Working up a Black IPA recipe

[tallanwt]

Looking for some input from those who love Black IPA's and strive to improve the style
This is a 5th generation recipe that pushes the boundaries on roast and bitterness.This recipe ups the Carafa 3 and Midnight Wheat both by 10%
Trying to strike a balance w/ roast, hop bitterness to maintain the IPA style.

15gl batch
OG 1.083
FG 1.022
8.12% ABV
118 IBU
101 SRM

54.5% 2-row
0.1% rye malt
7.2% flaked rye
17.5% midnight wheat
0.1% C20
3.1% C60
2.1% C80
15.4% Carafa 3

84.5g Simcoe FWH
83g Simcoe 50m
83g Amarillo 20m
124.5g Amarillo 10m
83g Cascade 30m steep/whirlpool

DH not defined, post Ferm
10gl to keg
5gl to whiskey barrel, age 30 days

 

[thehaze]

Your FG is way too high. You want to be between 1.010 and 1.018. US-05 will probably do just fine. OG should start somewhere around 1.077-1.080 if you want it over 8% ABV.

118 IBU, although definitely not a big number, you want to further adjust, as roasted malts can and will add their own roasted bitterness and could lead to an overly bitter/tongue scraping experience.

Your recipe is also way too complicated. A Black IPA can be brewed with 3 malts: Base, Midnight Wheat and C-80. That's it. By %, Midnight Wheat arpound 5% and 2.5% C-80 should get you around 30-31 SRM ( morrey scale ) and that is dark enough.

Being an IPA, you want hop aroma and flavour, so don't waste hops in the boil. If you are a fan of a 60 minute hop addition, add enough hops there to get you 30-50 IBU and save the rest of the hops for the last 5 minutes and whirlpool. Dry hop to get fresh hop aroma.

Save Simcoe for late additions and dry hop. Do not bitter with it. Find something cheaper to bitter, like Magnum, Polaris, Warrior, Bravo ( although Bravo is also good for dry hopping ), etc.

 

[tennesseean_87]

You're realy going to use more than 30% roasted stuff in a beer? I don't care if it's huskless, that's a lot. How much have you used before?

 

[tellyho]

Have to agree. A little roasted malt goes a loooooong way.

 

[tallanwt]

That's what I get for plugging in recipe for Beersmith based on IBU, ABV and SRM solely before looking at stats on grist %.
I have revised recipe to 10% for roasted malts (5% Carafa3, 5% Mid wheat) for 15gl batch. Review of previous batches shows 7% Carafa3 and 4% Mid Wheat and the flavor was awesome, but I want to step it up a little.

 

[thehaze]

If you add more roasted malts, it will be roastier, hence you will be forced to add even more hops, to get that IPA character. If you only want a bitter Porter/Stout, then you do not need more hops.