The title says it all. In my years of brewing, I’ve never brewed a Dry Irish Stout. I’m planning to put one on tap for St. Patty’s this year, and I’d love to have something in the ballpark of a Murphy’s. Any recipe suggestions?
Have you checked the AHA website recipe section. That is one place I start when looking for recipes to try. Hope this helps!
Tom Schmidlin posted a dry stout to the wiki. S’posed to be good. Been on my “to brew” list but ain’t got 'er done yet. I’d try that one.
This is the recipe I use: Use enough British Pale Malt to hit 1.045 in your brewery (~5 lb Golden Promise in mine) and add 25% Flaked Barley, and 10% Black Roasted Barley for a 150*F 60 min mash. Use East Kent Goldings at 60 min to hit ~40 IBU(s). I like S-33 yeast for this beer.
I have, but to be honest I’ve seen enough bad recipes on the internet that I won’t brew a recipe unless it comes from a source I trust. Plus, water treatment is so important in dark beers, that a dry stout recipe is pretty much incomplete unless it addresses water explicitly. For that reason alone, I’ll probably start with Martin’s recipe from his Irish brewing water article in Zymurgy a while back.
Martin’s recipe is pretty simple - Pale Ale malt, Roast Barley and Flaked barley with EKG’s. I’ve seen other recipes that include Chocolate malt, Crystal malt ranging from Medium to Extra Dark, Special Roast and Munich. Anyone have any strong feelings on any of these?
I do add salts but I don’t post them because they are based on my water and I figure everyone’s water is different.
I think simple is good. If you want it dry I’d avoid crystal malts. The most recent stout I made I used equal parts roast barley and chocolate. I like the chocolate addition and the stout did well in competition.
I have not brewed one of these in years. But I did recently have some Guinness. I only tasted pale malt, roasted barley and neutral hops to about 35ibu. It was surprisingly thin in regards to body. So I would say Martins is probably pretty close if not just pale/ roast.
I like mine.
1.040
60% Golden P
20% Flaked B
15% Roasted B
5% Black B
148f for 90 5.5ph
75 ca
10 mg
8 na
104 cl
0 so4
107 hco3
30 IBU from Challenger
Wy1084
Adjust final if needed to 4.2
Martin’s recipe and method is the best out there. For one, it uses the grist Guinness allegedly uses. Lastly, it just makes a legit, delicious beer.
I can vouch for this guy’s advice when it comes to stouts. When I get around to brewing another dry stout I think I’ll try Martin’s
It’s dry, and it’s a stout, though I suppose it’s not what everyone thinks of when they think dry stout…
But I’m eschewing a Guinness clone in favor of rebrewing this recipe this year, so take that for what it’s worth…
Anyone remember when Martin’s article was? I can never get Zym app to work very well on my phone. I’m sure I have hard copy, just looking for someone to point me in the right direction
November/December 2013 Zymurgy, Frank. Good stuff.
Thanks Jon
That made it so much easier to track down
Yeah, I forgot the article went back that far. I was digging!
Jon, when you make it, do you follow his original recipe, or are you mashing the roasted barley in with the rest? Do you make any adjustments for that if you mash it all together?
I only did his once and I used his recipe and process to the letter. Came out outstanding. I normally brew my American stout but I need to revisit that one. It’s legit Irish stout.
Thanks again Jon