What kind of beer did I make?! IIPA gone horribly wrong

I set out to make an Imperial India Pale ale, and tried to get a slightly darker hue than your average IPA. What came out after conditioning was not at all what I had planned on; And I can't seem to find a style of beer that this fits into;

Here was the recipe for a 2 gal batch;


Extract:
4.0 lbs Alexander Pale LME
1.0 lb Amber DME
Specialty Grains:
½ lb Caramel 80L
½ lb Caramel 60L
½ cup Roasted Barley
HOPS
1/2 oz Cascade 60 minutes
1/2 oz cascade 30 minutes
1.0 oz Amarillo 15 minutes
1/2 oz Amarillo 0 minutes (remained in primary fermenter)
Yeast:
Liquid Wyeast 1056


Specific Gravity: 1.100
Final Gravity: 1.019
ABV: 10.5%

I tasted this last night for the first time, but I can't classify this beer. It had a mild floral nose, sweet fore taste and a mild bitter after taste. (I really suck at describing beer taste). The color was darker than obsidian glass. It's too hoppy to be a porter or stout, but too dark and malty to be an IPA or pale ale, and the gravity was way higher than I wanted.

It's almost like an over-hopped, really dark barley wine.

Black IPA?... isaw a recipe for that on here once

Yeah, I'd say a dark hoppy barley wine is about what you have there. I'm surprised your 1056 took it that low. Really pushing that 1056 to the limits.

Zen_Brew said:

Yeah, I'd say a dark hoppy barley wine is about what you have there. I'm surprised your 1056 took it that low. Really pushing that 1056 to the limits.

Click to expand...

Well, I used a smack pack that was designed for a 5 gallon batch, and I only brewed 2 gallons. Would that affect the terminal gravity?

Arrogant-er Bastard?

EddieLovesYou said:

Arrogant-er Bastard?

Click to expand...

Wrong hops. haha.

I'd call it beer and stick with that. Not everything needs a label.

And if you really need a label, "dark American ale" works. American seems to imply hops.

carnevoodoo said:

Wrong hops. haha.

I'd call it beer and stick with that. Not everything needs a label.

Click to expand...

Drop a couple of Chinook buds in the glass

forces said:

Well, I used a smack pack that was designed for a 5 gallon batch, and I only brewed 2 gallons. Would that affect the terminal gravity?

Click to expand...

For that kinda gravity beleive it or not, a smack pack was still a tad low. The Mr Malty pitching calculator calls for 1.4 vials without a starter for 2 gallons at 1.100 gravity. Still I was impressed because the upper alcohol tolerance of 1056 is listed as 10%. Surprised they got it to 10.5% before they petered out.

Agreed, not everything needs to be classified. I am relatively new to home brewing (this was my 6th batch) and first that wasn't a recipe that I found online or in a book. So I was trying to decide what beers to compare this to so I could understand the process of creating your own recipe a little better...

For now, I'll just stick with calling it "Hella-Hop-Tar" Barley Wine (Pronounced like "Helicopter") If I do it again I will probably use Centenial and Chinook. Thats whats in Rogue uses in their Old Crustacean Barley Wine

Just remember that a little black patent goes a long way. You used enough to blacken a 5 gallon batch. And with all that 60 and 80L in there already, it is no wonder it was so black.