Draconian Libations': The Stroke of Midnight (Black IPA)

[mhenry41h]

Of course, my beer interest has mostly changed over to German Lagers and Sour beers, so most of what I'm making are lager styles. This, lagering everything, including ales, almost is natural to me now.

 

[TwinsBrewers81]

So I didn't put this in there but man did this beer have a fruity, floral nose in the bottling bucket. My wife asked me if it was bottling flowers, lol! It does smell great and I am pretty excited to try this. Going to pop one in the fridge on wednesday and sample it sunday. I've got an extra fridge that will one day be a kegerator that I may throw about a case in and try that lagering suggestion.

Side note, I was reading on your website about your pumpkin stout (midnight jack) and some of your sours, but didn't see any recipes for those. I'm starting to think about a sour or two and some fall beers (brewed a smoked porter last weekend) and thought a pumpkin beer maybe nice as well. PM me if you'd care to share.

Chris

 

[mhenry41h]

You are most welcome to the recipes. I'll dig them up for you. Next Sunday I'm planning a double brew day. I'm taking my Munich Helles recipe and adding a touch of honey malt and will add a lb of Wildflower honey when primary starts to slow. I'm also planning an India Pale Lager using Cluster, Glacier, and Palisades hops. I'm quite looking forward to it.

 

[TwinsBrewers81]

This is turning out to be pretty awesome! Think I got the carb pretty much perfect, slightly over, good mouth feel. Really like the hop combo, next time may drop the ctz (except bittering) and go with 2 oz of cascade and 2 oz styrian goldings. The flavor is pretty floral and citrus forward, I don't think the ctz I have really adds much flavor, solid bittering though.

Thanks for the recipe, i think it needs another 7-10 days and the aroma and flavor will total be there. it's a bit roasty right now, but still pretty awesome.

Thanks again, will be brewing this again.

Chris

 

[mhenry41h]

That's awesome! I'm glad it turned out for you! My wife loves this beer and I'm glad it's getting spread around.

 

[mhenry41h]

Twinbrewers, did this one bottle condition nicely for you?

 

[TwinsBrewers81]

I didn't end up lagering it as you suggested, it has gone pretty darn fast though. Super good beer and well balanced...I will be brewing this again. Thanks for the recipe.

 

[mhenry41h]

Great! I'm glad you enjoyed it! My wife has been pestering the crap out of me for a re-brew but I rarely brew ales anymore. I guess I should do one for old time's sake!

 

[Ravenor]

Hi,

I just stumbled upon your recepie and its sounds great.
The only part that I am just thinking about is if 6,6% of Carafa III will get you a wohle lot of roast flavors into the beer.
I don`t really like roast flavor that much it is sometimes like one is drinking a burnt steak or something similar.
I mean 1% of Carafa III would be enough just to give the beer a real deep color.
Do you think it would be a good idea just to put 1% Carafa III in it and instead up the 2-row with the difference?
TIA

Cheers

Martin

 

[mhenry41h]

I think it would be a tasty beer. You wouldn't have a "black IPA," but you would have an amber IPA on your hands. It definitely has a toasty character if you brew my recipe.

 

[TwinsBrewers81]

I crushed the carafa seperate and added it with about 5 mins left in the mash through the sparge...it left it the perfect color an not super roasty harshness

You could also cold steep it for 2 day prior to brewing...also eliminates harshness

 

[Ravenor]

Okay. Thanks.

 

[LoggyBayouBrewing]

I would also save the Carafa III until time to vorlauf. Mash all of your other grains for 60 mins, open your mash run and mix in the Carafa, vorlauf, and then sparge.

I'm going to be brewing this recipe in a couple of weeks. Is this a 75 minute mash or a 60 minute mash with 15 minutes of vorlauf with the Carafa III? What temp should I ferment at? 65F-68F? Thanks for sharing this recipe! Much appreciated.

 

[mhenry41h]

Glad to see this recipe is still circulating as its one of my best. If you can do 65 that would be ideal but 68 will work out fine.

 

[catdaddy66]

I made a recipe similar to this recently. You actually have about 2 more ozs in the flameout/dry hop additions than mine. It looks awesome! May do this in the late fall.

 

[Michael S. Henry]

Digging up and OLD recipe that I made and loved and making this with a twist. (Heck this is so old that I couldn't even login to HBT with the old login from back then!) I'm taking this recipe, tweaking the grain bill with some flaked oats and hops, and making it in with a "New England" flavor. In adding some flaked oats and flaked barley, moving the hop charges to whirlpool and primary fermentation, I'm hoping to make this a creamier beer with New England hop character. I have yet to see a "New England Style Black IPA" made so let's see what happens!

 

[tofuguy]

I have been interested to try the same thing. Maybe use midnight wheat for color. I also thought to cold steep carafa 3 or 2 to avoid extra astringency and roast flavors. I just made 3 NEIPAs over summer and needed a break before trying this. Curious what you have planned.

 

[Michael S. Henry]

Here’s my original thought...

 

[tofuguy]

I am curious how much color gets extracted at vorlauf for the carafa. I personally never tried so I am not questioning it, really curious to hear back on your results. Glad you aren't mashing the whole time to avoid the roast flavor that will destroy this style imo.

I personally would drop the 60 minute addition or drop it to 0.25 oz. Focus on the Whirlpool additions flameout and 170F. Also how long does it take to cool to 170F? I started to play with this time frame... Like a slow cool - 15mins.

 

[Michael S. Henry]

When I made that original recipe back in the day the shipment came and the bag of Carafa was torn open and I could only use .75 lbs. That beer was still quite dark.

 

[Michael S. Henry]

I’m the kind of weirdo that stills prefers an underlying bitterness in New England IPA. That where the 60 charge came from. I agree it could be cool to do only late hops in this experiment.