Black IPA Help

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thepartyguy

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Thinking of Brewing up a Black IPA this weekend,

What do you all think of this one? ... Might have a bit too much going on in the hop department, but I am aiming for a Real Piney and Peppery Black IPA. Any Comments or bits of Advice would be real helpful.

Going to mash at 152 as well.

Estimated O.G. = 1.068
Estimated F.G. = 1.017
Estimated ABV = 6.7
Estimated bitterness = 96.4 IBU (seems high to me for whats in there)

Grain Bill
12.5 lbs. 2-Row US Pale Malt
0.25 lb. Chocolate
1 lb. Carafa III malt

Hops
0.5 Oz Hercules Hops added at the beginning of the 60 minute boil
0.5 Oz Chinook Hops added at the beginning of the 60 minute boil
0.25 Oz Kohatu Hops added at the beginning of the 60 minute boil

0.5 Oz Kohatu Hops added at the 30 Minute Mark
0.5 Oz Mosaic Hops added at the 30 Minute Mark

0.25 Oz Kohatu Hops added at end of Boil
0.5 Oz Mosaic Hops Added at end of Boil
1.0 Oz Chinook Hops added at end of Boil
0.5 Oz Crystal Hops added at end of Boil

1.0 Oz Chinook Dry Hop (7 Days)
0.5 OZ Crystal Dry Hop (7 Days)
1.0 Oz Tahoma Dry Hop (7 Days)

2 packs WLP001 California Ale Yeast
 
For a Black IPA - I'd suggest some form of crystal malt (60 is what I use)
you want typical ipa flavours, with little to no roast if possible. (yet remaining dark)

caramunich and carafa malts work perfectly. with pale malt
1lb C60 and 0.75lb carafa II or III gets you where you need to go. you can bulk out the pale malt with wheat vienna or munich if you want.

for your hop schedule go more this way.
Hops
use 1oz of a single neutral variety. rather than several different ones.

at 30 mins simplify your addition to just kohatu (1oz again work work nicely)

at 0 min it looks ok but increase your additions to the below.
1 Oz Kohatu Hops added at end of Boil
0.5 Oz Mosaic Hops Added at end of Boil
0.5Oz Chinook Hops added at end of Boil
1 Oz Crystal Hops added at end of Boil

1.0 Oz Chinook Dry Hop (7 Days)
1.0 Oz Mosaic Dry Hop (7 Days)
1.0 Oz Tahoma Dry Hop (7 Days) (I've never heard of this hop so not sure what it does)
add in 1oz of Kohatu as well. big dryhops = big aroma.
YUM
 
Holy hops man!

Heres my tweaks...

Get some crystal malts in there. Maybe some C80??

You dont need multiple different bittering hops. You wont get a ton of flavor (if any) from them anyway. Pick the one with the highest AA and use that.

Ditch the 30 minute addition and use those for dry hopping (be sure to account for lost bittering on the 30 min addition in your 60 min)

Speaking of dry hopping... Double the amount of dry hops. The head brewer of R&D at Karl Strauss told me that for pale ales and lighter IPA's they use 1lbs of hops/Bbl for DH. For my black IPA I use 5oz of hops for dry hopping.

Mosaic is gonna be more fruity. I would toss some CTZ, maybe simcoe, comet or northern brewer in there.

90+ is pretty high for a IPA. I would aim for 80ish in a black IPA.

Also, WLP001 is a beast. Under 1.070 for a 5 gallon batch 1 packet is fine. No need to spend the money on that second pack.
 
Provided you make a starter of course.

I've never made a starter for a 5 gal batch using wlp001 if it's under 1.070 and they always finish out below 1.014. On the packet it says good to 1.070 and I've even asked some of the yeast people at white labs and they said it should be fine even a little over 1.070. So I would say no need for a starter, but still wouldn't hurt. And it'll still save OP 8.50$
 
I've never made a starter for a 5 gal batch using wlp001 if it's under 1.070 and they always finish out below 1.014. On the packet it says good to 1.070 and I've even asked some of the yeast people at white labs and they said it should be fine even a little over 1.070. So I would say no need for a starter, but still wouldn't hurt. And it'll still save OP 8.50$

Not great advice. Just because an underpitch has finished where you expect doesn't mean the yeast weren't stressed to get there. A starter isn't complicated or costly and will ensure proper cell count.
 
Not great advice. Just because an underpitch has finished where you expect doesn't mean the yeast weren't stressed to get there. A starter isn't complicated or costly and will ensure proper cell count.

Ya you're probably right. I bet the scientists at white labs were lying to me so I would buy less of their product.

So I guess that makes it not, not great advise after all. And if your read my post you would see that I said it wouldn't hurt to do a starter. My whole point was that 2 packs was excessive for a 1.068 beer.
 
