The past few months have been exceedingly packed for a variety of reasons, and so I’ve had little time to brew and even less time to blog! Here is a quick report on an Irish-like stout I brewed up around a month ago.

The intention for this recipe was to create an Irish-like stout; note that I say “Irish-like” because I didn’t go completely authentic with all ingredients. I also wanted something that was fairly low in alcohol and quite drinkable. Thus, I aimed for something <4.5% abv and fairly dry.

The recipe is modified (slightly) from a recipe in Jennifer Talley’s Session Beers book.

Session Stout

• 6.46 lb. 2-row malt (Rahr)
• 1 lb. flaked barley
• 0.75 oz. roasted barley (Bairds)
• 4.2 oz. black malt (Bairds)
• 3 oz. chocolate malt (Briess)
• 1 oz. pale chocolate malt (Crisp)
• 4 oz. rice hulls
• 0.5 oz. Warrior hops (15.8% alpha), 60 minute boil
• 1 Whirlfloc tablet, 10 minute boil
• 1 pkg. Irish ale yeast, prepared in 0.75L starter

Target Parameters

• Infusion mash to hit target of 152°. Batch sparge.
• Claremont tap water.
• 1.043 o.g., 1.012 f.g., 4.2% abv, 31 IBU, 42 SRM, 5 gallons into fermenter

Procedure

• I mashed in with 2.83 gallons of water at 162°, to hit a target temperature of 151°.
• After 60 minutes, I added 1.65 gallons of water at 185° for the first batch sparge, let it sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected first runnings. Then, I added 3.5 gallons of water at 185°, let sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the second runnings.
• In total, I collected 6.5 gallons of wort at a gravity of 1.037. To this, I added 0.25 gallons of RO water to bring the volume up to 6.75 gallons.
• I boiled for 60 minutes, adding hops and other ingredients at the times indicated in the recipes.
• After flame-out and chilling, I aerated while transferring into the primary fermenter.
• Starting gravity was 1.042, and I fermented at 67°. The beer was brewed on 9 October 2017.
• I kegged this beer on 2 November 2017. The yeast had settled into a nice dense cake at the bottom of the fermenter.
• Final gravity was 1.012, for 3.9% abv. This was pretty close to my target, so I’m happy. I force carbonated at high pressure with a little bit of shaking, and was drinking the beer within a day after kegging.
• In my initial tasting, this beer pretty much hits all the notes I wanted. It’s a highly drinkable Irish-type stout with a good bit of flavor. I think this will be a good beer to kick off fall!