Tropical Black Ale Extract Recipe

Hi all,

Been brewing for less than a year but wanted to share this extract recipe success. It's an Imperial Black Ale (or Imperial Black IPA). It's a dark beer, smooth with a clean finish, grapefruit aroma with tropical fruit and raisin notes and creamy beige head. According to Beersmith: 33.5 SRM, 8.9% ABV, and 98 IBUs.

Steeping Grains (steep at 155 for 30 mins):
1lb Crystal 40
8oz Carafa III
3.5oz Special B
3.2oz Roasted Barley
3.2oz Crystal 120

Malts:
4lbs 2oz Light Dry Malt Extract, add at beginning of boil
6lbs 10z Pale Liquid Malt Extract, add at 10 mins to end of boil

Hops:
.5oz Cenntennial at 60 mins
.5oz Columbus at 50 mins
1oz Summit at 30 mins
1oz Citra at 20 mins

Yeast: 2 packets of Safale American US-05

Boiled for 60 minutes. Whirlfloc added 10 minutes to end of boil. I used Citra leaf instead of pellets because LHBS was out of Citra pellets. This isn't cheap, but you get a high gravity, delicious beer out of it.

Expected OG: 1086, Measured: 1085
Expected FG: 1019, Measured: 1020

Had in primary for 2 weeks and straight to bottles. Opened first one after 4 weeks and it was outstanding - smooth and tasty. The other homebrew I made with Safale 05 was similarly smooth and very drinkable early. I expected it to be hoppier - it's there but not overwhelming. Could be dry hopped with Citra.

Since I have all these grains and some hops in the freezer, I may brew another batch and make some adjustments. Feedback or thoughts on this recipe appreciated.

That does sound good. When you make this again, let it have 3 to 4 weeks in the primary with Citra dry hops for the last week. I think the hop aroma and flavor will blow you away.

That's exactly what I was thinking. I'll probably put in secondary for the dry hopping. I also may reduce the gravity to lower the cost of making the beer.

I wouldn't even bother with secondary. Just make sure the fermentation is over so the yeast action doesn't scrub out the aroma that you want.

That sounds good. I love a good hoppy cda. I think I'm going to have to brew one of these up next. Thanks for the recipe!

Love the look of that... Only thing that sticks out to me is the roasted barley. Is it obvious in the final product?

Looks good, may be an upcoming brew. Thanks!

Roasted barley doesn't stand out to me (only 1.5% of grain bill). I did consider chocolate malt instead, so that's another possibility in a recipe change. I also originally had carafa II in the recipe but the LHBS only had carafa III, which I think was an improvement. I poured another last night and marveled at just how dark this beer is. It's got a great finish IMO, and dry. Still early so I'm excited to see it improve with a little more age.