For a Black IPA - I'd suggest some form of crystal malt (60 is what I use)
you want typical ipa flavours, with little to no roast if possible. (yet remaining dark)

caramunich and carafa malts work perfectly. with pale malt
1lb C60 and 0.75lb carafa II or III gets you where you need to go. you can bulk out the pale malt with wheat vienna or munich if you want.

for your hop schedule go more this way.
Hops
use 1oz of a single neutral variety. rather than several different ones.

at 30 mins simplify your addition to just kohatu (1oz again work work nicely)

at 0 min it looks ok but increase your additions to the below.
1 Oz Kohatu Hops added at end of Boil
0.5 Oz Mosaic Hops Added at end of Boil
0.5Oz Chinook Hops added at end of Boil
1 Oz Crystal Hops added at end of Boil

1.0 Oz Chinook Dry Hop (7 Days)
1.0 Oz Mosaic Dry Hop (7 Days)
1.0 Oz Tahoma Dry Hop (7 Days) (I've never heard of this hop so not sure what it does)
add in 1oz of Kohatu as well. big dryhops = big aroma.
YUM

Thanks, i'll swap out the Chocolate for the Crystal 60,
and that hop schedule looks a little more Stream Line ... As for Tahoma it's an aroma hop i've used a couple of times; very big in the cedar and pine aroma, with a little pepper and hint of citrus.
 
Holy hops man!

Heres my tweaks...

Get some crystal malts in there. Maybe some C80??

You dont need multiple different bittering hops. You wont get a ton of flavor (if any) from them anyway. Pick the one with the highest AA and use that.

Ditch the 30 minute addition and use those for dry hopping (be sure to account for lost bittering on the 30 min addition in your 60 min)

Speaking of dry hopping... Double the amount of dry hops. The head brewer of R&D at Karl Strauss told me that for pale ales and lighter IPA's they use 1lbs of hops/Bbl for DH. For my black IPA I use 5oz of hops for dry hopping.

Mosaic is gonna be more fruity. I would toss some CTZ, maybe simcoe, comet or northern brewer in there.

90+ is pretty high for a IPA. I would aim for 80ish in a black IPA.

Also, WLP001 is a beast. Under 1.070 for a 5 gallon batch 1 packet is fine. No need to spend the money on that second pack.

Going to swap the chocolate malt for some Crystal 60 ... maybe 80; i'll think this one over.

As for my Bittering hop; i'll check which one has the higher AA ... i generally use a lot of chinook, so maybe go with Herkules just to spice things up a bit.

Going to switch the Mosaic for some Simcoe; probably give me more of what i am going for in the Pine and Pepper theme there!

Thanks for the tip on the 1 pack of WLP001, probably still go with a start, but saves me some cash. Thanks man


I'll post the Final Recipe and updates on Brewday. hoping for this sunday.
 
Going to swap the chocolate malt for some Crystal 60 ... maybe 80; i'll think this one over.

As for my Bittering hop; i'll check which one has the higher AA ... i generally use a lot of chinook, so maybe go with Herkules just to spice things up a bit.

Going to switch the Mosaic for some Simcoe; probably give me more of what i am going for in the Pine and Pepper theme there!

Thanks for the tip on the 1 pack of WLP001, probably still go with a start, but saves me some cash. Thanks man


I'll post the Final Recipe and updates on Brewday. hoping for this sunday.

Have you ever used Magnum for bittering? I use it to bitter 80-90% of my beers. Super clean bittering hop that doesn't mask the flavors of other hops. But warrior is also a good choice. Let us know how it goes!
 
Have you ever used Magnum for bittering? I use it to bitter 80-90% of my beers. Super clean bittering hop that doesn't mask the flavors of other hops. But warrior is also a good choice. Let us know how it goes!

Have not yet, but i have been meaning to brew something with Magnum.

Brew day got postponed for 1 week due to some unforeseen weather this weekend up here in Canada
 
Life got in the way of Brewing, However i did finally get around to Brewing this beer, and the Recipe i went with is as Follows

Estimated O.G. = 1.072 (Actual OG 1.069)
Estimated F.G. = 1.017
Estimated ABV = 6.7
Estimated bitterness = 82.5 IBU

Grain Bill
12.5 lbs. 2-Row US Pale Malt
1 lb. Crystal 60
1 lb. Carafa III malt

Hops
0.6 Oz Hercules Hops added at the beginning of the 60 minute boil
0.6 Oz Chinook Hops added at the beginning of the 60 minute boil


0.5 Oz Pacific Jade Hops added at the 30 Minute Mark


1.0 Oz Pacific Jade Hops added at end of Boil
0.5 Oz Simcoe Hops Added at end of Boil
0.5 Oz Chinook Hops added at end of Boil
1.0 Oz Crystal Hops added at end of Boil

1.5 Oz Chinook Dry Hop (7 Days)
1.5 OZ Crystal Dry Hop (7 Days)
1.0 Oz MT. Hood Dry Hop (7 Days)
1.0 Oz Simcoe Dry Hop (7 Days)

1 packs WLP001 California Ale Yeast (With a Starter)

Let you all know how it turns out when shes all done.
 
Well Shes Been Kegged, Carbonated and Drank ... i highly recommend you brew this bad boy if you are looking for a nice Black IPA

japanese zombie.jpg
 
Looks good. Im making a "Black IPA" this weekend. Take my normal pale ale base recipe and doubled the the crystal 40.
Also going to cold steep 3% chocolate malt for color.

First time using chocolate malt :confused:
So I steeped a small amount for 24 hours to see what color and taste i would get.
I even added some of it to a light commercial lager, hope my ratio calculations were correct, to see how strong the taste would come through :D
 
Let me know how it turns out! Love me a good black ipa! If you want a real dank and piny black ipa with big aromas, brew the recipe above. It's simple but hits all the right marks in my opinion!
 
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