Recipe: Dry Stout

Imperial Raspberry Oak-aged Belgian Stout? Pfft.  This is the real deal.  The classic Guinness-style Dry Irish Stout.

Low gravity but full of flavor, this one always goes quick.  Fortunately it’s a fast brew so there’s no excuse for not having some around.  The recipe is also dead simple.  I keep a shed-load of roasted barley around so make some fresh any time.

Brewing Notes

Because I’m spastic about these things – I went out and bought a beer gas cylinder, a stout faucet and a set of tulip glasses to serve this beer  It just seems “right” to me.  I’ve also tried serving it from a regular faucet with co2 and that works fine.  You just don’t get the fancy presentation.

Either way. the key is to keep the carbonation low.  Once kegged try some every day to make sure you don’t over-do it.  The beer doesn’t taste right if it’s not nearly flat.  This applies to bottle conditioning too.  Use about one third to one half of your normal priming sugar.

Another big part of the dry stout flavor is the slightly sour tang.  I’ve tried doing an acid rest (15 mins @122ºF) to simulate the effect and it works ok, but I prefer to use a bit of Acidulated malt in a single step infusion.

Finally, you’ll need to select a yeast.  The “Irish Ale” yeast from your preferred manufacturer is my favorite.  I’ve also brewed this recipe with a neutral dry yeast (US-56) and it gives acceptable results if you can’t get the liquid yeasts.

All Grain

Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 7.94 gal
OG: 1.041 SG
FG: 1.010 SG
Color: 32.1 SRM
IBU: 32.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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7.00 lb       Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)
2.00 lb       Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM)
1.00 lb       Roasted Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM)
0.50 lb       Acid Malt (3.0 SRM)
2 oz (56.00 gm)      Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %]  (60 min)
1 Pkgs        WYeast 1084/White Labs WLP004 Irish Ale

Directions:
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Mash at 150º for 60-75 minutes.  Boil 60 minutes.  Ferment at 65ºF. Carbonate to 1.5 volumes.

Unfortunately because flaked barley needs to be converted in a mash I haven’t included an all extract recipe.  You could probably get by with steeping a small amount but you’re likely to end up with some unconverted starches this way.

Dry Stout

Tagged as: dry, guinness, irish, recipe, stout