Guinness Clone

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Snow

Beer me up, Scotty!
Joined
20/12/02
Messages
2,349
Reaction score
154
SNOWY'S GUINNESS CLONE

This is a fantastic stout recipe that is so flavoursome and complex - a joy to drink. An English mate of mine who lives for stout and has drunk most of the world's stouts says this is the best stout he has ever had in his life! Of course, he was drunk from my Premium Lager he had been drinking all afternoon (but that's another recipe....)!

INGREDIENTS

1.8kg Can of Coopers Stout
1.5kg Dark Liquid Malt
250g Brown Sugar
325g Black Strap Molasses
50g Cracked Roasted Chocolate Grain
50g Cracked Roasted Burnt Black Barley
35g Super Alpha Hop Pellets
11.5g Packet of dry Safale Ale Yeast
Sugar for bulk priming

PROCEDURE

Preparing the Wort
1. Put can of stout, malt and molasses in a sink of hot water to soften (makes them easier to pour).
2. Put about 3L of water into a very large pot (eg. a big stewing pot) and bring to the boil.
3. Whilst stirring the water, add the brown sugar and dissolve.
4. Slowly pour (i.e trickle) in the liquid malt and then molasses, while stirring vigorously (to keep the syrup from catching the bottom of the pot and burning).
5. Bring to the boil, take note of the time, then reduce to a steady boil/simmer. Give a good stir occasionally.
6. Put the grain and barley into a small pot and cover with just enough cold water to let them mix well.
7. Place over a medium heat and slowly bring to the boil. Take off the heat as soon as it starts boiling (this is to prevent the grain husks from imparting an acrid taste).
8. Strain the grain/barley liquid into a container, throw away the grains, then put the liquid back into the small pot.
9. Place small pot on high heat and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cover with lid.
10. After 30 minutes of boiling the wort, put 5g of hop pellets into the pot and stir well until dissolved.
11. At the 45 minute mark of the boil, put the remaining hop pellets into the pot, stir, bring back to the boil for another 15 minutes, then take off the heat.
12. Pour the contents of the can of Coopers Stout, and the small pot, into the wort, while stirring gently.
13. Put the whole pot in a bath or sink filled with cold water (preferably with ice) and gently stir around pot, to cool wort until it is about 21-24 degrees. This coagulates the protein, to drop it out of solution to the bottom of the pot. This is called trub.
14. Sterilise and rinse (with hot water) your fermenter, long spoon and strainer.
15. Put about 5L cold water in the fermenter, then pour the wort through the strainer into the fermenter, to remove the hop leaves. Be careful to leave the trub in the pot. Trub affects the flavour and longevity of your beer.
16. Top up the wort with cold water to make 22L.
17. Check the temperature and pitch the yeast at about 20-260C, then stir in the yeast vigorously, to oxygenate the wort (yeast needs oxygen to survive and the boiling process has removed the oxygen). Any higher pitching temperature and you risk killing the yeast. Any lower and the yeast may not start fermentation, thus risking infection from a rogue yeast strain. If your wort is too hot, you could put the fermenter in the bath in cold water for a while. If its too cold, put it in a warm place (I put mine next to the water heater) or buy a fermenter heater pad (about $30 from the brew shop).

Fermenting
18. Try and keep the fermenting temp at about 22-240C, if possible. This is a lively brew, so in the first few days, foam will bubble out of the airlock. Just put your old towel around the fermenter to soak up the mess. Keep topping up the airlock with sterilised water, whenever you think of it, to reduce risk of infection.
19. When the airlock has ceased bubbling completely, sterilise your long spoon, open the fermenter, and give the wort a gentle stir, mixing up the sediment. When you do this, dont allow air to get into the brew, as this may oxidise the wort, which will impart off-tastes to your beer. Replace the lid and refill the airlock. It will commence bubbling again and should be finished in a couple of days. The whole fermenting and primary conditioning time will most likely be around 14 days or so, depending on the fermenting temp. Dont leave the brew in the fermenter longer than three weeks, without racking to a secondary fermenter, or you risk off-flavours in your beer.
20. Bottle with half teaspoon sugar in each tallie.

STORAGE
21. Store at room temp for at leat 2 weeks before drinking. I left mine for more than 6 months and it was much smoother compared with 3 months - the mollasses overtones had disappeared and the beer was much more complex in flavour - definitely worth the wait.
22. This brew should be around 6.0% alcohol by volume.
 
Snow said:
SNOWY'S GUINNESS CLONE
PROCEDURE
17. Check the temperature and pitch the yeast at about 20-260C, then stir in the yeast vigorously, to oxygenate the wort
holy cow 260C!!! :eek:

sorry Snow couldn't help myself
 
ha ha ha...yeah that was deserved! But hey - have a look at my posting date - more than 2 years ago, when I was young and immature in the brewing arts! Actually it's pretty funny that you brought this up now, Hoops, as I just had a bottle of this last night which I had aged under the stairs and I have to say that it is indeed a fantastic drop. I thought that my matured taste buds would reject it for the befuddled kit brew that it is, but it has actually withstood the test of time and is smooth, complex and mellow. However, it doesn't taste anything like Guinness, so I'm going to have to change the name. I'm now looking forward to this time next year, when I will drink the last bottle from this batch.

Cheers - Snow.
 
Back
Top