Irish Stout Ode To Arthur, Irish Stout (Guinness Clone)

Just some more props to BM for the recipe! I made this in preparation for St. Paddy's and it was excellent and well received by all who have tried it. Put it in some stew, poured lots of pints, had some car bombs... There's even still a little bit left, which I'm savoring slowly.

Yes this is a great beer, for some reason it keeps comming out just a touch touch to light, I think because I am rounding down my roasted barley a smidge. Ill add a smidge of black patent to bring the color down a bit more.

GunnerMan said:

Yes this is a great beer, for some reason it keeps comming out just a touch touch to light, I think because I am rounding down my roasted barley a smidge. Ill add a smidge of black patent to bring the color down a bit more.

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Don't be shy with the RB either. My stouts get good marks at comps, but a recurring theme seems to be "needs more roast flavor".

I've been eyeing this recipe for a few days. My first AG turned out so well (your Three Crops) that I can't wait to do another. I have some BMC'ers that I'm trying to break in to more robust beers, and a lighter body stout may be the next step.

You said at the beginning of the thread that you would reduce the roast barley, but later you said that your stouts have been scored as being a little light on roastiness. What kinds of RB quantities did your comp stouts have?

PintOfBitter said:

I've been eyeing this recipe for a few days. My first AG turned out so well (your Three Crops) that I can't wait to do another. I have some BMC'ers that I'm trying to break in to more robust beers, and a lighter body stout may be the next step.

You said at the beginning of the thread that you would reduce the roast barley, but later you said that your stouts have been scored as being a little light on roastiness. What kinds of RB quantities did your comp stouts have?

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Keep in mind that most judging favors the "outer limits" of a beer's style guidelines.

If you're brewing to enjoy and serve to others.....stick with the recipe.

so which is it - 5% or 10% roast barley? not to be a pain, I'm just kinda confused.

thx

10% Ftw.....

10 it is - it'll be my next batch.

Another winner BM. I just poured the first pint from a batch I brewed about a month ago. Tastes great for breakfast. This recipe now has a place alongside your Octoberfast in my annual brew schedule. Thanks again

I noticed that my LHBS gave me Melanoiden instead of Acid Malt. Is this the same or nearly the same thing? The store owner said it was just another name for Acid Malt, but no one else in the store ever heard of either and didn't even realize they had the Melanoiden until she told them.

The wiki has them both in the same category of being Acid Malt, but are they one in the same? How off is my recipe going to be? (They mixed my Roasted Barley with the Melanoiden, so I'm kind of stuck).

Mash ingredients - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

janzik said:

I noticed that my LHBS gave me Melanoiden instead of Acid Malt. Is this the same or nearly the same thing? The store owner said it was just another name for Acid Malt, but no one else in the store ever heard of either and didn't even realize they had the Melanoiden until she told them.

The wiki has them both in the same category of being Acid Malt, but are they one in the same? How off is my recipe going to be? (They mixed my Roasted Barley with the Melanoiden, so I'm kind of stuck).

Mash ingredients - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Anyone? </shameless_bump>

I really don't think they are similar or interchangeable. You're going to get heavy malt flavors from the Melanoidin, and I don't know of any sourness associated with it.

Yeah...no...yeah....sorry...

No similarities between melanoidin and acid malt.

Just don't worry about the acid malt addition. But give your LHBS rep an earful for confusing those two totally different malts.

I just tapped my keg of this recipe last night and it tasted great. I scaled down the acid malt by half to .07lb (5gal batch) just for my preference. I also did a side by side comparison to a Guiness from a can and I definitely like your recipe better, although I know it may not be fair with all the miles that Guiness has to travel.

Great job on this recipe!

Got second place with this beer in a recent home brew comp!

So I'm now unemployed... I don't want to spring for the liquid yeast, and have Nottingham on hand. How characteristic is the flavor of the WLP004? Will I miss out on a lot of the special flavor if I pitch the Notty?

BierMuncher said:

Yeah...no...yeah....sorry...

No similarities between melanoidin and acid malt.

Just don't worry about the acid malt addition. But give your LHBS rep an earful for confusing those two totally different malts.

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I did. So and so called the other so and so an idiot and said never to ask them for anything beyond the basics... that wasn't very nice

Anywho... my roasted barley got mixed in with 4oz of the melanoidin. So I'm stuck using it. How much difference is that 4oz going to make to this recipe? Should I also pursue finding the REAL acid malt?

you can try souring a portion of your beer, pasteurizing it, and adding it back in - that's the Guinness practice anyway.

Been drinking my second brew of this stuff. Was my first AG beer, it really needs at least 3 weeks primary and 4 weeks in the bottle to let that roast character mature and mellow. Or else it will be very sharp. I did get great ef on this as well so the ABV is a bit noticeable at 3 weeks. My head retention sucks, it pours a nice head but it disapears in a flash maybe because im a bit undercarbed(used carb sugar for a 5 gal batch when I had 6.5 gals.)

