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I’m finally going to make an Irish (dry) stout. I went to Ireland and drank the Guinness there and it might have been the best beer I ever had. I don’t have N2 so it may not compare. It’s time for me to have a go at something similar. I’m designing my “Black Gold” beer.

Guinness here is horrible. Here’s a clue why.

The most famous stout in the world uses a liquid extract, called Guinness Flavor Essence (GFE), to convert pale lagers and ales brewed by licensed Guinness producers around the world into Guinness Foreign Stout. GFE, reportedly a mixture of roasted barley extract and special beer, is only made in Dublin. https://byo.com/stories/item/1477-the-d ... s-of-stout" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

These RISs and things are OK too, but they don’t do it for me as much as the Irish Guinness did.

Here’s where I am at so far.

I’m not sure whether to use Wyeast 1084, or just US-05, apparently the Irish ale yeasts don’t attenuate enough to be dry enough.

ABV 4.5, OG 1.047, MO 71.5%, UK roasted Barley 9.5%, toasted barley flakes 19%, EKG 1 hour boil addition for 33 IBUs.

Has anyone got any tips for a good dry Irish stout?

I've never made a stout let alone a Guinness clone, but I did come across this in my search for perfect head retention...

https://byo.com/stories/item/743-head-games" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

GuingesRock wrote:I

I’m not sure whether to use Wyeast 1084, or just US-05, apparently the Irish ale yeasts don’t attenuate enough to be dry enough.

ABV 4.5, OG 1.047, MO 71.5%, UK roasted Barley 9.5%, toasted barley flakes 19%, EKG 1 hour boil addition for 33 IBUs.

Has anyone got any tips for a good dry Irish stout?

WLP004 and wyeast 1084 are reputed to be Guiness' strain. I'm just a newbie, but seems to me that
If i were worried about attenuation/dryness I would raise the temperature of fermentation to the top of its range after the active part, let the yeasties do their job without getting a chill.


There are a lot of clone recipes for Guiness floating around. Most people claim to like them more than guiness.
http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/03/14/br ... er-recipe/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you are trying for Guiness Draught, I believe all of this is brewed in Ireland and imported to Canada. If you are talking about the extra stout it is brewed on contract by Labatt.

The basic recipe for dry stout is 10% Roast Barley, 25% flaked barley, 65% pale.

Good artilce here:

http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/1426- ... in-ireland

There is some discussion in Charlie P's books about adding 3% soured Guinness back into finished beer to reproduce the Guinness taste. I have done this in the past by taking out some wort, adding a bit of unmilled 2 row into and allowing it to sour for a couple of days,then boil and return to the fermenter. This will make a nice dry stout, but won't be like Guinness as it won't be a nitro beer. The carbonated beer will be more acidic and not as smooth.

I also used Wyeast 1084 to produce this clone. A word of caution: every time I used this beer the smack pack took more than 24 hours to activate. I think I have used it 3 times and each time same result.

Thanks for the great links and info. I'm working my way through them. In Jason's link, I thought this was interesting.

Fermentation is warm and fast: 48 hours at 25° C, or 77° F, using a strain of yeast descended directly from that used by Arthur Guinness.

Just thought of one more thing. I did the syringe trick that GasMan referenced. It works great. It took me some fiddling to figure out a technique that worked. For me (using 5ml syringes for my sons Zantac) it was a modified technique that worked best. I sucked up about three-four ml of air and then I sucked up a ml of stout so that it was first out. Then I put the tip of the syringe below the surface and shot the air beer mixture as hard as I could into the glass. Full cascade of bubbles and guiness like head. I highly recommend it.

Guiness here is brewed as an extract, they ship it over in massive tubs the size of a pallet and chest high. And smells like death when a tub breaks and gets hot mixed together with the garbage place in burnside only makes it worse