Smithwicks clone

[fatbob]

Hi everybody, I have my first two brewing attempts fermenting & am pondering my next attempt. The other day my son brought over a six pack of Smithwicks. It is an amber English Ale. I thought that it was extremely smooth with a very nice finish. I was wondering if any of you would know of a kit or a recipe that a newbie could follow that would make a similar beer. This forum is very educational and there are a lot of very knowledgeable & helpful people on the forum. Thanks in advance.

 

[niquejim]

Try this one(free shipping I think)
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_452_42_165&products_id=342

 

[BigKahuna]

+1
This should be dead on....and pretty idiot proof. I'll be ordering it in the AG version on my next order.

***EDIT
Maybe not Dead On, But at least acceptably close

 

[irunxcjm]

Austin even has a clone version here:

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_452_43_262&products_id=11038

 

[Throckmorton]

Anyone know the actual extract recipe so I can just by at my LHBS?

 

[drunkatuw]

Northernbrewer.com lists their ingredients with their kits. They have a Irish Draught Ale All Grain Kit inspired by beers like Caffrey's and Smithwick's:

* 6.5 lbs. Maris Otter
* 1 lbs. Honey
* 0.5 lbs. Caramalt
* 0.25 lbs. Golden Naked Oats
* 0.25 lbs. Chocolate Malt

1 oz. Challenger (60 min)

Wyeast #1084 Irish Ale Yeast

Mashing:
* 156° F for 60 minutes
* 170° F for 10 minutes

midwestsupplies.com also lists their ingredients (although they don't seem to include hops anymore...might be because they are forced to substitute a lot) and they also have an irish red ale.

 

[BigKahuna]

Just FYI...I got the AG Clone kit from Austin....It's NOT going to be a clone any more. By the time I brought the hops to fit guidelines for the Irish Red....I had an extra full OZ left.

 

[Saccharomyces]

I'm still working on my Irish red to get it similar. My first attempt was the AHS kit mentioned, my second ended up being more like a Scottish 80.

This may be reasonably close for a partial mash:

5.5# light LME
1# 2-row
2# Munich
1/4# Roasted Barley
1oz Sterling 60 min
.5oz Sterling or EKG 20 min

Mini-mash 2-row, Munich, and RB @152*F for 45 min.

Be sure to ferment nice and cool, WLP004 will get fruity and take you out of style if you let it get significantly over 68*F during primary fermentation.

 

[Throckmorton]

Just FYI...I got the AG Clone kit from Austin....It's NOT going to be a clone any more. By the time I brought the hops to fit guidelines for the Irish Red....I had an extra full OZ left.

Not sure what you mean here... did you cut back or add more and have some left over?

 

[BigKahuna]

0.50 oz Challenger
0.50 oz Glacier
0.50 oz Challenger
0.25 oz Glacier
0.25 oz Glacier
I cut it back like this, and had an oz of 6% Cascades left over that they had designated for a 60 min boiling hop.

 

[jfrizzell]

0.50 oz Challenger
0.50 oz Glacier
0.50 oz Challenger
0.25 oz Glacier
0.25 oz Glacier
I cut it back like this, and had an oz of 6% Cascades left over that they had designated for a 60 min boiling hop.

All of that, plus an extra ounce of Cascades seems like it would be a bit too hoppy for an Irish Red!

 

[BigKahuna]

All of that, plus an extra ounce of Cascades seems like it would be a bit too hoppy for an Irish Red!

That's.....Why I re-arranged it. That's not their timing schedule either.

 

[MVKTR2]

Below is my recipe for an IRA. It's VERY close to Smithwicks except that it's a bit heavier in the roasted barley dept. with more flavor. Cut the amt. of roasted barley in half and I'm sure it'll be dead on in both color and taste. The other difference is this beer comes out to be 4-4.2% abv as I was wanting more of a session beer. Note that I fermented with S-04 at very low temps (for that yeast) to keep ester production down as this is a fairly clean/low ester beer. A better option is probably to just go with the Irish Ale yeast from Wyeast or White Lab. Again this is very close to Smithwicks I actually like it a bit more as it's got just a bit more flavor where as Smithwicks while a fine beer just lacks a depth of character sometimes.

7 # Marris Otter
.5 # Carapils
.375 # Caramel 60
.25 # Caramel 120
.25 # British Roasted Barley
1.08 oz. Kent Golding hops with 4.8 AAU
Mash 1.3 U.S. Qts of water per pound of grain @ 154 degrees f.
Sparge with close to 2 U.S. Qts of water per pound of grain @ 178 degrees f.
Safale S-04 yeast pitched onto approx. 2-3 cups of slurry from Breakfast Stout
Ferment at 60-65 degrees f.

If extract brewing just scratch the MO and go with a MO LME, 5-6 lbs. should do.

Schlante,
Phillip

Ps this recipe is in the index of Scottish and Irish Ales under "Crimson Ale."

 

[Throckmorton]

Northernbrewer.com lists their ingredients with their kits. They have a Irish Draught Ale All Grain Kit inspired by beers like Caffrey's and Smithwick's:

* 6.5 lbs. Maris Otter
* 1 lbs. Honey
* 0.5 lbs. Caramalt
* 0.25 lbs. Golden Naked Oats
* 0.25 lbs. Chocolate Malt

1 oz. Challenger (60 min)

Wyeast #1084 Irish Ale Yeast

Mashing:
* 156° F for 60 minutes
* 170° F for 10 minutes

midwestsupplies.com also lists their ingredients (although they don't seem to include hops anymore...might be because they are forced to substitute a lot) and they also have an irish red ale.

