Looking for critique/input

I want to brew a black IPA, and am looking at starting with something like 21st Amendment Brewery's "Back in Black". Their website lists a lot of the ingredients, but obviously there are still gaps in the recipe. I am just sort of winging this so far, but am contemplating:

Mash at 152:
10 lbs pale malt
2 lbs Munich malt
1 lb Crystal 40
0.5 lbs de bittered black malt

Boil:
1 oz Columbus - 60 mins
2 oz Columbus - 20 mins
2 oz Centennial - 15 mins
1 oz Centennial - 0 mins

Pitch dry US 05, ferment at 68*

Any thoughts?

Well, I ordered ingredients, but the store didn't have Columbus or Centennial hops... so instead I'll be brewing:

Mash at 152:
10 lbs pale malt
2 lbs Munich malt
1 lb Crystal 40
0.5 lbs de bittered black malt

Boil:
1 oz Nugget - 60 mins
2 oz Nugget - 20 mins
1 oz Centennial - 15 mins
1 0z Falconers Flight - 15 mins
1 oz Falconers Flight - 0 mins

Pitch dry US 05, ferment at 68*

Guess I'll know how it turns out in 4-5 weeks.

Not that there is a lot of interest...but I finally brewed this yesterday, althought the recipe changed again, due to me being stupid. I only ordered 1oz of the nugget and folconers flight hops so instead I made:

Mash at 152: (nailed the mash temps)
10 lbs pale malt
2 lbs Munich malt
1 lb Crystal 40
0.5 lbs de bittered black malt

Boil:
1 oz Centennial - 60 mins
0.5 oz Cascade - 60 mins
1 oz Nugget - 20 mins
1 0z Centennial - 15 mins
1 oz Falconers Flight - 0 mins

Pitch dry US 05, ferment at 68*

I may dry hop it with something (simcoe or amarillo maybe...) but I don't have anything good on hand and don't know if I can make it to the brewshop for ingredients.

That looks very tasty. The early Centennial and Cascade should add neutral bittering, the early Nugget should add a bit of spice, and those aromatics should give it a very distinct West Coast finish. Nice choice of hops.
Please let us know how it turns out, especially how you think the Nugget influenced it.

Oh, I have a lot of interest! But I've only sampled that beer once, and have no idea of recipe tweaks or anything helpful at all to say, and that's why I didn't respond earlier.

But I'll be watching this thread to see the results, as it looks good to me!

Epimetheus said:

That looks very tasty. The early Centennial and Cascade should add neutral bittering, the early Nugget should add a bit of spice, and those aromatics should give it a very distinct West Coast finish. Nice choice of hops.
Please let us know how it turns out, especially how you think the Nugget influenced it.

Click to expand...

Glad to hear. I am just starting to get a rough handle on the flavors the more common hops impart. I brew a lot with centennial and cascade (hence why I had extra of those to toss in last minute when I realized my error in ordering), but this is my first use of nugget. I didn't realize how high the alpha acid was in the nugget until re-planning my schedule. At over 13% I was worried my replacement wouldn't add the same level of bitterness. I'll keep my fingers crossed, and will report back how it turned out in a few weeks. I am currently hoping it will be ready for a bachelor party in about 5 weeks, but I don't know if that will be enough time. Oh, also since I forgot to put it in the previous post, my OG was 1.068, which should put it in the right ballpark for ABV depending on how it finishes up.

Yooper said:

Oh, I have a lot of interest! But I've only sampled that beer once, and have no idea of recipe tweaks or anything helpful at all to say, and that's why I didn't respond earlier.

But I'll be watching this thread to see the results, as it looks good to me!

Click to expand...

Hehe, well alrighty I guess I underestimated the interest :cross: I hope I didn't sound mopey or upset, I just felt a little funny having all the posts in the thread...I didn't want to spam somehting nobody cares about, but at the same time I like to post my random questions and musings on HBT, both to get input, and so I can track it myself in the future. I have a brew journal for the more objective information I need, but sometimes I just want to float an idea around. And of course I can't even count the number of things I have learned by lurking around here, so I figure maybe my own pondering will help somebody else out down the road.

I'll try and report back how the beer turns out, I have kind of high hopes after the brew day went so smoothly. I finally bought a better thermometer for my mash temps. Not a thermopen, but another thermoworks one that has a 1*F accuracy, it just doesn't go over 300* and it reads in 5-6 seconds, but it was only $30. Usuaully I would fret over my mash temps being off, but this time it was a piece of cake to track them.

So I kegged this last Thursday and quick-carbed it by shaking it for 30 minutes while under about 14-15psi on Friday morning for the party weekend. It turned out to be pretty spectacular in my opinion. Nice roastiness from teh de-bittered black, and the hop schedule gave a not-overwhelming bitter backbone with good hop flavors that I can't quite describe. It was actually closer to my target beer (21st Ammendment's 'Back in Black') than I expected with all my recipe changes, but was definitely not exactly the same. I really couldn't be happier and will almost certainly be brewing this beer (or something very similar) on a regular basis.

I got rave reviews from everyone at the party as well, including "Wow, I could drink this all day" ...so we did! The keg barely made it through the weekend, I think it has a couple pints left, but it is definitely floating in the ice bucket.

Epimetheus said:

That looks very tasty. The early Centennial and Cascade should add neutral bittering, the early Nugget should add a bit of spice, and those aromatics should give it a very distinct West Coast finish. Nice choice of hops.
Please let us know how it turns out, especially how you think the Nugget influenced it.

Click to expand...

Re-reading this comment helped to put some words to the flavors, thanks.

I would definitely say the "West Coast finish" was there, and I was very happy with how it balanced out the roasted flavors from the malt. As far as a "spice" flavor from the Nugget, I don't know if I have ever really tasted what I would describe as "spice" from a beer, but I will sya it had a certain "bite" ...sort of like a barq's root beer does. Just a slight kind of sharpness to the hop flavor as soon as it hits your tongue. Sort of a dry flavor maybe...I can't really put the right description to it, but maybe it is actually what others have described as "spice". I would almost say it was like a nice acidic white wine, where you get a little sour punch when it hits your mouth, but that said I wouldn't describe this beer as sour or acidic really...but the taste was similar I think.