Gough said:
Flanbos,
This version in BYO magazine is an all grain recipe with an extract 'n grain option. The extract 'n grain recipe is:
Dry Irish Stout
19 litres
OG 1.040
FG 1.008
ABV 4.1%
2.7kg Light LME
340 gms Roast Barley
57 gms Chocolate Malt
1/2 tsp Baking Soda added to grains when mashing/steeping
1 tsp Irish Moss
33gms Perle Hops (8%aa)
Wyeast 1084 or White Labs WLP004 yeast.
[snip]
I've been working on a few Guinness clones too and if you're gonna use that recipe, I have some suggestions for your to consider. These are just suggestions, and I'm sure many will have comments one way or the other on them but since my first stout nearly 10 years ago, I've had a fair bit of practice
:lol:
First, drop the Irish Moss - It does bugger all for a stout IMHO - sure it may help flocc out a wort in the last quarter of a boil, but why bother with a stout?
Second, Irish Stout and Perle is like a Bohemian Pilsner with Cascade! Irish Stouts use Goldings, Challenger, Target or if you have to, Fuggles. Target is a hop primarily used for bittering but you can get away with any of these hops for bittering a wort boil - so, swap the 33g of 8% A/A Perle with, say, Goldings Hops to achieve the same bitterness in the boil - eg, around 60g of 4% A/A Goldings will do the trick. Did you notice the hop aroma when you smelled the Guinness? That's right, there wasn't any
. So leave the hops in for a full 60min boil and don't bother with any late boil additions of hops for aroma - unless you prefer to have a hop aroma with your stout
.
Third, if you can find some, I'd add 150g of flaked barley to the grain bill to add a grainy flavour to the beer and improve head retention.
And fourthly, I would swap the Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) for Calcium Sulphate (Gypsum) to get that hard/iron water characteristic in the pre-boil wort water. It's not essential to do this but IMHO Baking Soda is not all that useful since the dark grains will counteract the alkalinity imparted by the Carbonates. Just don't overdo the Gypsum additions as the Calcium is good for hop bittering efficiency in the boil, generating the hot and cold break and yeast nutrition, but excessive Sulphates create a very harsh, sharp flavour in the beer that isn't very pleasant. Since you're using LME in this recipe, the benefits from water conditioning are somewhat limited, because the malt extraction has already occurred, but it may be worth using that 1/2 tsp of Gypsum to keep the brew closer to the original style...
Guinness is said to possess an acidic "twang" as our american friends quaintly put it - based on using a beer with a lactic infection in the boil, or, by making a sour mash, or using acidified malt. You can be the judge of whether you want that "twang" or not, and I would say that unless you add some lactic infected beer in the pre-boil wort, you won't get it without going partial mash or all grain on this beer. It's not essential that you do this, but should you want to get into Stouts in a big way, it's worth looking into this down the track...
There are plenty of good recipes on this website for Stout and Snow's Guinness Clone here on AHB is still a very good recipe
. If you want to read up on Stouts, here's a good starting point:
http://www.brewingtechniques.com/library/s...s/1_4style.html
Cheers,
TL
