Beer Brewing - Guinness dry stout clone

March temperatures in the Adelaide area of South Australia should be favourable for fermenting a Guinnes (dry stout) Clone using an English Ale yeast. The recipe calls for 500g of raw (un-malted) roasted barley. I set the oven to 230C and roasted (and mixed) until the grain became the desired colour.

Meanwhile, milled 3000g of Maris Otter malted barley. I milled the roasted barley once it cooled. I stored it separate from the malted grain. Roasting and milling of the grain can be done the day before brew day.

The 1000g of flaked un-malted barley does not need to be milled.

I fill the hot water tank with tap water the night before brew day and treat the water as per the recipe (gypsum and calcium chloride) to adjust the pH and add temporary hardness. The chlorine in the water will be released overnight.

On brew day I heated the (strike water) to 55C, added water to my brew-in-a-basket equipment (a 33 litre pot with a mesh basket) and mixed in the milled un-malted barely, the flaked barley and a cup of milled malted barley. The mixture was rested (called a beta glucan rest) between 40 and 50C for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile about 8 litres of the strike water was heated to boiling in a second pot. At the end of the beta glucan rest, boiling water was added to the 33 litre pot along with the milled malted barley to achieve the mash temperature of about 64.5C. I included 60g of rice hulls to make it easier to rinse the grains in the next stage. The mixture was stirred occasionally during the 60 minute mashing process.The 33 litre pot was occasionally heated to maintain the mash temperature around 64.5C.

After 60 minutes, all of the starches in the grain have been converted to sugars (by the enzymes n the malted barley. The brew basket is raised to drain the liquid. Meanwhile a portion of the liquid is brought to a boil in the 17 litre pot. Concurrently water at 75C is gradually poured over the basket to rinse ('sparge') the grain during a 20 to 30 minute period. The liquid in both pots will come to a boil. The hop pellets are added to mesh spheres. The 'hop balls' are added to the boiling wort. The liquid in the 17 litre pot is added to the 33 litre pot. The liquid and hops are boiled for 60 minutes.

15 minutes before the end of the boil period, I place the cooling coil in the 33 litre pot (to sterilize it). I add yeast nutrient and a floculation tablet (to make sediments fall out of suspension).

After the 60 minute boil I move the cooling coil into the sanitized fermentation vessel. I drain the boiled liquid ('wort') into fermenter, leaving the sediment 33 litre pot.

I run tap water through the cooling coil (and then to the garden irrigation) for about 45 minutes until the wort is below 26C. Meanwhile I re-hydrate the English Ale yeast.

I check the pH of the wort and adjust to about 5.3 where necessary. I measure the specific gravity of the wort - 1.048 in this brew. The recipe called for a batch size of 24 litres - I collected only 22 litres - I should have used 2 more litres in the sparge process. I aerate the wort with an aquarium air pump for about 10 minutes. I add the hydrated yeast and anticipate fermentation bubbles within half a day. I usually allow 12-14 days for fermentation. I will add bentonite clay to cause suspended solids to fall out of solution. I will bottle the brew in 750 ml bottles with 3 to 6 g of sugar. Secondary fermentation takes several weeks. I will start consuming the beer about 3 months after bottling.