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| Beautiful black color. |
Typically I would use my stir plate, and prepare a yeast starter to build up enough yeast cells to pitch into the beer. My upcoming high-gravity beers are going to use the same yeast, 1084 Irish Ale. To make yeast starters for both of the beers I would have to make a starter, probably step it up again to have enough cells, and repeat for the second batch. That means I would have to spend four different weeknights boiling extract and cooling it down in an ice bath. Not exactly what I want to do after getting home from work or the gym.
Instead I decided to make what I call a starter beer along the lines of Misplaced Bitterness, except this time I will do a full five-gallon batch. A starter beer is a low gravity beer that can be fermented by the yeast cells in the package without having to make a yeast starter. An ideal starter beer is also lightly hopped. Yeast harvested from a starter beer hasn't been stressed by a hoppy, high-alcohol environment and can be pitched into another batch since the environment in the starter beer is very similar to a yeast starter. A five-gallon starter beer will give me more than enough yeast for upcoming batches, and I have a batch of beer I can drink!
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| Lots of un-malted flaked barley, like Guinness! |
Brad Smith, in addition to developing the BeerSmith Software, and BeerSmith Mobile (which I use to develop my recipes), hosts the popular BeerSmith Podcast and has a weekly blog. The BeerSmith Mobile app comes pre-loaded with two of his recipes. BeerSmith's Dry Irish Stout is one of his house recipes that he always has on draught at his home. Brad's tasting notes are, "One of my favorite stock beers - I always keep a keg on hand. Rich flavored dry Irish Stout that is very simple to make. Perfect every time!". Brad Smith has been brewing beer since I was in grade school. This should be an easy, fun, and tasty beer to make.
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| First wort hops in the kettle before filling up with wort. |
The beer is very similar to Guinness Draught, if not an outright clone. A huge portion of the grist is unmalted flaked barley, and there is only one first wort hop addition. This stout should be very smooth. The major difference between what I am going to brew and a Guinness is that my beer will not be nitrogenated. With the right equipment you can serve homebrew on nitro. That is somewhere on my homebrew wishlist, but isn't an option at the moment.
Nitrogenating beer was developed as a way to replicate cask ale in bottles and kegs. Like with the Welkin Ringer ESB clone I brewed, I will lightly carbonate the beer to try and replicate the mouthfeel and carbonation of beer out of the cask.
A popular new method to replicate cask beer without an actual cask is using a polypin, a flexible plastic container that can withstand pressure. I obtained a one gallon polypin that I will use for this brew. It will be interesting to compare my beer on "cask", to a bottle of the beer, and to a Guinness Draught out of a nitro can. My plan is to bottle the other four gallons. I could also keg some of it if anyone I know is having a party on St. Pat's.
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BeerSmith's Dry Irish Stout
All Grain Recipe
Style: Irish Stout (15B)
Batch Size: 5.25 gal
Boil Size: 4.14 gal
Color: 33.5 SRM
Bitterness: 35.9 IBUs
Boil Time: 60 min
Est OG: 1.042 (10.5° P)
Est FG: 1.011 SG (2.7° P)
Mash Profile: BIAB, Medium Body
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage
ABV: 4.1%
Ingredients
Amount Name
6 lbs Irish Stout Malt (1.8 SRM) Grain
2 lbs Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain
1 lbs Crisp Roasted Barley (500.0 SRM) Grain
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.0%] - First Wort Hops
0.26 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10 min) Misc
1.0 pkgs Irish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1084) Yeast
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