American Dark Ale ("Black IPA") Dry Hopping Opinions

[KidLightning]

Last Saturday I brewed a 3.5 gallon batch of an American ("Cascadian") Dark Ale that I'm calling "Dark Galaxy" (real original, I know). (I hate the terms Cascadian Dark Ale and Black IPA, so I usually go with American Dark Ale or American Black Ale).

Here are the specifics –

Measured OG: 1.083
Estimated FG: 1.016 (80% apparent attenuation)
ABV: 9%
IBU (Tinseth): 83
SRM: 32

Grains:
80% American pale ale malt (3.5º L)
10% Victory (28º L)
5% CaraMalt Light (12.5º L)
5% Blackprinz (500º L)

Hops:
Warrior @ 90 (2 IBU)
Galaxy @ 20 (34 IBU)
Galaxy @ 7 (45 IBU)
Galaxy @ FO (2 IBU)

Yeast: Wyeast 1217 West Coast IPA –*pitched and started fermentation at 62 and ramping up 2 degrees a day over the first week (to 74 max) to help dry the beer out.

The grain bill was inspired by Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous and Widmer Pitch Black, with some of my own creativity and preferences thrown in. The hop schedule came about because I had 6 oz. of Galaxy hops that I got for free, and a tiny bit of Warrior I wanted to use up.

I plan to dry hop this using the 2 oz. of Galaxy that I have left, but want to pick up an ounce of another hop to pair it with (plan to double dry hop, 1.5 oz. at a time) to give it a little more complexity (though Galaxy isn't as one-dimensional as some other hops which is already apparent). I just can't decide what I want to use, so I came here to solicit some opinions on what you've used that has worked well with Galaxy as a dry hop.

I've been reading up a ton on this since brew day and haven't really been able to narrow it down between Amarillo, Chinook, Columbus, East Kent Goldings, First Gold, Fuggles, Nelson Sauvin, Nugget, Simcoe, Target, or Willamette. I'm also fine with forgoing the Galaxy in the dry hop and using 3 oz. of something else (either a mix or a single hop) Basically, I'm all over the place.

Any thoughts?

 

[youreanimpulse]

My opinion: You should totally use Chinook, in even amounts to the Galaxy. A little more bite and dank hop character is great in a CDA/BIPA/ADA/Whatever. For this reason Columbus is my second choice, but use a smaller amount (like .5oz-1oz Columbus to 2 oz. Galaxy).

 

[JKaranka]

Galaxy with small amounts of Nelson Sauvin and Simcoe would also be interesting. Another weird one is to pair it with Target.

My dream hoppy pale ale or India porter would be a Fuggles and Target bomb for all the haters out there :-D

 

[m00ps]

I'd go with Amarillo, Simcoe or Chinook.

I've found that using danker hops like Columbus and Nelson in black IPAs seems to really accentuate the dankness. Then again, this years Galaxy crop seems much danker to me than last year's. If that's your thing, go for it