First recipe from scratch - Black IIPA

Hey,

Just wondering what you think of this recipe that i have been toying around with.

Midnight Centenial IIPA

Batch Size (fermenter): 6.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.079 SG
EST FG: 1.012 SG
Estimated Color: 31.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 95.9 IBUs
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
EST ABV: 8.9%

14 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM)
12.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM)
8.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)
1 lbs Turbinado (10.0 SRM)
2.00 oz Centennial [12.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min
1.00 oz Centennial [12.70 %] - Boil 30.0 min
1.00 oz Centennial [12.70 %] - Boil 5.0 min
250ml Nottingham Yeast

I would suggest moving your 30m hops back to 15 or 10m and adding in more hops at flameout. Then add in a a dryhop.

I like it but if it were me, I'd tweak the hop schedule to something like:
1oz. 60m
1oz. 30m
1oz. 15
1oz. Flameout
1-2oz dryhop
Should net you roughly the smae IBU but I didn't plug that into beersmith to confirm....
It also doesn't seem very dark for a "Black" IPA. Get that SRM close to 50. :rockin:

Would this be like BridgePort's Dark Rain? I'm not a huge IPA fan, but that's pretty good stuff.

Change black patent malt to carafa special / carafa III / chocolate wheat. Otherwise you might end up with too much roast and it won't be an IPA.

I also agree with moving hops. I prefer to have a 60m hop, then everything else 20m or less. I think you need more late hops. Also, an IPA without hop aroma get's dinged... dryhop that IPA sir.

Swap to Carafa III = good call!

Congrats on taking the leap into scratch recipes!

Along with Belgian Strongs, IIPAs are my favorite beer and black IPAs - even better.

I don't have much advice for your malt selections, but I tend to agree with the advice regarding the hops. With the black IPAs, heavy hops are needed to balance the other aromas. Lots at 60, then LOTS at F/O and dry hopping - that's what I'd do.

It would be great to follow your brewing experience with this first recipe. Whatever you settle on, I hope you post your progress. I have not tried a black IPA yet but was thinking I'd brew one or two (or 5, or 15) batches this fall. I'd surely learn a lot from your experiences.

Good luck-

If you're using brew software, keep good notes and tweak your recipe along the way. May take a couple tries to get it where you want it (more hops here, less of that grain there, longer mash here, etc.) but it's fun to chronicle and have total ownership over the outcome.

The attenuation seems too good to be true, even with notty from 1.079 to 1.012 its a lot.

thanks for the advice guys!!! i will be adjusting my hops as suggested. I dont have any carafa, but i do have some roasted barley, would that be better than the black patent? I would pick some up, but i'm hoping to brew weds as my old man is making a last minute trip to visit, and i couldnt get any here by then.

I think the suggestion for carafa instead of black patent is to reduce the roasted flavor. Switching to roasted barley would still give that roasted flavor. I also agree with the suggestions to move back your hop schedule. I always dry hop my ipa's. You can always try the malt profile you have, and if it's too roasty, you can adjust it the next time you brew it. Tweaking what you've already brewed is part of the fun of creating your own recipe and you will have a better judgement of the flavors of each malt type in your recipe. Good luck and let us know what you choose. Cheers :rockin:

If you can't find carafa, I'd suggest midnight wheat. It gives that desired dark color with no roasty flavors. Then just add a touch of chocolate or roasted barley to add that desired hint of roasty flavor.

I found that in my last BIPA using carafa II to get the color I wanted actually caused the beer to be too roasty. My next attempt will be using midnight wheat and a touch of chocolate.

I was researching this myself not to long ago. What I've found, is that many recipes use a combination of Black malt and Carafa III. And the total roast malts make up no more than 5% of the total grain bill. And as others have mentioned, you may want to add more late addition hops and a dry hop.

I may cut the black patent down even more. I can keep the srm to 20 with only a minimal amount of black. It will be more like a dirty iipa. I want a hint of dark malt flavor, but nothing more than that.

My all-time favorite CDA uses Carafa II, C 120 and C 80, it has just has a hint of roasty-ness.

You could also go with Blackprinz malt. I had 8oz of Briess Black Malt in my last IBA. Also 8oz of Caramunich II.