Specialty IPA: Black IPA Darth Vader - Black IPA

I brewed this about 7.5 weeks ago and it's bottle conditioned for 4 weeks

It has a weird taste... Almost medicinal kinda licorice like

Anyone get this taste?

I'm doing a variation on this, this weekend. I'm upping hops by 40%, did .75# special roast. The original recipe came out to 50 IBUs using Rager, want it a bit higher

CliffMongoloid said:

I brewed this about 7.5 weeks ago and it's bottle conditioned for 4 weeks

It has a weird taste... Almost medicinal kinda licorice like

Anyone get this taste?

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I've done this one twice with 001 and never got any medicinal or licorice tastes from it - young or aged (4+ months). Did you make any changes to the original recipe?

Only slightly... Recipe is below

CliffMongoloid said:

Only slightly... Recipe is below

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Are you using straight municipal tap water? I've heard that chlorine/chloramine treatments can result in a licorice flavor.

dickproenneke said:

Are you using straight municipal tap water? I've heard that chlorine/chloramine treatments can result in a licorice flavor.

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No... I used well water

CliffMongoloid said:

No... I used well water

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Well that was my best guess...

You mentioned a "medicinal" flavor. Palmer's book states:

Medicinal
These flavors are often described as mediciney, Band-Aid™ like, or can be spicy like cloves. The cause are various phenols which are initially produced by the yeast. Chlorophenols result from the reaction of chlorine-based sanitizers (bleach) with phenol compounds and have very low taste thresholds. Rinsing with boiled water after sanitizing is the best way to prevent these flavors.

Hmm maybe it's one of the ingredients... I've tasted this taste i am attempting to describe before in other Dark beers ...Racer 5 big bear stout comes to mind

CliffMongoloid said:

No... I used well water

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Have you done a ph and mineral check on your well water? You can get one at Home Depot or lowes... I haven't had this problem, of course I've only brewed it once, but have tasted it all through the process and this batch is at about 6-8 weeks old now

davek said:

Have you done a ph and mineral check on your well water? You can get one at Home Depot or lowes... I haven't had this problem, of course I've only brewed it once, but have tasted it all through the process and this batch is at about 6-8 weeks old now

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Here's a link to a water test kit
http://www.todayshealthyhome.com/purtest_water_test_kits.htm#.UWGmp1fuzKc

CliffMongoloid said:

No... I used well water

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I hate to ask, but don't they use fracking in Honesdale, Pa?

Just brewed this the other night and is bubbling away right now. Looks good and I can't wait to stick these labels on it and give it a try.

Wow. This is one of the best home-brew labels I have ever seen!

Scooby_Brew said:

I hate to ask, but don't they use fracking in Honesdale, Pa?

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I haven't heard anything bad about it tho

CliffMongoloid said:

I haven't heard anything bad about it tho

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There have been reports recently about chemicals from hydrologic fracturing leeching into well water. If they are drilling near your well, then you may want to do an independent test on your well. It very well may be the source of your off-flavors... I live in the city and have heavily chlorinated tap water, so I just use bottled h2o. Never had any problems with off flavors from my brews

"Fracking Black" IPA.

Scooby_Brew said:

Wow. This is one of the best home-brew labels I have ever seen!

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ThAnk you very much.

Thanks for the compliment on the label

This recipe had my curiosity and now it has my attention! I can't wait to tuck into brewing this on Sunday.. and then the waiting, always with the waiting.. cheers guys, I've picked up plenty of tips here for this.

That said, I've got amarillo & cascade in the freezer so might use these hops but keep the malt/extract bill.. would this be wise or should i stick to the plan?!

Also, kudos for having metric measurements!

What style would you put this in for a home brew Competition?

CliffMongoloid said:

What style would you put this in for a home brew Competition?

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Depends on the criteria. If it's a BJCP sanctioned comp unfortunately it can only be entered as "specialty beer".

I brewed this for the second time now. I mashed a little differently which left me with far more volume collected before boiling. Time did not allow me to boil it all off. Because of this I fermented about a gallon more than I would have liked. I plan to eliminate the extra by eising before kegging. Anyone got any thoughts on this?

Brewing up a Mr. Beer sized extract version of this right now. Subbing the Centenial with .5 oz magnum and .5oz cascade because thats what I had and threw in 2 oz of amber candy sugar because I had it. Ill post back when its bottled for a bit.

Also gonna dry hop with some Warrior. Pretty much just stealing your base and hopping on my own .

Thanks for the recipe. I brewed one keg as a gift for my firend's birthday party and everybody loved it, me included Here is some picture from the party.

I brewed the extract version of this and it came out dark brown. Not black at all. It tastes awesome, but I was hoping for that black color. It has no toasty taste like the widmer does. Do you think the local LHBS subbed something and it got by me or didn't say anything?

I guess I will have to brew it again, darn all the bad luck.

nice

keggle said:

I brewed the extract version of this and it came out dark brown. Not black at all. It tastes awesome, but I was hoping for that black color. It has no toasty taste like the widmer does. Do you think the local LHBS subbed something and it got by me or didn't say anything?

I guess I will have to brew it again, darn all the bad luck.

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I brewed the extract version several months ago. Mine was a real dark reddish brown when it went into the fermenter, however it was black coming out of the bottles! It's gone now, I need to brew it again!!!

I got the same result. Bottled last week and it was pretty dark. Ill post in a few more weeks when I crack the first and post a pic.

nab911 said:

I got the same result. Bottled last week and it was pretty dark. Ill post in a few more weeks when I crack the first and post a pic.

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I posted a pic early in this thread but here's another...

Yeah I don't know what you did wrong. Mine is jet black. Opaque. here is my extract:



It is amazing. Great job on the recipe. I modified it a bit as I always do.

Same grains/extract, added some belgian candied sugar.
Hop bill was:
.5 oz Magnum at 60
.5 Cascade at 60
1 Cascade at 45
1 Willamette at 25
.5 Cascade at 0
.5 Warrior at 0
Dry hop 1 oz citra for 10 days.

Yes, strange bill but it's what I had and what I wanted to try out for a nice hoppy black ipa. Came out awesome.

I'm going to give this recipe a try. When I enter it into beersmith, with the hops my LHBS has, I only calculate 48.7 IBUs though. Should I just brew it as is, or should I up one or more of the hops?

Just add some more bittering hops till you hit the IBU in BeerSmith.

Brewing a 5.5 gallon batch of this right now

Good luck!

How long should this be dry hopped?

GeorgiaMead said:

How long should this be dry hopped?

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Don't ever dry hop for longer than 10 days. I like to do 5-7. The BEST way to dry hop that I've found is in a bucket with the hops in a paint strainer bag. Then after a week pull the hop sack out, and with clean hands squeeze the juice out of the hop sack. Give a couple days for the debris to settle, and then package. You won't get a better aroma in your beer than this method.

Ok I'm doing a 1 gallon batch, so ill prob just drop it in and re rack after 5 days

I going try do a 1 gallon this cool name an good beer
Happy brewering

I'm wondering how long should this stay in primary? Beersmith says 4 days then transfer to secondary for 10 days then bottle... And seasoned brewers have conflicting views cause I'm up for the task

GeorgiaMead said:

I'm wondering how long should this stay in primary? Beersmith says 4 days then transfer to secondary for 10 days then bottle... And seasoned brewers have conflicting views cause I'm up for the task

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I would do 3 weeks in primary. 2 for fermentation and 1 for dry hop.