Specialty IPA: Black IPA 21st Amendment's Back in Black IPA clone attempt - Updated July 2013

Split batch after cooling: pitched equivalent amounts of harvested Conan yeast (from Heady Topper cans) and WLP090 to test the differences. Made starters on both.

I know there is a thread about cloning this beer and the "Can You Brew It" episode, but in looking at 21st Amendment's Back in Black page, they list the ingredients and they must have changed them (mostly the hops) since then.

I brewed this about 5 weeks ago. I brewed 6 gallons so I could split it into 3 gal batches and test out the differences between Conan yeast and WLP090 and split the 6 gal by 3 people. If you scale it to 5 gallons the hops probably come out to whole numbers.

Here are my tasting notes:
- First, the Conan vs the WLP090 made no difference in taste. The WLP090 got it down to 1.013 and the Conan got it down to 1.015.
- Mine is darker, but I'd say a bit less roasty. I don't mind the roastiness of the BIB, but mine is good too. Not too much but it's there.
- I can see through the BIB, but not mine, when held up to the light.
- Hop aroma and bitterness are very close between the two.
- Mine had better head retention and the foam was darker.
- Mine had maybe a smidge more carbonation, which I think is a good thing.

So overall, I wouldn't say it's cloned because I could tell them apart by mostly the color, foam color and carbonation, but they aren't vastly different.

For my learning, what would cause the foam to be darker in my batches?

Here are some pictures. Hard to tell the color differences in the pictures, but you can tell when you hold it up to the light.

mtnagel said:

- I can see through the BIB, but not mine, when held up to the light.

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the BIB is older than your beer, so its suspended particles have had more time to settle out. 21A might even have filtered it. i'm betting that with some time (and/or filtering) your beer could be equally clear.

mtnagel said:

For my learning, what would cause the foam to be darker in my batches?

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if i remember correctly, the dark roast malts are chiefly responsible for head color. so if i'm right, you are using more dark malts (carafa) than 21A.

Thanks much. I still have a lot to learn.

Thanks. I'm almost done drinking them. 2 gallons of a very drinkable IPA don't last long in our house.

Got this on the boil right now, will report back.

Awesome. Let me know what you think.

All went smooth, used Carfa I as that was what i had on hand, ended up just shy of 1.070 it's happily bubbling away at 62 f in the chamber with some Conan.
Time to hurry up and wait.

How would you compare the Conan to the 090?

This is what I said, "- First, the Conan vs the WLP090 made no difference in taste. The WLP090 got it down to 1.013 and the Conan got it down to 1.015."

I think you are on the right track there. Did you verify your grain bill with the 21st amendment website? They post everything you need there.

If you don't care how close you get to the Back in Black, research other kits out there at northern brewer and more beer. They use chocolate or midnight wheat for a lighter body dark color so as not to offset the primary grain sugars and hops. My suggestion would be take your hop bill and use it with the northern brewer ace of spades grain bill, yeast of your choice and see what you come up with. Feck it I am going to try that...as it sounds amazing

LOL. Let me know how it turns out.

Yes I did base my grain bill on the grains listed on their site - http://21st-amendment.com/beers/back-in-black/

sweetcell said:

if i remember correctly, the dark roast malts are chiefly responsible for head color. so if i'm right, you are using more dark malts (carafa) than 21A.

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it looks like the 21A website lists the malts in descending order, from most used to least. so their listing for Back in Black, "Rahr Pale Malt, Crystal 45L, Munich, De-Bittered Black" would imply that you needs less debittered black than C-45 and munich.

Well that's your assumption