Black IIPA extract recipe in works

Hello all, working on my extract recipe for next brew day... looking for some insight. Haven't thought about the hops yet, just looking for the "base."

I'm thinking of going with the following:

5 gal batch, full volume boil.

.5 lb of crushed Carafa III and .5 lb Crystal 40L - steeped for 30 mins
9 lbs DME - light
1 lb corn sugar - to dry out a bit
2 packs SA-05 or make a Starter?

OG somewhere around 1.090.

Am I on the right track?

Looking for a nice dark color, slight roasty-ness with a bit of mouthfeel and going to make a hop bomb of a schedule to top it off.

Will the additional lb of corn sugar dry it out too much if I'm using SA-05?

If you are looking for slight roastiness you may want to try carafa special (dehusked).

I made what I was hoping to be a black amber w/o roastiness and used 3/4 lb midnight wheat, a 1/4 lb of carafa I spl, with 1/4 lb of chocolate 350* and it had a slight roasting to it. Not quite porter-like but not what I was aiming for. My revision is for a slightly more mild version of said beer with the intentions of a mild smooth roasty flavor.

I don't think a pound of sugar will dry it out too much at all.

I think this is going to give you an imperial brown ale.

I've made 6 or 7 black IPAs or Saisons and I always need a good pound of midnightwheat/blackprinz/carafaIII to get it black. Those are the 3 best malts ive found for these types of beers in my order of preference. IMO midnight wheat gives the least roasty flavor and probably helps with head retention a bit since its a wheat. A 10min mashout at near 170F is also very helpful to squeeze out the last bit of color

I would definitely keep the pound of sugar. I always have sugar in my IPAs to dry them out and you want that even more here. The idea is to get your body as far from a stout as possible since the slight roasty flavor can make it seem heavier than it is. I actually just posted a regular strength IPA recipe a few minutes ago
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/ninja-nelson-black-ipa-507777/

Cool guys, thanks for the input. I was thinking a pound of carafaIII but didn't know if that would be "over doing it," but with the slight amount of flavor it imparts, I don't think you can really overdo it on the color.

I'll probably take the suggestion of midnight wheat (.5 lb?) and maybe kick up the carafaIII to a pound and drop the crystal altogether.

If you add 0.5 lb of midnight wheat, I don;t think you;d need to add more carafa too. I'd just do one or the other and you'll end up with a good black color

Thanks for the solid advice... I'll take a stab at it.

If you go with carafa make sure it is the dehusked version known as Special. Otherwise it will be roasty.

rodwha said:

If you go with carafa make sure it is the dehusked version known as Special. Otherwise it will be roasty.

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Yes, meant to specify that. Thanks.

Does Midnight wheat need to be mashed?

rodwha said:

Does Midnight wheat need to be mashed?

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Pretty sure you can steep it...