kingwood-kid

Recipes 

I made a DIPA with just under 5% Special B, going from 1.076 to 1.015. It's reddish-brown, and quite tasty, but the maltiness has it edging towards barleywine territory (full disclosure:most of my beers contain no crystal malts). If you want malt complexity but not a great deal of sweetness, you might try adding in 1 or 2 non-crystal specialty malts, such as Victory/biscuit, brown, melanoidin, etc...

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There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in the BJCP's philosophy.

DylanTO

Recipes 

@kingwood-kid
Very interesting, do you have a favourite/go-to recipe that you'd recommend to try this idea out?

kingwood-kid

Recipes 

I don't have any go-to recipes, as I almost never brew a recipe more than once. Bobbrews can give you some general percentages for your grain bill, especially if you are very specific about what you want. If you view the HBT malt wiki http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Malts_Chart and this guide to making your own specialty malts http://barleypopmaker.info/2009/12/08/home-roasting-your-malts/ you can get an idea of what flavors you can get.

Most big IPAs have a lot of residual sugars (going from 1.080 to 1.010 is very different from going from 1.045 to 1.010), so in my opinion, they don't really need crystal malts unless they add a specific flavor you want, such as honey, caramel raisin, etc... If you want to add body without necessarily adding sweetness, you can raise your mash temp or use rye, wheat or oats.

__________________
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in the BJCP's philosophy.