Specialty IPA: Black IPA Darth Vader - Black IPA

Subscribed, I should brew this.

For the sake of contributing to the thread: bboykin87, my refractometer is my favorite new toy, just a couple of drops of sample rather than a whole cup. I've been using the NB refractometer calculator to get my FG, but they all do the same thing

 

I think I may invest in one, @ $15 a pop the hydrometers are getting expensive and they are way too fragile for me it seems.


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After breaking 2 or 3, that's the conclusion I came to also.

 

I brewed a partial mash a couple days ago. Couldn't get exactly 8 lbs of dme or LME without buying bulk or spending extra money that could go to something else so I did 6 lbs of dme and a few pounds of 2 row on top of the rest of the grain bill to get my gravity. I didn't see a target on the OPs recipe but mine was 1.080 so it's gonna be a little on the strong side but that's if the us-05 will finish out that high. Anyways it's black and looks/smells tasty!


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Cracked the inaugural bottle on the slopes of Devil's Peak above Cape Town.
Weather was rubbish, beer was excellent.

 

Cape Town as in South Africa?

 

Indeed

 

First pull off the keg and it is amazing and it's only going to get better.


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How much priming sugar does this call for? I made a 4.3 gallon batch


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According to this calculator for 4.3 gal you need 2.4 oz. of corn sugar or 2.3 oz. of table sugar.

 

will brew

 

Bottle mine up tomorrow so I'm getting closer


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Was wondering... Priming with corn sugar for a 5.5 gallon batch. How much would I use for the best carb? It is about 22°C for bottling.

 

My LHBS doesn't carry Carafa II Special. I was looking online and found this malt conversion table (http://www.brew.is/files/malt.html) and it would suggest that chocolate malt is the same. My LHBS also said "we don't have the Carafa II Special brand but it's the same as chocolate malt which we do carry".

What is your experience? I haven't monkeyed around enough with specialty grains to know for sure. I was thinking that chocolate was a little more roasty than what this thread has described Carafa II Special do be. I'm debating on whether to sub the chocolate in, sub in one of the other recommendations from the thread like De-Bittered Black Malt, or order the grain bill for this one online so I can get an exact match.

 

Carafa II is similar to Dark Chocolate, but Carafa II Special means "dehusked" so there is way less harsh taste to it. Try using 3/4 Chocolate and 1/4 Black Malt at late mash or just at sparging time, that will give you color with less taste. You could also make a cold "tea" with 3/4 Chocolate and 1/4 Black Malt by steeping it in some cold water in a fridge over night.

 

Just cracked my first of this batch last night and damn if it wasn't good... I did a partial mash and was a little nervous on the math but it turned out on point


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I brewed it up yesterday. I ended up doing 0.5 pound chocolate and 0.5 pound debittered black in the place of the carafa II debittered. I added it to the mash just before my sparge. The wort was pretty black and it only had a hint of roastiness so I'm hopeful that worked. We will see how it ends up once fermented and conditioned.

I also ended up going a little crazy with the hop schedule. I added some cascade as a FWH and then also did alternating additions every 5 minutes or so later in the boil (cascade , centennial, and Willamette). I figured its Easter weekend so I should make sure that it's "hoppy".

Sitting in the fermenter now. I'll have to report back in 6 weeks or so. I'm still bottling so it will be a bit before I get to fully appreciate it.

 

I bottled this about 3 weeks ago, but when I pour it into a glass there is no head. It tastes good and has good carbonation but no head. What could be the cause for this?


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Mine wasn't too heady either... Needed a bit more priming sugar... Guessing. It is lovely none the less...

 

I'm not having any problem with head on this beer.


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Critique away. This is what I could get from the LHBS. Also, I don't mind any roastyness. =)

Darth Vader IPA
American IPA (14 B)Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.73 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 5.98 gal
Final Bottling Vol: 5.25 gal
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage
Date: 26 Apr 2014
Brewer: Jupapabear
Asst Brewer:
Equipment: Jakes Polarware 10.5
Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.3 %
Taste Rating: 30.0

Taste Notes:

Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU
12 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 82.8 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2 6.9 %
12.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.2 %
8.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 4 3.4 %
4.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 5 1.7 %
1.00 oz Centennial [9.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 29.3 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 45.0 min Hop 7 15.6 IBUs
1.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 8.4 IBUs
1.10 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 mins) Other 9 -
0.28 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 10 -
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 0.5 min Hop 11 0.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 12 -
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs

 

Does anyone know if the original recipe has been updated to reflect changes/improvements in the recipe?

