Castaway Chocolate IPA

[Kozwald]

I'm going to attempt a Chocolate IPA similar to Deschutes' Castaway. The original is about 100 IBUs but mine is more like 40. Their website shows the basic ingrediants but not the amounts. Below is my 1st attempt. Let me know what you think.

11lbs Pale Malt (2Row) 86.3%
.75lb Honey Malt 5.9%
.50lb Cara-Pils 3.9%
.30lb Chocolate Wheat 2.4%
.20lb Black (Patent) Malt 1.6%

.50oz Centennial @ 60min 15.3 IBU
.30oz Magnum @ 60min 12.2 IBU
.50oz Cascade (Leaf) @ 20min 5.1 IBU
.50oz Cascade (Leaf) @ 10min 3.1 IBU
.20oz Amarillo @ 10min 2.3 IBU
.20oz Amarillo @ 5min 1.2 IBU
.20oz Citra @ 5min 1.6 IBU
.30oz Citra @ 0min

1oz Sweet Orange @ 5min
Yeast = Safale US-05

1oz Coccoa Nibs for 2 weeks in the secondary.

 

[Kozwald]

Actually looking at 2oz of Orange and 3oz of the Cocoa Nibs.

 

[BeerLoverHere]

Seems like your total IBUs are way off from the original if you wanted an IPA. You said you wanted to target 40 IBU and that is not an IPA, more like a Pale. If that's what you are going for, it sounds good. It will definitely be sweet/malty. I'd try to bump up the IBUs some.

As far as the cocoa nibs, I'd suggest 1 week before adding to secondary you soak in vodka for a week, not only for sanitation purposes, but it draws out more of the chocolate flavor you want. Just dump all of that mixture into your primary or secondary. There are threads on that topic if you search for them that suggest to do that.

 

[Kozwald]

Seems like your total IBUs are way off from the original if you wanted an IPA. You said you wanted to target 40 IBU and that is not an IPA, more like a Pale. If that's what you are going for, it sounds good. It will definitely be sweet/malty. I'd try to bump up the IBUs some.

I know it's not a true IPA, I use IPA loosely for most of my pale ales. Do you think the .75lb of Honey Malt is too much? I'm going for more of the Chocolate / Orange flavoring.

 

[BeerLoverHere]

Maybe decrease Honey Malt and increase Chocolate Malt if you are worried