Irish Car Bomb Stout

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BigBrewHawk

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Hey there, fellow brew brothers and sisters. I came upon this idea here on HBT forums and it was too good to NOT give it a shot. I'm still an extract brewer with around 8 batches under my belt- so maybe it's a little out of my league. But I am fearless and stupid so here we go! I will take any advice or opinions you can offer! Thanks, guys. I am using the iBrewmaster app for the calculations.

Batch size-5 gallons
Boil size- 3 gallons
O.G. - 1.060
F.G. - 1.014
Abv - 6.03%
IBU's - 37

0.50 lbs Carafoam
0.50 lbs Carafa III
0.40 lbs roasted barley
0.40 lbs chocolate malt
6.0 lbs Briess dark LME
1.0 lbs rice syrup solids(leftovers I wanna use up)
1.0 lbs lactose

2 ounces EKG- 60 mins
1 ounce EKG- 30 mins
1 ounce EKG- 10 mins

1 package White Labs California Ale yeast

2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise, and soaked in 2 cups of Jameson's Irish Whiskey for the duration of the primary, and added to the secondary.

Primary - 10 days @ 68•
Secondary - 21 days @ 68•
 
just an idea but you might want to start with lighter DME
i like to start with the lightest possible and pull all my color/flavor from my specialty grains
With the darker DME you have no idea what ratio they used to acually darken it...
just me .02 =]

Recipe looks BOMB (no pun intended) though! might be stealing this idea:mug:
 
Thanks for the info. Already started my boil, so everybody is in the pool but my last two hop additions. Smells good so far! Does anyone think 37 IBU's is too much for this project? I really don't know. Obviously, I'm just looking to balance this thing a little, not much more than that.
 
And the color is nice. Really not even as black as I thought it would be, even with a 3 gallon boil. Maybe the lactose adds a lighter shade to it?
 
just brewed about 10 days ago. Sitting in fermenter. og was 1.060. right now around 1.012-14. Tasted and its good. Not sure when to add the whisky and vanilla beans that have been soaking for a week.
 
Hello! OP here. Glad to see interest on the topic. My car bomb stout really turned out great, better than expected. My only real change next time would be to pump up the gravity a bit. Just needed a little more strength. The vanilla flavor was upfront and fantastic for the first month or so. Now, the vanilla has mellowed so much that its almost nonexistent. Could have used more whiskey, also. That being said, I got more compliments on this batch than any other beer I have done. Will definitely try it again, stronger, more Jameson's and I will drink it up before it mellows so much!
 
What did the ABV end up being? After 7 days mine came out to about 5.5-6% before whisky. I was sitting at 1.060 and first reading was 1.012-14.
 
More whiskey could always be added during bottling/just add it to the glass if need be couldnt it? This recipe is definitely on my to do list!
 
OG was 1.060 and FG was right around 1.014 for an est. 6.03% abv. Not bad. It was it was nice and drinkable, but I think I wanted something more big and impressive. I knew from research that it wouldn't be exactly like an Irish car bomb but I was hoping for a good vanilla stout, which it was. Also considering adding a couple oak chips to the Jameson/ vanilla bean mixture next time.
 
And, yes I suppose more whiskey could be added at bottling. Since it was my first try, I didn't really know how much would be enough, or too much. Next time I will bump it up from 2 cups of Jameson to 3.
 
I have about 2 cups sitting right now w beans in it. Am i able to add to the primary or do I have to secondary it?
 
I can tell you that the first tastes after a week were like flat Guinness, but a bit sweeter. With the limited hops I used (1 oz Fuggles) i have a fairly sweet profile. Wish I would have added a few more near the end to increase the IBU's a bit.
 
I did a secondary with mine, and added the entire contents(the beans and their seeds and everything) hoping to get the most out of the vanilla flavor. I think it worked well but I don't have any evidence to say that it wouldn't work as well with only a primary. Guess my thought was that the beans and stuff would get lost in the thick primary trub too soon.
 
That's cool. I would still urge you to up to ante on the Jameson's while you still can. With 2 cups you won't be able to detect it. Nobody that tasted mine was able to.
 
I didn't have an Jameson's around (i'm more of a Bushmill/Black Bush guy) so I had to use some Feckin' Irish Whisky I was given. I think I might go thro another cup in the container to up the ante a bit.
 
Yeah buddy! I prefer Bushmills to Jameson also, just went for the traditional car bomb. Midwest supplies sells a sort of Baileys concentrate, which I'm also considering using on my 2nd attempt.
 
And on a total side note- I'm a cook, and the chef that I work under is looking to make a unique product to sell in a local store. My idea was to take this home brew, which has good notes of chocolate, coffee, and vanilla, and reduce it and make it into a chocolate/hot fudge sauce for home brew stout sundaes!
 
I dunno 16 oz of whiskey may be a little much. Im working on a similar recipe, but all-grain and would really like to hear how this turns out for you
 
I'm sitting at actually closer to 20 oz... now that I think about it that might be a bit much for a 5 gal batch. I'll post my recipe I used in a sec.
 
Here was my recipe and procedure. In the future I'll do things a bit different w LME and DME...

Recipe:
(My changes are in parenthesis)
5# Lite/Pale LME (6# Gold Midwest)
1# Chocolate Malt (1# BlackPrinz)
1# Crystal 60 (1# Extra Dark Crystal)
8 oz. Flaked oats (no change)
8 oz. Roasted Barley (Lightly Roasted)
1 oz. Fuggles Pellets (60 min)

OG was 1.060.

Procedure:

I steeped grains for about 40-45 minutes at 155-157.


Added LME (recommend putting LME in warm water for 30+ prior to aid in pouring) Had no scorching and no issues even though I added while on heat.

Added hops.

Boiled for 65-70 minutes.

Started yeast. Let sit for 15 minutes. Stired. Sit for another 15.

Used Rubbermaid container and ice for Ice bath. Added Kettle to container.

Temp readings were as follows:
150 after 5 minutes
117 after 12 minutes
90 after 15 minutes + 1 gallon of destilled water (put 2 gallons in freezer for 2 hours)

Transfered wort to fermenter. Added another gallon to get down to 70. Aerated a few times by pouring back and forth.

Pitched yeast.

Closed up. Added airlock. Moved to basement.

Temp was 67 ambient air. 70-72 on fermenter.

Next morning had airlock bubbles and placed fermenter in rubbermaid container with about 8-10" of water. Added 2 paritally frozen bottles to cool water.

I did take a taste while I was doing my OG test. Very sweet but much more tasty then I thought it would be. I am looking to add the whisky/beans in about 2 weeks.

Hoping to let it primary for 3 weeks. Then bottle and sit for another 2-3 weeks minimum.
 
Checked gravity today after 2 weeks total. Was same reading I got a few days ago. So i am going to try and send it to secondary tomorrow.
 
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