grain ratios for Black IPA

2-Row Malt 5.50lbs 83.8%
Crystal 40 0.50lbs 7.6%
Caramel Wheat Malt 0.38lbs 5.7%
Chocolate Malt 0.19lbs 2.9%

I'm making a small batch of a Blacl IPA (India Black Ale?... lol... I hate calling it a black pale!) this weekend and I wanted to know if these ratios look ok. I might need to add some color, where would you get it from? My math tells me this will be around 20SRM. Keep in mind I want the hops to charge thru the aroma as best I can so I don't want too much smoky aroma... just a touch.

Thanks for your help!

I would add some dehusked Carafa III... You usually see some of that in almost all CDA's. Also, I'd probably get rid of the chocolate malt and up the crystal if you want to get some mouthfeel without roastyness...

just my $0.02

Great, thanks!

How much Carafa III would you add? Percentage of C40 would be?

I don't mind a little roastyness but I wouldn't want so much that it would take away too much hop aroma after sitting for a minute. Most Black IPAs I've tried smell like an IPA for about 5 minutes and then it becomes a weak roasty aroma with all the hop bitterness.

Thanks a bunch!

Last DIPA/CDA I did was
90%2-Row
5%Crystal 60
5%midnight wheat (or carafa III or black prinz malt)

I had read some people saying this was pretty much the grain bill for stone sublimely self righteous ale. At any rate it was darn tasty. Just a smooth hint of roast that did not fight with the massive amount of hops I used.

I used the midnight wheat as well. It was about a 16lb grain bill and I used 8oz of midnight wheat and it was very black.

I did a CDA recently and used carafa I dehusked. I like the very slight roasted flavor, however I felt like the hops where no where near pronounced enough. I love my hops and I love putting them in late, I thought the bitterness was right but the hop flavor and aroma was lacking although I used my standard IPA hopping schedule. So consider upping your late additions if you want the same hop flavor as your IPAs.

Clem

Can someone enlighten me on the major differences between the special versions of Carafa I, II, and III? I can't seem to find any info - is it just darker and darker?

Thanks!

On my last CDA I cold steeped the Caraffa III and it was awesome. You get most of the color but you don't get near the astringency that you get from most roasted malt.

supposedly, the clone for Stone XI black ipa has 5% caramel 60 and 5% carafaII. Look up some clone recipes.


I havent had too many bipa's, but i find the stone to have a good amount of smoke/malt/roast. Its not too much to where it overpowers the hops, but not low enough to make you think "im just drinking a dark colored ipa."

I recently soda smoked black ipa (and am drinking one as I type). My grain bill was (5 gal):
12 lb 2-row
1 lb crystal 60
1 lb carafa iii
1 lb smoked malt

My hop bill was. 7.5 oz variety of chinook (bittering), simcoe and Amarillo.

I know I am bias but I think it's pretty good.

there's a great recipe and some tips on brewing CDA in my blog on the style. i brew a lot of CDA and have some pretty solid ideas on how to put together a recipe. or you can just brew mine, it's a big hit when i do.

ok, so this is where I went for tomorrow:

87% 2 row
8% C40
5% Midnight Wheat

THanks for the help guys!

Hops schedule is all late addition hops, Apollo and Summit. Should be an interesting one. Dry hops not decided yet. THoughts?