ISO - Stout Recipe (with caviats)

[SoCal-Doug]

I love a good stout. Pretty much commercial stouts though. Sadly, I rarely brew them for myself because none of my family or friends like them. More often than not, I taste a homebrew stout and its 90% burned sugar, burned week old coffee grounds, charcoal, and are generally nasty. I don't need 15% ABV and 300 IBU, i'm more interested in a good tasty brew than alcohol content.

I'm hoping someone else has the same likes/dislikes that might point me toward a good starting point recipe.

Thanks!

 

[camonick]

Do you brew all grain or extract? I have a partial mash extract recipe from an old BYO magazine that is a Guinness Draught clone recipe. It is close enough for me that I don't have to buy canned Guinness anymore. I also serve with 75/25% nitro/CO2 blend through a stout faucet.

 

[SoCal-Doug]

Been all grain for years. I have nitro gear (use it for cream ale's and a few others). I'm not against doing an extract or partial, or maybe I can reasonably convert it to all grain. I'm just trying to stay away from the burnt and charred flavors and i'm not that familiar with what works for a smooth stout. I definitely enjoy Guinness!

 

[thehaze]

I do not have a recipe I can share, but there are some malts I really like in a Dark ale, and maybe you could read more about it and try to put together a recipe.

I like Brown malt in darker beers. I enjoy Amber malt as well, but I like a toasty, biscuitty kick.

I also really like Chocolate Rye and Chocolate Wheat. These are de-bittered roasted malts, as rye and wheat have no husks. This means these roasted malts will be so much more smoother and they are. I usually get milk chocolate, smooth coffee, almost no astringency/acridity.

 

[camonick]

I pulled out my photocopy of that recipe and there are instructions for all grain.
I don't do all grain so I will type the recipe word for word as it appears...

5 galllons
OG= 1.038 FG= 1.006 IBU= 45 SRM= 40 ABV= 4.2%
"This is a clone of "classic" Guinness dry stout. It is a bit more bitter and has a sharper roast grain edge to it than the Guinness Draught found in widget cans or bottles in the US today. To brew today's Guinness Draught, decrease the amount of roasted barley to 12oz and add only 8 AAU of hops to yeild 30 IBUs.

Ingredients:
5.0 lbs English 2-row pale ale malt
2.5 lbs flaked barley
1.0 lb roasted (black) barley (500 °L)
12 AAU East Kent Goldings hops
Wyeast 1084 or White Labs WLP004

Step by Step:
Heat 2.66 gallons of water to 161 °F and stir in crushed grains and flaked barley. Mash at 150 °F for 60 minutes. Stir boiling water into grain bed until temperature reaches 168 °F and rest for 5 minutes. Recirculate until wort is clear, then begin running wort off to kettle. Sparge with 170 °F water. Boil wort for 90 minutes adding hops with 60 minutes left in boil. Cool wort and transfer to fermenter. Aerate wort and pitch yeast. Ferment at 72 °F

I can also offer the partial mash if you'd like. I use Nottingham instead of the liquid. When I plug in the ingredients into my Fermenticus Brew Log for the partial mash, I get slightly different specs.

 

[SoCal-Doug]

Thanks!!! I'll plug that in. I use Nottingham for many recipes. Nice clean yeast.

 

[couchsending]

Not a recipe per se but here are a few tips..

If you’re going to mash the dark grains make sure you have enough alkalinity in your water to buffer the acidity in the dark grains. Aim for slightly higher mash, boil, ko PH values throughout.

You don’t need to mash the dark grains... adding them at vorlauf helps to extract less ashy characteristics.

Or

Steep the dark grains separately. Either room temp overnight or hot for a short time. Add remaining liquid in last few minutes of the boil.

Mash warm. A much higher FG can help to balance out the roast. I think people would be surprised how high the FG is on some commercial examples.

Use some NaCl and\or baking soda. Na is your friend in dark beers.

Use a lower attenuating yeast

Use English caramel malts and English/German roast malts.

Consider the huskless Carafa Special malts from Weyermann for less ashy/charcoal.... or Perla Negra from Patagonia.

Chocolate wheat, chocolate rye, chocolate spelt all provide great chocolate character with less harshness.

Don’t be afraid to use lots of crystal.

Lots of different styles of Stout/Porter out there.

 

[AkTom]

There’s a Boulder Shake recipe here that has a bit of chocolate added. It’s orett tasty. My son and his father in-law about drank up a batch I made when they visited.

 

[camonick]

Thanks!!! I'll plug that in. I use Nottingham for many recipes. Nice clean yeast.

Here’s a picture of that stout for reference.

 

[SoCal-Doug]

Dayum. That's making me thirsty

 

[NTexBrewer]

Since you don’t like roasty stouts how about a Milk Stout.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/left-hand-milk-stout-clone.139820/

I have made this beer and it was very tasty.

