Guinness Clone (Batch #3)

Brings a tear to my eye.

Oh dry Irish stout. No matter how hard I try I can't quit you. I'd like to always have a dry stout on tap at Casa Drews and this will be the first batch to meet the new keezer. I'm going back to basics with this recipe without any hops or yeast substitutions. I've used Willamette in the past instead of East Kent Goldings because they were available, cheaper, and fairly similar. I've also used a dry English ale yeast (S-04) for my previous two batches. This one's getting the real stuff - Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale Yeast. Sometimes you just gotta kick it old school.

Brew Recipe

Brew Date: 4/12/14
Style: Irish Stout
Batch Volume: 5.25 gal.
Type: All Grain
Color: 32 SRM
Target Bitterness: 38 IBU
Target OG: 1.040
Estimated FG: 1.010

Grist
5 lb. American Two-Row
2 lb. Flaked Barley
1 lb. Roast Barley

2 oz. East Kent Goldings 5.1% (60 min.)

1 pkg. Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale Yeast

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 152 °F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 5.0 gal
Measured OG: 1.040
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75%

It was a beautiful day today so I took the brew outdoors. First outdoor brew of the year! The old propane tank had about a brew's worth of propane left so I let it ride. Turned out to be enough but need to exchange before the next brew day. Post mash I squeezed the grain bag to get every drop out and dumped it in the boil kettle. No sparging today - too messy and complicated. Just added water to get kettle volume up to 5.5 gal. 

Busted the smack pack in the Wyeast package a little late in the day (during the mash) so the package only swelled a little. While pitching the yeast I noticed there was a ton of nutrient still left in the inner package so I squeezed it all out into the fermenter. Why not? Looking forward to a great stout a few weeks from now. I just need to acquire a third keg so this guy has a home after he gets evicted from the fermenter.

Left about a quarter of a gallon in the boil kettle that couldn't fit in the fermenter. With better volume management the OG could have been a little higher.

Update 4/21/14 - Racked to secondary today. Gravity reading was 1.012 for an ABV of 3.7%. Tastes like a light bodied toffey flavored stout. Julie says it tastes 'smokey.' Whatever it is it'll definitely be an easy drinker.

Kegging Notes
Measured FG: 1.010
ABV: 3.9%
Calories: 131

Carbonation: 2.1 Volumes CO2

Update 5/11/14 - Kicked my first keg of beer a couple days ago so I finally had an opportunity to move the Irish stout from secondary into the keezer. I chilled at at 45 for a day then decided to do a little carbonating trick. I pulled the keg out of the keezer with 10psi attached to it and rolled it back and forth on the ground for 10 minutes. The idea is to create more surface area allowing the keg pressure to carbonate the beer more quickly.

I'm excited to see if this speeds things up a bit. I'm a little less excited if I discover this process creates a carbonic acid bite from rapid carbing. I'd like to call this process 'turbo carbing'. I've read about the process be never came across a name so I'm coining one now.

It tastes great so far. Not much different than previous brews so I may just stick with S-04 dry yeast in the future. However, the FG did end up exactly where I want it with the Irish ale yeast.