The acit malt is not comming through as much as I think a guinness has so I would def say sour some of it if you want to get a true clone. Im just afraid to bring any of those wild beasties in my house.

As for a beer to break in a BMC drinker? It is great, it has nice flavor and body, not very complex, and fairly mellow(if aged proper) now all this talk of em I think ill go crack one open.

Finally brewed it today - my wife's first brew, I walked her through it. Looked like it came out a bit light, and we had multiple issues with the brew day. Should be fine though. Couldn't get acid malt at LHBS: "acid malt isn't used anymore." I threw in a tsp of acid blend I have on hand for melomels, we'll see if that does squat. If not, I'll go for the authentic souring process.

Wifey was excited, now comes the waiting.

tapped and sampled - yum! added 1 tsp acid blend in lieu of acid malt, may have been just a tad much.

Would a pound of oats make this a good oatmeal stout type recipe? More or less? Flaked or quick cooking?

i used oats old fashioned oats - pretty smooth, fairly good mouthfeel considering the smallness of the beer. Not quite what I'd call an oatmeal stout, though.

I'm planning on trying this recipe and my LHBS doesn't have acid malt but they have lactic acid, any idea how much I should use? When would be the best time to add it?

based on my experiment with adding acid, I'd use about 1/2 tsp at first.

You could add it anytime after the mash. I added at the boil, but you could even add before bottling/kegging.

Awesome, thanks.

I may have missed it somewhere in the thread. But what temperatures did you mash at? I'm giving this one a shot tonight!

khuygie88 said:

I may have missed it somewhere in the thread. But what temperatures did you mash at? I'm giving this one a shot tonight!

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Depends no how you like it.

Normally I would mash at 152 for 60 minutes.

If I wanted to increase the body, I'd go 156-157 for 45 minutes.

On the latter, I've been dinged in competitions for not enough dryness so you'll have to decide.

No sparging issues with the single infusion I take it?

From OP:

BierMuncher said:

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion Medium Body, Batch Sparge

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I didnt have any issues at all!

And thanks very much BM, I went with 153 for 60, we'll see how that goes. I'm stoked for this beer.

Funny, the last three beers I've made have all been your recipes or variations there of. Me-thinks we have similar tastes!

Is the acid really that strong? I ended up using 0.5 tsp 88% lactic acid but I was just reading Radical Brewing today and he recommended 1 tbsp 80%.

i couldn't say for lactic acid - i used acid blend, and ended up with too much sour, but just by a hair. I'm sure the different acids have different "sour density" but you can add more anytime, so start on the shy side.

Looks like the blend is citric, malic, and tartaric, that should taste quite a bit different from lactic. Has anyone tried souring this beer with lactic? I imagine I can probably add some more at bottling time if it looks like 0.5 tsp wasn't enough.

To make a 5 gallon batch is it really just as simple as cutting the original recipe in half? I have US-05 yeast on hand. Can I use that or should I get what the recipe calls for?

Matt

korgman said:

To make a 5 gallon batch is it really just as simple as cutting the original recipe in half? I have US-05 yeast on hand. Can I use that or should I get what the recipe calls for?

Matt

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Yeah, cut it in half, that should do it. As for the yeast, the S-05 will work fine, but the Irish Ale has a particular character that a lot of folks think is key to nailing a Guinness clone. So, you'd make a good clean dry stout with the S-05 (I'd use it, for the record, but I don't care too much about an exact clone), but if it's a spot-on copy of Guinness you're after, go get some Irish Ale Yeast.

Someone mentioned priming with 1/2 cup of sugar for people without a draft/restrictor setup, is that 1/2 cup for 10 gallons or 5? Basically I'm wondering how many volumes to carbonate it to.

NotALamer said:

Someone mentioned priming with 1/2 cup of sugar for people without a draft/restrictor setup, is that 1/2 cup for 10 gallons or 5? Basically I'm wondering how many volumes to carbonate it to.

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1/2 cup for a 5-gallon batch.

So that's about 1.5 volumes?

Well, I've got this recipe fermenting (5 gallon batch, cut everything in half) and it was my second AG. It went well. I was able to get all the same grains and yeast at my local Homebrew store. I went just a little easy on the acid malt. Hit a mash temp of 155. Used 3.5 gals of strike water at 168 for a one hour mash.

OG on Sunday night was 1.051. Airlock stopped today (only 2 days after pitching yeast), gravity is now ~1.015 +/-. Tough to tell exactly with all the foam on top. Its gonna stay in the bucket until at least the weekend. Secondary carboy is filled at the moment.

three words: BEST PANCAKES EVER

I replaced half the milk in my normal pancakes recipe with this stout and YUM!

I called them homecakes - i made them with home ground whole wheat flour, homebrewed beer, homemade vanilla extract, and served them with homemade tart cherry jam.