Double IPA Chocolate Orange Black Imperial IPA

[jsinning]

Recipe Type

All Grain

Yeast

American Ale Wyeast Labs 1056

Yeast Starter

N/A

Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter

N/A

Batch Size (Gallons)

5

Original Gravity

1.077

Final Gravity

1.016

Boiling Time (Minutes)

60

IBU

80.0

Color

35.9

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

7

Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

7

Additional Fermentation

N/A

Tasting Notes

N/A

Looking for opinions on this recipe.

5 Gal Batch

12lbs Pale Malt 2 Row
1 lbs Biscuit Malt
1 lbs Caramel Malt 120L
1 lbs Chocolate Malt
1.33oz HBC 431 Hops 60min
2.00oz Cacao Nibs 60min
1.33oz HBC 431 Hops 30min
1.33oz Mandarina Bavaria 30min
1.33oz HBC 431 Hops 15min
1.33oz HBC 431 Hops 5min
4oz Orange Peel Bitter 5min
Wyeast 1056
1oz HBC 431 Hops Dry hop secondary for 5 days

 

[Cascadegan]

There is a lot of stuff going on in this beer and you (or more accurately your brain and tongue) might not be able to discern all of the flavors going on at once. Thats not necessarily a bad thing either, it might all meld into an indescribably delicious brew. I suspect to get the levels of the different flavors that you want exactly perfect you will need to tweak the recipe and rebrew it several times, etc. Or you can not worry about that and brew the damn thing once and enjoy it as is.

my concerns: that is a lot of caramel 120 and orange peel.

The amount of orange peel might be alright since its competing with so many other strong flavors and my only reference point is brewing wit beers which tend to have fairly light flavors.

The caramel 120 is not a flavor I enjoy very much, it has its place and purpose in some beers but I don't personally enjoy a strong caramel malt flavor and especially '120 flavor' but you may have different tastes than me. (and you've already got some biscuit and high OG for body)

Also chocolate can be a difficult flavor to get right, I like to add some chocolate extract at bottling/kegging time if the chocolate flavor isnt up to my standards, but the flavors you get are a bit different depending on the methods used (I found the extract I used to be more chocolate cereal/chocolate milk and less dark chocolate flavor wise, but that could be entirely subjective and/or dependent on the brand of extract and/or the bitterness of the base beer).