What should my water profile be for a Black IPA?

[vance]

Here's my recipe:

9# Maris Otter
4# white wheat
.75# cara-pils
.75# carafa III special (dehusked)

1 oz Chinook @ 60
0.5 oz HBC472 @ 20
0.5 oz " " @ 15
1 oz " " @ 5
1 oz " " @ 0
1 oz Citra @ 0

I've never made a dark beer like this before, I've made mostly just NE IPAs since I got into using RO water + additions. What should my profile look like?

 

[Yooper]

Here's my recipe:

9# Maris Otter
4# white wheat
.75# cara-pils
.75# carafa III special (dehusked)

1 oz Chinook @ 60
0.5 oz HBC472 @ 20
0.5 oz " " @ 15
1 oz " " @ 5
1 oz " " @ 0
1 oz Citra @ 0

I've never made a dark beer like this before, I've made mostly just NE IPAs since I got into using RO water + additions. What should my profile look like?

If you like your water for NE IPAs, that's a good place to start for IPAs. I don't use a ton of sulfate in most of my IPAs, but many people do. A mash pH of 5.4 or so is what I generally target.

 

[vance]

If you like your water for NE IPAs, that's a good place to start for IPAs. I don't use a ton of sulfate in most of my IPAs, but many people do. A mash pH of 5.4 or so is what I generally target.

I haven't really settled on a specific profile because I haven't brewed the same recipe repeatedly to get a sense of what the water profile actually does. I should probably do that, but I usually just take Braufessor's water profile and tweak it a bit depending on what mood I'm in when I make the recipe. Do you think that'd be a good fit?

 

[saltymirv]

I personally would do a classic West Coast profile. High SO4 and low Cl. Black IPA is, after all, a West Coast style

 

[treebeerd]

I used this with my last BIPA.

Calcium: 75.00 ppm
Sulfate: 141.00 ppm
Magnesium: 8.00 ppm
Chloride: 51.00 ppm
Sodium: 40.00 ppm Bicarbonate: 69.00 ppm

My recipe did have a higher percentage of dark grains, whole pound.

 

[vance]

I used this with my last BIPA.

Calcium: 75.00 ppm
Sulfate: 141.00 ppm
Magnesium: 8.00 ppm
Chloride: 51.00 ppm
Sodium: 40.00 ppm Bicarbonate: 69.00 ppm

My recipe did have a higher percentage of dark grains, whole pound.

What was your recipe? I'm usually not a dark beer person but a friend of mine brewed a BIPA with just the touch of carafa III, and it had just the right amount of coffee and roasty notes that it wasn't too much for my tastes.

Either way, thanks for the profile.

 

[treebeerd]

12 # 2-row
8 oz Caramel 80L
8 oz Carafa III
8 oz Black Prinz

Warrior @ 60
Chinook/Centennial/Columbus @ 20, 5, 0

I liked this beer, but when I make it again I'll probably cut out the C80 and replace with a pound or two of Vienna or White Wheat.

 

[vance]

Got it, thanks. My hope is that the maris otter will provide a bit of malt depth and sweetness that the C80 did in your recipe, but we'll see how it goes.