Double Imperial Black IPA help..

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Arkhomer

HammerdownWPS
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Going to do a 3 gallon batch of a Black DIPA. Posted ingredients below, however this is for a 5 gallon batch. The recipe states beware of wort loss due to all the hops. My question is do you think I should calculate grain bill for 4 gallons due to wort loss and efficiency or do you think 3 should be fine? Also going to cut the whole leaf mash hop addition. Do you think WLP001 should suffice since smaller volume or should I make a starter? Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

  • For 5 gallons (18.9 L)
  • 11 lb. (4.99 kg) UK Maris Otter pale malt
  • 2 lb. (0.9 kg) flaked barley
  • 1 lb. (0.45 kg) cane sugar
  • 1 lb. (0.45 kg) UK roasted barley
  • 1 lb. (0.45 kg) Special B malt
  • 1 lb. (0.45 kg) chocolate malt
  • 1.25 oz. (35 g) whole Columbus, 15% a.a. (mash hops)
  • 1 oz. (28 g) Summit, 16.3% a.a. (FWH)
  • 0.5 oz. (14 g) Magnum, 14.4% a.a. (90 min.)
  • 0.5 oz. (14 g) Summit, 16.3% a.a. (75 min.)
  • 0.5 oz. (14 g) Chinook, 10.1% a.a. (60 min.)
  • 0.25 oz. (7 g) Magnum, 14.4% a.a. (45 min.)
  • 0.5 oz. (14 g) Chinook, 10.1% a.a. (30 min.)
  • 0.25 oz. (7 g) Magnum, 14.4% a.a. (15 min.)
  • 1 oz. (28 g) Simcoe, 12.3% a.a. (1 min.)
  • 1 oz. (28 g) Centennial, 8% a.a. (whirlpool)
  • 1 oz. (28 g) Chinook (dry hop)
  • 0.5 oz. (14 g) Columbus (dry hop)
  • 0.5 oz. (14 g) Amarillo (dry hop)
  • White Labs 001 California Yeast (with large starter)
SPECIFICATIONS
  • Original Gravity: 1.089
  • Final Gravity: 1.012
  • IBU: Ridiculous
  • SRM: 55
  • Boil Time: 90 minutes
  • Efficiency: 75%
 
That's not really a Black IPA, but more of a Hoppy Imperial Stout. Roasted Barley, Chocolate malt and Special B will cover any hops in my opinion.

For Black IPAs you want minimal roastiness, like Carafa Special ( not the regular ones ) malts, Roasted Rye/Spelt/Wheat and just enough to get you around 30 SRM. Use a clean yeast, a whole lot more hops ( whirlpool adds lots of aroma and flavour - I would personally bitter at 60/90 minutes if you are keen on it and add the rest in late additions and whirlpool. Also, you can / should add more hops for dry hopping ) and make a yeast starter.
 
Midnight wheat is great for that.

.75 lb Midnight wheat and .25 lb carafa II special would do nicely. Nowhere near as roasty and appropriate color.
 
Your hops will definitely soak up wort, and you'll end up with less wort in your fermenter. I don't know how to quantify that, I just know that my IPAs end up with about 4 gallons instead of my standard 5. Calculating for four gallons might be a good idea, or at least an interesting experiment.

Good luck with the beer, it looks interesting!
 
If you want to end up with 5 gallons, you need to shoot for 6 gallons in the fermenter, at least. I usually end up with 5.8-6.3 gallons in the bottles using my Grainfather, but I do design my recipes for 7-7.3 gallons.
 
That's not really a Black IPA, but more of a Hoppy Imperial Stout. Roasted Barley, Chocolate malt and Special B will cover any hops in my opinion.

For Black IPAs you want minimal roastiness, like Carafa Special ( not the regular ones ) malts, Roasted Rye/Spelt/Wheat and just enough to get you around 30 SRM. Use a clean yeast, a whole lot more hops ( whirlpool adds lots of aroma and flavour - I would personally bitter at 60/90 minutes if you are keen on it and add the rest in late additions and whirlpool. Also, you can / should add more hops for dry hopping ) and make a yeast starter.

He didn’t make it up. It’s based on an AHA recipe with the same title.

4-5 ounces of hops in the boil / whirlpool isn’t that much, you can probably get away with 0.5 gal of trub loss. I would suggest planning on 4 gal post-boil, 3.5 gal to the fermenter and 3 gal packaged. Definitely make a starter, even if you’re using fresh yeast. A 1.5 L starter is plenty.

The biggest issue you will encounter is making sure your mash pH (and beer pH) stays in check — the roast additions will drive down the mash pH but the dry hops will bring it up. Maybe target a mash pH between 5.2-5.3 for simplicity’s sake.
 
Why does everything with more hops have to be titled "ipa something". That recipe is as far from an ipa you can get, imho. Looks more like a hoppy imperial stout.

I agree the hop aroma will be overpowered by the roastiness. That is alot of roasted malts for any beer. I prefer not using chocolate malt, it imparts very strong dark malt flavor. I would stick with one or two roasted malts. The flavor between Roasted Barley, Carafa, Carafa Special, Special B etc. is surprisingly similar.

My black ipa's have been 30srm or slightly more, and they have been enough roasty and black to my liking.
 
Went to the local HB store and bought the grain yesterday. Ended up dropping the roasted barley and went with same weight carafa. Dropped the chocolate malt to .25 lbs. 4 gallon batch grain bill:
-8.8 lbs Marris Otter
-1.6 lbs Flaked Barley
-.8 lbs Cane Sugar
-.8 lbs Carafa III
-.8 lbs Special B
-.25 lbs Chocolate Malt

Ran this through Brewers Friend estimated OG calculator and it spit out est OG of 1.093. Using a 2L yeast starter.
 
Alright have a few questions. I only ended up getting 1.075 OG (62% efficiency) poor first batch sparge attempt. Anyhow, I left it in the primary for 9 days. It was at 1.015 when I moved to secondary. Dry hopped on day 9 then moved to secondary. We are on day 12. How long is too long to dry hop? I am still getting a little action in airlock.

I am also going to bottle this batch (typically keg). Is it worth doing a cold crash since I'm obviously not too worried about clarity on a black IPA?
 
three to five days is plenty.

A cold crash will reduce sediment in the bottle. Take that for what you will. When drinking out of the bottle, that little surprise of nasty tasting stuff at the bottom is unwelcome to me anyway.....
 
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