Toad Spit Stout

This recipe is for a traditional Irish stout, very much like Guiness Stout. It's a fun beer to make, and a very difficult recipe to mess up. The original recipe was from Charlie Papazian's home brew book, but this version includes tweaks and changes by yours truly and Mike Williams.


Ingredients

Specialty Malts: Crystal Malt 20L 3/4 lb
  Black Barley 1/2 lb
  Roasted Barley 3/4 lb
Malt Extract: American Classic Dark 4.95 lb
  John Bull Dark 3.3 lb
Boiling Hops: Northern Brewer Leaf a7.1 1 1/2 oz
Finishing Hops: Northern Brewer Leaf 1/2 oz
  Fuggles Pellets 1/2 oz
Aromatic Hops: Fuggles Pellets 1 oz
Water Crystals   4 tsp
Irish Moss   1 tsp
Yeast: Whitbread Ale 14 g



Basic Recipe

About two hours before you plan on making the beer, make a yeast starter. In a small pot, bring 2-3 cups of water to a boil. Dissolve in about one tablespoon of malt extract and boil for a minute or two. Put on the lid, remove it from the heat, and let it cool. When room temparature, put in a mason jar and add the yeast. By the time you're done making the beer, your yeast should be very bubbly and active. When recipe calls for you to pitch the yeast, pour the contents of the jar into the fermenter. This gives the yeast a head start, which reduces the probability of any undesireable organisms contaminating your beer.

Crush the Crystal Malt. Separately crush the Roasted Barley and Black Barley. Boil the Crystal Malt 5 mins in about two quarts of water, strain into the cooking pot and sparge it with 170-degree water until clear runoff obtained. Set the crushed dark grains aside for now.

Add all of the malt extract and bring it to boil. Add one-fourth of the boiling hops. Boil fifteen minutes.

Add one half of boiling hops. Boil for fifteen minutes.

Add rest of boiling hops, Irish Moss, and dark grains. Boil for 28 more minutes.

Add flavor hops. Boil for two more minutes.

Cool in sink until luke warm (just how warm was Luke, anyway?)

Strain into fermenter, pour cold water through hops/grain to get the most wort possible out of the stuff. When temperature is about 80, pitch the yeast.

Allow to ferment for a day or two until primary fermentation subsides, then add the aromatic hops.


Notes

Boil Times Crystal Malt: 5 mins
  Wort: 60 mins
  F. Hops: Last 2 Mins
Bitter Units 34.5
Specific Gravity
(Expected)
1.062
Specific Gravity
(Beginning)
1.061
Specific Gravity
(Ending)
1.018
% Alcohol 8.4
Priming 1/2 tsp corn suger per bottle



Rating the Finished Beer

CLARITY
Cloudy: 1, Hazy: 2, Clear: 3, Brilliant: 4
2
HEAD RETENTION
None: 1, Most Desirable: 3
2
AROMA (Malt) / BOUQUET (Hops)
Poor: 1-3, Good: 4-8
6
TASTE (Hop/Malt; Bitter/Sweet Balance)
Poor: 1-4, Good: 5-10
8
AFTERTASTE
Poor: 1-2, Good: 3-5
4
BUBBLES (carbonation felt in mouth)
Poor: 1-2, Good: 3-5
4
BODY (feel; full or light-body as appropriate)
Poor: 1-2, Good: 3-5
5
OVERALL IMPRESSION (drinkability)
Poor: 1-4, Good: 5-10
8
OTHER VARIABLES (list):
0

TOTAL SCORE (of 50 Possible Points):
39

Refer to the Beer Rating Scale for more details about interpreting the score.