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

[Shenanigans]

Brewed this one today. Started off by collecting RO water to build up a Wicklow Mountain water profile.

Made sure to get Black Barley (500L) instead of roasted (300L).

Mashed for 90 at 150*, adding in the black barley for the last 15 minutes. Water additions shown above reflect that.

Boiled for 60. Cooled to 75 and whirlpooled 5 minutes, then let it settle for 5 min.

Put into the fermenter with a 1200 ml starter of Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale. Fermenting at 65*.

Planned on 85% efficiency, so I dropped the two row down to 10lbs. Ended up with 89% (11.5 gal at 1.045) . Not bad.

Going to enter it into an Irish Beer competition next month. We'll see how it goes!

Nice report. I must download bruin water. Had to smile when I saw a Wicklow mountain water profile. Was born and grew up about 30 mins from the Wicklow border. From Wexford of course

 

[Punx Clever]

Beer has hit terminal gravity. It's going into a competition, so I won't be rushing putting it into the kegs... let the yeast clean up anything. Came down to 1.008. AND, the sample is a dead ringer for Guinness. Couldn't be happier. There really is something to this water chemistry stuff...

Please excuse the cloudiness, it hasn't cold crashed or had gelatin yet.

 

[PeteSeattle]

Here’s hoping the luck of the Irish will be on you’re side @Punx Clever.

This is the inspiration I need, folks. It’s interesting to see the variations since the OP. I can’t wait to dive into my version. I’m trying to pin down a certain IPA (Seattle here, lol) and this will be my next project but probably not in time for St. Paddy’s day. Sláinte!

 

[uSlackr]

Im new to AG and am having trouble grasping mash and sparge water volumes for batch sparge. When I plugged this into beer smith, it recommended a 2 step sparge, but the first few 5 gal recipes I made only required a 1 step (of essentially equal value to the original mash volume). Is the second sparge required due to the water to grist ratio, or could I do a 6 gal mash and single 6 gallon sparge and achieve the same results @BierMuncher ?

You can change the number of sparge steps. Not sure why it defaults to 2.

 

[Punx Clever]

2.5 weeks out from brew day. With a little burst carbonation this one has hit the glass. Pretty solid impression of a Guinness... not quite the same without the nitro pour, but it's damn close and I'm happy with it.

Bottled two 12oz bottles from the keg today to put into a local competition. Should do pretty good.

 

[ehk089]

brewed a 10 gal batch to split with a buddy ~3 weeks ago, been in keg a few days, conditioning til st pat comes.....pretty excited

 

[PeteSeattle]

Best of luck @Punx Clever

 

[PADave]

This is going to be my next brew. What water chemistry are you all using? I use distilled water to brew. I found this somewhere and have it in my notes for this brew.

"The water at the St James Gate brewery is RO quality water that runs off the Wicklow Mountains. Add calcium chloride to bring the calcium to about 50 ppm and then mash only the pale malt and the barley with the roast barley reserved. Add the roast barley with about 10 minutes left in the mash. The mash pH is at the normal range during most of the mash, but driven low with the roast malt addition. The combo of roast with low pH is the secret to a dry Irish stout."

So just to be clear, I only need to add calcium chloride to my mash water and nothing else? I plan on doing the late addition with the roast barley. Also going to add a couple ounces of Blackprinz to to raise the SRM.

 

[youngdh]

This is going to be my next brew. What water chemistry are you all using? I use distilled water to brew. I found this somewhere and have it in my notes for this brew.

"The water at the St James Gate brewery is RO quality water that runs off the Wicklow Mountains. Add calcium chloride to bring the calcium to about 50 ppm and then mash only the pale malt and the barley with the roast barley reserved. Add the roast barley with about 10 minutes left in the mash. The mash pH is at the normal range during most of the mash, but driven low with the roast malt addition. The combo of roast with low pH is the secret to a dry Irish stout."

So just to be clear, I only need to add calcium chloride to my mash water and nothing else? I plan on doing the late addition with the roast barley. Also going to add a couple ounces of Blackprinz to to raise the SRM.

I follow the advice from an article in the Nov/Dec 2013 Zymurgy's Brewing Water Series for Ireland by Martin Brungard of the following target profile for dry Irish stouts: Ca:18 Mg:2 Na:13 SO4:22 Cl:20 HCO3:35. I also target a mash pH of 5.2.

 

[jlinz]

Just tapped this recipe. Tastes great, even after less than a week in the keg. I don’t know about it being a guiness replica, because guiness has that minerL taste from the water, but as a nice dry stout recipe, I wouldn’t change a thing.

 

[jlinz]

Just tapped this recipe. Tastes great, even after less than a week in the keg. I don’t know about it being a guiness replica, because guiness has that minerL taste from the water, but as a nice dry stout recipe, I wouldn’t change a thing.

By the way, does anyone get a fair amount of vanilla scent in this beer? Wondering if it is normal.

 

[TxBigHops]

Just tapped this recipe. Tastes great, even after less than a week in the keg. I don’t know about it being a guiness replica, because guiness has that minerL taste from the water, but as a nice dry stout recipe, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Do you not make mineral adjustments to your water? If you want Guinness water, all the information you need to do so is readily available.

 

[jlinz]

Do you not make mineral adjustments to your water? If you want Guinness water, all the information you need to do so is readily available.

No, I don’t. But, you’re right, it’s not a knock on the recipe at all. I actually really like it with my tap water and campden.

 

[Sudz]

Just for the record...

Been years since I posted on this thread and I've made many of dark brews in pursuit of the perfect pour. Guess what. This one may be the best yet.
As I prepare to make another batch let me offer my gratitude and thanks to BierMuncher for a job well done.

Cheers my friend!

 

[brewkinger]

Just for the record...

Been years since I posted on this thread and I've made many of dark brews in pursuit of the perfect pour. Guess what. This one may be the best yet.
As I prepare to make another batch let me offer my gratitude and thanks to BierMuncher for a job well done.

Cheers my friend!

This post could not possibly have happened at a better time. I had narrowed it down to this and one other stout recipe that I was planning on making this weekend. This makes my decision much easier... Thanks @Sudz

 

[Sudz]

Brewkinger you will like the hint of coffee. Just right. Let us know how it went for you in a few months.

Enjoy!

 

[NobleNewt]

Just got my ingredients to brew this. Trying to keep my pipeline full while giving this brew adequate time to bulk condition. I have been using exclusively Omega's Voss Kveik yeast since last year in all of my brews (including an oatmeal stout about a year ago). I also haven't done a secondary since I picked up the hobby again two years ago. I planned on leaving this to ferment for a week and condition for two weeks before bottling.

Has anyone observed a minimum time before this beer is ready to drink? I've got plenty of bottles to let it condition in the bottles for a little while. Any thoughts?