Smithwick's recipe from Brew Classic European Beers question

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Rubes

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I'm looking at the Smithwick's recipe from Brew Classic European Beers at Home and have a question about the boil time.

The recipe is:

8.1 lbs Pale malt (I'm using Maris Otter)
13.16 oz Crystal (I'm going to use 60-70L)

0.75 oz Challenger at start of boil
0.70 oz Northdown at start of boil
0.35 oz Fuggle 15 min
0.35 Goldings 5 min

Boil time: 90 minutes

Is a 90 minute boil really necessary here? I can't imagine DMS would be a problem in this recipe. I'd like to shorten the boil time to 60 minutes, but I don't know how drastically that will change the hop utilization. I also figured that a Smithwick's recipe would have some roasted barley, but I'll brew it this way and go from there.

Thanks
 
I would speculate that the longer boil is to darken the color. You can boil for 60 and possibly add some dark-er malt to compensate, maybe a small amount of pale chocolate or crystal 140. The shorter boil won't change your hop utilization very much, I would leave that as is.
 
Is that the Graham Wheeler book? I think I have that somewhere.

He knows his stuff. Am sure you'd get away with a 60min boil, but I think he researched these recipes properly, so I'd be inclined to do what he says recipe wise.

His Brew Your Own British Real Ale book is my standard starting point for ideas to be honest. Just good, simple, spot on recipes.
 
I hadn't considered that, beeber. Every recipe in the book uses a 90 minute boil, so I don't know if there's a specific reason for it if it was just a guideline.

Yes, it's the Graham Wheeler book. Thanks for the info, I'm glad to hear that his recipes are good. I will go with what the recipe says.
 
I think there is also, but I'll try the recipe this way first and go from there.
 
Here's the recipe I used, and it was nearly perfect. The only thing it lacked was the slight biscuity note, I used 2 row pale instead of Maris Otter
9.5 Maris Otter
1 C60
9 oz carapils
3 oz Roast Barley

Mash @ 154 for an hour

Fuggle .5 oz for 60
EKG .5 oz 60 min
EKG .5 oz 20 min
Fuggle .5 oz 8 min

OG 1.051
FG 1.011

Wyeast Irish Ale fermented @ 64 degrees.

I don't remember where I found this recipe, but it turned out fantastic! Like I said, use the maris otter and you should pick up that little something that the 2row lacked.

I did a side by side comparison and that's when I detected it. My stepfather drinks Smithwick's and he loved it.
 
Thanks wickman, did you do a 60 minute boil? Your recipe sounds closer to Smitty's than the one from the book, I had a feeling there should be some roasted barley. I'm just wondering now why my recipe calls for 4 different kinds of hops..
 
I'm going with the recipe from the book (except I've modified the grain bill a bit and added some roasted barley), and then I am going to brew the recipe wickman posted in several weeks to compare. With the original recipe, could I replace the Northdown hops with EKG? I was thinking:

0.75 oz Challenger at start of boil
0.70 oz EKG at start of boil
0.35 oz Fuggle 15 min
0.35 Goldings 5 min

Bear in mind this is a 90 minute boil.
 
Will boiling the hops for 90 minutes make this too bitter?
 
Going to have to brew this myself soon. Very interested in comparison between the 2 recipes.
 
I brewed it last weekend and did a 90 minute boil. I also added 2% roasted barley. It occurred to me that the recipe in the book says "Smithwick's - Kilkenny Irish Ale", so now I'm thinking the recipe was supposed to be for Kilkenny, hence the lack of roasted barley. If that is the case though, why does it say Smithwick's? They are two different beers..

In any case, we'll find out in a few weeks how it turned out.
 
I've been drinking this from the keg for the last week. It's good, but there are changes I want to make. It doesn't really taste like Smithwick's, but I realize now that the recipe was actually Kilkenny and it was worded strangely. I suppose they're close enough anyway. However, I recently have been drinking Guinness Black Lager after picking up a 12 pack to try, and my beer tastes quite similar. Mine is a bit sweeter, but perhaps with darker Crystal it would be closer. It was an accident, but it worked out.

I'm going to try this again sometime with half the roasted barley (I used 0.25 lbs). It was a little darker and roastier than I wanted it to be. Also, I'm going to mash at a higher temperature. The recipe said 149 so that's what I did, but I think this makes the beer feel too thin. We'll see what happens next time.

One thing I am stumped about is the complete lack of a head. When I pour from the keg it creates an extremely fizzy head, like the one you would have on a glass of coke. It disappears in seconds, and when swirling the beer in the glass it leaves absolutely no bubbles or foam on the side. It's strange, as this has only happened to me with one other beer, and that is a stout that used the same batch of roasted barley. Perhaps there's something in there killing my head retention? The stout was bottled so there was no fizzy head like on this one. I thought the fizziness was from over-carbonation, and it does taste a bit over-carbonated, but my regulator is only at 12 psi. I'll probably put it at 10 the next time.

Anyway, to sum up - good beer, not Smithwicks. I think I'll also try the recipe that was posted earlier in this thread.
 
Rubes,

Now that you are tasting yours, do you think wickman6 may have a closer recipe then? The higher mash temp, more 2-Row/Marris and C60 may balance out the roasted barley.

Here's the recipe I used, and it was nearly perfect. The only thing it lacked was the slight biscuity note, I used 2 row pale instead of Maris Otter
9.5 Maris Otter
1 C60
9 oz carapils
3 oz Roast Barley

Mash @ 154 for an hour

Fuggle .5 oz for 60
EKG .5 oz 60 min
EKG .5 oz 20 min
Fuggle .5 oz 8 min

OG 1.051
FG 1.011

Wyeast Irish Ale fermented @ 64 degrees.

I don't remember where I found this recipe, but it turned out fantastic! Like I said, use the maris otter and you should pick up that little something that the 2row lacked.

I did a side by side comparison and that's when I detected it. My stepfather drinks Smithwick's and he loved it.

For the lack of head, I had this bookmarked from my last Porter.

...has mostly to do with the protein makeup of the beer. A protein rest on highly modified malts could break down the necessary proteins for good head formation into peptides and free amino nitrogen, good for yeast health but bad for the mouthfeel and head retention of the beer. Also, this could have been due to a glass with soap residue (most commercial dishwashers have a rinse aid that can kill beer head), or it could have been fresh outa the serving tank without enough time to get properly carbonated.

You may want to think about the protein rest and the soap residue. The latter is actually very common as I found out a few weeks ago, being dissapointed by my Coal Porter that i brought on vacation with me, only to find out that cups in the hotel were the culprit. When I brought the porter to my dad's place later in the week all was good.

As a side note, I naturally carbonate. My dad did a test with one of those soda machines adding carbonation to a sample, but the head didn't last as long and the flavor was off, over carbed, compared to the natural carbonation which I prefer.
 
I think wickman's recipe sounds closer, yes. I'm going to give it a try at some point.

As for the head retention, I'm still stumped. I didn't do a protein rest, and that quote seems to say that doing one could be the culprit. I suppose soap residue is always a possibilty, but none of my other beers have problems with head retention. I think it's strange that the only two beers that this has happened to are the ones I used roasted barley in. Perhaps there was something in the roasted barley?
 
I have not, but I plan to whenever I make a Smithwick's again. I've been avoiding making anything that has roasted barley in it, as it dropped the pH too much with my tap water and every beer that used it had a strange taste and fizzy head. Now that I've fixed my water situation all is right with the world, and it might be time to give that recipe a whirl.
 
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