, and it's delicious. Brewed it on January 4th, bottled 3 weeks ago with 5oz of priming sugar. More sugar than necessary for a stout, so it's a bit overcarbonated but it tastes good. The one thing I don't understand is the lack of a head, even when I pour really aggressively. It's carbonated and there is a small ring of foam that sticks to the glass a bit but no head at all. I don't know if it's just young or if maybe I did something wrong. In any case, I'll be brewing it again.

It's probably too young, especially if carbonation seems overly harsh. A well aged bottle conditioned stout can't help but have a decent head. Also refrigerating for a few days before drinking helps.

harlond said:

I made a variant of this [2/1/12] . . . Scaled it down to 1 gallon . . . .
* * *
This is my first batch, sort of. About 18 years ago, I made five 5-gallon batches of homebrew. Every one had a terrible plastic taste . . . (which is redundant, when you think about it).

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Just bottled it. Tasted the dregs of the bottling bucket, and didn't detect any plastic. I think it's going to be drinkable.

I used this recipe except I added one pound of base malt. After two weeks in the primary the gravity is 1.021. I mashed at 155. Any ideas why the fg is so high? Should I stir up the yeast or re-pitch? The OG was 1.047.

Are you using the wlp004? That is pretty sweet... What is your fermentation temp?

Just kegged this and put it on 30psi gas. Can't wait to try it tomorrow night, it smells amazing!

bottlebomber said:

Are you using the wlp004? That is pretty sweet... What is your fermentation temp?

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Using ferentis s-04. Ferment temp was 68, on the third day it dropped to 59 then I raised it back up. What should I do?

Boek said:

Using ferentis s-04. Ferment temp was 68, on the third day it dropped to 59 then I raised it back up. What should I do?

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It could be one of two things. Either the yeast crashed out from the sudden cooling. The other thing is, while some people have reported good attenuation with Fermentis US-04 I have not. For me it usually hits somewhere around 68-70% so it could just be that that's where the yeast was able to take you on this beer. You could try rousing the yeast and warming it up to see if you can get it down a little and in the future use Nottingham for a dry beer.

harlond said:

Just bottled it. Tasted the dregs of the bottling bucket, and didn't detect any plastic. I think it's going to be drinkable.

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Tasted this for the first time tonight. It poured a nice dark-brown head, which looked great, though it didn't last long. It's totally drinkable. It's not great, but it's quite drinkable, maybe a little astringent in the finish, but my palate is so undeveloped who knows. Anyway, I had 25 gallons of failure when I tried brewing years ago, now I've got 500ml of success.

harlond said:

Tasted this for the first time tonight. It poured a nice dark-brown head, which looked great, though it didn't last long. It's totally drinkable. It's not great, but it's quite drinkable, maybe a little astringent in the finish, but my palate is so undeveloped who knows. Anyway, I had 25 gallons of failure when I tried brewing years ago, now I've got 500ml of success.

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It's more of just a quaffer than a knock-your-socks-off brew. As far as the astringency, that just comes with using dark roasted grains. You can use chalk in the strike water to reduce this I'm pretty sure, or it will mellow out a little with age.

Mine is good but seems a bit watery. Actually if I close my eyes it tastes a bit like coke. Anyone getting any of that?

Im making this right now :rockin: I cant wait to try it, gonna be a long few weeks

Boek said:

Mine is good but seems a bit watery. Actually if I close my eyes it tastes a bit like coke. Anyone getting any of that?

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I took mine to the homebrew meeting, and while everyone loved the taste and the head retention was good, watery mouthfeel was pretty much unanimous. If I make this again I'm going to mash at 158.

You could try using some Munich to build body 10-15% maybe. Or maybe some really light crystal.

Just brewed this today. After boil gravity was 1.044. Seems a little low even though I hit all my numbers. If this beer is worth redoing I might add another pound of 2 row. Hopefully if turns out good. I'm using white labs british ale for the first time.

After one week in the primary I have a gravity of 1020. This gives me an ABV of 3.3%. Alot lower than expected. The hydro does taste pretty good though....

seanybubbles said:

After one week in the primary I have a gravity of 1020. This gives me an ABV of 3.3%. Alot lower than expected. The hydro does taste pretty good though....

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Did you use the wlp004? That is a seriously low attenuation for that strain. Did it get really cold or something?

I used wlp005 (british ale). It's been a week at 68F and I moved it upstairs as it's warmer to maybe knock it down a few points. Even at 1020 the hydro sample didn't taste sweet, which I found surprising. I never rush my beers so hopefully it will drop a bit more....

This is definitely my favorite homebrew stout. Love the stuff brewed with notty

Brewed this a a couple months ago, it is quite delicious, not my favorite yet, but definitely good one. The recipe makes a great session stout.

Brewed this one and I'm currently serving it on nitro. This is a great session stout and I have not experienced the thinness others have referred to, which could be attributed to my doubling (2lbs) of the Cara-Pils.

Great stout!

Any particular advice for carbing this beer in a bottle (I have only kegged, force carb'd)? Mainly, with regards to me brewing this beer high gravity (I have a tendency to take things too far). Any advice for conditioning? Anyone brew this this with any other ale yeasts? Thanks, in advance!

Happy Brewing!

Another beer I brewed, been drinking it for the past month. I didn't think it was as 'thin' in the mouth feel as some past reviews said. Good, easy stout.

First off, I dig this recipe, first time I made this I made it into a double batch. It's an awesome beer, real smooth Session Stout as everyone says and all of my buddies are nuts about it. You can definately have a few of these in one sitting. Now, I'm probably the millionth person to ask this but here I go anyway. I like to tinker with recipes, so any thoughts on parlaying this into an Oatmeal Stout. This is an awesome recipe as is but I was thinking of just adding a pound of oats (possibly toasted) to this recipe to give it a different spin. Maybe someone else has done it perhaps? Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions.

Thanks

This will be my next brew! Was looking for a mild mannered stout, this looks like the ticket.

Just pitched the yeast on my 5th go around on this recipe. Hit 1.048 for 5.5 gallons in the fermentor! I only had 6 ounces of 500 SRM roasted barley. I dont think it will matter much. This is a perfect beer for a 1 liter mug!

I've never re-used yeast before, but I have a Centennial Blonde that will be finished in a couple days. I used Nottingham for that and I've seen a couple posts where people used it for this recipe. I did a search in the yeast forum and it looks like it is as simple as pouring the cooled stout wort on top of a portion of the yeast cake. Is it as simple as that?

Is Nottingham a good choice for this brew? Has anyone used both Notty and a different yeast and have any feedback on how each turned out?

Thanks!!

This was my first all grain, didnt have all the ingredients and like more bitter beers so changed up the hops level and swapped in a small amount of crystal 60 for cara-pils aiming for similar SRM.

2.80 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
0.50 kg Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM)
0.30 kg Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)
0.25 kg Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM)
42.00 g Goldings, East Kent [6.64 %] - Boil 60.0 min
1.0 pkg Safale English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) [23.66 ml]

Bottled three weeks and taste tested against Guinness export and a local (in Ireland) bottled stout (O'hara's) and this stout is definitely super nice even in comparison. Creamier, more rounded, more subtle flavours coming through

I will definitely be making it again, Thanks OP and all commenters

I've decided this is going to be my first all grain so wish me luck.

Update: Brewed this but ended up with a crazy low OG. (1.034) Not sure what happened but hoping that its still going to be good. I was going to throw some DME in the fermenter to bounce it up but can't get to any LHBS for it for 3 days at least and not sure if it will still work at that point. I guess I'll just enjoy a very low ABV cause my gravity sample tasted great.