Critique my Black IPA recipe..

I need some thoughts on this
Black IPA i plan on brewing:


9 lbs extra pale LME

Steeping grains:
1 lb Crystal 60L
10 oz Carafa III
4 oz Chocolate malt

2 oz Chinook @ 60 min
1 oz Cascade @ 15 min
1/2 oz Cascade @ 5 min
1/2 oz Centennial @ 5 min
1/2 oz Cascade @ FO
1/2 oz Centennial @ FO

Probably going to use US 05

I like everything except the chocolate. I'd swap that to black patent or debittered belgian black.

I'd recommend dry hoping some too.

I actually added the chocolate just before i posted this to get some input. Thought it may add some interesting flavor? But maybe not, this is my first black ipa.
And oh yeah, at least a couple of oz of cascade will be going in the fermenter

Keep us posted on this I've been wanting to do a black ipa real bad so I'm interested to hear how this turns out!

crash568 said:

Keep us posted on this I've been wanting to do a black ipa real bad so I'm interested to hear how this turns out!

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I will, got a few beers in the pipe line so may not end up brewing this for a couple of months, but I'll definitely post on here how it goes

Looks good to me, I currently have a black IPA in the fermenter. This is my first attempt at a Black IPA. I just had to make one after drinking Sublimely Self-Righteous. Just for some thought, here is the Stone recipe I got off of Hopeville.

Mine is a little different, I did not use any chocolate malt and I used S-04 yeast. I decided to use just the Simcoe hop but I was considering going with a hop profile similar to yours. Let me know how yours ends up.

Here is a copy of the recipe I brewed a few months ago. It got rave reviews by my brew club and my family. Definitely a do over.

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
22 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 74.6 %
2 lbs 8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 2 8.5 %
2 lbs 8.0 oz Munich (10.2 SRM) Grain 3 8.5 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.1 %
1 lbs Carafa III (525.0 SRM) Grain 5 3.4 %
2.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 6 42.4 IBUs
2.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 90.0 minHop 7 45.6 IBUs
2.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 8 -
2.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 9 7.9 IBUs
2.00 oz Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 10 9.1 IBUs
2.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35.49 ml]Yeast 13 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.075 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.065 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.019 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.018 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.4 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 6.2 %
Bitterness: 105.0 IBUs Calories: 221.1 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 38.8 SRM

Both of those look great. The absolute key with a black ipa is the carafa III. I think you get the same chocolate sort of thing from it as you would from chocolate malt with less bitterness. I usually go with black patent instead of chocolate and add it late in the mash to smooth out the kinda bite you can get from patent. I go for the heavy malt boned ipa by the fire sort of black IPA though. It's such a wide style you could go wherever you want with it.

Edit: Oh I dry hop too. Gotta have that nose.

When I do my dark India Ale, my base is a robust porter with lots of hops. Amarillo if I have them. The porter is less bitter dark malts which to me, tend to fight the bitterness of the hops.

If you're going for a black IPA would it be better to use a crystal malt with a high degrees L rating? I'm fairly new to brewing (and haven't done a black IPA, but to me 60L seems pretty light.

Just my $0.02

durbo said:

If you're going for a black IPA would it be better to use a crystal malt with a high degrees L rating? I'm fairly new to brewing (and haven't done a black IPA, but to me 60L seems pretty light.

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Higher L crystals will give you a distinct raisin or liquorice flavor. I avoid crystal in almost all my beers because of that flavor even in the lower L crystal. In darker beers though, just a touch of 60 is nice to fill out the body a little and get a little extra sweetness.

durbo said:

If you're going for a black IPA would it be better to use a crystal malt with a high degrees L rating? I'm fairly new to brewing (and haven't done a black IPA, but to me 60L seems pretty light.

Just my $0.02

Click to expand...

As long as you have a debittered black malt to give it color, you can put any crystal you want in there IMO. I used 60 and it turned out great. I used a lot of chinook because I wanted it piney/ resiny, which worked. But that was more of a winter bipa.