Dry Irish Stout

Dry Irish Stout

Size: 12 US gallons (post-boil @ 68F)
Mash Efficiency: 95%
Attenuation: 74%
Calories: 145 kcal per 12 fl oz
Original Gravity: 1.044 (style range: 1.036 - 1.050)
Final Gravity: 1.011 (style range: 1.007 - 1.011)
Colour: 26.7 SRM (style range: 25 - 40)
Alcohol: 4.2% ABV (style range: 4% - 5%)
Bitterness: 40 IBU (style range: 30 - 45)

Mash:
12 lb British Maris Otter Malt (2.5-4L) (69.6%)
3.5 lb Flaked Barkey (1.4-1.5L) (20.3%)
1.75 lb Roasted Barley (500L) (10.1%) - added at end of mash

Boil:
4 oz UK East Kent Goldings Hops (6.4%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min [40 IBU]
1 Whirlfloc Tablet (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15 min

Yeast:
Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale yeast or White Labs WLP004 Irish Red Ale yeast
(~373 billion cells [3-4 fresh packs] or an equivalent starter)

Add the Roasted Barley (500L) after the 90 minute mash rest is complete. This avoids lowering the mash pH too far and reduces the chance of astringency which can occur from over-steeping highly roasted grains. Once the 90 minute mash is over, stop the mash pump, add the roasted barley, and give it a good stir to mix it into the existing grain bed. You need to stir well as otherwise the fine layer of powdery roasted barley on top may stop the flow. Start the mash pump again and continue with your mashout. The wort will be cloudy again but it will clear as the grain bed rises to mashout temperature and you hold for ~10 minutes.

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Notes / Process

Add 500mg potassium metabisulphite to 20 gallons water to remove chlorine / chloramine (if required).<br />
Water treated with brewing salts to our Balanced flavour profile: Ca=50, Mg=10, Na=16, Cl=70, SO4=70. (Hit minimums on Ca and Mg, keep the Cl:SO4 ratio low and equal. Do not favour flavour / maltiness or bitterness / dryness. For balanced beers.). For complete details on how to adjust your water, refer to our step by step Water Adjustment guide.<br />
The Flaked Barley (1.4-1.5L) does not need to be milled as it has already been rolled flat and toasted. Add it to the mash as is.<br />
Gaggia burr grinder<br />
More Info<br />
While you can mill the Roasted Barley (500L) in your normal grain mill, to get the best colour and flavour use a good quality burr (not blade) coffee grinder to get an extremely fine grind, almost like dust. To accomplish this we use a Gaggia burr grinder.<br />
1.5 qt/lb mash thickness.<br />
Single infusion mash at 148F for 90-120 mins.<br />
Raise to 168F mashout temperature and hold for 10 mins.<br />
~90 min fly sparge with ~5.6-5.8 pH water (measured at mash temperature). Collect 13.9 gallons.<br />
Boil for 90 minutes, adding Whirlfloc and hops per schedule. Lid on at flameout, start chilling immediately.<br />
Cool the wort quickly to 66F (we use a one-pass convoluted counterflow chiller to quickly lock in hop flavour and aroma) and transfer to fermenter.<br />
Aerate well. Pure oxygen from a tank may be used at a rate of 1 litre per minute for 60 seconds per 5 gallons.<br />
Pitch yeast and ferment at 66-68F (wort temperature). We use modified stainless fermenting buckets in wine fridges.<br />
Ferment until approximately 5 points from final gravity and then raise the temperature to 70-72F until finished. In our case we simply turn off the fermenting fridges and allow the beer to naturally rise to room temperature. Assume fermentation is done if the gravity does not change over ~3 days.<br />
Before packaging you may optionally rack to a brite tank (we use 5 gallon glass carboys) that has been purged with CO2 to avoid oxygen pickup, add 1 tsp of unflavoured gelatin dissolved in a cup of hot distilled water per 5 gallons of beer, and allow to clear for 2-3 days.<br />
Package as you would normally. We rack to kegs that have first been purged with CO2. We chill the kegs to near freezing while carbonating at the same time in a 6-keg conditioning fridge. After ~1-2 weeks at serving pressure the kegs will be carbonated and ready to serve. In a hurry? Feel free to raise the CO2 pressure temporarily to 30-40 PSI to carbonate fast over a 24 period, and then turn back down to serving pressure. <br />
This beer is best served on a stout faucet pushed by 30/70 CO2/Nitrogen blend to get a nice creamy head and close to flat beer, exactly how Guinness is served on tap. One inexpensive way to mimic this is to use a syringe (without needle). Pour the beer as you would normally and then suck up a syringe full and force it back into the beer, hard. Repeat 2-3 times and you&#039;ll knock most of the C02 out of solution leaving a nearly flat beer with a creamy head. Not quite the same texture, but similar to a nitro pour. We tried this for years before finally adding a real CO2/Nitrogen serving setup to our basement bar.<br />