Cascadian Dark / Black IPA Recipe -- Help!

I actually really like this style. I've brewed a half dozen or so and coincidentally just tapped my latest keg this week and its easily the best I've done in the style.

I used:

90% 2 Row
5% Carafa 3
3 % Crystal 80L
2% Chocolate Malt

Colombus to bitter, Centennial flavor/aroma, and dry hopped with Centennial and Citra.

US-05

1.072 OG

 

Couldn't necessarily tell you why, but my approach with a CDA is generally to add more dextrins than usual and then dry hop it like a DIPA to compensate. I guess I just feel that lots of modern ones are too thin and that the style benefits from a bit more body. Something along the lines of....

84% base malt
6% midnight wheat / carafa III special (your preference or mix and match)
10% carapils / crystal (your preference or mix and match)

lots of hops work well with this style. centennial, simcoe, and citra are a few.

I like my abv and my ibu's in the high 6's and 60's (respectively) for this style.

With the recipe you proposed, I'd probably want to dry hop with the Citra but that's just a matter of preference. I think chinook is an outstanding blending hop in CDA's when given a restrained roll so that the resin profile it creates doesn't dominate too much. For that reason, I'd personally avoid making it the sole dry hop addition in my own CDA. Again just a personal preference.

 

Looks great to me. CTZ and Chinook work great in a BIPA. Malt bill depends on if you want a CDA or BIPA.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but, typically a CDA actually tries to blend some roast character with it's hop profile compared to a BIPA which tries to get a dark color without roasted flavor. In that sense, the recipe I use is along the lines of a BIPA rather than a traditional CDA. Some people (usually Pac NW folks) will also insist that a CDA has to be made with Pac NW hops but that isn't too hard considering most IPA hops used these days come from the Pac NW.

 

I really enjoyed Sumblimely Self Righteous. If I didn't brew mean BIPAs at home I would be irritated that they stopped making it.

 

The only thing I can "contribute" to this thread is the term is Cascadian, not Cascading. I had no idea there was a distinction between a Cascadian Dark Ale and a Black IPA. To me, both of them are dark hoppy beers with less roast and more flavor hops than a porter or stout.

 

Sure thing.

http://endofsilencebrewing.blogspot.com/2014/02/reecipes-57-hop-hedonist-ipa-58.html

You can't get Blisk, so maybe sub Mosaic and Summit 75/25%. Blisk has a nice and complex dank, tropical, sweet onion thing going on. Really wish it was available commercially. Once the brewery launches I may have to try to pull some strings and get it in the ground somewhere.

As the review says, up the SO4 content and a little more IBUs.