Midwest Irish stout

[wormraper]

ok I have a question. my buddy just grabbed the midwest groupon and is snagging the "irish stout" from the list of 3 beer kits to choose from. I've heard that the Irish stout kit from Midwest is kinda so-so so I was wondering if anyone had a good way to modify the kit for a better result...

ingredients are as follows

6 lb. Dark liquid malt extract,
4 oz. Chocolate Malt,
4 oz. Caramel 10L,
4 oz. Roasted Barley,
4 oz. Flaked Barley specialty grain,
1 tsp. Gypsum,
1/2 oz. Nugget,
1 oz. Willamette pellet hops,

doesn't list what dry yeast it comes with though so I'm not sure what it will be (thought I have some re-washed S04 in my fridge we could use

 

[HopSong]

I did the same thing.. and found the same thing.. In fact, that's what I'm drinking now. It's aged for about 2 months now and it's ok. I'm not getting that nice smooooth mouthfeel I'd hoped for. But, it is mellowing. I think it might have been short on oatmeal.. but, I don't know. I'll def try it again.. but, it won't be a kit.. I'm going with an AG recipe that others seem to recommend as a new starting point.

 

[Beer-lord]

I did this same kit last March was it was a dry stout but until I got to week 5, I didn't like it. I put half in bottles and half in a mini keg. I kept some after a bit more than 2 months and I really like it. I would buy this again though I do mostly all grain.

 

[sok454]

I got the same kit with mine, but I found the Irish Car Bomb recipe and decided to try that for the first time. NOw I did make some changes to that since I couldn't get all the ingredients... but after about 10 days fermenting the sample I had was pretty good. Looking forward to seeing how it carbonates.

 

[squeekybobo]

I brewed this same kit back in January. I soaked some oak chips in bourbon for a couple weeks, then put them into the secondary with the beer for a couple more weeks. Racked to keg, and a couple weeks later it was fantastic.

 

[danthebugman]

I just bottled my kit this weekend. Tasted pretty good straight out the fermenter, but I'll agree it felt like it was missing something. If I were to do it again, I'd think about adding some oatmeal or something. Also the kit comes with Munton's Yeast (unless you upgraded to the Wyeast or White Lab).

Dan

 

[wormraper]

I just bottled my kit this weekend. Tasted pretty good straight out the fermenter, but I'll agree it felt like it was missing something. If I were to do it again, I'd think about adding some oatmeal or something. Also the kit comes with Munton's Yeast (unless you upgraded to the Wyeast or White Lab).

Dan

yeah, I was thinking of increasing teh flaked wheat to a lb to increase the mouthfeel and jack up the chocolate malt to 12 ounces instead of 4

 

[anks106]

I'm also planning on brewing this soon, I was thinking of adding maltodextrin as well as 8oz black malt based on various suggestions I found while searching. Any thoughts on this?

 

[sok454]

I used black prinz and 1lb of oatmeal in the stout I did the other weekend. dark as night! tasted good after 7 days. like flat guinness.