Critique Black IPA recipe please

[kombat]

No, you should be fine with the 8 oz of Carafa III. I'd recommend omitting it from the mash, and adding it during the sparge.

 

[peterj]

10 lbs 2 row American
1 lb crystal 40
4 oz midnight wheat
8 oz carafa lll

1oz Columbus 60 min
1 oz citra 40 min
1oz citra flameout
1oz Amarillo flame out
Dry hop 1 oz citra and Amarillo 7 days
Safale Us-o5
Mash @ 152-153
5 gallon batch

I would move the 40 min Citra to somewhere in the 10-20 range. It's at almost 110 IBU with that hop schedule which is a little high. 40 minutes isn't a great time to add hops. You lose most of the flavor and aroma but you don't get the most efficient alpha acid utilization. I plugged your recipe into Brewer's Friend since you seem to be having trouble with beersmith. I made some assumptions about your efficiency, attenuation, boiloff, etc. This is it with the citra moved to 10 minutes:

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: American IPA
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 6.5 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.046
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.060
Final Gravity: 1.014
ABV (standard): 6.06%
IBU (rager): 80.29
SRM (morey): 31.7

FERMENTABLES:
10 lb - American - Pale 2-Row (85.1%)
1 lb - American - Caramel / Crystal 40L (8.5%)
0.25 lb - American - Midnight Wheat Malt (2.1%)
0.5 lb - German - De-Husked Caraf III (4.3%)

HOPS:
1 oz - Columbus, Type: Pellet, AA: 15, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 69.25
1 oz - Citra, Type: Pellet, AA: 11, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 11.04
1 oz - Citra, Type: Pellet, AA: 11, Use: Boil for 0 min
1 oz - Amarillo, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.6, Use: Boil for 0 min
1 oz - Citra, Type: Pellet, AA: 11, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days
1 oz - Amarillo, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.6, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation (custom): 77%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Temp: 59 - 75 F

31 SRM will be plenty black. I would leave it. If it were mine, I would cut the bittering addition to 0.5 oz and make up the IBUs with late kettle additions of hops (in the last 20 minutes). But either way, it should be a tasty brew.

 

[jessej122]

Awesome thanks alot everyone

 

[ilv4xn]

+1 for Peter
Moving the hops out the the end of the boil will add a ton flavor and aroma.

 

[jessej122]

Ok well ill go with .5 oz at 60 add the in the last 10 and flameout,if I don't mash the carafa won't it take away from my OG?

 

[peterj]

Ok well ill go with .5 oz at 60 add the in the last 10 and flameout,if I don't mash the carafa won't it take away from my OG?

Roasted malts are more for color and flavor and don't have many sugars that need to be converted. Same with crystal malts. That's why you can steep them which is basically what you would be doing by adding them to the sparge only.

Edit: People omit them from the mash sometimes in beers like this to get the color contribution but reduce the roasty astringency that can come from mashing these grains the full time. I've never done it myself because I prefer a little bit of that roast character in my Black IPAs.

 

[kombat]

Edit: People omit them from the mash sometimes in beers like this to get the color contribution but reduce the roasty astringency that can come from mashing these grains the full time.

Thanks peter, I probably should have mentioned that in my post, but you're exactly right. I used this technique in a Black IPA I brewed myself just a couple of months ago, and it turned out perfectly - pitch black, and no roast character at all.

 

[jessej122]

So I should just sparge carafa and midnight wheat? Or the crystal also?

 

[jessej122]

I wanna keep the abv. Atleast 6

 

[kombat]

So I should just sparge carafa and midnight wheat? Or the crystal also?

You could hold the crystal off till the sparge, too (since it doesn't need to convert), but I wouldn't bother. I'd mash everything except the dark grains, then add the dark grains in during the sparge. Either way would work though.

 

[jessej122]

So I made the recipe yesterday and all of you were right color came out perfect! But with the first all grain I had a issue my SS braid got all mangled up which gave me a stuck sparge took about an hour and a half to drain first and second runnings,and my OG came out really low but I forgot to cool the wort when taking a ready!! So it was hot and I didn't think about it till afterwards, so after boil and cooled I ended up with FG 1.060. Should I just get a false bottom??

 

[jessej122]

I also mashed kind if high probably about 156 got down to 155 after half hour

 

[jessej122]

 

[jessej122]

That's the mangled I'm taking about

 

[Clef051]

That does look likes mess lol. The beer should still turn out fine just lower in alcohol. A false bottom or stronger braid would help a lot.

 

[jessej122]

Thanks again for all of yours guys help on this recipe ill let you know how it turns out. Cheers

 

[peterj]

So I made the recipe yesterday and all of you were right color came out perfect! But with the first all grain I had a issue my SS braid got all mangled up which gave me a stuck sparge took about an hour and a half to drain first and second runnings,and my OG came out really low but I forgot to cool the wort when taking a ready!! So it was hot and I didn't think about it till afterwards, so after boil and cooled I ended up with FG 1.060. Should I just get a false bottom??

Yours looks better than mine. Mine's been about like that since the first time I used it. Still works pretty well, though it seems like lately I've been getting more stuck sparges.

Are you batch sparging? Stuck sparges shouldn't be too big a deal if you batch sparge. Just shut the valve, mix everything up again, vorlauf, and continue draining. And maybe include some rice hulls in your recipes going forward. I would only get a false bottom if you are fly sparging because I think I've read they're better for that.

1.060 is still fairly respectable for an IPA, though it seems like your mash temp was a little high. Should turn out fine though since your OG was lower than expected. Welcome to AG brewing!

 

[peterj]

Oh yeah, I forgot to say that you just need to be careful not to catch the braid too much when you're stirring your mash. And I always try to set it kind of straight when I'm letting the grain bed settle before the vorlauf. I think it helps.

 

[jessej122]

Well do next time,I may shorten it a little too. Yes i am batch sparging. Can't wait to brew again

 

[TahoeRy]

Great back and forth. A good black ipa is always a treat.

 

[PassTheBeer]

sorry to jump in here late but if you are stuck on bittering then yea earlier hop additions are a must but, if you are more worried about hop flavor then keep your late additions.. One technique that I've been doing for all my pale ales and ipa's is hop whilpooling.....pretty much cool your wort below 160 and throw in your flamouts in and keep stirring ofr letting them steep while the wort cools to pitching temps

 

[jessej122]

I might try that next time thanks

 

[jessej122]

So I bottled the black IPA yesterday color wasn't as dark as I would of liked,but was almost there. The beer was quite tasty though granted because of my mess up and high mash temp it came out pretty sweet and think I should've added the full oz of Columbus for bittering. But all in all my first all grain beer tasted damn good! Brewing the same recipe this weekend with a few tweaks and hopefully lower mash temp