Final Thoughts: Irie Stout

This is officially the biggest beer ever brewed at Bearded Brewing. This beer was originally inspired by Lion Stout, a Sri Lankan Stout I came across when I was on a big stout kick. I set out to make a foreign extra stout (what Lion is) but then ended trying another beer while I was at Northern Brewer buying the ingredients for Irie. Whenever I go in to the store, I usually talk about what I'm brewing with a guy who works there. I was discussing this and he invited me in the back to try a beer they had on tap that they were contemplating having as a kit. It was a Caribbean stout. It was very similar to what I had in mind, but I had wanted mine to have a bit more roastiness. So while I was at the store, I adjusted what I was thinking to kind of a mix between what I had in my head and the great beer I had just tried. The end result has been really good. I was shooting for around 8% abv, but the two packs of yeast really ate up the 1.5 pounds of sugar I had put in, and I ended up with a beer that was around 9.5%!

Here are my thoughts:
The Irie pours a dark chocolate almost black with a thin light tan head, it quickly becomes a thin lacing. Right away there is an aroma of dark chocolate with a little bit of roastiness. A slight citrus aroma coming from the dried orange peels that were added, but it doesn't stand out too much. It is very smooth with no alcohol presence. Sweet with quite a bit of chocolate flavors, a little molasses and just a touch of roasty aftertaste.
This beer is very good, and one I would love to brew again. Next time I would like to up the amount of black malt to give it a bit more roasty flavor and maybe add some more fruit either in the form of more orange peels, maybe try my standby marmalade or even something like mango. I wouldn't want to deviate too much since I think it turned out nice, but I think it could be tweaked to be a bit roastier and play off the balance I was trying to accomplish.
Here is the recipe, it's extract:
Steeping grains- .75 org Crystal 120
.25 org Chocolate
.25 black patent malt
9.33 lbs of org. liquid malt extract
1.50 lbs of org. brown sugar
2.5 Tablespoons of dried orange peels @ 5 min
1 oz Org. Admiral hops @ 60
Two packets of dry Safale US-56 yeast

Overall, a great first attempt at a stout in my opinion; sweet, drinkable, and strong enough to make you feel Irie indeed! I am anxious to hear Dave at Muckney Brewing's thoughts and also Rick at [BW] Beer Blog's.
Salud!
The Bearded Brewer

Irie Stout Update

Sunday I transferred my Irie Stout to the secondary. The final gravity was 1.020. I calculated the abv with an online calculator and it came out 9.3%. I hadn't intended for it to be that big! In addition to the malt extract, I added 1.5 lbs of brown sugar and two packets of dried yeast. It was very active for close to two weeks. It tasted good today, but there was a definite alcohol presence that I'm hoping will mellow out with a couple more weeks. Originally, I had intended for this beer to be a foreign extra stout. But I think this is going to be on the sweeter side, without as much roastiness to it. But we'll see. I used paradise seeds and 2 1/2 tablespoons of orange peels. There was an interesting taste today, but the orange was real subtle. We'll see how it does with time, but I'm optimistic and curious about this beer.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer