Guinness Foreign Extra Stout

[BlackRegent]

Does anyone have a tried and trusted Guinness Foreign Extra Stout recipe? I don't mean the Nigerian brewed stuff, but the 7.5% ABV version that's normally sold in larger 600ml bottles.

I have never been much of a stout drinker, but I've come to really enjoy this.

The only recipe I've found that holds itself out as a Guinness clone is on BYO and uses a relatively simple malt bill of pale malt, flaked barley and roasted barley. The characteristics I really want to duplicate are the residual sweetness, the rich roastiness and the caramel and toffee notes. Can this really be achieved with such a simple malt bill and without any crystal or chocolate malt?

I know from brewing Belgian beers that simplicity in recipe can lead to complex results, but I wanted to interrogate the hive mind before giving the BYO recipe a go.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Here’s my recipe
11.5 litre batch
2600g MO (or Munich light)
200g Flaked Barley
200g Roasted Barley
100g Dark Crystal 140L
50g Chocolate malt
200g Brown sugar (or 200g Molasses)
30 minutes boil
18g Columbus @30m
8g Columbus @10m
CML Five yeast or US05
ABV 6.8%

 

[peebee]

The ultimate in "Guinness" stouts in my mind is Guinness Special Export - Brewery John Martin S.A. | Anthony Martin

But you can't buy it over here. And it's not made in Ireland (Belgium)! I drank a lot of it in Catalonia.

I've not a recipe but Ron Pattinson's Blog is a happy hunting ground (his next book is "Stout!" too, so most new posts are about "stout") Shut up about Barclay Perkins. Some of the late Victorian / Edwardian recipes look like something you may be after (from when Britain brewed stout too - and I don't mean the limp "lactose" containing muck either!).

If you're after "residual sweetness", forget all the popular "craft beer" yeasts and grab something with a suggestion of age and a little less aggressive. WY#1099 I use a lot, but there may be others.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Here’s my recipe
11.5 litre batch
2600g MO (or Munich light)
200g Flaked Barley
200g Roasted Barley
100g Dark Crystal 140L
50g Chocolate malt
200g Brown sugar (or 200g Molasses)
30 minutes boil
18g Columbus @30m
8g Columbus @10m
CML Five yeast or US05
ABV 6.8%

I forgot I add oak chips soaked in rum to the 2FV and leave for 2 weeks before bottling.

 

[Sadfield]

But you can't buy it over here.

You do see it about, a local bottle shop has it sometimes. There's plenty of online retailers that stock it, usually the ones that stock Belgian beers.

 

[foxy]

Does anyone have a tried and trusted Guinness Foreign Extra Stout recipe? I don't mean the Nigerian brewed stuff, but the 7.5% ABV version that's normally sold in larger 600ml bottles.

I have never been much of a stout drinker, but I've come to really enjoy this.

The only recipe I've found that holds itself out as a Guinness clone is on BYO and uses a relatively simple malt bill of pale malt, flaked barley and roasted barley. The characteristics I really want to duplicate are the residual sweetness, the rich roastiness and the caramel and toffee notes. Can this really be achieved with such a simple malt bill and without any crystal or chocolate malt?

I know from brewing Belgian beers that simplicity in recipe can lead to complex results, but I wanted to interrogate the hive mind before giving the BYO recipe a go.

For a closer clone I played around with various percentages of sour settling on around 10% 2 litres of sour for a 21 litre batch. Can be any beer, sour that first ready to coincide with the main brew going into the fermenter take the sour to 80 C to kill the yeast and add to the fermenter pitch an Irish Ale yeast of your choice. Better results with a wild brew sour pitch yeast rather than some none descript bacteria from the kitchen.
Don't be afraid to take the IBU's higher than you would normally go.
I think there is a BYO recipe using the sour may be in the clone book.
https://www.fivebladesbrewing.com/g...ness does,acidity contributed by lactic acid.

 

[nickjdavis]

The ultimate in "Guinness" stouts in my mind is Guinness Special Export - Brewery John Martin S.A. | Anthony Martin

But you can't buy it over here. And it's not made in Ireland (Belgium)! I drank a lot of it in Catalonia.

