#18 Dry Irish Stout - Recipe

Recipe     -     Brewday     -     Tasting

It's now about a month until St. Patrick's Day which can only mean one thing: time to brew an Irish stout.  (Okay, I lied.  It could also mean brewing an Irish red ale, but I'll get to that tomorrow.)  Everybody knows St. Patty's means shamrocks and Guinness... and I really don't see any reason for this to change, let's do it!

As the most famous stout worldwide (as of the latter half of the 20th century), I guess Guinness has earned it's own category, and that category is known as dry stout or Irish stout.  Despite the jet black color and creamy texture, Irish stout is a much smaller brew than it appears at only 4%-5% ABV and 1.007-1.011 FG.  While most beers rely on dextrins (unfermented oligosaccharides, not to be confused with dextrose) to add viscosity, Irish stout is fermented dry and instead uses a generous portion of flaked barley.  Flaked barley--like flaked oats--contains high levels of longer carbohydrates called β-glucans which are normally destroyed during the malting process and contribute body without the sweetness.

The recipe I plan to brew will be fairly straightforward.  However, as always, there are things I'm trying to learn along the way.  On the last beer, I took my first stab at building a water profile.  I'm going to chalk that one up as a success since I didn't notice anything wrong with the beer, but there was not too much to go wrong; the profile I went with for a mild was pretty ... mild, with no high concentrations of any mineral, and a naturally balanced pH.  This stout on the other hand will have an entire pound of roast barley, which contributes to higher acidity.  To keep a balanced mash pH, the brewing water for a dry stout must be significantly more alkaline than the water for say a wheat beer or IPA.  You can see on this chart the difference between Seattle water and Dublin water (bicarbonate, listed at right, is the principle component of alkalinity at normal water pH).  The difference is stark, if misleading.  I'm clearly not the first to manipulate brewing water, and the brewing water used in Dublin is likely significantly softer than the report indicates.  I will have to add minerals to balance the pH, but just not to that degree.

Dry Irish Stout
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Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Estimated ABV: 4.6 %
Estimated OG: 1.045 SG
Estimated FG: 1.010 SG
Estimated Color: 32.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 47.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 69.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amt          Name                                     %/IBU
8 lbs        Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (2.5 SRM)           72.7 %
2 lbs        Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM)                 18.2 %
1 lbs        Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM)         9.1 %
2.25 oz      Goldings, East Kent [6.30 %] - Boil 60.0 47.6 IBU
0.25 tsp     Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)              -
1.0 pkg      Irish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1084)            -

Mash Schedule: BIAB, 150F
Total Grain Weight: 11 lbs
Estimated Cost: $22.09