Camonick, that is one awesome looking beer! I’ll be plugging that recipe into my software for a future brew.

 

[camonick]

Thanks NTexBrewer
I enjoy drinking this beer. I can't afford to buy canned or bottled Guinness very often so this recipe is a good substitute. It's an easy recipe from an old BYO magazine that my brother had. He knew I liked stouts so he told me to give it a try. There are also recipes for Guinness Extra Stout and Murphy's on the page he gave me too.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Thanks!!! I'll plug that in. I use Nottingham for many recipes. Nice clean yeast.

Too clean for a lot of British brewing... There's a good argument for using S-04 to get a little of Guinness' tartness if that's what you're after, although this big thread suggests going the authentic route and souring some.

Standard British recipes for cloning Guinness start with 70:20:10 British pale malt:flake barley:roast barley, although 8% is probably closer for the roast, around 40IBU from cheap UK hops, plus WLP004 or WY1084. KISS to start with and then develop your recipe to taste.

But you can make it more complicated if you like - it depends exactly what form of Guinness you're looking for. Boak & Bailey have done lots of research on primary Guinness sources - in the 1940s they were adding both sour beer and extra-bitter "barm beer".

Or see this recipe for how to make 2,450,000 bottles :

 

[camonick]

I brewed this as my normal partial mash recipe again today and made a few changes and observations...

1. I’ve made this exact recipe 3 times now and have noticed that Breiss black roasted barley produces a much darker wort than Baird’s black roasted does.
2. For my base in the partial mash this time I used Malting co. of Ireland Stout Malt... I’m curious to see if I can taste a difference.
3. The wort tasted good, kind of like cold coffee with a lump of sugar.
4. In the previous batches, I added about 16oz. of soured stout to the brew kettle with about 5 minutes left in the boil but opted not to this time to see if I can taste a difference there also.

Here it is in the carboy waiting for the yeast. Looks like used diesel oil but tastes much better.

 

[Drifted88]

I can also offer the partial mash if you'd like. I use Nottingham instead of the liquid. When I plug in the ingredients into my Fermenticus Brew Log for the partial mash, I get slightly different specs.

Would you be willing to share your partial mash recipe? I’d love to give it a try.

 

[camonick]

Would you be willing to share your partial mash recipe? I’d love to give it a try.

I can share, but must disclose that it's not my recipe. It was found in an issue of BYO Clone Recipes (date unknown)
Recipe: (Copied word for word from the "Stouts" page).
Guinness Draught Clone (5 gallon 19L, extract with grains)
OG=1.038 FG=1.006 IBU= 45 SRM=40 ABV= 4.2%

Ingredients:
14.5 oz Muntons light dried malt extract
2.66 lbs. Muntons light liquid malt extract (late addition)
1 lbs 6 oz. English pale ale malt
10 oz. flaked barley
1 lb. roasted barley (500 °L)
12 AAU East Kent Goldings hops (60 min)
Wyeast 1084 (Irish Ale) yeast or White Labs WLP004
.75 cups corn sugar (for priming)

Step by Step
Place crushed grains and flaked barley in a steeping bag. In a large kitchen pot, heat 4.5 quarts (4.3L) to 161 °F and submerge grain bag. Let grains steep for 45 minutes at around 150 °F. While grains are steeping, begin heating 2.1 gallons of water in your brewpot. When steep is over, remove 1.25 qts. of water from brewpot and add to the "grain tea" in steeping pot. Place colander over brewpot and place steeping bag in it. Pour diluted grain tea through grain bag. Heat liquid in brew pot to a boil, then stir in dried malt extract and hops and begin the 60 minute boil. With 15 minutes left in boil, turn off heat and stir in liquid malt extract. Stir well to dissolve extract then resume heating (keep the boil clock running while you stir). At the end of the boil, cool wort, and transfer to fermenter. Add water to make 5 gallons, aerate wort and pitch yeast. Ferment at 72 °F

I use 1 pound of DME and 3 pounds of LME. For the Pale ale malt in the mash I've used Maris Otter and Malting Co. of Ireland Stout malt and can't tell much difference. I also use Nottingham yeast. Makes a respectable stout. Not an exact clone of Guinness but pretty close. I keg and dispense with a 75/25% Nitrogen/CO2 blend through a traditional stout faucet.

 

[Drifted88]

I can share, but must disclose that it's not my recipe. It was found in an issue of BYO Clone Recipes (date unknown)
Recipe: (Copied word for word from the "Stouts" page).
Guinness Draught Clone (5 gallon 19L, extract with grains)
OG=1.038 FG=1.006 IBU= 45 SRM=40 ABV= 4.2%

Thank you. Can’t wait to brew this