India Black Ale /Cascadian Dark Recipe Help

In all my brewing days, I have yet to try one of these. I finally ordered up 3#s of dehusked carfa III so I am going to give it a little shot here. Those that have made a good example of this, please chime in.

One of my questions, is do I add some chocolate malt to get some roasty flavor?

Proposed Rough Draft Recipe


11 gallon batch
19 pounds two row
4 pounds vienna
1 pounds C20
2 pounds Dehusked Carafa III
Mash at 152
WLP001 starter (4 liters stir plate)
1.5 oz millenium @ 60
1 oz chinook at 30
1 oz centennial @10
1 oz amarillo @10
1 oz chinook @10
1 oz centennial @0
1 oz amarillo @0
1 oz chinook @0

2 oz centennial dry hop
2 oz columbus dry hop

IBU roughly 60-70
OG = 1.065
FG = 1.012

If you make these too roasty it's basically a hoppy stout. I'd just sparge over the carafa and go with what you've got.

Double_D said:

I'd just sparge over the carafa and go with what you've got.

Click to expand...

I batch sparge, so add the carafa to the sparge? color with less roasty flavor. Ditch the choco malt altoghether then?

The batch I am about to dry hop used 8oz of chocolate and 12oz of carafa II for a 5 gallon batch. I felt the roasty flavors were just noticeable and not overpowering. It still tastes like a IPA, just a little roasty. I can't wait to see how it tastes once it's been carbed and dry hopped.

I used some chocolate in my CDA. It has a nice coffee/chocolate flavor, with some nice hop aroma/bitterness. Maybe it's technically a "hoppy stout", but we're talking a continuum here. Anyways, I like it quite a bit.