Dry Stout (For Intermediate Homebrewers) Recipe

By
Joe Postma
Joe Postma
Joe Postma is an experienced homebrewer with a passion for craft beer.  He guided beginners through the basics of homebrewing through a series of features in the Serious Eats “Homebrewing” column and developed craft beer recipes for homebrewers of every skill level.  
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Updated August 09, 2018
A glass of homemade dry stout.
Sarah Postma

This is an all-grain homebrewing recipe which is about the same level of difficulty as the Pilsner recipe. Anyone who has completed 3 or 4 batches of extract homebrewing should have enough experience to be successful with the brew-in-a-bag method used here.

If this is your first all-grain style recipe, be sure to read through the post on mashing to become familiar with the language and method.

For this brew, you'll use the same equipment setup used for extract batches, but you will also need a kettle that is at least 7.5 gallons as well as an extra-large mesh grain bag. A second stockpot large enough to heat (not boil) 3 gallons of water is also recommended. An accurate brewing thermometer is very important when making an all-grain recipe; it's a good idea to check that yours is in good working condition.

The Kent Goldings hops I used for this batch had over a 6% Alpha Acid content, which is unusually high in my experience with this variety. If you find your Kent Goldings hops are around the more typical 4%AA, increase the 60 minute hop addition to 1.75 to 2 ounces.

Recipe Details

Dry Stout (For Intermediate Homebrewers) Recipe

Active 5 to 7 hrs
Total 0 mins

Ingredients

  • 5.25 pounds Maris Otter Pale Malt, crushed
  • 1.5 pounds Flaked Barley, crushed
  • 0.9 pounds Black Roasted Barley (500L), crushed
  • 1.25 ounces Kent Goldings hops - 60 minutes
  • 1 package Dry English Ale yeast, either White Labs WLP007 or WLP1098

Directions

  1. Line the 7.5 gallon kettle with the mesh bag, fill with 2.5 gallons of tap water and bring to 161°F. Remove from heat.

  2. Mash-in by slowly adding all 7.65 pounds of grain into the water and inside the bag. Stir for 2 minutes to prevent balls of grain from clumping together, creating a consistent mash. The temperature should equalize to about 150°F.

  3. Cover the mash, only uncovering to briefly stir every 20 minutes. Heat 3 more gallons of water to 185°F.

  4. After 60 minutes, mash-out by carefully pouring the 185°F water into the mash, stirring to equalize temperature to about 170°F.

  5. Slowly raise the grain bag out of the liquid, allowing the wort to drain from the grain. Hold the grain bag above the kettle for 5 to 10 minutes as the wort drains. Top the wort off with water to 6 gallons.

  6. Bring wort to a vigorous boil. When the boil begins, add 1.25 ounce Kent Goldings hops in a mesh bag.

  7. After total of 60 minutes of boil, remove from heat. Warning: After wort cools below 180°F everything that touches it should be sanitary, and exposure to open air should be limited as much as possible.

  8. Cool wort by placing pot in ice bath or by using a wort chiller until it is below 70°F. Transfer to sanitized fermentor (either a carboy or a fermentation bucket).

  9. Use a sanitized auto-siphon racking cane to remove enough wort to take a gravity reading with your hydrometer. Make a note of this number, since you will be using it to calculate the actual alcohol content when it's done fermenting. The reading should be around 1.040.

  10. Carefully pour yeast into cooled wort (it should be below 70°F), and agitate vigorously. Cover fermentor with a sanitized stopper and airlock. Ferment in dark place, keeping ambient temperature consistent, preferably between 65 and 68°F.

  11. Bottle after 2 to 3 weeks when fermentation is complete, using enough priming sugar for a medium to low level of carbonation.

Special equipment

7.5 gallon kettle (or bigger), large mesh grain bag, and the basic homebrewing equipment setup

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