Just brewed the midwest red ale. They had 1 oz Cascades as a bittering hop (60 min) and 1 oz German Tradition as the aroma hop (2 min left). OG was right on target at 1.042. Look forward to trying this next month.

 

[Freezeblade]

I wanted to do a clone of this awhile back, and my Arrakis ale is roughly based off it. Here's what I found, but I can't vouch for any of the recipies.

Ingredients:
(For 5 Gallons U.S.)

7 1/2 lbs. English Pale Malted Barley Extract
1 lb. of crystal malt
6 oz Roasted Barley
4 oz Corn Starch
1 1/2 oz Fuggles hops 4.5% alpha acid
2 tsp. Gypsum
1 tsp. Chalk
1/2 tsp. Epsom Salts
1/2 oz Goldings hops (finishing)
Wyeast British Ale Yeast


I had another one, but it's bookmarked at home, and I'm at work.

 

[uglygoat]

killians is irish, not english. it's the stout without the roast. imo.

 

[Robert_B]

Sorry for the thread necromancy, guys, but this is one of my favorite beers. Can any of you who brewed these recipes comment on the similarity to Smithwicks?

 

[cabot]

Agreed Robert! I've tried a couple recipes and so far nothing has come close to a smithwicks :-\

 

[Palefire]

I made Jamil's Irish Red recipe (from the podcast) a few weeks ago; it's sitting in the fermenter now. At the end of the podcast someone asks him if it tastes like Smithwicks (which he pronounces, incidentally, as "Smith - wicks." I used to hang out at this Irish bar where all the Irish staff pronounced it more like "Smithicks." Anyone know what's right here?), and he says it's pretty damn close. Here's his recipe. I did a PM version (mashed about 7 lbs of grain). My mash temps were a little high so I had a slightly lower OG than planned, but the hydro sample from a few days ago tasted great. I'll post again in a month or two when I'm drinking it, if you want.

Jamil also says that this one is pretty roasty, so you may get a little closer to Smithwicks if you lower the specialty grains to 5 oz each. Even if it doesn't end up exactly like Smithwicks, my guess is that it'll make a pretty darn good beer.

6 Gallon Batch
Mash at 153

11.25 lbs English/British Pale Ale Malt (Crisp - Maris Otter)
6 oz crystal 40 (170 grams)
6 oz. Crystal 120 (170 grams)
6 oz. roasted barley 300 lovibond (170 grams)

Kent Golding 5% 60 minutes 1.25 oz 25 ibus
(or Fuggle or Williamette)

White Labs 004 (Irish Ale), or S-05 if using dry yeast
Ferment at 66 degrees Fahrenheit
Carbonate at 2 – 2.5 volumes

 

[geckosan]

when I had it in ireland they called it "Smiticks"...and where quite pleased with me that I did as well.

 

[wahpedal]

New guy brewer here - I don't have specifics on the recipe but I know that Michael Jackson's Beer Companion has SIX different hop varieties listed that go into Smithwicks. Target, Northdown, Northern Brewer, Challenger, Fuggles, and EKG. The article also says that Smithwick's uses 20% corn syrup in the recipe.

Also found this

TastyBrew.com | Forum | Smithwicks Recipe

I'm considering making a clone of this also, for a buddy of mine who's fave beer is Smithwicks

 

[CDbrews]

"smithicks" as ive always said, being born and raised in ireland

 

[gosabrez]

bringing back an old thread, but I recently made the extract version of Smithwick's from AHS, while the carbing is still happening, I drew a test from my keg and compared to a real Smithwick's and the color is far off. Since it is still a little flat I don't know if I can compare the taste, but it doesn't have the bite the the real one has. Wondering what I did wrong?

 

[passedpawn]

bringing back an old thread, but I recently made the extract version of Smithwick's from AHS, while the carbing is still happening, I drew a test from my keg and compared to a real Smithwick's and the color is far off. Since it is still a little flat I don't know if I can compare the taste, but it doesn't have the bite the the real one has. Wondering what I did wrong?

It's much lighter because of all the yeast floating around in there. Try putting one in the fridge for a solid week (after carbonation), then pour carefully. It will be darker. Maybe not as dark as you want, but it will be different.

 

[gosabrez]

Since it is in a keg should I just let it sit for a good week or two before pouring again? It is in a keezer at 38 degrees right now.

 

[passedpawn]

Since it is in a keg should I just let it sit for a good week or two before pouring again? It is in a keezer at 38 degrees right now.

Woops. Yea, after a couple weeks in there it will get clear, and (non-intuitively) darker. 38 sounds great for clearing it. You can pull beers from it, won't delay the clearing.

 

[irunxcjm]

Plus, these kits are clones, not the exact recipe. You might not have done anything wrong!

 

[kc9eci]

when I had it in ireland they called it "Smiticks"...and where quite pleased with me that I did as well.

I had my first 'Smithicks' in a small pub called The Sally Gardens' out in the middle of nowhere in County Meath, 2005. It really doesn't get much better than that.

 

[gosabrez]

Thanks I really appreciate it!

 

[Towers]

So what ever happened to this brew? I am looking for a Smithwicks clone for my second batch and as I am still a newbie I would need a kit.

 

[prolific]

Found this recipe:

http://***********/component/resource/article/Indices/25-Cloning/2410-smithwicks-ale-clone

Seems similar to the posted recipes.

 

[Izzie1701]

Just did the tour in cork. Found out a few things. The grain is 5%roasted barely, 95% malted barley, hops are east Kent goldings, Megnum and challenger added at 70mins. Boil is 90 mins. Not sure on amounts. Yeast is top fermenting ale. All told to us during the tour. Not sure on amounts yet.