I've not a recipe but Ron Pattinson's Blog is a happy hunting ground (his next book is "Stout!" too, so most new posts are about "stout") Shut up about Barclay Perkins. Some of the late Victorian / Edwardian recipes look like something you may be after (from when Britain brewed stout too - and I don't mean the limp "lactose" containing muck either!).

If you're after "residual sweetness", forget all the popular "craft beer" yeasts and grab something with a suggestion of age and a little less aggressive. WY#1099 I use a lot, but there may be others.

If "over here" is in the UK then you most definitely can buy it....

https://www.beersniffers.co.uk/john-martin-guinness-nrb/
I agree that it is fantastic by the way.

 

[d146895x]

Here is a recipe from the book "Brew Classic European Beers at Home". I have never made it so cannot vouch for it, maybe a good starting point.

 

[An Ankoù]

I used to buy it in Tesco in 33cl bottles. They used to mix it indiscriminately with the Nigerian (I don't think they knew there was, a difference). The Nigerian always had a red tab affixed to the main label alerting you to look for where it was brewed. The export had no such indication. Last time I looked, 2016, only the proper stuff was available.
I preferred the Nigerian so I took pains to be sure I knew what I was getting.

 

[YeastFace]

I used to buy it in Tesco in 33cl bottles. They used to mix it indiscriminately with the Nigerian (I don't think they knew there was, a difference). The Nigerian always had a red tab affixed to the main label alerting you to look for where it was brewed. The export had no such indication. Last time I looked, 2016, only the proper stuff was available.
I preferred the Nigerian so I took pains to be sure I knew what I was getting.

Nigerian stuff tends to be in the world foods section, and FES with the other beer.

I like to half and half FES with Draught.

Also, agreed on the John Martin stuff. Superb.

 

[Brewshed]

I have been trying to find s clone recipe for the Guinness West Indies porter but the only one I have found is the one on the 'All about hops' website which is nice but not a good clone. I also tried to g see t ingormation from Guinness but thry wouldn't say anything. Does anyone have a recipe?

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I have been trying to find s clone recipe for the Guinness West Indies porter but the only one I have found is the one on the 'All about hops' website which is nice but not a good clone. I also tried to g see t ingormation from Guinness but thry wouldn't say anything. Does anyone have a recipe?

Look above

 

[Brewshed]

Look above

Not sure if I missed it but the recipes above are for Foreign Extra stout not West Indies porter.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Not sure if I missed it but the recipes above are for Foreign Extra stout not West Indies porter.

Mine is for WI Porter.

 

[Brewshed]

Mine is for WI Porter.

That's great that CC.

 

[peebee]

If "over here" is in the UK then you most definitely can buy it....

https://www.beersniffers.co.uk/john-martin-guinness-nrb/
I agree that it is fantastic by the way.

Humm ... dead right! I've supped a few bottles over Summer (and have a few in the cupboard!). I was a bit behind the times thinking the "John Martin" stuff wasn't available in the UK. And it is brewed in Ireland, not Belgium as I'd assumed.


But having been over Ron Pattinson's "Stout!" Book I have homed in on some good-looking recipes: Whitbread seems to be a good target, the likes of their "Extra Stout" looks good, even the more recent recipes (Whitbread brewed it for the Belgium market, so the wars and resulting tax regimes didn't ravage the strength - it stayed firmly at OG 1.055 until it seems to have vanished). However, there's something wrong with how the recipes are translated in the book after WWII (hop-wise) so I've plumped for the 1940 recipe.

Before the wars, and before they formulated "Extra Stout" they were pushing out some interesting "Doubles" and "Triples". But I get a bit edgy going so far back because the Brown Malt, and they used Amber Malt in stout, was very different to what we can get by those names (I "invented" some emulations, but there's nowt to compare their accuracy with). Still, whatever is used, they're bound to be good (if you can wait the twelve months needed to mature them!).

Oddly, Whitbread didn't stick to using "Black Malt" and all their later Stouts used "Chocolate Malt". Suits me.