Saturday 4 February 2023

Let's Brew - 1900 Cairnes Double Stout

As dictated by my Twitter Polls earlier this week, today's recipe is an Irish Stout.

Though it’s a few degrees weaker in gravity, this is obviously a beer aiming for the same market as Guinness Extra Stout. But, unlike at Guinness where Extra Stout was their biggest seller, Cairnes brewed far less Double Stout than Single Stout.

I’ll start with the bits I’m not totally sure about. The sugar is just described as “saccharum”. Usually, in such circumstances, I’d plump for No. 2 invert. That, however, leaves the colour far too pale. So, this time, I’ve gone with No. 4 invert. Which gets the colour just about dark enough. The same reasoning is behind my choice of 2000 SRM caramel

Otherwise, it’s a typical Irish grist of just pale and black malt. Not really much more I can say about that.

Twi types of English hops were employed, of which two thirds were from the 1899 harvest.

My guess would be that it was aged for a few months before sale. 

1900 Cairnes Double Stout
pale malt 14.75 lb 93.18%
black malt 0.50 lb 3.16%
No. 4 invert sugar 0.56 lb 3.54%
caramel 2000 SRM 0.02 lb 0.12%
Fuggles 120 mins 1.75 oz
Fuggles 60 mins 1.75 oz
Goldings 30 mins 1.75 oz
OG 1069
FG 1025
ABV 5.82
Apparent attenuation 63.77%
IBU 57
SRM 28
Mash at 152º F
Sparge at 170º F
Boil time 120 minutes
pitching temp 59.5º F
Yeast Wyeast 1084 Irish ale

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

5.82 percent abv doesn’t sound stout

Anonymous said...

It's an expert stout, read the label again

Mark said...

Hi Ron,

Do we know approximately when the Irish switched over from Black Malt to Roasted Barley?

Ron Pattinson said...

Unknown,

you're making an awfully big assumption there: that all Irish brewers swapped to roast barley. Perry was still using black malt after WW II. The only Irish records I've seen black malt in are Guinness's.

Anonymous said...

And smaller brewers such as Ballykilcavan don’t use roasted barley but black malt as their darkest malt.