This week I tackle one other beer recipe design case examine of the traditional Irish Stout model.
The Irish Stout Model
The traditional Irish Stout is clearly Guinness, first brewed by Arther Guinness at St James’ Gate in Dublin Eire. I’ve had the privilege of visiting the brewery just a few years again and a contemporary Guinness within the tasting room in Dublin is an excellent beer expertise. Guinness is dominant in Eire and arguably probably the most recognizable stout on this planet.
Whereas touring in Eire I used to be attempting to pattern among the native beers. At two completely different pubs I tried to order one other model of beer, solely to be advised by the server that “You don’t need that – you desire a Guinness.” They each poured me a Guinness! Apparently the opposite beer faucets are only for present.
The native draft model of Guinness is a reasonably low alcohol beer within the 3.5-4% vary. The BJCP model information lists the unique gravity within the 1.036-1.044 vary, and ABV as 3.9-5%. Bitterness is a reasonable 25-45 IBUs and coloration within the black 25-40 SRM vary.
The dry acrid taste comes from the usage of stout roast/roasted barley. Roast barley is an attention-grabbing “malt” as its really not malted in any respect however as a substitute simply uncooked barley roasted at very excessive temperature. The wealthy thick physique in Irish Stout comes from a beneficiant dose of flaked barley.
Design Selections
Although my Irish Stout recipe dates again some 20 years, it’s arguably one of many simpler all grain beers to brew. The roast barley is so sturdy it hides most flaws in your brewing course of, so its really a tough beer to mess up. If you wish to study extra designing recipes, this text on the rules of beer recipe design is a good place to begin, and you will notice lots of its parts mirrored right here.
For a base malt, I exploit UK Pale malt, although arguably nearly any pale malt will do. The opposite malts are dominant, so there may be not an enormous purpose to make use of a flavorful base malt like Maris Otter on this beer. Whereas my rule of thumb for beers is to make use of not more than 20% specialty malts, for this specific model I break that rule and truly have about 30% specialty malts and 70% base malt. The explanation for that is that I’ll use an enormous flaked barley addition to drive the physique approach up with out considerably altering the flavour.
The subsequent main addition is the flaked barley. For this recipe I exploit 20% flaked barley, which is mainly unmalted barley that has been flaked like corn flakes so it may be mashed and transformed. Flaked barley leaves a good quantity of proteins and unfermentable starches within the completed beer, which offers the thick mouthfeel we intently affiliate with Irish Stout. It additionally makes the beer punch above its low alcohol stage, so it appears like an even bigger beer than it’s.
In sticking with the precept of simplicity, the remaining 10% of the malt invoice is the defining taste malt, which is roast barley, generally known as stout roast. As I discussed above that is additionally unmalted barley that has been roasted at excessive temperature. It has the magic dry, acrid, bitter end we affiliate with Irish Stout, however lacks the sweetness, melanoidins and heat you may get from Black Patent or Chocolate Malt. Roasted barley is the defining malt, so that you don’t want so as to add the rest to it.
For water, a few years in the past brewers made an enormous deal out of brewing stouts with water excessive in bicarbonates. Dublin water is pretty smooth with a reasonable stage or calcium, low sulfates and chlorides and a barely elevated stage of about 200 ppm bicarbonates. Nevertheless the bicarbonate stage is effectively inside the roughly 0-250 ppm vary that’s thought-about regular for brewing water, so it’s barely elevated. I’ve brewed my recipe with no water salt additions utilizing a reasonable base water and it comes out tremendous, so I don’t suppose it is advisable to actually do a lot adjustment along with your brewing water whether it is inside the regular vary.
Given the massive quantity of roast barley on this recipe, it’s unlikely you will want to make any mash pH changes, however you need to use a little bit of lactic acid if the pH is just too excessive. For mash temperature, I mash both with a medium physique mash profile. You can go along with a better temperature full physique mash in the event you like, however the 20% flaked barley often provides loads of physique to the beer with both choice.
Hopping is definitely an essential matter. Whereas many brewers are acquainted with the idea of the bitterness ratio and balancing your hop stage with the unique gravity, it is usually essential to stability hopping ranges with the colour of the beer for darker beers. A really darkish beer with a number of roast malt requires an elevated stage of bitterness to stability out the roast malts. For those who hopped this beer based mostly purely on its low authentic gravity it will really be out of stability. I used 44 IBUs of East Kent Goldings in a single boil addition on this beer which is on the excessive finish of the vary for the model (30-45 IBUs), however the hops are wanted to offset the ten% black barley. East Kent Goldings is one in every of my favourite British hops because it has a pleasant complexity to it.
So general, the brewing course of could be very easy for this beer. A base malt and two specialty malts, a easy single infusion mash, and only one boil addition for hops.
For yeast, I select the Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale yeast, although you may use the White Labs WLP004 or any variety of different vendor’s Irish Ale yeasts. I’ve additionally heard that different brewers have made this recipe with different English Ale yeast variants with nice success. The beer doesn’t require any particular fermentation aside from to maintain it round room temperature. It additionally doesn’t require prolonged ageing, and you’ll sometimes take pleasure in it inside two weeks.
Conventional Irish Ales are served at a reasonably low carbonation stage, although right here within the US we frequently elevate {that a} bit. If you would like full authenticity you may use a CO2/Nitrogen combine when kegging your Irish Stout, as that is how the draught Guinness is served. It does require a kegging system, bottle of blended CO2/nitrogen and an elevated serving strain. In fact the nitrogen works greatest with a real Stout Faucet.
I’ve actually brewed this beer dozens of occasions, and it at all times comes out nice! Listed below are the recipe hyperlink for the ultimate recipe:
I hope you loved this weeks in depth take a look at one in every of my favourite beers – the dry Irish Stout. Thanks for becoming a member of me on the BeerSmith Residence Brewing Weblog. If you wish to take the guesswork out of brewing, please attempt my BeerSmith recipe software program from BeerSmith.com. Be certain to join my publication or my podcast (additionally on itunes and youtube) for extra nice tips about homebrewing.
