What do ya'll think of this recipe?

[Die_Yankees_Die]

Hey all.

Brewed my first batch of beer--a kit-made I2pa. It's been in the primary for about a week now. I decided I was bored with the following directions and decided to just jump right into AG recipe creation. So...I'm pretty much set on this idea, but was wondering if there are any huge blunders or red flags you all can see.

It's sort of an Un-American B.P.A. (black pale ale)

Grain:

8 lbs 6 row
1 lb brown malt
1 lb chocolate malt
1 lb roasted barley
1/2 lb flaked barley


Boil:

t0 +1oz magnum hops
t15 +1oz magnum hops, +1oz chinook hops
t60-+1oz chinook hops
dry hop-2oz chinook hops

Notthingham yeast

shoot for an OG of about 1.065ish and FG of 1.02 ish for an ABV of 6%

What do you all think? Thanks for the input.

 

[Die_Yankees_Die]

by an-american I mean it's of course nutty and amberish in some degree. Not that it's brewed in North Korea.

 

[gcdowd]

Seems like a lot of dark malt, probably too much. 3 lbs of specialty malts on an 11 lb grain bill is 27%. It could be fine but seems on the high side for my tastes

 

[Die_Yankees_Die]

Do you count brown malt as a "dark malt"?

I was thinking 2 lbs of dark for an 11 lb mash wasn't bad...but I have no experience with brown malt.

 

[gcdowd]

Looks like Brown malt is about 60L, so medium. I've never used it though so I'm.not sure of the profile of it.

 

[gcdowd]

You can probably dial down the roasted barley by a bit, a pound is a lot. It lends a really roasted flavor.

 

[chickypad]

It's still over 17% roasted malt with the 2 lbs, that's pretty high even for a stout. If you are going more for a cascadian dark ale and want to showcase hops as I think you do, you probably want to drop the total way down and maybe go with some debittered. Also, not sure I understand your hop schedule, is the magnum supposed to be the bittering addition? Usually times are listed by how long the addition is boiled, not how much time is left.

 

[Die_Yankees_Die]

I reversed the hop schedule, didn't I? Made sense in my head. Yes, magnum is my bittering agent. Add that first. so t60.

Brown hops are an enigma to me. They're supposed to be a medium-bodied malt with a nutty character to them...but I can't decide if it's 60L or 0L. I've read both. Apparently there's a debate about how they used to be made (light brief toasting) as opposed to now (sustained, lower temp toasting) that destroys all enzyme.

Ok. Sounds like I'll lower my roasted barley to 1/2 a lb and compensate with 1/2 a lb more of brown (and cross my fingers it has that medium nut brown characteristic I'm going for). that would lower the %dark to 13%.

Sounding good? My mouth seems to be watering...

 

[chickypad]

Okay, so that magnum addition would be listed as 1 oz at 60 min, meaning you start timing the 60 min boil when you add it. I think you want the second addition at 15 min to go not 15 min into the boil or this is going to be hella bitter. Then the chinook at 0 min (flameout).
You're still going to be way too roasty for a brown ale with a whole lb of chocolate and 1/2 lb roasted barley. You may want to leave out the roasted barley altogether and drop the chocolate to like 1/2 lb.

 

[gcdowd]

And maybe drop the magnum at 15 min. Magnum is good for bittering, not sure about flavor wise. You may even want to go .5lbs chocolate and maybe .25 roasted barley off you want a little roasty flavor

 

[Yooper]

by an-american I mean it's of course nutty and amberish in some degree. Not that it's brewed in North Korea.

It won't be amberish- it'll be very very dark. It'll taste like a stout, with all that roasted malt.

Brown malt is very common in porters (it's roasty) and chocolate malt is roasty as well. Brown malt is NOT nutty. It's not the least bit sweet, or nutty- it's a roasty flavor for brown porter.

You've got a stout there. If you want a chinnook-hopped stout, then I think you'd like it. It'll be very roasty.

If you want an amber with nutty flavor, you have to totally rework the grainbill and get rid of the roast malt, brown malt and chocolate malt. Victory malt is nutty, and sort of "toasty" as well- that may be what you want instead of the brown malt. Some dark crystal malt can provide color and a hint of sweetness, and some carafa III special (dehusk) can give you a dark color- about 2 ounces or so.

 

[two_hearted]

You may want to leave out the roasted barley altogether and drop the chocolate to like 1/2 lb.

I agree with this. If your going for a black pale ale, I would reconsider the brown malt. If you want hoppy, slightly chocolately and black. I would go light on the chocolate malk and use something like a few ounces of carafa III to get black.

but if your going for a hoppy stout/porter you may want more roastiness and maltiness.

