Black IPA grain bill

[Bazz]

I have a load of American hops that i need to use up and so have decided to stick them into a black IPA, would someone mind just glancing at this grain bill to let me know what you think,

83% pale ale malt (marris otter)
8% Munich malt
5% Carahell
4% Carafa III malt.

Brew mate gives this a SRM of 26.3.

With the Carafa, should i chuck this in with the mash (i do BIAB) or steep it seperately then add the resulting steeping water to the boil once the mash has finished?

And one last thing, i was considering using either Notty or WLP090 San Diego super yeast to ferment this (either very dry or not so dry), any comments on this would be appreciated as well.

Thanks.

[Sadfield]

Looks bang on!

You can't go far wrong following this http://www.port66.co.uk/black-ipa-brewing-tips/

[Bazz]

Top link, thanks for that, i may have to re-jig the recipe a little after reading through that.

[Matt12398]

The Port 66 link is brilliant and I used it to help formulate my black IPA recipe last year.

Pay particular attention to your water if you are treating it because you wouldn't use as much sulphate as you would a typical IPA

[Scott-westy]

Im brewing up something very similar this weekend.


I am proposing to try an overnight cold steep for the dark grains in say 2L of water, then adding this steeped black tea to the boil at some point. I hear this may minimise the most roasty elements of the grains.

Has anybody tried this method with any success?

[Matt12398]

Yes, very! I did 450g of roasted barley in 1.8 litres of water, so a 1:4 ratio. Steeped in muslin (to contain the grains) for 24 hours. I added in the last 5 minutes of the boil because any longer is said to add a harsher bitterness from the roast. I ended up with a beer that had all the smooth flavour of the roast but none of the intense coffee and burnt flavours you'd get in say a stout.

What you're suggesting sounds very similar. You will be glad you tried it.

[Scott-westy]

Awesome. Cheers mate.

[Mr. Dripping]

If you want to avoid the roastiness, you could use Sinimar.
I brewed a black IPA once for a festival and just used my typical IPA grist and added the Sinimar at the end of the boil.
My water is quite tricky to adjust for really dark beers, so it took away the mash pH headache.

[Scott-westy]

Interesting. I'd never heard of that before. However I like some of the roasty flavours in my black IPAs, just not tonnes.

[bigrichlock]

This did ok at a recent competition, it basically a clone of Firestone Walkers Wookey Jack.

http://retributionbrewing.co.uk/2015/11 ... iday-comp/

Cheers

rich

[Scott-westy]

My recipe has been designed to use up a load of grain I have in the cupboard and hops in the freezer. I also added rye which I reckon will work well. The steep hops will be added at 80c by the way so won't add all the IBUs beersmith reckons on.

[Matt12398]

The reason your steep hops are suggesting added IBUs is because you've got them set to 15 minutes. That's time from end of the boil not steep time. Steep hops should be set to 0.

[Sadfield]

The reason your steep hops are suggesting added IBUs is because you've got them set to 15 minutes. That's time from end of the boil not steep time. Steep hops should be set to 0.

No, that is the duration of the steep, after the end of the boil, before cooling. Beersmith's default steep temp is 90c, where it calculates a 50% utilisation of hops of the equivalent boil time. As the OP is steeping at a lower temp less bitterness (although some) from the steep hops will be achieved.

[Matt12398]

I stand corrected. I always put them to 0.