Dark IPA - thoughts

I've been wanting to try building up a dark IPA recipe. And I don't mean dark as in a regular IPA that's just darker. I want to notice the roasted and caramel flavors under the aggressive hop profile. So basically a beer that hits you like an IPA but has the complexity and body of a strong brown to mild porter.

I've been fiddling with a recipe calculator, and think I've come up with something that looks pretty interesting. Being still a novice at recipe design (This will be the 6th I've crafted), I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. It's an extract recipe:

Grains:
3.3 lbs Amber LME - 33%
3 lbs Dark DME - 31%
1 lbs Caramunich II - 10%
1 lbs CaraPils - 10%
12 oz Chocolate Malt - 8%
12 oz Roasted Barley - 8%

Hops:
1oz Chinook - 60 mins
1oz Northern Brewer - 60 mins
1oz Chinook - 45 mins
1oz Willamette - 30 mins
1oz Northern Brewer - 5 mins
1oz Willamette - 1 min
2oz Willamette - Dry Hop

Yeast:
Standard American Ale WyYeast 1054

Numbers:
OG: 1.062
FG: 1.016
Color: 29* SRM
Bitterness: 77.2 IBU
ABV: 6.1%

My reservations are basically the hop selection. I tried to stay away from citrus and more towards an earthy/minty hop balance. I'm also thinking that I need to really boost the IBU to compensate for the nut, caramel and roast flavors from the specialty grains. Like most IPAs, I want the hop profile to dominate the beer initially, but then open up to let the complexity of the malts to come through. Do you think this will hit that goal? Or will it be too dominated by one area of the recipe (hops is my thought for domination).

Thanks...

I'd probably drop the @ 1 min Willamete, and just add that to the dry hop schedule.

Roasted Barley - bad idea. Does not play well with high hop levels. I'd drop it and back off on the Chocolate.

david_42 said:

Roasted Barley - bad idea. Does not play well with high hop levels. I'd drop it and back off on the Chocolate.

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Thanks for the quick reply!

So if I drop the roasted barley, and bring back the chocolate to 1/2 lbs (8 oz), that brings be down to 25* SRM (which I'd like a touch higher, but that's still good) and 82.7 IBU (which may be a bit too bitter).

What do think think should be added to compensate? Perhaps a very tiny bit (3 to 4 oz) of black patent malt? Or perhaps a small amount of CaraFa I (or II)?

I'd try and go after some Carafa III if you can find it. That alone will make the beer dark enough. Wouldn't need patent, chocolate, or roasted barley.

ircmaxell said:

Thanks for the quick reply!

So if I drop the roasted barley, and bring back the chocolate to 1/2 lbs (8 oz), that brings be down to 25* SRM (which I'd like a touch higher, but that's still good) and 82.7 IBU (which may be a bit too bitter).

What do think think should be added to compensate? Perhaps a very tiny bit (3 to 4 oz) of black patent malt? Or perhaps a small amount of CaraFa I (or II)?

Click to expand...

I've been tinkering a lot of Dark IPA recipes, here's a little tidbit on what I've picked up on it to make sure it tastes more like an IPA than a stout or Porter:

Drop off the Roasted Barley and Dark DME, and make sure to used DeHusked Carafa. Just use all amber DME and sub in .5lbs of Dark Candi Sugar for some of the DME. It'll darken your beer A LOT and it'll cut down on some of the excess body of using dark malts. I'll be putting up my Dark Double Rye IPA recipe up soon on here, and you'll see what I'm getting at As for your Hops, rock on, looks like a good Combo. If you add the sugar you'll want to cut them back a bit though Good luck man!

oh crap, also forgot, make sure to sub in a pound of Pale 2 Row into your steeping!

I really want to make a dark IPA also. Does the carafa III give you a good flavor as well, or is it mostly for color. As you said, I don't want something that's just dark colored. I want to taste the dark malts.

Carafa III doesn't impart much flavor, only a slight roasty smell. It's basically just for color, and the roast quality is usually not very noticeable if you dry hop the **** out of it. I dry hopped with 4 oz of Amarillo in mine. It was incredible.

It's going to give you some flavor for sure, but not nearly as harsh or acidic as many other dark malts. It's going to be a bit rounder than that and give you those undertones you're looking for

chapa said:

I really want to make a dark IPA also. Does the carafa III give you a good flavor as well, or is it mostly for color. As you said, I don't want something that's just dark colored. I want to taste the dark malts.

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A half pound of Carafa III and 2oz debittered black patent was perfect in mine, a delicious slight roastiness to go with the blackness