Black IPA recipe critique

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thejuanald

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Hey everyone, I'm going to be trying my hand at a black ipa and I was hoping to get some feedback. It's going to be a big one. This is for a 5 gallon batch.

1.5-2L starter of WLP001

14.5 lbs 2 Row
1 lb Carafa III
1 lb Crystal 60

Mash at 150 for 90 minutes
60 min boil

3 oz Equinox (FWH)
1 oz Equinox (10 min)
1 oz Equinox (flameout)
1 lb Dextrose (flameout)

Ferment at 65F
1 or 2 oz Equinox dry hop (7 days)

What do you guys think?
 
Hey everyone, I'm going to be trying my hand at a black ipa and I was hoping to get some feedback. It's going to be a big one. This is for a 5 gallon batch.

1.5-2L starter of WLP001

14.5 lbs 2 Row
1 lb Carafa III
1 lb Crystal 60

Mash at 150 for 90 minutes
60 min boil

3 oz Equinox (FWH)
1 oz Equinox (10 min)
1 oz Equinox (flameout)
1 lb Dextrose (flameout)

Ferment at 65F
1 or 2 oz Equinox dry hop (7 days)

What do you guys think?

Sounds interesting. Maybe no one else is responding because they haven't heard of equinox hops. I haven't but good luck with it. The recipe seems ok for a black IPA. With 14.5 lbs of 2 row and 1 lb of dextrose it should be a "crowd pleaser". At least for me :cross:
 
Green pepper flavor in beer. :eek:

A pronounced aroma profile with citrus, tropical fruit, floral and herbal characteristics. Specific descriptors include lemon, lime, papaya, apple, and green pepper.
 
Sounds interesting. Maybe no one else is responding because they haven't heard of equinox hops. I haven't but good luck with it. The recipe seems ok for a black IPA. With 14.5 lbs of 2 row and 1 lb of dextrose it should be a "crowd pleaser". At least for me :cross:
Thanks for the input, yeah I only heard of equinox this year when I tried Southern Tier's 2XOne SMaSH double IPA and I love it.

What do you think about midnight wheat in place of carafa? I have no experience with either really.
 
Green pepper flavor in beer. :eek:

A pronounced aroma profile with citrus, tropical fruit, floral and herbal characteristics. Specific descriptors include lemon, lime, papaya, apple, and green pepper.

I love equinox, but I never got green pepper notes
 
Thanks for the input, yeah I only heard of equinox this year when I tried Southern Tier's 2XOne SMaSH double IPA and I love it.

What do you think about midnight wheat in place of carafa? I have no experience with either really.

I used midnight wheat (along with Blackprinz) in my recent Black IPA and I regretted not adding any roasted barley (or even chocolate malt). There wasn't enough roasty flavors, it was like a regular IPA that I used those grains to make it black. The Carafa will be very similar. Very low (if any) astringency, very smooth, and little to no roast flavor.
 
I used midnight wheat (along with Blackprinz) in my recent Black IPA and I regretted not adding any roasted barley (or even chocolate malt). There wasn't enough roasty flavors, it was like a regular IPA that I used those grains to make it black. The Carafa will be very similar. Very low (if any) astringency, very smooth, and little to no roast flavor.

The original idea of a black IPA was really not to have a lot of roasty flavors - hence the use of Carafa III which does not impart roast like roasted barley does.

Of course we all have our preferences and the black IPA style has really broadened over the past few years. But I tend to think of a roasty IPA as really being a hoppy porter or stout.
 
If you can get it, I would switch the CIII to either blackpinz or midnight wheat. They are darker and impart less roast.

Ive been working on the perfect technique for black IPAs for a while. Ive found that if you add the dark malt just for a mashout, you get even less roast. This helps tremendously since you want to differentiate this beer from a hoppy stout as much as possible.

Along that same note, mash low to help dry the beer out as much as possible and take out the crystal. This will also help accentuate the hop profile. Its especially important in black IPAs to have as little specialty malts as possible since you already need a significant amount ot get it black.

I would turn you hop schedule on its head. 3 oz at flameout for a hopstand. 3oz for a FWH will be very very bitter. Combined with the bitterness from the dark malts, this will get out of hand IME.

As it stand now, I think you have a very hoppy stout on your hands. Not a black IPA
 
Thanks for the input, yeah I only heard of equinox this year when I tried Southern Tier's 2XOne SMaSH double IPA and I love it.

What do you think about midnight wheat in place of carafa? I have no experience with either really.

Side note: Southern tiers 2xONE is not made with equinox. Its mosiac. If you love that beer so much, I would definitely swap for mosaic
 
Thanks for the info everyone! I ended up brewing it yesterday with 1oz fwh, 1 at 30 min, 1 at 10 and 2 at flameout. Mashed at 150. I went all carafa III because my local shop didn't have midnight wheat. It looks great and I hit all my marks for the first time with this setup. I will definitely look into adding the dark malts at the very end of the mash.

It may end up being a hoppy stout but that's okay. I will probably make it again in my next batch with midnight wheat and maybe half a pound of carafa III or maybe forego the carafa altogether depending on how this turns out. Thanks again for all the recommendations!

Side note: Southern tiers 2xONE is not made with equinox. Its mosiac. If you love that beer so much, I would definitely swap for mosaic

No it isn't. The 2014 was mosaic, the 2015 was equinox and superior pale malt.
http://www.stbcbeer.com/2xone/
 
Great thank you! It's set at 65 right now. Should i raise the temp up a bit after a week or so? White labs says 68-73 which seems real high
 
The original idea of a black IPA was really not to have a lot of roasty flavors - hence the use of Carafa III which does not impart roast like roasted barley does.

Of course we all have our preferences and the black IPA style has really broadened over the past few years. But I tend to think of a roasty IPA as really being a hoppy porter or stout.

True enough. For my preference, mine could have used just a slight more roasty flavor. I also overdid some Chinook, so it could be that that flavor is overpowering.
 
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