BD Oatmeal stout mod

[jpsherman]

I have some BD oatmeal stout in my pipeline that has had plenty of time to age, and as I am sipping on some Guinness Extra Stout, it occurred to me that the BD signature kit would be a good base for a future clone recipe.

It probably needs a bit of extra malt, and a tad bit more dark steeping grains. It also needs some extra hops. Definately for bitterness, aroma, and flavor. But I am not sure were to start.

Any suggestions?

[mashani]

I have some BD oatmeal stout in my pipeline that has had plenty of time to age, and as I am sipping on some Guinness Extra Stout, it occurred to me that the BD signature kit would be a good base for a future clone recipe.

It probably needs a bit of extra malt, and a tad bit more dark steeping grains. It also needs some extra hops. Definately for bitterness, aroma, and flavor. But I am not sure were to start.

Any suggestions?

You would need to steep or do a PM with a bit of roasted barley and some acidulated malt if you really want to get the vibe of the beer. A 5 gallon batch of something like guiness would have around 2-3oz of acidulated malt and about 12oz-16oz of roasted barley and a couple of pounds of flaked barley, the rest being 2-row to get to your target gravity. Or something there about. (I can't give you an exact number but it's in those ranges somewhere). And around 40-45 IBUs of hops, all just bittering additions.

If you can do a PM, I would PM some subset of the above with enough 2-row so that when you add your can of extract you are between 1.06-1.07 if you are going for the extra stout/foreign export vibe, not the pub draft vibe. (pub draft is much lower abv, but similar ingredients).

Hard to say exactly how much. I would use the same proportion of acidulated malt, but less roasted barley and flaked barley proportionally since the extract will give you some of those flavors. But it won't give you the acidulated malt sourness. And yes Guinness has this. They supposedly sour mash some of their wort and add it to unsoured wort. But it's a lot easier to use acidulated malt for homebrew purposes.

If you can't/don't want to PM, then maybe steep just the acidulated malt, and pick up some Briess CBW Special Dark (NOT Traditional Dark) LME, and use it to make up the gravity difference, and boil enough hops in that to make up the IBU difference. Briess Special Dark is just 2-row and roasted barley, nothing else. It's the extract I'd use to make a guiness clone if I wasn't going to mash. I'd just steep some acidulated malt, and use that extract and some hops.

You should use liquid irish stout yeast if you can, otherwise I'd suggest Danstar Windsor yeast. S-04 would work but it's not going to quite give you the same vibe.

That's what I can tell ya...

[jpsherman]

If I was going to use BD as the base I would probably just go the steeping route. I can PM, but I don't have time to do that much.

My LHBS is very small. Would Muntons Extra Dark work for DME?

What hops to use?

[mashani]

Most

My LHBS is very small. Would Muntons Extra Dark work for DME?
What hops to use?

Muntons Extra Dark is going to have dark crystal and chocolate malt, and other stuff that really isn't appropriate in a Guinness clone. That's why I suggested that very specific LME - it's the only one I know of that is really "right" for a dry Irish stout (nothing but roasted barley).

If you don't really care that it comes out closer to Guinness and are happy that it's an amped up BD stout, then it will work fine. I'm sure it will taste good.

As far as hops, it's just bittering hops, so something like UK Challenger would be appropriate. But any clean bittering hop should work. At least 45 minute boil. Just for bittering, you don't want flavor. Again it won't be bad if you do a shorter boil with something like fuggles or goldings, but it will have flavor and it won't be Guinness like.

So just depends on how close you really want to get to Guinness in an extract beer.

If I wanted something "Guinness like" with extract/steep I'd just use the Special Dark and a touch of acidulated malt, do a 45-60 minute boil depending on how much time I had, and save the BD stout for a chocolate stout or something like that. It makes excellent chocolate stout.

[jpsherman]

Most

My LHBS is very small. Would Muntons Extra Dark work for DME?
What hops to use?

Muntons Extra Dark is going to have dark crystal and chocolate malt, and other stuff that really isn't appropriate in a Guinness clone. That's why I suggested that very specific LME - it's the only one I know of that is really "right" for a dry Irish stout (nothing but roasted barley).

If you don't really care that it comes out closer to Guinness and are happy that it's an amped up BD stout, then it will work fine. I'm sure it will taste good.

As far as hops, it's just bittering hops, so something like UK Challenger would be appropriate. But any clean bittering hop should work. At least 45 minute boil. Just for bittering, you don't want flavor. Again it won't be bad if you do a shorter boil with something like fuggles or goldings, but it will have flavor and it won't be Guinness like.

So just depends on how close you really want to get to Guinness in an extract beer.

If I wanted something "Guinness like" with extract/steep I'd just use the Special Dark and a touch of acidulated malt, do a 45-60 minute boil depending on how much time I had, and save the BD stout for a chocolate stout or something like that. It makes excellent chocolate stout.

Mmmmm Chocolate Stout.....
I will take both points of advice then. Save the BD for choc stout, and use the other recipe you gave me for "Guinness stout"

Thanks