Should I still plan to follow the extract recipe to the 'T'?

 

I made the original recipe with no changes and it came out amazing.


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^-- Thanks! I just printed the recipe and plan to start brewing this next weekend!

Am I reading this right that I can do 30 days in the primary? And not worry about a secondary?

 

I brewed mine on 1/26 and kegged it on 3/25 (I was out of the country for work) and it was great from the first glass, no I'll effects at all.


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Brewing this one today. LHBS did not have Carafa II Special - went with Carafa II instead, using the extract recipe. Unfortunately, am not yet equipped for a full boil, so doing a partial which was at first a challenge with 8 lbs of DME, but have carefully avoided any boilover.

also, agree with prior poster that at least during boil this does not look black, but dark brown. will stick with the Darth Vader name though

looking forward to the tasting 5-6 weeks hence!


The Doctor

"I came to Casablanca for the waters."
"What waters? We are in the desert."
"I was misinformed."

 

Any thoughts in priming sugar for bottling? I had planned just to use corn sugar like I usually do but was wondering if anyone had experimented with brown sugar or anything like that.

My fermentation has gone less than ideal thus far. I started at 1.067 (efficiency was a little low...had some temp issues with my mash) and my fermentation seems to have stuck around 1.026 so I expect this will be a little sweet. I tried some of the usual tricks to get it going again but hasn't picked up. I think I didn't give it enough oxygenation at the start. In either case, no clue what implications this has on priming sugar. Hoping I still get some carb (and also hoping I don't have bottle bombs).

I'll be dropping in the dry hops on Saturday before I leave the country for a week. Bottle when I get back. The jury is still out on whether this is going to be a batch I share with others (I still drink the "less good" ones but won't necessarily give them them to others )

 

Quick question here on the ingredients.... Is the Carafa II special the same thing as Carafa 2 special dehusked?

 

Never mind guys! I just came across the post highlighted in red that answered my question. Looking forward to this beer for my next brew day!

 

So I let the boil get away from me and ended up with only 5 gallons into the fermentor. My OG was 1.072. Its cooling in the chamber right now (down to 73) I pitch my starter of US-05 when its below 71. Thanks again, I'll update later on.

 

just ordered the ingredients for a 2 gallon batch of this. Can't wait to try it!

 

Just making my 2nd batch of this right now... Adding second hops! Sooooooo good.

 

Just wanted to compliment on how delicious this beer was. I made a 10 gallon batch and between me and some friends it didn't last long! Definitely gonna brew again when I get a chance.

 

Brewed a two gallon batch of the extract version this morning!


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It looks like my LHBS only has Carafa I and III special. If I use the correct ratio of each to get to the color number of II special, will that work?

It looks like 57% of I (350L) and 43% of III (500L) will get me the 415L of II. Does it work like that?

 

Thought I would report back on my grain usage. My LHBS doesn't carry Carafa II Special so I instead used 0.5lb chocolate and 0.5lb debittered black (5 gallon AG recipe). I added it right at the end of the mash (5 minutes before sparge) as recommended by an earlier post. The results were good. Beer is *black*. Slight roasty flavor that combines with the hop bitterness nicely bit doesn't overtake the beer.

Since I've never had the version with the correct grain I don't have a comparison point as to how close this tastes to the original but I was happy with the results. If you can't get Carafa II Special I think that this approach is reasonable.

 

Has anyone brewed this with an English yeast? I have a batch of beer that I'm transferring soon so I have some yeast cake that I can use, but it's WLP005. I'd rather use this instead of making a step starter for the WLP1272 yeast I have in the fridge.

 

Have been waiting to do this with friends. Did the extract recipe yesterday. Only changes were adding 1/2lb Muntons Chocolate two row barley, because I did not get the Carafa II special, but rather the "regular" Carafa II. Also substituted 1/2oz of UK Northern Brewer (Northdown) for cascade during the boil. After one day, I had not seen any bubbling (61-62* fermentation). I took a quick peak. There is a healthy krausen, so I will look near the end of one week at take a reading.

My initial OG was a whopping 1.090. Confused, I tried to figure out why. Well, we only brought the wort up to 5 gallon, not 5.5. Fixed it and OG was 1.058. Next time I will add water gradually to hit target OG rather than just add a flat 1/2 gallon of water.

Plan to do one week primary, move to secondary for 2 weeks with dry hopping coming immediately for one week then off, then bottling. Thanks for all the many pointers throughout this thread. Can't wait

 

Not the exact same recipe as the OP but only because of my LHBS's limitations.