 

[Die_Yankees_Die]

I see...I was thinking brown malt was something it's not. I'm smelling it now and trying to get an accurate bearing on what it'll be like in beer. It doesn't smell that roasted. It smells pretty good.

chinook hopped stout eh? That also sounds nice. ok...then based off of all of your recommendations, I am now brewing a blackish/malty IPA with

8 lb 6 row
2 lb brown
1/2 lb chocolate
1/2 lb roasted
1/2 lb flaked barley

I'll let you all know how it turns out.

 

[Snisup]

Just punched it into BrewR.
1.054OG 70% eff
1.014FG
82 ibus!

This will be black and bitter... Just how I like my coffee...

 

[LovesIPA]

This will not turn out well IMO.

The style you're going for is called a black IPA. What you can't do is take a stout recipe, add a bunch more hops, and call it a black IPA. BIPA's often use de-husked Carafa III malt. This is a roasted malt that will give you the black color but not the harsh astringency of the traditional roasted or chocolate malts.

And, as others have said, you are using WAY too much roasted barley.

If you want a bitter stout, you would like what I have on tap right now. It's Northern Brewer's Big Honkin' Stout AG kit, but I added 0.75 oz of Columbus at the beginning of the boil. It tastes like a stout but at 90+ IBU's it's on the bitter side to say the least. It doesn't taste overly hoppy which is what I wanted with a stout. I'm VERY happy with how this came out.

 

[Yooper]

I see...I was thinking brown malt was something it's not. I'm smelling it now and trying to get an accurate bearing on what it'll be like in beer. It doesn't smell that roasted. It smells pretty good.

chinook hopped stout eh? That also sounds nice. ok...then based off of all of your recommendations, I am now brewing a blackish/malty IPA with

8 lb 6 row
2 lb brown
1/2 lb chocolate
1/2 lb roasted
1/2 lb flaked barley

I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Still a stout. It's not a black-ish malty IPA. It's a stout with lots of hops.

Brown malt is roasty (even if it doesn't smell that way, and come to think of it I don't think roasted barley smells roasty either- but taste it!). As an example, a Jamil's brown porter is about 8 pounds of two-row, and 1 pounds of brown malt with .5 pounds of chocolate malt. If you've ever had a porter, you'll know the level of roast from that much brown malt and chocolate malt. You've got twice as much PLUS roasted barley.

It's a pretty roasty stout you have there.

 

[stvo]

Still a stout. It's not a black-ish malty IPA. It's a stout with lots of hops.

Brown malt is roasty (even if it doesn't smell that way, and come to think of it I don't think roasted barley smells roasty either- but taste it!). As an example, a Jamil's brown porter is about 8 pounds of two-row, and 1 pounds of brown malt with .5 pounds of chocolate malt. If you've ever had a porter, you'll know the level of roast from that much brown malt and chocolate malt. You've got twice as much PLUS roasted barley.

It's a pretty roasty stout you have there.

Do yourself a favor and listen to Yooper.... With those ingredients I think you're probably better off getting a couple ounces of Williamette or Perle and just make a stout.. my 2 cents

 

[Brewcrew02]

This young man is bent on brewing. We have tried to warn him, but to no avail. Let him brew and be happy... When he tries his stout er... "Black Pale Brown Hoppy Amber", he will make the beer again, hopefully correcting the previous mistakes.

 

[Die_Yankees_Die]

This young man is bent on brewing.

Boy is that the truth. Brewed this batch last night. Hit my expected OG exactly upon dilution, used my new IC. Whole thing took me less than 3 hours. Woke up this morning and fermentation is bubbling nicely. Awesome.

As for if I made a mistake using too much roasted barley/brown malt...I can't say for sure. I tasted all of them like ya'll said. The brown just isn't that "roasted." Upon tasting the mash pre-boil, it tasted really nice. The brown malt seems to have lent a more malty character than a roasted character. It's clearly black, so it's an over-hopped stout as opposed to a black IPA. But even after adding the hops and tasting my wert--it tastes really good, much more so than my first batch--a I2PA kit.

If I think it tastes great before fermentation, I gotta imagine I won't hate it after. But then again I've never done AG brewing so I could be way off.

I thank all of you for your input, and I did tweak and lowered my original roasted grain by 1/2, so it's been very helpful. If I f'd it up, then I guess the boy's gotta brew and make the mistakes for himself--to a degree.

I'll let y'all know how it turns out.