Black IPA Recipe?

Take your favorite IPA recipe and add 5% Carafa III Special. There's your black IPA. Make sure it's carafa special not regular carafa, otherwise you'll just end up with a hoppy stout.

Here's a clone recipe that Stone gave out for Sublimely Self Righteous:

Grain Bill:
90% pale malt
5% 60°L Crystal
5% Weyermann Carafa III Special

OG target 1.082
Terminal Gravity target 1.016

Hops:
Bittering at start of boil: 100% Chinook
Flavor hops added at end of boil or whirlpool: 50/50 blend of Simcoe and Amarillo

Target 120 IBU’s.

Ferment with good ale yeast.

Dry-Hop with 50/50 blend of Simcoe and Amarillo, use LOTS!

 

the jamil show (on the brewing network) did an episode on 21st amendment's back in black. it's a really good way to understand how to construct a black IPA recipe, whether or not you are in love with that particular brew.

 

This is for 10 gallons and came out very nice....

Gravity 21 LBs Pale Malt​

1 lb. carapils​

4 oz. carafa​

1 lb. crystal 60​

1 lb. roasted barley​

1 lb. black patent​

8 oz. chocolate malt​

Even mixture Columbus/Calypso​

2 oz. at boil​

2 oz. 15 minutes left​

2 oz. 10 minutes left​

2 oz. 5 minutes left​

3 oz at flame out​

Pitched on previous cakes​

OG 1.074 FG 1.019 IBU 108 SRM 41 ABV 7.1​

Mashed in at 152​

​

 

How is this not a stout?

 

Exactly. This is one of the things that kills me about the Black IPAs "style." When I claim that they are really just hoppy stouts or hoppy porters, people say "Oh no. They're not, because they are not as roasty." But then half the recipes use large amounts of regular old roasted grains.

 

I brew a recipe very similar to Dave's that I put together from two separate recipes both claiming to be clones of Otter Creek's Alpine Black IPA. It tastes pretty close to me, and pretty close to some other commercial examples I have had, like 21st Amendment Back in Black for instance. I've never heard the "not as roasty" argument...nor would I use it to defend the style. In fact, to me the thing I really like about the style is the way the roasty and hoppy flavors work together.

Seems the style guidelines for the various stout styles are medium to low hoppiness, even the American Stout, so maybe a Hopped up American Stout should be similar to a Black IPA?

Any good commercial examples of a hoppy American Stout that I should try? Something on the high end of the IBU range for the American Stout style?

 

You are correct, but I will say that I have entered 2 different black IPAs into homebrew competitions and got a 1st and 2nd place in specialty beer category, one being the state fair this year. These recipes had coffee malt, chocolate malt, and blackprinz or debittered black. Probably 1.5 lbs of roasted grains for a 5 gallon batch. Some would say this is even too much for a stout. You just have to go higher on the debittered or blackprinz and use pale chocolate malt. Last but not least, you need an assload of hops. A great black IPA isn't cheap to make, go for about 10-12 oz hops for a 5 gallon batch. You want to hit that 100 IBU mark. One judge compared my black IPA to a chocolate covered orange. And remember, it's all about what the brewer wants to call the beer. A hoppy American stout to you may be a black IPA to someone else.

 

Half of it seems to be a marketing ploy (Similar to what you see with session IPAs which are really just fucking American Pale Ales)... most commercial ones I've had have basically been American Stouts, with the exception of maybe sublimely self righteous, 21st A. Back in Black and a few others.

The Maltose Falcons actually have it listed as a Category in their modified BJCP Guidelines, and from experience submitting to their comps, they really want it to be almost devoid of any roast flavors (Literally Blackprinz (foul malt btw), midnight wheat or DH carafa only) as opposed to the american stouts (super roasty, bitter, hoppy).

 

There you go with black IPA (5 gal) All-grain O.G 1.062
9 Pounds British pale malt
1/2 Pound Cara-Pils malt
4 oz Chocolate Malt (that's your black or dark)
2 Tsp Gypsum (use it with your mashing water)
Mashing for 90 Min @ 152 F

Boil
60 minutes left 1.5 oz Kent Golding hops (bittering)
20 minutes left 1 Tsp Irish moss
15 minutes left 1.5 oz Kent Golding hops (aroma)

Fermentation
1.5 oz Cascade hops (dry hopping on a secondary)
Dry yeast Safale us-05

Primary 7-12 days
Secondary 10-14 days with Cascade hops

 

exactly HB 42

 

6# 2 row
2# Vienna
2# malted wheat
3/4# debittered black or carafa III special
1/2# accidulated malt...I'd go 1/4# next time, but tasted fine
1/2# C-40
1/2# sugar
US-05
1 oz Warrior @ FWH/60 min
1 oz Cascade @ 10 min
1 oz Galaxy @ 5 min
1 oz Centennial @ KO
1 oz Galaxy @ KO
1 oz Centennial DH
2 oz Galaxy DH
Mash @ 150
CACl in mash...gypsum in boil

made this last year and will be making again shortly with NA Pale Ale Malt vice reg 2 row and Vienna.

