Dry Irish Stout

[bosium]

Hmm.. I just looked up the 4SOS recipe (with limited success) and it looks great, I may just try it next time. I was thinking of using some carafa special in my stout but I'll probably leave this recipe as is and then try the 4SOS recipe as a comparison.

[OldSpeckledBadger]

Another stout you might want to try is Hop Back Entire. I think the recipe is on here somewhere. Even cloned Guinness is said to be very good - much better than the commercial version.

One thing to bear in mind is that you'll ideally want a much higher residual alkalinity than for pale beers.

[bosium]

Good point about the RA. My water is 180ppm HCO3, I always have to harden it to get the RA down with my paler beers. Think I'll need to up the alkalinity for the stout?

EDIT: Just chucked the figures into palmer's mash spreadsheet and it looks like I'm going to need some chalk and some baking soda to get the RA anywhere near where it needs to be

[OldSpeckledBadger]

Good point about the RA. My water is 180ppm HCO3, I always have to harden it to get the RA down with my paler beers. Think I'll need to up the alkalinity for the stout?

EDIT: Just chucked the figures into palmer's mash spreadsheet and it looks like I'm going to need some chalk and some baking soda to get the RA anywhere near where it needs to be

I have a lot more faith in Graham's calculator on this site than anything Palmer comes up with. I've not done a stout yet but from the experiences of my mild I think a high RA is desirable. I've found with my mild that I need a RA of about 130 to hit a 5.2pH in the mash.

[bosium]

Brewed this up today as a 1 gallon experimental batch on my stovetop. Realised when I had the mash on that I was short on pale malt, but I subbed in some extra light dry extract which I usually use for starters. Only the second time I've ever used extract in a brew actually.

40% Extra Light DME
30% Maris Otter
20% Flaked Barley
10% Roast Barley

40 IBUs - Bobek - 65 minutes

Mashed in, rested at 120F for 10 minutes, rested at 145F for 10 minutes, then rested at 150F for 60 minutes. Corrected mash pH with additions of precipitated chalk and bicarbonate of soda.
I aimed for 1.046 but it ended up 1.050 and I can't be arsed to dilute it now that it's in the FV. Hopefully it won't be too big.

The wort tastes great, pitched 2g of nottingham dry yeast into 1-gallon of wort.

[bosium]

Bottled this yesterday, got 11x 120z (355ml) bottles (recycled SNPA bottles). The FG was 1.013, so ABV of 4.8%. I considered diluting at bottling, but decided not to f**k with it as it tasted pretty good as is.

The hydro sample was absolutely delicious, believe it or not there is a slight citrus character from the Bobek even after 65 minutes boiling.

Really looking forward to trying the first bottle in a week or so.