Imperial Black Farmhouse Style IPA - critique please

I have a nice healthy Wyeast 3724 yeast cake that will be available soon. I was planning an imperial black ale, but I can't help myself and am going to make a "kitchen sink" imperial belgian style india ale out with a bunch of grains I have left over and a pile of hops. THrow it on the 3724 yeast cake. Let me know what you think

12 gallon batch

20 pound vienna
3 pounds rye
2 pounds oats
1 pound c40
1 pounc carafaa III (debittered)
2 pounds dark candi sugar
2 oz millenium at 60 (roughly 40 IBU contribution)

1 oz cascade at 30

1 oz cascade at 10
1 oz glacier at 10
1 oz amarillo at 10

1 oz cascade at 180 degree steep
1 oz amarillo at 180 degree steep
1 oz glacier at 180 degree steep

2 oz summit dry
2 oz columbus dry

OG roughly 1.075
FG roughly 1.010

I'm interested! I'd sparge over the carafa 3 though. I it will help the other malt characters show through a little more.

Double_D said:

I'm interested! I'd sparge over the carafa 3 though. I it will help the other malt characters show through a little more.

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Thats a great idea. I also have a myriad of other hop varieties available if some would work better

willamete
summit
vanguard
spalter
glacier
amarillo
nugget
centennial
chinook
columbus
galena
millenium
northern brewer

I am sure I am forgetting some....I have a stocked freezer full

Jesus! I thought I had a lot of hops! I might go with something spicey/floral like amarillo and citra on the dry hop especially since it's kind of a saison/ipa/black/specialty thing. Summit and columbus will lean the finished product more in an IPA way.

Great, amarillo has always reminded me of a belgian yeast derrived flavor for some reason. I may go with some amarillo on the dry hop. Thats a good call.

Hey, how did this turn out?

ahpsp said:

Hey, how did this turn out?

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I hit my gravities perfectly at 1.075 OG and 1.009 FG. This was after 6 weeks in primary at 85-90 degrees. I dry hopped with the columbus and summit for the last two weeks of the fermentation.

Right away the beer was very fiery and rough, but has morphed into an ultra complex, super drinkable, one of a kind black ale. The yeast isn't neary as pronounced as it would be in a normal saison, the malts and hops clearly mask some yeast derrived flavors, but when you swirl the glass and take a whiff...there are some aromas that you cant quite put your finger on....thats the yeast. Its has IPA kick and bitterness, great aroma from hops and yeast and so many flavors going on that you just want to keep drinking it to see what else you can discover. The only problem i have found is the ABV....its strong stuff

I want to try something like this with some nelson sauvin, sounds delicious!