water profile for black ipa

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rubiconbrewer

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Hey guys,

I'm doing a black IPA tomorrow and can't decide what water profile to use. l looked at Palmer's/kaminski's book Water on pages 158-159 (Table 19) "Suggested Water Profiles for Ale Styles" and can't decide what profile to use.

My recipe is just a normal ipa with briess midnight wheat. Should I use the same water profile as an IPA or more like a stout?

Thanks!
 
I could be wrong, but I think that the water book is going to have about as definitive recommendations as you will find. Personally, I went with the Medium Ale that's in the brown/black category. I brewed a Self Righteous clone recently and that turned out great. In Mitch's IPA book he says they blend their tap water from about 300 ppm hardness down to 100 ppm with RO.
 
What water do you use? If you have your water profile, I think you would benefit best by plugging it into something like Bru'n Water or Brewers Friend and then add in your malt bill to see where your ph is at. I'm not sure how much the midnight wheat will bring down the ph. As for minerals, I'd say shoot for 150ppm sulfate and 50-70ppm chloride. If using gypsum and CaCl, your calcium should end up around 70ppm (just estimating off the top of my head).




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It depends on how you're doing your "black IPA" (hate that term, it's a Cascadian Dark Ale, thank you very much). If you're just steeping dark grains to get color, I'd aim for an IPA profile; if you're looking to go big on malt and hops, I'd aim for a stout or porter water profile.
 
like talgrath said If its an ipa with steeped dark malts just for color Use an IPA style profile.

If its a roastier beer, I suggest a balanced profile. My reasoning, is that I want the hops and the dark malts to come out equally. Not favoring one or the other.
 
I haven't ever examined my water chemistry, but I've done several Black IPAs that turned out well by just adding a bit of gypsum to the boil to accentuate the hops more. It really helps in Black IPAs since the hops have to compete with the roasty flavors
 
My .02, if you don't have a base water profile, don't go crazy trying to match a profile because it's a crap shoot. The water primer stickie is a good place to start.

Simply, a bit of gypsum to raise the sulfates will accentuate the hops and provide a perceived "crispness" to the beer and calcium is essential for yeast but that can also be achieved with yeast nutrient as well.

Most important is the mash pH for proper and complete conversion but like I said, if you really want to start playing with your water then get a report.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies. I did have my well water analyzed about a year ago so I customize my water to get fairly close to the desired water profile. I ended up just following the ipa profile for my black ipa or "cascadian dark ale". Looking forward to tasting it!
 
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