Need help with this Black IPA Recipe!

Hi there everybody! I am reaching out to the wise minds of this forum to assist me in my brewing endevours. With the assistance of remman4's original Black IPA recipe I wanted to try and brew my own version. Below I have a tweaked Black IPA recipe which I was looking for some feedback on. Please note that I am still a newbie and this would be my fourth brew. The size of this batch will be for 2.5 gallons so I hope my ingredients and brew days steps accurately reflect that. I look forward to your responses!

SIDE-NOTE: what yeast would you prefer? I have read a number of recipes that use Wyeast 1272 American Ale Yeast or Safale US-05 Ale Yeast.

Steeped at ~155F for 30 mins in 3 gallons water
0.5 lb Carafa III dehusked
0.25 lb Chocolate
0.25 lb 60L Crystal
0.25 lb 90L Crystal
0.25 lb Roasted Barley

1.5 lbs Dark LME 60 min boil
1 lbs Amber LME 60 min boil
2 lbs Amber LME at flameout

0.75 oz Cascade 60 min
0.5 oz Columbus 60 min
0.5 oz Cascade 30
0.5 oz Columbus 20 min
0.25 oz Cascade at flameout
0.75 oz Cascade dry hop 10 days
Final batch size 2.5-3 gallons

Sounds pretty good. I would switch all the LME to one 4.5 lb addition at flameout though. Using dark and amber LME is kind of redundant when you are steeping grains, and I find it better to get flavor and color from fresh grains rather than processed extract. Also I put your recipe into my software and it came out to about 135 IBUs which seems a bit high, but maybe that's what you're going for. But if I were you I would do the hop schedule something like this:

0.5 oz Columbus 60 min
0.5 oz Cascade 20 min
0.5 oz Columbus 10 min
0.5 oz Cascade at flameout
0.5 - 1 oz Cascade dry hop

That's about 83 IBUs depending on %AA.

peterj said:

0.5 oz Columbus 60 min
0.5 oz Cascade 20 min
0.5 oz Columbus 10 min
0.5 oz Cascade at flameout
0.5 - 1 oz Cascade dry hop

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that looks good to me. I rarely do 30 minute additions. Anything between 20-10 should get you some hop flavor, anything 10-0 minutes should get you some good aroma. That said, for my hoppy beers I like to do 15, 10, 5, 0, dryhop but what's listed above looks good to.

I'd add Coloumbus and Cascade to the dryhop though.

I would exchange the dark and amber LME for light. The dark and amber both contain Crystal/Caramel malts, which might be too much. Let the steeping grains provide the color and flavor. With the Carafa III and the roasted barley it should be plenty dark. I do a black IPA that uses only 8 oz of debittered black and it is plenty dark.

peterj said:

I would switch all the LME to one 4.5 lb addition at flameout though.

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Oops, I meant to say one 4.5 lb addition of LIGHT LME like beergolf said.

peterj said:

Oops, I meant to say one 4.5 lb addition of LIGHT LME like beergolf said.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the responses! I have actually since tweaked the recipe a little more which has balanced it out. I used Yooper's Ruination clone (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/stone-ruination-clone-155771/) as the base and tweaked the steeping grains to make it darker (see below)...Quick question though: Would you advise sticking with the DME Yooper uses? If not, how much LME should I be shooting for? 4.5 as originally stated?

PK's Black Ruination

Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: US 05
Yeast Starter: Absolutely
Batch Size (Gallons): 2.5
Original Gravity: 1.071 (est)
Final Gravity: 1.045-1.056 (est)
IBU: 106+ (Beersmith)
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 39.3
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 days at 62
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 1 week at 65 (dryhopping)


4 lbs Light DME
0.5 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L
0.5 lbs Dehusked Carafa III

0.85 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 73.2 IBU
0.50 oz Centennial [9.60 %] (30 min) Hops 22.1 IBU
0.50 oz Centennial [9.60 %] (10 min) Hops 10.4 IBU
0.50 oz Centennial [9.60 %] (1 min) Hops 1.2 IBU
1.00 oz Centennial [9.60 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -

1 Pkg S05 for dry.

What do you think?? I would love to hear?

That sounds great to me, should be delicious! Let us know how it goes.

I thought I would give a follow up on the progress of this brew it is nearly at the two week primary fermentation point. I will be transferring it into a secondary carboy and dry hopping it with some additional centennial hops. I am excited for this beer. In honor of the storm it will be called Sandy's Blackout IPA (since I was without power for a week) good thing the temps didn't change much in the fermenter!