Guinness style recipe

[CarrieP]

Wondering whether anyone knows of a recipe that produces a beer similar to Guinness in depth of flavor. We are new to home brewing and still exploring recipe options. Have mostly used kits but would like branch into creating our own brews.

 

[TechFanMD]

Wondering whether anyone knows of a recipe that produces a beer similar to Guinness in depth of flavor. We are new to home brewing and still exploring recipe options. Have mostly used kits but would like branch into creating our own brews.

Are you doing extract or all grain?

Guinness really doesn’t have a lot of depth of flavor. It is a pretty mild, light (in flavor not color) beer that happens to be black. Some of the mouthfeel comes (especially on draft) from the nitro pour - it makes it coat the tongue and seem creamier which makes it seem thicker than it is.

 

[BigEd]

The grain bill for a Guinness-style stout is fairly simple but unless you are brewing all-grain you will have to compromise. You didn't specify but it sounds like you are probably doing extract brews. There is a significant addition of flaked, unmalted barley in Irish stout (10-15%) and it needs to be mashed. There are tons of recipes out there with a quick search of HDT and other sites and Irish stout yeast is offered by both Wyeast and White Labs.

A basic 5 gallon AG:

6.5 lbs UK pale malt

1 lb flaked barley

1 lb roasted barley

1.5 oz 7-8% AA UK hop (Challenger, Norther Brewer, Target, etc) 60 min

Irish stout yeast (Wyeast 1084/ WLP-004)

Mash 60 min @ 153F/67 C

If you don't all-grain brew, sub 5 lbs pale DME for the pale malt and do a mini-mash with 1.5 lbs of pale malt and the lb of flaked barley. The roasted barley could be added to the mini-mash if there's room or steeped on its own.

 

[TechFanMD]

All grain:

5gal batch

7lb pale malt
2lb flaked barley
1lb roast barley
1oz Bullion hops (or maybe Columbus or Northern Brewer if you cant get bullion) 60min
3oz Northern brewer hops 60min

Mash at 150 for 60min. Boil 60 min (in this case with all of the hops).

Edit: Yeast of my choice is to harvest yeast from a few bottles of Guinness and make a starter. MUCH easier and better for beginners is to use Nottingham dry yeast.....not a perfect choice but a much greater chance for success at this stage in your brewing life (and you won't likely know the difference).

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

I've brewed a Dry Irish Stout using a simple mix of 70% Maris Otter (or Pale Malt) 20% Flaked Barley and 10% Roasted Barley with 45 IBUs of East Kent Goldings hops and fermented with WLP004 - Irish Ale Yeast™.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I've brewed a Dry Irish Stout using a simple mix of 70% Maris Otter (or Pale Malt) 20% Flaked Barley and 10% Roasted Barley with 45 IBUs of East Kent Goldings hops and fermented with WLP004 - Irish Ale Yeast™.

45IBU is a bit high - most Guinness clones come in around 36IBU. And EKG is kinda wasted on Guinness (particularly given the prices of the 2018 crop) - you want one of the older Wye bittering hops, Target/Northdown/Challenger etc.

Recipes seem to vary between 70/20/10 and 80/10/10 for pale/flaked/roasted. You want an OG around 1.045 or so, the amount of grain you need depends on the efficiency of your system.

Whilst WLP004/1084 may be closer to the Guinness multistrain, I agree dry yeast is probably easier for a beginner. Nottingham will work, I'd tend towards S-04 just to get that bit of tartness.

Another option, especially if you're new to this, is to adapt a kit. Ditch's stout is a popular option here that uses additions to a Cooper's stout kit.

 

[CarrieP]

Thanks for the feedback. As we are very new to this, we have been using beer recipe kits. Tried a milk chocolate stout and it was ok, but I wanted a deeper flavor. Recently got a dry Irish stout kit which I am trying today. The kit comes with roasted barley and gold malt syrup. I see a lot of people on here talking about DME. Do you all prefer dry versus liquid malt? Wondering if anyone has tired both and can share the difference.

This go around we are using liquid yeast and put it in the starter last pm. I haven’t tried yeast starter yet. The beer we have produced has been good but I haven’t seen real robust fermentation and wondered if this played a part.

There are so many parts to brewing and I have yet to figure out which parts affect which flavor to any large degree. I know the roasted grains will provide a richer flavor but haven’t experimented with different hops yet to gauge how they affect the brew. We have a lot to learn but the brewing and tasting is fun!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

The kit comes with roasted barley and gold malt syrup. I see a lot of people on here talking about DME. Do you all prefer dry versus liquid malt? Wondering if anyone has tired both and can share the difference.

There's a general preference for dry over liquid, I've not experimented with it myself, I suspect the real problem is that they may come out of the factory at similar quality but liquid tends to go off more quickly so the stuff you pick up on a retail shelf is not as good. And it's much more expensive than grain - if you're brewing dark beers that need a mini-mash anyway, it's not a lot more work to do brew-in-a-bag (BIAB) all-grain.

I haven’t tried yeast starter yet. The beer we have produced has been good but I haven’t seen real robust fermentation and wondered if this played a part.

Hard to say without more information - starters can help, particularly if liquid yeast has been sitting around for a few months (typically they have 6-month best before dates), but at the same time some yeast just aren't very "showy" in how they ferment, they just quietly get on with the job.

haven’t experimented with different hops yet to gauge how they affect the brew.

To be honest, you won't see too much difference with different hops for this kind of beer - most of the aromatics are boiled off when you're adding hops at 60 minutes, and the roast barley covers up a lot of the subtleties of hops in a stout. There's better styles for playing around with hop flavour.

We have a lot to learn but the brewing and tasting is fun!

That's what any hobby should be about - but "free" beer always helps!