The beer on the left is the beer from the fridge and the beer on the right is the cellar temperature beer.  The cellar temperature beer held a frothier head than the cold beer, I can’t say why.  The pours were equally agressive and glasses were both clean.  Anyway, the aroma of the cellar temperature beer was much roastier than the cold beer, I think part of that was due to temperature differences as well as the fact the cellar beer had a much larger head.  A larger head delivers a more intense punch of aroma.  The color of the beers were the same, very dark brown, not quite black.

The taste of the these two beers were (not surprisingly) very similar.  Both have a moderately roasted flavor, medium/light body and low carbonation.  The finish is rather dry, but not too dry.  There may be a hint of hop flavor in there as well, tough to say.

So what do I think?  I think it’s a good beer, not a great a beer.  The next time I make this brew there are some changes I want to make.  Here is a key part of making great homebrew.  Take great notes.  Note what you like, what you don’t like, and how you would change things.  You won’t remember 6 or 9 months from now!

I purposely went for low carbonation since too high of carbonation on a dry stout can overly accentuate the dry/acrid nature of the beer to a point where it is overwhelming.  Next time I’d prefer just a bit more carbonation, ideally I’d have a nitrogren beer engine, but I’d settle for just a bit more carbonation.

The body is purposely lighter bodied since this is not supposed to be a big thick beer, but rather a beer you enjoy through the night of playing cards.  To me it still needs something a bit more.  Next time I will mash at a slightly higher temperature.  The slightly higher mash temperature will give the beer a higher finishing gravity, and hence a bit more sweetness and more body.

I wouldn’t mind a bit darker color and bit more roasted flavor.  So I think I will increase the roasted barley a bit and maybe try pulverizing the roasted barley.  I have read that pulverizing roasted barley can darken the color and slightly change the flavor profile.

So there you have it.  The Beamish Irish Stout turned out pretty good.  There is room for improvement, but until next time, I’ve got a little over a case of tasty dry stout left to drink.

Good luck with your brewing

6.0 lbs Maris Otter Malt

1.75 lbs Flaked Barley

1.0 lbs Roasted Barley

1.0 lbs Rice Hulls (for easier sparge)

1.0 oz Challenger Hop Pellets 7.6% AA – 60 minutes

0.5 oz Kent Goldings Hop Pellets 5.6% AA – 60 minutes

0.5 oz Kent Goldings Hop Pellets 5.6% AA – 15 minutes

Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale Yeast Smack Pack.

The mash went well, I got 82% efficiency on my mash and mashed at 152F.  The OG of my wort was 1.043 and calculated IBUs was 40.  I oxygenated the 5.5 gallons of wort in my fermentor for 45 seconds and pitched the yeast into wort at 71F.

Here are some photos I think a lot of you may enjoy.  Next week I’ll share a few photos of the fermentation process.  But now to the brew day photos!

Justin

Here is a photo of the grains before adding to the mash tun.  The white specks are barley endosperm, the whiteish flakes are the flaked barley, the dark specs is roasted barley and you can see a great deal of barley husk and rice hulls.

Here is a photo of the mash shortly after doughing-in.

This is the mash after 60 minutes. Notice how the top watery portion of the mash has become clear compared to after doughing-in.  This is one sign of complete starch to sugar conversion.

Here is my boil setup.  The collected wort with a propane tank fueling the boil.  You can also see the big pot in the background, that’s what I use to heat my water for mash and sparges.

Not that is picture is especially exciting, but I thought it was neat with the steam rising.  It is the spent grain in a trash bag.

A wonderful photo of the boil.  You can see some flecks of protein and hop in the clear portion of the wort, lots of steam and on the left is protein hot break.  Occasionally I’ll skim some of this out and dispose.

……And finally the chilled, oxygened and yeast pitched wort.  I’ve got a blow-off tube in there just in case.  I’ll leave this post here for now.  I’ll post a few pictures of the fermentation process during the week.  An early update: fermentation is going well, I have a krausen head developing about 8 hours after pitching my yeast.

Today I brewed up a clone recipe from the September 2008 issue of Brew Your Own magazine, this recipe is for Beamish Irish Stout (I think I said Murphy’s Stout in the video clip, but this was the one for Beamish Stout.  Too many recipes too little time I guess!).

Beamish and Guiness are similar beers, although I like Beamish a little bit more.  It as a bit of hop flavor/aroma that isn’t in Guiness.  Anyway here’s a short video clip of the rolling boil.  It smelled wonderful, if only your monitor was scratch and sniff.  I’ll post some pictures and a some more details later in the weekend.

Anyone else brewing up a batch this weekend?  Enjoy the video!