O'hara's Stout Clone

[andycostin]

Being St Patty's Day has kinda jogged my memory of how I spent it last year... Lovely day in Cork in the South East of Ireland with mates, but most important - I was drinking good Irish Made Stout.

Whilst I did try all of the available stouts that I could find during the day, there was one that definitely made a big impression - O'Hara's Irish Stout.

I can't seem to find a clone recipe, and was wondering if anyone out there has anything close - that is is anyone has had the pleasure of trying it before?

Waiting in anticipation

 

[andycostin]

Well,

I guess that's a no for anyone having tasted it let alone knowing a clone....

Have gathered together a few different tidbits from various web reviews, and came up with the following as a starting point.


O'Hara's Stout Clone

Brew Type: All Grain Date: 3/17/2010
Style: Dry Stout (Irish) Brewer:
Batch Size: 20.00 L Assistant Brewer:
Boil Volume: 24.00 L Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 % Equipment: Brew Pot (50l)
Actual Efficiency: 14.7 %Taste Rating (50 possible points): 35.0

Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.20 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (3.0 SRM) Grain 71.9 %
0.50 kg Chocolate Malt (Joe White) (381.0 SRM) Grain 11.2 %
0.50 kg Roasted Barley (Joe White) (710.0 SRM) Grain 11.2 %
0.25 kg Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 5.6 %
15.00 gm Challenger [7.50%] (60 min) Hops 14.2 IBU
20.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (60 min) Hops 12.6 IBU
15.00 gm Williamette [5.50%] (60 min) Hops 10.4 IBU
20.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (20 min) Hops 7.6 IBU
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) [Starter 1000 ml] Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile
Estimated Original Gravity: 1.048 SG (1.035-1.050 SG)
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.012 SG (1.007-1.011 SG)
Estimated Color: 62.5 SRM (35.0-200.0 SRM) Color [Color]
Bitterness: 44.8 IBU (30.0-50.0 IBU) Alpha Acid Units: 2.6 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 4.7 % (3.2-5.5 %)

The grain is based upon the constant reference to Roasted, and Chocolate flavours - My memory is a little hazy, just remember I loved it....

Planning on Mashing at about 68 as I feel that the Flaked Barley will add enough body to the beer, which is a little thinner than Guinness. Aiming for FG of prob 1.014

The 3 hop varieties have been mentioned in one review, but unsure of timing in the boil.... Based the final IBU on the fact that it's definitely more bitter than Guinness.

Would love some feedback from some of you experts!

 

[fcmcg]

Would love some feedback from some of you experts!

Mate...Your making an Irish stout , yeah ?
If it were me , i'd be using Maris otter as my Base malt...not Joe White...
And my specialties would all be english too...
Your trying to clone an English/Irish beer...use the apropriate malts...just my thinking
And i'd maybe use an Irish Ale yeast as opposed to American....
I'd be reckoning that because the style should have some meduim to no hop flavour , your 20 min should be okay...thats in my opinion...
Happy to be corrected by more learned brewers...
Cheers
Ferg

 

[andycostin]

Thansk Ferg,

The Joe White Pale is based on the fact that I have it lying around, and I was expecting that due to there being a lot of Choc and Roasted in the mix there would be limited flavour input from the Base Malt?

Fair enough on the other two though.

One of the main comments on the beer is that it's more hoppy than a lot of stouts. So maybe I'll move the 20 min to 10 mins?

And the Yeast is just me playing around - have it in decent quantity at the moment, and whilst I would love to have a clone, if I can't do a perfect clone, I'll mix it up a little. Clean ferment should support a malt and hop based beer yeah?

 

[geoffd]

I drank it a long time ago, when they first opened, they gave me & a mate a mixed case to try, (working in hotel business back then). My memory of it is very vague so I wont hazzard a guess at the recipe.

I use JW malt for my stouts, & US-05 for a neutral yeast & it makes a good stout. The only thing I can see a bit out of balance is to cut the choc malt to 250 - 300g. Hops are a personal taste issue, so other than saying I believe hop flavour in dry stout should be kept to a minimum, personally I go for 60min boil of horizon or target.

I agree with Ferg on the issue of Australian malt being a bit bland, I suspect it ripens too fast in the hot climate, (no sceintific basis, just a hunch, could also be soil related). I generally overcome this by replacing a kg of base malt with JW dark munich in dark ales & stouts.

Good luck with the brew.

 

[andycostin]

Well, I've updated with 1kg of Dark Munich, and will try to get English Roasted and Chocolate Barley.

I've just checked the Wyeast site, and they recommend 1056 at no 2 for a Dry Stout - before recommending the Irish Ale Yeast, so am guessing that the 1272 would be up there as ok too?

Prefer to limit my yeast farming to 3 or 4 if possible....

 

[sid]

I made a similar irish dry stout 25 ltr, used a cheap pilsner as the base grain, didn't use as much chocolate (250g), but used the same roast and doubled up on the flaked barley, I added a supper alpha right at the start to bitter with and willamette 2/3 r'ds along the boil, used US-05..........................turned out bloody great........Oh yeh I added calcium carbonate because of all the roast...............good and dry, will make it again thats for sure.