Authentic Guinness clone

[palealemale]

Hi all,

am after a recipe for a Guinness clone which is nothing like Guinness draught, but more like the 'proper' Guinness we get from the bar tap in Australia, or ideally more like the real stuff you get in Ireland. If the recipe produces the nice creamy head of Boonies LCPA that everyone goes on about that would be great too!

I know there is a partial mash or all extract recipe floating around, but I'm after more of a K&K type recipe with hop additions etc. - ie something that can be done with a simple setup without mashing things and doing massive boils etc.

Thanks!

[Trough Lolly]

PAM - If we could clone Guinness with a kit and kilo, I doubt there'd be as many AG brewers as their are!
I'd search the website for stout recipes, but as a rough guide you need to keep the grainbill and hop schedules pretty simple to make a close all grain version. The grist is typically pale ale malt, roasted barley and flaked barley. Northdown or Target or Goldings hops as a bittering (only) addition and either Wyeast 1084 or 1028 ale yeast to ferment the wort with.

As for kit and kilo - you'll really need to consider steeping a bag of roasted barley and flaked barley in a pot and boiling it with some of the hops and adding that to the fermenter with the kit and sugars in order to get the fresh grain flavours that a good stout has. A stout kit with kilos of dark malt extract combined will certainly look like a stout, but it will lack the flavour complexity that you will certainly get with some steeped grains or a partial mash...it's all part of the slippery slope that leads many (but not all) of us to AG brewing...

Cheers,
TL

[palealemale]

Thanks TL for your informative reply. Very helpful.

So the next bit - putting all this info into a recipe with instructions. Based on rwh's reply to another of my posts, I have tried to put together as much of this as I understand, and therefore it is proably mostly wrong!........

__kg barley, roasted
__kg barely, flaked
pale ale malt (which one?)
__gm Target/Northdown/Goldings. __mins boil
Wyeast 1084 or 1028 ale yeast.

1. Bring 4L hot water to 60-70°C. Steep the roasted barley and flaked barley in the pot for ____mins.
2. Add the hops - Northdown or Target or Goldings. Which one? ___mins boil?
3. Stop the boil and add the pale ale malt and stir until dissolved.
6. Add 10L cold water to fermenter. Pour in the contents of your pot. Top up to 23L.
7. Pitch yeast (Wyeast 1084 or 1028 ale yeast).

75/20/5 or 70/20/10 ale malt/flaked barley/roast barley by weight was recommended in a previous post....would this be suitable for this recipe?

Also, as you are steeping barley and there are hops and malt already in the recipe, would I be right in thinking you don’t need to add a kit can as well?

I’m still wrapping my head around it all and getting used to the words and the techniques so please forgive the cluelessness and large number of questions..........

[Trough Lolly]

No probs - I can put answers in the blank spaces but remember this will not be a simple kit and kilo recipe - perhaps we can compromise and use a kit and partial mash recipe - following my general partial mash instructions sticky. Is that ok?

[palealemale]

Absolutely, that would be great thanks TL

[Trough Lolly]

Ok, so here's a suggested partial mash Irish Stout recipe...

Brother Stout's Partial Mash Irish Stout



Batch Size 22L
OG 1.047 FG 1.015
Estimated IBU's - 40 (depends on boil size and kit used)

1 x 1.7kg Stout Kit (eg, Coopers, Muntons, Brewcraft Dry Irish Stout, etc)
250g barley, roasted and cracked by you or the HBS
250g barley, flaked
1.6kg pale ale malt preferably Marris Otter or Bairds Stout malt
Grain option 1: For the Guinness "tang" you can add 50g of acidulated malt to the partial mash
Grain option 2: For a sweeter stout, add 250g of Crystal malt to the partial mash
Mini Mash Option: Add 1 teaspoon of Gypsum to the mini mash when you dough in the grains to help burtonise the mash water.

15g Northdown or Target pellets 9% A/A 60 mins (15.9IBU) - Northern Brewer is less authentic but a very nice alternate bittering hop IMHO...
Optional: 10g Goldings pellets 7% A/A 10 mins (8.2 IBU) - adds a nice touch if you want hop aroma in your stout. If you don't use this addition, increase the 60 minute bittering hop addition from 15g to 20g.

Wyeast 1084 or 1028 ale yeast - S-04 or US-05 are acceptable dry yeast alternatives but Wyeast 1084 / WLP 004 are more authentic.

Method:
Follow my partial mash instructions
Notes:
1. Remember, keep the mash fairly stiff - aim for around 2 Litres per kilo of grains - you're mashing not steeping the grains.
2. Aim for a mash temp of 68-70C.
3. Boil the above hops in the sweet liquor from the mini mash for an hour.
4. Only add the kit to the boil after the 1hr boil has concluded, ie, at flameout
5. Try to achieve 18C in the fermenter before pitching the yeast.

Good luck!
TL

[palealemale]

Wow, that sounds great TL, thanks for all the extra info too, ie: how each ingredient contributes to the end product....

Am looking forward to seeing how this turns out the first time and then playing around with the ingredients/boil times etc with future brew as I try and make my idea of a perfect Guinness stout!

I'll let you know how I go!

[Trough Lolly]

No probs - with the above recipe, you're only about 2.5kgs of pale malt away from an all grain beer!

Cheers,
TL

[Lachy]

TL, that sounds delish. I was looking for a stout to brew in the coming months. I think we have a winner here...

[Trough Lolly]

Looking back over my brew notes, I see that this was one of those beers that had a pint out of primary poured, er, for quality control purposes! It didn't last too long so I can't report on how it conditioned over time but now is a good time of the year to make a batch, or two!!

Cheers,
TL