Jay's Brewing

So it’s time to start looking at the next step for the Dry Irish Stout.  I’ll put up pictures for it when I end up making it (this weekend hopefully) but I wanted to get the recipe out today so people can start working on it or at least have time to make some modifications if that’s your thing.

If your lost in what I’m talking about, this stout you can drink by it’s own if you wanted to but it’s going to be used for the whiskey/rum aged stout.  This is a stand up stout by itself though.   If you have ever tasted “Murphy’s Irish Stout” this is based off of that one.   You can find this recipe in the “Clone Brews”, it’s loosely based off of it.

Style: Dry Stout

OG: 1.042

FG: 1.009

IBU: 35

SRM: 77

AVB: 4.2%

Yield: 5 Gallons

Serving Notes:  This stout is ready to drink as soon as it is carbonated.  It will peak at 2-4 months and will keep at cellar temperatures for 5 months.

Food Pairing: Mussels, Clams, Scallops

Ingredients:

9 oz roasted barley

6 oz chocolate malt

4 oz 60L crystal malt

5 lbs Light DME

8 oz cane sugar

1 oz Kent Goldings Hop (60min Boil)

1/4 oz Kent Goldings Hops (15min boil)

Yeast: 004 Irish, 023 Burton, Safale – 04 (what ever your weapon of choice is)

Directions

1) Steep in 2.5 gallons of water: 9 oz roasted barley, 6 oz chocolate malt, 4 oz 60L crystal malt at 150 degree’s for 30min.

2) Strain the grains into your brew pot and 5 lbs of your malt extract, 8 oz of cane sugar and bring to boil.  At the beginning of the boil add 1 oz of Kent Golding hops.

3) Boil for 45min and then add 1/4 oz of East Kent Goldings hops and also irish moss if you want (1 tsp).

4) Boil for 15 more min and then turn off the heat and let it cool.  Fill up to 5 gallons and pitch yeast.

All grain method:

Mash 6.25 lbs of British 2-row pale mat with specialty grains at 152 degrees for 90min.  Add 20% less of the hops & cane sugar that you would for the extract recipe for 90 min boil.  Add the flavor hops and Irish moss for the last 15min of the boil. 

For the fermenation of this beer, you are going to let it ferment in the primiary fermenter for about a week, then rack it into the secondary.  In the secondary add the oak chips to your beer which have been soaking in rum or whiskey.  Let it sit in secondary for about 4 weeks – 6 if you would like.

Analysis:

Roasted Barley

This has an almost coffee like flavor that comes out.  Roasted barley is commonly seen in stouts and porters.

Chocolate Malt

This malt is much like the roasted barley in the sense that you will get coffee flavors out of it, but it is bit darker.  Also hints of chocolate… may seem obvious but that’s kinda my thing – I like to state the obvious.

Crystal Malt 60L

You’re going to get some sweeter flavors out of this malt.  0.25 lbs of crystal 60L is just enough for an accent in the brew and not much more.

WHY NO BLACK PAT?

Actually this is one of the reasons why I enjoy this brew.  Black pat to me if not used correctly can leave some very over powering flavors, I believe people refer to them as HARSH.  Black pat, is kinda like roasted barley but up to 600L depending on who makes it. It’s just a dark malt.  By not using it, your avoiding an over powering flavor that would take away from the oak if you chose to use it.  If you wanted to add black pat to make this beer a bit more, “Robust” then I would just add 1-3 oz of it.  Not any more then that.

5lbs DME

Just the body of the brew.  This brew is only getting up to 4.2%.  It’s a border line session beer.

8 oz cane sugar

Don’t worry it’s not going to make your beer taste, “cidery” as so many brewers have been told.  The reason that it would taste cidery was because of the pitch rate back in the day and poor nitrogen levels.  Adding cane sugar is going to be adding fermentable sugars to the wort.  Check it out.

Kent Golding Hops

Great hop for Irish Stouts.  Its just a great European hop.  If you wanted to choose 2 hops, for the last 15min you could always do, Fuggles or Styrian Goldings.  Either one would work fine.

Conclusion:

I’m a big stout guy.  I very much enjoy the stouts when it gets into colder temps.  One thing that I really enjoy about this recipe is how light of a brew it actually is.  While it’s dark it’s very easy to drink.  So like I said earlier, if you just want a solid dry stout recipe, this is the one to do.  If you want to spruce it up with the oak and whiskey thing, it can handle it as well.

Either way, it’s a pretty good dry stout to make.  One that has been a staple of my brewing for some time.

 

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A lot of homebrewers look to get the edge on homebrewing with a few tricks that make life that much easier.  One is a blow off tube if you are fermenting in a carboy.  One thing I should state before I dive deep into the blow off tube is, it’s easier to get the tubing for a blow off tube if you are using a glass carboy verses a plastic carboy.   But with that said, if you can get a tube that will fit a plastic carboy then go for it.

For those who don’t know what the heck a blowoff system is, it is essentially a long wide tube attached to the fermenter that allows the foam from the fermenter to go out of the fermenter and into a bucket of water (or sanitizer - even better).  We normally have in stock  “blowoff tubing”, which is 1 inch inner diameter tubing that fits right into the neck of a glass carboy.  There are a couple of reasons to use a blowoff tube.

First, some people claim a better tasting beer. The theory is that bitter, astringent compounds go to the top of a fermentation and get expelled from the fermenter when using a 5 gallon carboy equipped with a blowoff tube.  I can say from my experience, I have not found that to be necessarily true but hey, I might not have the refined palate that some brewers have.

Another reason is convenience.  Some beers tend to foam up more than others. Wheat beers and stouts seem to be the main culprits and the fermentations can be so volcanic (especially in warm weather) that a 6.5 gallon carboy is not enough space to contain the foam. In fact, the 7.9 gallon plastic bucket can even be exceeded!  A blowoff tube in this case is used instead of an airlock in order to prevent the airlock from becoming clogged up.  Here we come up to personal preference. Since the quality of the beer is not at stake, the method used should simply be whatever works best for the individual brewer.

 Personally, I don’t use a blowoff tube.  I ferment in a bathtub and if the beer foams excessively, well it’s in the bath tub so it doesn’t matter too much to me.  But having a bathtub where I can do that is a luxury and I’m aware of that other people might not have.  If that’s the case then you probably want to think about a blow off tube.  Hope it helps.