 

I think that the brewer of Kernal Brewery (London, England) has a good perspective on the topic of Black IPA vs. hoppy Porters.

“Black IPA (or more simply; IBA) versus Export India Porter

I know that the style, naming, etc. of these dark ales has been discussed to death on here, but hopefully a recent email that I received will add a little more information to the discussion. There may be others, but I could only find one brewery that brewed both an India Porter and a Black IPA and that brewery is the Kernel Brewery in London. So I decided to send off an email asking for some brewer's insight as to what they saw as the differences, given that they decided to brew both as distinct styles. They were more than courteous to explain it as they saw it. I thought that their reply was interesting enough to share here. Here is their reply...

Thanks for the email. We really appreciate the fact that you care enough to ask us about these beers, because for us that is partly the reason for brewing them.

I think that any brewery would have their own take on certain styles, and what one brewery calls style 'x' another would call style 'y'. So we can only speak of our own interpretation of the difference between a Black IPA and an Export India Porter. To put it simply, while both beers use dark malts and lots of hops, the Black IPA should be definitely dominated by the hops, while the EIP should be dominated by the darker malts. There probably is a point between these 2 styles where they may meet, but it is important to us to keep them distinct.

Our Black IPA keeps to a simple IPA recipe, with the addition of Carafa III malt, which is a dark roasted malt, but it has been dehusked or debittered, so it provides colour and a chocolate flavour, but not the roasted astringent flavour of more classic dark malts (roasted barley or black malt). It is not quite a Pale IPA coloured black, but the hops still dominate the flavour profile.

We brewed the first EIP partly to answer the question that was often thrown at us as to what the difference was between a black IPA and a hoppy porter. The recipe we used is from 1855. We kept the grain bill the same, but decided to change the hops to US varieties and have used them in a manner similar to a modern IPA. This is already moving the EIP in the direction of a Black IPA. But the malt still dominates. It is roasty, ashy, astringent, chocolatey, and then the hops kick in with some lighter notes.

Hope this helps. Have you managed to try both of these beers from us?

Let us know if you have any further questions.

All the best.
Evin”

 

Note: I don't think this post will offer any definitive answers to the OP, but I felt like chiming in with my own (single, newbie) experience with this style. It's a great style of beer, one I want to brew more of in the future. And while I do wish to discuss this style and my experience with it, I don't think it's worth another new thread on the subject. Hopefully this is not seen as a thread hijacking either tho.

The debate over the name black IPA/CDA/IBA is not of major concern to me, so I'll skip that part.

I made a CDA/Black IPA and I think it came out pretty good. I found the recipe online and adjusted it based primarily on my own whims, shooting blind in the dark, justifying it in my head on something I read somewhere in some thread on some brewing forum.

In addition to 6+ pounds of light LME, I also did a stove top partial mash using these grains:

• Briess Pale Ale Malt 2.5 lb
• Weyermann De-Husked Carafa II 1 lb
• Aromatic 0.75 lb
• Crisp Crystal Malt 60L 0.625 lb
• De-Bittered Black 0.25 lb

Here are my own comments on how it tasted when it was ready:

I am noting the mentioned differences between carafa II and III for future use.

All comments welcome.

 

I like very little roast (but still present) to my Black IPA's, and this one turned out great:
72% 2-row
21% Munich
7% Carafa III Special

WLP060 yeast.

 

Looks like I used about 4% CarafaIII Special in mine and it was black with very subtle roast, so I decided next time to use a little less CarafaII Special.

Coincidently, I am considering turning all my brews black for a while, just for kicks.

 

why not go with the original?
http://byo.com/stories/issue/articl...e-brewing-company-noonan-clone-the-replicator

I would have to tweak it some myself, but would be a good way to introduce yourself to the style imho...

As for the arguments of whether black ipa should be a style...enough already. The taxonomy debate has already been deemed closed. Brewer's interpretations of a style are always just that...their interpretation.

 

Nice...am in the middle of just such a kick myself my first attempt at a black cream ale is carbing up atm...

 

Well it's an Imperial Stout, but Victory's Storm King is very hoppy.

 

if you read ATM as a sex act instead of "at the moment", that is the grossest brewing statement I've ever read.