Critique This?

[Uncle Joshua]

I have been working on a recipe to use some of my Stella hops. how does this sound?

[Befuddler]

Not sure 3% Vienna is going to have any impact at all. Especially since you're using sugar to dry it out.

I'd either drop the sugar and up the Vienna for a nice malt body, or drop the Vienna entirely.

[Uncle Joshua]

Is this better...

[Uncle Joshua]

Is this better...

Anyone? I hope to do this as my next brew.

[Zephiacus]

What style are you going for? Looks like a cascadian black? It's to bitter for me, but thats personal taste. Otherwise should be fine, I find that the very roasted malts add to bitterness, so I like to steep them seperatly rather than mashing them with the rest of the grist, think it makes it a bit less harsh. I use CARAFA III in my dunkel, but the priciple is the same.

[Uncle Joshua]

A black IPA using the stella hops is what I'm after.

[Zephiacus]

should be good then, what yeast you using?

[Uncle Joshua]

should be good then, what yeast you using?

I only have Garvin English ale or Mauribrew Ale 514. I think the Garvin may be a better choice.

[Befuddler]

A black IPA using the stella hops is what I'm after.

I don't think it looks right as a Black IPA. It'll be too dry for that level of bitterness and it doesn't have enough late hops imo.

BIPA is an aggressive American style and it should be heavily hopped with American, New Zealand and Australian varieties - It should smack you in the face with big fruity hop flavours. I just don't think Northdown has the proper kick for this style. Citra is the right kind of hop, but you should be thinking at least 4x that amount at the end of the boil, and probably the same again dry. I'd use the Stella in something more lager-ish tbh, as it's pretty delicately flavoured.

As far as malt bill goes, This would probably be closer to the mark if you want it to come out around the same ABV:

Pale malt: 4500g - 90%
Vienna: 500g - 10%
Carafa Special III: 500g (cold steeped overnight then strained into the boiler, or sprinkled over while sparging)

OG: 1.049
FG: 1.011
ABV: 5%

You'll need that bit of sweetness in the finish to balance the bitterness and carry the hop flavour.

Hop wise, use anything with a big, punchy flavour: Citra, Amarillo, Simcoe, Centennial, Chinook, Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin are a few examples of the kind of hops I would be putting in a BIPA, and I'd be using several hundred grams of them.

Oh, and in closing, out of those two yeasts, the Mauribrew would be better for this style.

[Barley Water]

Well if you are trying to get something like the crazies in the Pacific Northwest are doing I have a few suggestions. First of all, this stuff is supposed to be a black IPA so you want to jack up you O.G. to the 1.060-1.075 range. If I were doing it, I would bitter it so that you get roughly a 1.0 ratio of IBU's to gravity points and additionally I would hop burst the hell out of the beer as suggested by another poster. Finally, most IPA's from that neck of the woods are also heavily dry hopped, you want a serious pine/grapefruit/citrus aroma which requires use of the traditional "C" hops. When you drink the beer, you want to feel a film of hop covering your teeth such that you can still taste the beer an hour after drinking it. There are two schools of thought concerning the roast malts going into the grist. Some guys want some roast so they use one of the traditional dark grains, you know roast barley, black patent malt etc. Others want the beer black but want to minimize the burnt roast flavors, for that you want to use the dehusked Carafa malts. Some also use some crystal malt however I think the best IPA's are pretty dry so I probably wouldn't bother with that. Whatever you end up doing though, just make sure the bitterness is smooth, you don't want a bunch of rough hop bittering, it detracts from the beer. This is a new style so there is plenty of whiggle room so you should be having a really fun time messing with this one, enjoy.

[Uncle Joshua]

I think maybe I put across what I wanted a tad wrong..

What I'm after is an IPA that happens to be black maybe more than an ultra hoppy monster.

I have the pale malt and vienna. I also have some black malt, crystal malt and torrified wheat. I have been out and bought some Centennial (100g) Cascade (140g) and citra. (154g)